Αματα
The wife of Latinus and the mother of Lavinia. From the many suitors of Lavinia Amata had chosen Turnus, the young king of the Rutuli. So when Aeneas arrived and Latinus decided to give his daughter's hand to the stranger, Amata tried to prevent the marriage by rousing the women of Laurentium against the Trojans. When she heard of the Trojan victory and the death of Turnus she hanged herself.
Amata was also the cult name of the Vestal Virgin in Rome, after her consecration by the Pontifex Maximus.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Virgil, Aen. 7, 343ff.; 12, 595ff.
- cf. Gelling, Noct. Att. 1, 12, 19