1) Character in the Aeneid 2) Etruscan king 
In Roman mythology, Mezentius was an Etruscan king, and father of Lausus. Sent into exile because of his cruelty, he moved to Latium. He reveled in bloodshed and was overwhelmingly savage on the battlefield, but more significantly to a Roman audience he was a contemptor divum, a `despiser of the gods.` He appears in Virgil`s Aeneid, primarily b......
Cruel Etruscan king; ally of Turnus against Aeneas; slain by Aeneas.