( or Τυρσηνός), a son of the Lydian king Atys and Callithea, and a brother of Lydus,
is said to have led a Pelasgian colony from Lydia into Italy, into the country of the
Umbrians, and to have given to the colonists his name, Tyrrhenians. (Hdt.
4.94; Dionys. A. R. 1.27.) Others call Tyrrhenus a
son of Heracles by Omphale (Dionys. A. R. 1.28), or of
Telephus and Hiera, and a brother of Tarchon. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 1242,
1249.) The name Tarchon seems to be only another form for Tyrrhenus, and the two names
represent a Pelasgian hero founding settlements in the north of Italy. (Comp. Müller, Die Etrusker, vol. i. p. 72, &c.)