Named for Aeneas’ {see planet  (1172)} great helmsman and navigator, who led the remnant of the Trojan fleet across unknown seas from Troy to Carthage and Sicily, and finally to Italy, as told by Virgil in the Aeneid. As the fleet was making its final passage to Italy, the god Neptune put Palinurus to sleep while he held the tiller in his hands; he fell overboard and was drowned, and his naked body washed up on the shores of Italy. (M 18647) _ _.