Aeneas
Aeneas is a prominent figure from ancient Greek and Roman mythology, recognized as the son of Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (known as Venus in Roman culture). He is featured in Homer's "Iliad," where he is depicted as married to Creusa, the daughter of Priam, the Trojan king. Aeneas is celebrated for his piety and loyalty, traits that define his character throughout various narratives. In Virgil's "Aeneid," Aeneas escapes the fall of Troy with his father and son, leaving behind Creusa. His journey is marked by numerous adventures, including a fateful encounter with Dido, the founder of Carthage, which leads to tragic consequences for her. Eventually, Aeneas reaches Latium, where he battles Turnus and marries Lavinia, solidifying his legacy as a foundational figure in Roman history. His son, Ascanius, later connects Aeneas to the legendary founding of Rome through the story of Romulus and Remus. Aeneas's mythological journey reflects Rome's cultural narrative, intertwining its origins with the legendary past of Troy, and highlights the hero-worship that he inspired among the Romans.
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Aeneas
Related civilizations: Rome, Classical Greece.
Considered by the Romans to be the semidivine ancestor of their people.
Life
Aeneas (uh-NEE-uhs) was a figure in the myth and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, the son of Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus), who blinded his father, Anchises, for daring to look at her. He appears in Homer’s Iliad (c. 800 b.c.e.; English translation, 1616), married to Creusa, daughter of Priam, king of Troy. Aeneas’s son, Ascanius, was renamed Iulus by Vergil in his Aeneid (c. 29-19 b.c.e.; English translation, 1553) to establish an ancestry for the adoptive Julian family of the emperor Augustus, his patron. He is known for his piety and filial loyalty.
In the Aeneid, Aeneas escapes from Troy with the statuettes of his family gods, his father, and his son, leaving Creusa behind. The image of Aeneas carrying his father Anchises on his back during this retreat is often depicted on Greek vases of the sixth century b.c.e. After ten years, Aeneas sailed west, experiencing many of the same adventures as Odysseus. Forced to land at Libya to rebuild his fleet, Aeneas met the founder of Carthage, Dido, and supposedly fell in love with her. Later abandoned by Aeneas, Dido committed suicide, foreshadowing future hostilities between Rome and Carthage.
After successfully visiting the Underworld, Aeneas led his followers to Latium near the Tibur River. There Aeneas embarked on a series of Iliad-like battles that ended with his killing his arch-rival suitor, Turnus, and marrying Lavinia, daughter of the local king, Latinus. Aeneas’s son starts a settlement near Rome named Alba Longa, where his descendant, Rhea Silvia, is chosen by Mars to give virgin-birth to Romulus, the eponymous founder of Rome, and his twin brother, Remus.
Aeneas’s migration toward Italy and accompanying adventures are recorded in more than the Aeneid, attesting to a cult of hero-worship for Aeneas as Rome’s founder. Historians think it likely that Romans of the third century b.c.e., coming into contact with Greece, found it useful to encourage this connection of an early founder or ancestor of Rome with the legendary Trojan enemy of the Greeks.
Bibliography
Perkell, Christine, ed. Reading Vergil’s Aeneid: An Interpretive Guide. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
Quinn, Stephanie. Why Vergil? A Collection of Interpretations. Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2000.
Virgil. The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. London: Penguin Books, 1990.