In
Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (Greek:
Αiνείας) was a Trojan hero, the son of
prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was also the second cousin of
King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy, (led by Venus, his mother)
which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil’s Aeneid.
He is considered an important figure in Greek and Roman legend and history.
Aeneas is a character in Homer’s Iliad, Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica, and
Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. Also, Aeneas has been known for his skills
in combat during the battle of Troy.
In
the Iliad, Aeneas is the leader of Troy’s Dardanian allies. Dardanians
(Trojans - descendants of Dardanus), and a principal lieutenant of Hector, son
of the Trojan king Priam. In the poem, Aeneas’s mother Aphrodite frequently
comes to his aid on the battlefield; he is also a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite
and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills
him, and carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Even Poseidon, who normally
favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas’s rescue when the latter falls under the
assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the
royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people.
As seen in the first books of the Aeneid, Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed in battle or enslaved when Troy fell. When Troy was sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who then traveled to Italy and became progenitors of the Romans. The Aeneads included Aeneas’s trumpeter Misenus, his father Anchises, his friends Achates, Sergestus and Acmon, the healer Lapyx, the steady helmsman Palinurus, and his son Ascanius (also known as Iulus, Julus, or Ascanius Julius.) He carried with him the Lares and Penates, the
Scene
from the ballet “Dido
and Aeneas”
statues
of the household gods of Troy, and transplanted them to Italy.
(From
here on, the Greek myths make room for the Roman mythology, so the Roman names
of the gods will be used.) After a brief, but fierce storm sent up against the
group at Juno’s request, and several failed attempts to found cities, Aeneas
and his fleet made landfall at Carthage after six years of wanderings. Aeneas
had a yearlong affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido (also known as Elissa),
who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign
jointly over their peoples. Once again, this was in favor of Juno, who was told
of the fact that her favorite city would eventually be defeated by the
Trojans’ descendants. However, the messenger god Mercury was sent by Jupiter
and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose, thus compelling him
to leave secretly and continue on his way. When Dido learned of this, she
ordered her sister Anna to construct a pyre, she said, to get rid of Aeneas’
possessions, left behind by him in his haste to leave. Standing on it, Dido
uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against Rome. She then committed
suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first
met and then falling on the pyre. Anna reproached the mortally wounded Dido.
Meanwhile, Juno, looking down on the tragedy and moved by Dido’s plight, sent
Iris to make Dido’s passage to Hades quicker and less painful. When Aeneas
later traveled to Hades, he called to her ghost but she neither spoke to nor
acknowledged him.
