Aeneas: Trojan Hero and Ancestor of Rome

The Story of Aeneas

Aeneas was the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite, who fell in love with Anchises while he herded cattle on Mount Ida. He was raised by mountain nymphs until he was old enough to live with his father. He married Creusa, a daughter of King Priam, and they had a son named Ascanius.

In the Iliad, Aeneas is one of the bravest Trojan warriors, second only to Hector. When Diomedes struck him down with a huge stone, Aphrodite rushed to save him and was wounded herself, and Apollo carried him away to safety. Later, when he faced Achilles, Poseidon rescued him, declaring that Aeneas was fated to survive and rule over the Trojans.

When the Greeks captured Troy, Aeneas fled the burning city carrying his elderly father on his shoulders and leading his young son by the hand. In the confusion his wife Creusa was lost. Her ghost appeared to him and told him to seek a new homeland far to the west.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas and the surviving Trojans wandered the Mediterranean for years, stopping in Thrace, on Crete and in other lands while seeking the home the gods had promised. Anchises died in Sicily. As they finally set out for Italy, the goddess Juno, who hated the Trojans, sent a great storm that drove their ships to the coast of Africa.

There they were welcomed by Dido, the queen of the new city of Carthage, and she and Aeneas fell in love. The gods sent Mercury to remind Aeneas of his destiny, and he secretly prepared to sail away. When Dido saw his ships leaving, she cursed the Trojans and took her own life, and Virgil presented this as the origin of the long hatred between Carthage and Rome.

In Italy, guided by the Sibyl of Cumae and carrying a golden bough as an offering for Proserpina, Aeneas went down into the underworld. He met Dido's ghost, who turned away from him in silence. Then he found his father, who showed him the souls of the great Romans who would one day descend from him.

In Latium, King Latinus offered Aeneas his daughter Lavinia in marriage, but this sparked a war with Turnus, a local prince who had hoped to marry her. Aeneas killed Turnus in single combat, and the Trojans settled in Italy. His son Ascanius, also called Iulus, founded the city of Alba Longa, Romulus and Remus were said to descend from him, and Julius Caesar's family claimed Aeneas as their ancestor.