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Aeneas

(European mythology)

The famous Trojan-Roman hero; the son of Anchises and the goddess Venus-Aphrodite. The Romans believed that an important element among them came from Asia Minor—Trojans who escaped the sack of Troy by the Greeks and followed Aeneas. This myth received classic statement in Virgil's Aeneid, an account of the wanderings of fugitive Aeneas till his settlement in Italy. Imperial interest in the epic poem was pronounced. From Spain in 26 BC Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, wrote to Virgil expressing a wish to have a draft or portions of the Aeneid which had been begun about that time. Virgil celebrated the destiny of the Romans as the divinely inspired rulers of the ancient world: it was a sentiment close to the heart of the victor of Actium.

After sailing to Crete, where he learned in a dream that Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojan royal family, hailed originally from Italy, Aeneas continued to Epirus upon the eastern Adriatic coast, and then on to Sicily and Carthage before making landfall near the rock-hewn sanctuary of the Cumaean Sibyl. The diversion to North Africa occurred because of a sudden storm sent by the goddess Juno, who had constantly pursued him with her hatred during the voyage. This animosity appears to owe something to the fierce antagonism of Hera for Heracles, the Greek hero. At Carthage, Venus ensured that Aeneas and Dido, its Queen, fell deeply in love. When, in obedience to the command of Jupiter, he left her, she burned herself to death on a funeral pyre.

Of interest is Aeneas' visit to the underworld. The Sibyl bade him arm himself with the golden bough, and together they descended to ‘the land of shades’. When Aeneas encountered Dido there and tried to speak to her, she turned away in silence. But then he came upon his father Anchises, who disclosed to him the future glories of Rome, reaching their climax with the reign of Augustus. The remainder of the Aeneid relates the unification of the Trojans and the Latins into a single nation, which was the great mythical achievement of ‘pious’ Aeneas.

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Dictionary: Ae·ne·as (ĭ-nē'əs) pronunciation

n. Greek & Roman Mythology.

The Trojan hero of Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, and son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He escaped the sack of Troy and wandered for seven years before settling in Italy.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Aeneas

Mythical hero of Troy and Rome. He was the son of Aphrodite and Anchises, a member of Trojan royal family. According to Homer, he was second only to his cousin Hector in defending Troy during the Trojan War. Virgil's Aeneid tells of Aeneas's escape after Troy's fall, carrying his elderly father on his back, and of his journey to Italy, where his descendants became the rulers of Rome. See also Dido.

For more information on Aeneas, visit Britannica.com.

Who's Who in Opera: Aeneas

1. (Énée) (Berlioz: Les Troyens). Tenor. Trojan hero, urged by the ghost of Hector to create a new Troy in Italy. He leads the Trojans on this quest and, washed ashore in a storm, enters Queen Dido's palace in Carthage and falls in love with her. Reluctantly he leaves her to continue his journey. Aria: Ah! quand viendra l'instant des suprêmes adieux (‘Ah! when the moment comes for the last farewell’); duet (with Dido): Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie! (‘Night of unending ecstasy and rapture!’). Created (1863) by Jules-Sébastien Monjauze.

2. (Purcell: Dido and Aeneas). Ten./ high bar. Trojan prince. He lands at Carthage on his way to Italy to found a new Troy and falls in love with Queen Dido. The Sorceress sends her ‘trusty elf’ to tell him to leave Carthage at once and proceed to Italy. Created (1683/4) by an unknown schoolgirl.

Classical Literature Companion: Aenēas

Aenēas, in Greek and Roman myth, one of the Trojan leaders in the Trojan War, son of Anchises and the goddess Aphroditē (at Rome, Venus), and the subject of Virgil's Latin epic, the Aeneid. In the account of the Trojan War given in Homer's Iliad he is not depicted as an outstanding hero, being descended from the younger branch of the Trojan royal house (Priam, king of Troy, was of the older branch), but the Greek god Poseidon prophesies of him that he and his descendants will rule over the Trojans. Hence there developed, after Homer, the legend of his flight from ruined Troy with his father, son Ascanius, and the penates (indicative of his pious and dutiful nature), and of his subsequent wanderings. (See TABULA ILIACA.) Hellanicus the Greek logographer writing in the fifth century BC makes the first certain literary allusion to Aeneas crossing the Hellespont and coming to the West; he may even allude to his being in Italy. There is no evidence that the Romans at that time thought of him as their founder, although artistic evidence shows that Aeneas was known in Etruria by the late sixth century BC. The Greek historian Timaeus a century or so after Hellanicus speaks of Lavinium as Aeneas' first foundation in Italy. These were Greek views of Italy, attributing to Greek heroes (or in this case a Trojan hero) the settlement of the known West. Perhaps at the same period Alba Longa began to claim that Aeneas was the ancestor of her kings. Rome soon took over, however, and developed the legend of Aeneas as founder of the Romans, national pride leading her to connect her own history with that of the Greek world. When Pyrrhus launched his attack against Rome in 281 BC he saw himself as the descendant of Achilles making war on a colony of Troy. The story of Rome's Trojan origin took full shape in the third century BC when it was synthesized with the chronologically difficult legend of the foundation of Rome by Romulus (a descendant of Aeneas through his mother). Probably both the Roman historian Fabius Pictor and the Roman poet Ennius filled the gap between the supposed dates of the fall of Troy (1184) and Romulus' foundation of Rome (753) with a sojourn by Aeneas' descendants at Alba Longa. Certainly by the third century BC the story later known to Virgil was well-established and familiar. From the second century BC the Julian gens (‘clan’), Julius Caesar above all, exploited their descent from Aeneas and Venus for political aggrandizement. Virgil, while celebrating in the Aeneid the Trojan ancestry of Octavian, adopted son of Julius Caesar, also re-created Aeneas as a national hero.

Aeneas is portrayed by Virgil as pius, ‘dutiful’, conscious of his heavy destiny as founder of Rome, obedient to the will of the gods, a responsible leader to his followers, and a devoted father and son.

Celtic Mythology: Aeneas

In classical mythology a Trojan prince, son of Anchises and Aphrodite, hero of Virgil's Aeneid, the Latin epic. In both Ireland and Scotland the name Angus was once thought to be a counterpart of Aeneas.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Aeneas

(ĭnē'əs) , in Greek mythology, a Trojan, son of Anchises and Aphrodite. After the fall of Troy he escaped, bearing his aged father on his back. He stayed at Carthage with Queen Dido, then went to Italy, where his descendants founded Rome. The deeds of Aeneas are the substance of the great Roman epic, the Aeneid of Vergil.

Wikipedia: Aeneas

Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598.

Aeneas carrying Anchises, black-figured oinochoe, ca. 520-510 BC, Louvre (F 118)

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Aeneas (Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineías; pronounced: [ɪˈniəs] in English) was a Trojan hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus in Roman sources). His father was also the cousin of King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy, (led by Aphrodite 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 and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

Mythology

In the Iliad, Aeneas is the leader of the Dardanians (allies of the Trojans), and a principal lieutenant of Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. In the poem, Aeneas's mother Venus frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield: he is also a favorite of Apollo. Venus 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 Iapyx, his son Ascanius, and their guide Mimas. He carried with him the Lares and Penates, the statues of the household gods of Troy, and transplanted them to Italy.

Aeneas tells Dido about the fall of Troy, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin.

(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, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage. Aeneas had a brief affair with the Carthaginian queen known as Dido, who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign jointly over their peoples. Once again, this was in favour 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 a funeral pyre to be constructed for herself; and standing on it, she uttered a curse that forever would pit Carthage against Rome. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself and falling on the pyre. When Aeneas later traveled to Hades, he called to her ghost but she neither spoke nor acknowledged him.

The company stopped on the island of Sicily during the course of their journey. After the first trip, before the Trojans went to Carthage, Achaemenides, one of Odysseus' crew who had been left behind, traveled with them. After visiting Carthage, the Trojans returned to Sicily where they were welcomed by Acestes, king of the region and son of the river Crinisus by a Dardanian woman.

Soon after arriving in Italy, Aeneas made war against the city of Falerii. Latinus, king of the Latins, welcomed Aeneas's army of exiled Trojans and let them reorganize their life in Latium. His daughter Lavinia had been promised to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Latinus received a prophecy that Lavinia would be betrothed to one from another land — namely, Aeneas. Latinus heeded the prophecy, and Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas at the urging of Juno, who was aligned with King Tarchon of the Etruscans and Queen Amata of the Latins. Aeneas' forces prevailed. Turnus was killed and his people were captured. According to Livy Aeneas was victorious but Latinus died in the war. Aeneas founded the city of Lavinium, named after his wife. He later welcomed Dido's sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia's jealousy.

After his death, his mother, Venus asked Jupiter to make her son immortal. Jupiter agreed and the river god Numicius cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts and Venus anointed him with Ambrosia and Nectar, making him a god. Aeneas was recognized as the god Jupiter Indiges. Inspired by the work of James Frazer, some have posited that Aeneas was originally a life-death-rebirth deity.

Family and legendary descendants

Aeneas had an extensive family tree. His wet-nurse was Caieta, and he is the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings. According to the mythology outlined by Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas progenitor of the Roman people. Some early sources call him their father or grandfather [1], but, considering the commonly accepted dates of the fall of Troy (1184 BC) and the founding of Rome (753 BC), this seems unlikely. The Julian family of Rome, most notably Julius Cæsar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. Through the Julians, the Palemonids also make this claim. The legendary kings of Britain also trace their family through a grandson of Aeneas, Brutus.