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T
he Trojan prince Aeneas,
the son of the mortal
Anchises and the goddess
Venus (Aphrodite), first appeared
in Homer’s Iliad, but was elevated
to the role of founding father of
Rome in Virgil’s powerful epic,
the Aeneid. His story begins at
the end of the Trojan War. Aeneas
was forced to flee Troy when the
city fell to the Greeks. The Aeneid
describes Aeneas’s subsequent
voyage to Italy, beset with drama
and misfortune.Escape from Troy
The poem begins with Aeneas
storm-bound in Carthage, telling
the queen about the events that
had led to his flight from Troy. He
explained how the Trojans had
been duped by a giant wooden
horse that the Greeks had left
outside Troy. The Trojans brought it
within the city walls, unaware that
Greek warriors hid inside. That
night, they crept out and opened the
city gates to the rest of the Greek
forces, who destroyed Troy.
Aeneas initially joined the fight,
but his slain cousin, Hector, called
on him in a dream to found a new
Trojan city. His mother, Venus, alsourged him to flee and take his
family, Troy’s sacred relics, and the
household gods with him. Aeneas
escaped with his son Ascanius,
and his father, Anchises, but his
wife, Creusa, became separated
from the group. When he went
back, Aeneas found only her ghost,
who told him he was destined to
found a new city in Italy.
Fleeing by sea, Aeneas and his
followers went to Thrace and then
Delos, where Apollo, the god ofVirgil The poet Publius Vergilius Maro
was born near Mantua in 70 bce,
and died in Brundisium in 19 bce.
He wrote three major works: the
Eclogues, the Georgics, and the
Aeneid. While the first two deal
with pastoral themes, Virgil was
inspired by Homer’s Iliad and
Odyssey to create the Aeneid
as a Roman national epic and
foundational myth. Although the
Aeneid follows immediately on
from the events of the Iliad, its
hero is not one of the victorious
Greeks but Aeneas, a fleeing
prince of the vanquished Trojans.
Aeneas is not wily, like Homer’sOdysseus; instead, he is often
described as pater (“father”)
and pius (“pious”) to emphasize
his noble quest.
According to his biographer,
Aelius Donatus, Virgil recited
much of the Aeneid to the
emperor Augustus, causing
Augustus’s sister Octavia to
faint at the prophetic mention
of her son Marcellus in book VI.
After Virgil finished writing
the Aeneid, he planned to
make corrections, but he fell
ill. Despite his dying wish that
the manuscript be burned, the
emperor ordered its publication.AENEAS, FOUNDER OF ROME
Bearing Anchises, his father, on his
shoulders, Aeneas flees Troy with his
son Ascanius. His wife, Creusa, is still
beside them in this image, painted in
1598 by Federico Fiori Barocci.IN BRIEF
THEME
National epicSOURCES
Aeneid, Virgil, ca. 30–19 bce;
Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce.SETTING
From Troy to Italy, ca. 1000 bce.KEY FIGURES
Aeneas A prince of Troy.Venus Goddess of love and
mother of Aeneas.Anchises Father of Aeneas.Juno Queen of the gods;
enemy of the Trojans.Dido Queen of Carthage; lover
of Aeneas.Jupiter King of the gods.Lavinia Princess of Latium;
future wife of Aeneas.Turnus Ruler of Rutuli; enemy
of Aeneas.Neptune God of the sea.US_096-101_Aeneas.indd 98 05/12/17 2:59 pm
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prophecy, advised him to seek the
land of his ancestors. Aeneas
therefore sailed to Crete, home of
the Trojan ancestor Teucrus, but
he was directed by the gods in a
vision to instead go to Italy, home
of his ancestor Dardanus.
Next, Aeneas met the Harpies,
fierce female-faced bird creatures.
One cursed Aeneas, prophesying
that he would reach his goal only
when dire hunger forced the group
to eat their tables. They sailed to
Sicily, where Aeneas’s elderly father
died, and then set off for Italy, but
the wind god Aeolus—by order of
Juno, who hated the Trojans—sent
their ships wildly off course.
Taking shelter in the north
African city of Carthage, Aeneas
met the queen, Dido; it was to her
that he told the story of his flightfrom Troy. Encouraged by Venus,
Aeneas and Dido fell in love and
consummated their passion in a
cave during a storm. When Jupiter
heard of this, he sent his messenger
Mercury to remind Aeneas to leave
Carthage to found a new city.The tragic queen
On hearing of her lover’s departure,
Dido asked her sister Anna to build
a sacrificial pyre, and she threw
herself upon it. From the flames,
she could see Aeneas’s ships
leaving, so she thrust his sword
through her body. To end her agony,Juno sent Iris, the rainbow, down to
earth, to release her soul by
snipping a lock of Dido’s hair as an
offering to Dis, ruler of the
underworld. As Aeneas sailed away
from Carthage, he looked back and
saw the smoke of the funeral pyre.
He did not learn of Dido’s suicide
until later, when he met her shade
in the Underworld.Aeneas seeks his father
Returning to Sicily, Aeneas held
funeral games to commemorate his
dead father, Anchises. Meanwhile,
Juno, still bearing her ancient
grudge and anxious to delay
Aeneas’s quest, inspired the
Trojan women to set fire to the
ships. Jupiter sent down torrential
rain to extinguish the flames and,
in a vision, Anchises urged Aeneas
to pursue his quest and to meet
him in the Underworld. Aeneas
sailed on and—despite the loss of
his helmsman, Palinurus, who fell
overboard—finally reached Italy.
Anxious to see his dead father
again, Aeneas was advised by the
Sibyl of Cumae to pluck a golden ❯❯See also: Hades and the Underworld 48–49 ■ The quest of Odysseus 66–71 ■ The labors of Herakles 72–75 ■
The founding of Rome 102–03 ■ The Sibyl of Cumae 110–11ANCIENT ROME
- Dido condemns
Rome and Carthage
to eternal enmity
after Aeneas
abandons her.
Dido stabs herself as Aeneas and
his followers set sail from Carthage,
bound for Italy. This miniature is from
a vellum copy of the Aeneid made in
France in 1469.- Hector comes
to Aeneas in a dream
and tells him to flee
Troy and found
Lavinium. - Creusa’s ghost
tells Aeneas that he
is destined to found
a city in Italy. - A harpy
prophesies that
the Trojans will face
starvation and eat
their own tables. - Jupiter tells
Venus that Aeneas
will wage war in Italy
and crush
his enemies.
Prophecies about Aeneas
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