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Aeneas, or Aineas, is a legendary or mythical character. He was a famous Trojan hero, son of king Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite, and one of the most important figures in Greek and Roman legendary history. Virgil's epic the Aeneid, arguably the greatest literary epic of the Roman era, recounts the journey of Aeneas following Troy's destruction to found the city that would eventually become Rome. Prior to Virgil's work Aeneas was known as a minor character in Homer's Iliad.
Story
In Homer's stories, he is represented as the chief bulwark of the Trojans next to Hector, and the favourite of the gods, who frequently interpose to save him from danger (Iliad, v. 311). The legend states that he remained in the country after the fall of Troy for a short while, and then founded a new kingdom (Iliad, xx. 308). Aeneas killed Medon in the Trojan War.
Diomedes almost killed Aeneas in battle during the Trojan War but Aphrodite, Aeneas' mother, saved him. Diomedes wounded Aphrodite and she dropped her son, fleeing to Mt. Olympus. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to Pergamos, a sacred spot in Troy. Artemis healed Aeneas there.
When Troy lost the Trojan War, Aeneas gathered a group collectively known as the Aeneads, traveled to Italy and became a progenitor of the Romans. The Aeneads included his trumpeter Misenus, father Anchises, friends Achates, Sergestus and Acmon, healer Iapyx, son Ascanius, and Mimas as a guide. He carried with him the Lares and Penates (the statues of the household gods of Troy), transplanting them to Italy. He also took Achaemenides, one of Odysseus' crew from Sicily with him to Italy.
During his journey he stopped in Carthage and Queen Dido, under the influence of Aphrodite, fell in love with him.
She committed suicide when he abandoned her to continue his journey, as ordered by the messenger god Hermes. When Aeneas went to Hades, he talked to her ghost but she refused to forgive him and turned her back to him.
In Sicily, Aeneas was welcomed by Acestes. Soon after arriving in Italy, Aeneas made war against the city of Falerii. Latinus, the wise king of the Latins, hosted Aeneas' 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 preferred to offer her to Aeneas, because of recent omens; Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas (at the urging of Hera), who was allied with King Tarchon of the Etruscans and Queen Amata of the Rutulians. The outcome was that Turnus was killed and his people captured. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, also known as Iulus, founded Albalonga and was the first in a long series of kings.
He later welcomed Dido's sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia's jealousy. Aeneas founded the city Lavinium, named after his wife.
After his death, Aeneas became the god Indiges. Inspired by the work of James Frazer some have posited that Aeneas was originally a life-death-rebirth deity.
Relations
He was the father of Ascanius with Creusa.
Aeneas and Lavinia had one son, Silvius.
Aeneas' wet-nurse was named Caieta.
Legendary descendants
According to the mythology outlined by Virgil's the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas, through their mother, and thus Aeneas was responsible for founding the Roman people.
The Julian family (Gens Julia) of Rome, whose most famous member was Julius Caesar, traced their lineage to Aeneas's son Ascanius.
The legendary kings of Britain also trace their family through a grandson of Aeneas, Brutus.Homer, Iliad II, 819-21; V, 217-575; XIII, 455-544; XX, 75-352; Apollodorus, Bibliotheke III, xii, 2; Apollodorus, Epitome III, 32-IV, 2; V, 21; Virgil, Aeneid; Ovid, Metamorphoses XIV, 581-608; Ovid, Heroides, VII.
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