Leader of the Trojan Remnant, Forefather of Rome
Son of Venus and a mortal, the general who fought his way out on the night Troy fell carrying his aged father and leading his young son by the hand. Virgil’s epic the Aeneid made him the national forefather of Rome: the end of Greek myth and the beginning of Roman myth, joined by this one man.
On the night the city fell he meant to die fighting, until his mother Venus appeared to wake him: your destiny is not here. He hoisted his lame old father Anchises (who bore the household gods on his shoulders) and led his son through the burning streets. His wife was lost and killed in the chaos. "Pious Aeneas" — the Romans took this scene as the first lesson of the national character.
The fleet drifted to Carthage, where Queen Dido fell in love with him and begged him to rule the city with her. Jupiter sent the messenger god to hurry him on: your fate lies in Italy. Aeneas sailed in the night; Dido climbed her own pyre and killed herself, cursing the two peoples to be enemies forever — the Romans used this story to explain the later Punic Wars. Between duty and love, the Roman narrative always chooses the former.
Guided by a prophetess, golden bough in hand, he entered the underworld, and his dead father showed him the unborn heroes of Rome: Romulus, Caesar, and Augustus passing in turn. "Roman, remember: your art is to rule the nations." An epic that foretold an empire from within the land of the dead.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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