Aenēas
（
Αἰνείας). A Trojan hero, the son of Anchises and
Aphrodité, and born on Mount Ida. He was brought up at Dardania, in the house of
Alcathoüs, the husband of his sister. At first he took no part in the Trojan war; and
it was not till Achilles attacked him on Mount Ida, and drove away his flocks, that he led his
Dardanians against the Greeks. Henceforth Aeneas and Hector appear as the great bulwarks of
the Trojans against the Greeks. On more than one occasion Aeneas was
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Aeneas, followed by Ascanius, and carrying Anchises from burning Troy.
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saved in battle by the gods; Aphrodité carried him off when he was
wounded by Diomedes, and Poseidon saved him when he was on the point of perishing by the hands
of Achilles. Homer makes no allusion to the emigration of Aeneas after the capture of Troy,
but, on the contrary, he evidently conceives Aeneas and his descendants as reigning at Troy
after the extinction of the house of Priam; but later narratives relate that after the capture
of Troy Aeneas withdrew to Mount Ida with his friends and the images of the gods, especially
that of Pallas (
Palladium); and that from thence he crossed over to Europe, and
finally settled at Latium in Italy where he became the ancestral hero of the Romans. A
description of the wanderings of Aeneas before he reached Latium is given by Vergil in
his
Aeneid (bks. ii.-vi.). After visiting Epirus and Sicily, he was driven by a
storm on the coast of Africa, where he met with
Dido
(q.v.). He then sailed to Latium, where he was hospitably received by Latinus, king of the
Aborigines. Here Aeneas founded the town of Lavinium, called after Lavinia, the daughter of
Latinus, whom he married. Turnus, to whom Lavinia had been betrothed, made war against Latinus
and Aeneas. Latinus fell in the first battle, and Turnus was subsequently slain by Aeneas;
whereupon, after the death of Latinus, Aeneas became sole ruler of the Aborigines and Trojans,
and both nations were united into one. Soon after this Aeneas fell in battle against the
Rutulians, who were assisted by Mezentius, king of the Etruscans. As his body was not found
after the battle, it was believed that it had been carried up to heaven, or that he had
perished in the river Numicius. The Latins erected a monument to him, with the inscription
To the Father and Native God. Vergil represents Aeneas as landing in Italy
seven years after the fall of Troy, and compresses all the events in Italy, from the landing
to the death of Turnus, within the space of twenty days. The story of the descent of the
Romans from the Trojans through Aeneas was believed at an early period, but rests on no
historical foundation. See
Trojan War;
Vergilius.
