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Aeneas, or Aineas was a famous Trojan hero, son of
Anchises and Aphrodite, father of
Ascanius with Creusa, and one of the most
important figures in Greek and Roman legendary
history.
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, and founded a new kingdom (Iliad, xx. 308).
Aeneas' wet-nurse was named Caieta.
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 eneveloped 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,
with his trumpeter Misenus, father Anchises, friends Achates, Sergestus and Acmon, healer Iapyx, wife Creusa, son Ascanius, all the Lares and Penates and Mimas as a guide (collectively Aeneads), traveled to Italy and became a progenitor of the Romans. He also took Achaemenides, one of Odysseus' crew from Sicily with him to Italy.
After Aeneas fled Troy, he stopped in Carthage and Queen Dido fell in love with him.
When he left to go found Rome (because Hermes had ordered him to continue his journey),
she killed herself. When Aeneas went to Hades, he talked to her ghost; she refused to
forgive him.
On the coast of Lucania, Aeneas'
helmsman, Palinurus, fell asleep and dropped into the water. He swam to shore but
was killed by the Lucanians. Mt.
Palinuro is named after 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; 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.
Aeneas and Lavinia had one son, Silvius.
He later welcomed Dido's sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed
suicide after learning of Lavinia's jealousy.
Aeneas founded the city Lavinium. He named it after Lavinia.
After his death, Aeneas became the god Indiges.
Aeneas was also the primary character in Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid. According to the mythology outlined by the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas (through their mother,
their father was Mars, the god of war), 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.
Inspired by the work of James Frazer some have posited that Aeneas was
originally a life-death-rebirth deity.
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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