Coinage ofAenea, with portrait of Aeneas. c. 510–480 BCE.
Aeneas is theRomanization of the hero's originalGreek nameΑἰνείας (Aineías). Aineías is first introduced in theHomeric Hymn toAphrodite when Aphrodite gives him his name from the adjectiveαὶνóν(ainon,"terrible"), for the "terrible grief" (αὶνóν ἄχος) he has caused her by being born a mortal who will age and die.[a][4] It is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in theIliad.[5] Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, because theAeneid was written by a philosopher, it is meant to be read philosophically.[6] As such, in the "natural order", the meaning of Aeneas's name combines Greekennos ("dweller") withdemas ("body"), which becomesennaios or "in-dweller"—i.e. as a god inhabiting a mortal body.[7] However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name.
In imitation of theIliad,Virgil borrowsepithets of Homer, including: Anchisiades,magnanimum,magnus,heros, andbonus. Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own, in theAeneid:pater andpius. The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of an attitude different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus ispoikilios ("wily"), Aeneas is described aspius ("pious"), which conveys a strong moral tone. The purpose of these epithets seems to enforce the notion of Aeneas's divine hand as father and founder of the Roman race, and their use seems circumstantial: when Aeneas is praying he refers to himself aspius, and is referred to as such by the author only when the character is acting on behalf of the gods to fulfill his divine mission. Likewise, Aeneas is calledpater ("father") when acting in the interest of his men.[8]
The story of the birth of Aeneas is told in theHomeric Hymn to Aphrodite, one of the majorHomeric Hymns. Aphrodite has causedZeus the king of the Gods to fall in love with mortal women. In retaliation, Zeus decided to put a desire over her heart for the mortal Prince Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills nearMount Ida. When Aphrodite saw him, she was immediately smitten. She adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, but Aphrodite identifies herself as aPhrygian princess. After they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected and tells him that she will bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him thathe must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess. When Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to thenymphs of Mount Ida, instructing them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises.[4] According to other sources, Anchises later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot, so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy.[9]
^"His name will be Aineias [Aeneas], since it was an unspeakable [ainos]akhos that took hold of me – grief that I had fallen into the bed of a mortal man." (Nagy 2001,198–99)
Aeneas is a minor character in theIliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny but is an honorable warrior in his own right. Having held back from the fighting, aggrieved with Priam because in spite of his brave deeds he was not given his due share of honor, he leads an attack against Idomeneus to recover the body of his brother-in-law Alcathous at the urging ofDeiphobus.[10] He is the leader of the Trojans'Dardanian allies, as well as a third cousin and principal lieutenant ofHector, son and heir of the Trojan kingPriam.
Aeneas's motherAphrodite frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield, and he is a favorite of the Sun GodApollo. Aphrodite and Apollo would frequently rescue Aeneas from combat withDiomedes ofArgos, who nearly kills him, and carry him away toPergamos for healing. Even the Sea GodPoseidon, who usually favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas's rescue after he falls under the assault ofAchilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people.
Bruce Louden presents Aeneas as an archetype: The sole virtuous individual (or family) spared from general destruction, following themytheme ofUtnapishtim,Baucis and Philemon,Noah, andLot.[11] Pseudo-Apollodorus in hisBibliotheca explains that "... the Greeks [spared] him alone, on account of his piety."[12]Heinrich Schliemann wrote that it seemed "extremely probable that, at the time of Homer's visit [to the Troad], the King of Troy declared that his race was descended in a direct line from Æneas."[13]
TheAeneid which is 12 books of the legendary foundation ofLavinium which explains that Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as theAeneads, who then traveled toItaly and became progenitors of theRomans. The Aeneads included Aeneas's trumpeterMisenus, his fatherAnchises, his friendsAchates,Sergestus, andAcmon, the healerIapyx, the helmsmanPalinurus, and his sonAscanius (also known as Iulus, Julus, or Ascanius Julius). He carried with him theLares andPenates, the statues of the household gods of Troy, and transplanted them to Italy.
Several attempts to find a new home failed; one such stop was onSicily, where inDrepanum, on the island's western coast, his father, Anchises, died peacefully.
After a brief but fierce storm sent up against the group atJuno's request, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall atCarthage after six years of wanderings. Aeneas had a year-long affair with the Carthaginian queenDido (also known as Elissa), who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign jointly over their peoples. A marriage of sorts was arranged between Dido and Aeneas at the instigation of Juno, who was told that her favorite city would eventually be defeated by the Trojans' descendants. Aeneas's motherVenus (the Roman adaptation of Aphrodite) realized that her son and his company needed a temporary respite to reinforce themselves for the journey to come. However, the messenger godMercury (the adaptation of Hermes) was sent byJupiter (who was Zeus in this version) and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose, compelling him to leave secretly. When Dido learned of this, she uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against Rome, an enmity that would culminate in thePunic Wars. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first met.
After the sojourn in Carthage, the Trojans returned to Sicily where Aeneas organizedfuneral games to honor his father, who had died a year before. The company traveled on and landed on the western coast of Italy. Aeneas descended into the underworld where he met Dido (who turned away from him to return to her husband) and his father, who showed him the future of his descendants and thus the history of Rome.
Aeneas defeatsTurnus, byLuca Giordano, 1634–1705. Thegenius of Aeneas is shown ascendant, looking into the light of the future, while that of Turnus is setting, shrouded in darkness.
Latinus, king of the Latins, welcomed Aeneas's army of exiled Trojans and let them reorganize their lives inLatium. His daughterLavinia had been promised toTurnus, king of theRutuli, but Latinus received a prophecy that Lavinia would be betrothed to one from another land – namely, Aeneas. Latinus heeded the prophecy, and Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas at the urging of Juno, who was aligned with KingMezentius ofthe Etruscans and QueenAmata of the Latins. Aeneas's forces prevailed. Turnus was killed, and Virgil's account ends abruptly.
The twin sons Romulus and Remus suckling off of a she-wolf
The rest of Aeneas's biography is gleaned from other ancient sources, including Livy andOvid'sMetamorphoses. According to Livy, Aeneas was victorious, but Latinus died in the war. Aeneas founded the city ofLavinium, named after his wife. He later welcomed Dido's sister,Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia's jealousy. After Aeneas's death, Venus asked Jupiter to make her son immortal. Jupiter agreed. The river godNumicus cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts and Venus anointed him withambrosia and nectar, making him a god. Aeneas was recognized as the godJupiter Indiges.[16] It's also been stated that Prince Aeneas is the ancestor to the founders of Rome, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus; the two orphan boys who are seen suckling from a she-wolf.[1]
TheBrut Chronicle tells the story of Britain's settling byBrutus of Troy, son of Aeneas. Belief in this story was once widespread, but by the time of theRenaissance had begun to fade.[17]
Snorri Sturlason, in the Prologue of theProse Edda, tells of the world as parted in threecontinents:Africa,Asia and the third part calledEurope or Enea.[3][19] Snorri also tells of a Trojan namedMunon (or Mennon), who marries the daughter of theHigh King (Yfirkonungr)Priam calledTroan and travels to distant lands, marries theSybil and got a son, Tror, who, as Snorri tells, is identical toThor. This tale resembles some episodes of the Aeneid.[20]Continuations of Trojan matter in the Middle Ages had their effects on the character of Aeneas as well. The 12th-century FrenchRoman d'Enéas addresses Aeneas's sexuality. Though Virgil appears to deflect all homoeroticism ontoNisus and Euryalus, making his Aeneas a purely heterosexual character, in the Middle Ages there was at least a suspicion of homoeroticism in Aeneas. TheRoman d'Enéas addresses that charge, whenQueen Amata opposes Aeneas's marryingLavinia.[21]
Medieval interpretations of Aeneas were greatly influenced by both Virgil and other Latin sources. Specifically, the accounts by Dares and Dictys, which were reworked by the 13th-century Italian writerGuido delle Colonne (inHistoria destructionis Troiae), colored many later readings. From Guido, for instance, thePearl Poet and other English writers get the suggestion[22] that Aeneas's safe departure from Troy with his possessions and family was a reward for treason, for which he was chastised byHecuba.[23] InSir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th century) the Pearl Poet, like many other English writers, employed Aeneas to establish a genealogy for the foundation of Britain,[22] and explains that Aeneas was "impeached for his perfidy, proven most true" (line 4).[24]
Aeneas had an extensive family tree. Hiswet-nurse wasCaieta,[25] and he is the father ofAscanius withCreusa, and ofSilvius withLavinia. Ascanius, also known asIulus (or Julius),[26] foundedAlba Longa and was the first in along series of kings. According to the mythology used by Virgil in theAeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas the progenitor of the Roman people.[27] Some early sources call him their father or grandfather,[28] but once the dates of the fall of Troy (1184 BCE) and the founding ofRome (753 BCE) became accepted, authors added generations between them. TheJulian family of Rome, most notablyJulius Cæsar andAugustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas,[29] thus to the goddess Venus. Through the Julians, thePalemonids make this claim. The legendarykings of Britain – includingKing Arthur – trace their family through a grandson of Aeneas,Brutus.[30]
Aeneas's consistent epithet in Virgil and other Latin authors ispius, a term that connotes reverence toward the gods and familial dutifulness. There is significant scholarly debate, however, over the degree to which this epithet is genuine within the poem, and to what extent its deployment by Virgil is sarcastic.
In theAeneid, Aeneas is described as strong and handsome, but neither his hair colour nor complexion are described.[31] In late antiquity however sources add further physical descriptions. TheDe excidio Troiae ofDares Phrygius describes Aeneas as "auburn-haired, stocky, eloquent, courteous, prudent, pious, and charming. His eyes were black and twinkling".[32] There is also a brief physical description found in the 6th-centuryJohn Malalas'Chronographia: "Aeneas: short, fat, with a good chest, powerful, with a ruddy complexion, a broad face, a good nose, fair skin, bald on the forehead, a good beard, grey eyes."[33][34]
Aeneas andDido are the main characters of a 17th-centurybroadsideballad called "The Wandering Prince of Troy". The ballad ultimately alters Aeneas's fate from traveling on years after Dido's death to joining her as a spirit soon after her suicide.[35]
In modern literature, Aeneas is the speaker in two poems byAllen Tate, "Aeneas at Washington" and "Aeneas at New York". He is a main character inUrsula K. Le Guin'sLavinia, a re-telling of the last six books of theAeneid told from the point of view ofLavinia, daughter of KingLatinus ofLatium.
Aeneas appears inDavid Gemmell'sTroy series as a main heroic character who goes by the nameHelikaon.
Will Adams's novelCity of the Lost assumes that much of the information provided by Virgil is mistaken, and that the true Aeneas and Dido did not meet and love in Carthage but in a Phoenician colony at Cyprus, on the site of the modernFamagusta. Their tale is interspersed with that of modern activists who, while striving to stop an ambitious Turkish Army general trying to stage a coup, accidentally discover the hidden ruins of Dido's palace.
Aeneas appears inKipling's "A Tree Song" as a throwaway line.
Despite its many dramatic elements, Aeneas's story has generated little interest from the film industry.Ronald Lewis portrayed Aeneas inHelen of Troy, directed by Robert Wise, as a supporting character, who is a member of the Trojan Royal family, and a close and loyal friend to Paris, and escapes at the end of the film. Portrayed bySteve Reeves, he was the main character in the 1961sword and sandal filmGuerra di Troia (The Trojan War). Reeves reprised the role the following year in the filmThe Avenger, about Aeneas's arrival inLatium and his conflicts with local tribes as he tries to settle his fellow Trojan refugees there.
Giulio Brogi, portrayed as Aeneas in the 1971 Italian TV miniseries series calledEneide, which gives the whole story of the Aeneid, from Aeneas escape from Troy, to his meeting of Dido, his arrival in Italy, and his duel with Turnus.[37]
The most recent cinematic portrayal of Aeneas was in the filmTroy, in which he appears as a youth charged byParis to protect the Trojan refugees, and to continue the ideals of the city and its people. Paris gives Aeneas Priam's sword, in order to give legitimacy and continuity to the royal line of Troy – and lay the foundations of Roman culture. In this film, he is not a member of the royal family and does not appear to fight in the war.
In the role-playing gameVampire: The Requiem by White Wolf Game Studios, Aeneas figures as one of the mythical founders of theVentrue Clan.
in the action gameWarriors: Legends of Troy, Aeneas is a playable character. The game ends with him and the Aeneans fleeing Troy's destruction and, spurned by the words of a prophetess thought crazed, goes to a new country (Italy) where he will start an empire greater than Greece and Troy combined that shall rule the world for 1000 years, never to be outdone in the tale of men (the Roman Empire).
Scenes depicting Aeneas, especially from theAeneid, have been the focus of study for centuries. They have been the frequent subject of art and literature since their debut in the 1st century.
The artistGiovanni Battista Tiepolo was commissioned by Gaetano Valmarana in 1757 to fresco several rooms in the Villa Valmarana, the family villa situated outsideVicenza. Tiepolo decorated thepalazzina with scenes from epics such as Homer'sIliad and Virgil'sAeneid.[40]
Aeneas Introducing Cupid Dressed as Ascanius to Dido, by Tiepolo (1757).
Venus Appearing to Aeneas on the Shores of Carthage, by Tiepolo (1757).
Mercury Appearing to Aeneas, by Tiepolo (1757).
Venus and Vulcan, by Tiepolo (between 1762 and 1766).
^Louden, Bruce (2006).Aeneas in the Iliad: The one just man. 102nd Annual Meeting of Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS) (abstract).
^Stout, S.E. (1924). "How Vergil Established for Aeneas a Legal Claim to a Home and a Throne in Italy".The Classical Journal.20 (3):152–60.JSTOR3288552.
^Titus Livius.The History of Rome (Rev. Canon Roberts, trans.), Vol. I, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, 1905
^Rastell, Johannes (1529).The pastyme of people. in chepesyde at the sygne of the mearemayd next to pollys gate.
^Edda Snorra Sturlusonar GUÐNI JÓNSSON bjó til prentunar.Prologus 2
^The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlson Translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur [1916] Prologue III at Internet Sacred Texts Archive. Accessed November 14, 2017
^Laura Howes, ed. (2010).Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Translated by Marie Boroff. New York: Norton. p. 3.ISBN9780393930252. In Marie Boroff's translation, edited by Laura Howes, the treacherous knight of line 3 is identified asAntenor, incorrectly, as Tolkien argues.
Cramer, D. "The Wrath of Aeneas:Iliad 13.455–67 and 20.75–352." Syllecta Classica, vol. 11, 2000, pp. 16–33.doi:10.1353/syl.2000.0002.
de Vasconcellos, P.S. "A Sound Play on Aeneas' Name in theAeneid: A Brief Note on VII.69." Vergilius (1959–), vol. 61, 2015, pp. 125–29.JSTORvergilius1959.61.125.
Farron, S. "The Aeneas–Dido Episode as an Attack on Aeneas' Mission and Rome." Greece & Rome, vol. 27, no. 1, 1980, pp. 34–47.doi:10.1017/S0017383500027327.JSTOR642775.
Noonan, J. "Sum Pius Aeneas: Aeneas and the Leader as Conservator/Σωτήρ" The Classical Bulletin. vol. 83, no. 1, 2007, pp. 65–91.
Putnam, M.C.J.The Humanness of Heroes: Studies in the Conclusion of Virgil's Aeneid. The Amsterdam Vergil lectures, 1. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
Starr, R.J. "Aeneas the Rhetorician: 'Aeneid IV', 279–95." Latomus, vol. 62, no. 1, 2003, pp. 36–46.JSTOR41540042.
Scafoglio, G. "The Betrayal of Aeneas." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 53 no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–14.
Schauer, M.Aeneas dux in Vergils Aeneis. Eine literarische Fiktion in augusteischer Zeit. Zetemata vol. 128. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2007.
