Aeneas story begins when the Trojan war ended, about 1200
BC. Among the Trojans there was a prince called AENEAS, a cousin of Priam. According to legend Aeneas' mother was
the goddess Venus. When Aeneas saw that the city of Troy was lost, he rushed back to his house and rescued his
old father Anchises, carrying him on his back, giving him his Penates or little images of household gods to take
care of. Aeneas led by the hand his little son Iulus or Ascanius while his wife Creusa followed close behind. The
Trojans who could get their weapons together joined him. They all escaped to Mount Ida.
The picture depicts Aeneas fleeing Troy carrying his father Anchises
As they arrived outside of the city, Aeneas saw that his
wife Creusa was missing. He rushed back and searched for her everywhere. But she was lost forever.
In the forests of Mount Ida he built ships and set forth
with all of his followers to search for a new home.
Once in the Strophades, land belonging to the Ionian Islands, he and his troops landed to get food. While they
were eating, down on them came the harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and hooked hands, with which they
snatched away the food. The Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off their feathers and did not hurt them.
However, they did fly off except one. The remaining harpy sat on a high rock and croaked out that the Trojans would
be punished for trying to harm the harpies. They would be tossed about until they should reach Italy, but once
there they would not build their city until they would be so hungry as to eat their own tables.
Aeneas Journey
They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on
the coast of Epirus, where Aeneas found his cousin Helenus, son to Priam, reigning over a new Troy and married
to Andromache.
Helenus was a prophet, and gave Aeneas much advice. He said that when the Trojans arrived in Italy, they would
find, under the holly trees by the river, a large white pig lying on the ground, with a litter of thirty piglets.
This would be a sign to them that this is where they were to build their city.
By Helenus' advice the Trojans coasted around the south
of Sicily, instead of trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis. Just below Mount Etna
an unfortunate man came running down to the beach begging to be taken in. He was a Greek who had been left behind
when Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus' cave. He had taken refuge in the forests where he had lived ever since.
They had just taken him in when they saw Cyclops, he was going to the sea to wash out the burning hollow of his
lost eye which Ulysses had gouged out. When Aeneas' troops saw the Cyclops they rowed off in great terror.
Anchises, Aeneas' father died shortly thereafter and while
Aeneas was still mourning his loss, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible tempest, which drove the
ships to the south, until, just as the sea began to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall
cliffs with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed and lighting a fire, Aeneas went in quest of
food.
Coming out of the forest, they looked down from the hill, and saw a multitude of people building a city, raising
walls, houses, towers and temples. Into one of these temples Aeneas entered, and to his amazement he found the
walls sculptured with the story of the siege of Troy. When he saw all of his friends so perfectly represented,
he burst into tears.
Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whole troop of nymphs entered the temple. Her name was Dido. Her husband,
Sichaeus, had been a king of Tyre, until he was murdered by his brother Pygmalion, who wanted to marry Dido, but
she fled from him with a band of faithful Tyrians and all of her husband's treasure. She landed on the north coast
of Africa. There she begged the chief of the country for as much land as could be enclosed by a bullock's hide.
He granted this readily and Dido cutting the hide into the finest possible strips, managed to measure off enough
land to build the splendid city which she had named Carthage.
She received Aeneas most kindly, and took all of his men
into her city, hoping to keep them there forever and make Aeneas her husband. Aeneas himself was so happy there,
that he forgot his plans and the prophecies he had heard. Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse him to fulfill his destiny.
He obeyed the call and Dido was so wretched at his departure that she built a great funeral pyre, laid herself
on top and stabbed herself with Aeneas' sword. The funeral pyre was set ablaze and the Trojan's saw the flames
from their departing ships without knowing the cause.
Aeneas landed at a place in Italy called Cumae. There dwelt
one of the Sibyls. These sibyls were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed with deep wisdom; and when Aeneas
went to consult the Cumaean Sybil, she told him that he must visit the underworld of Pluto to learn his fate. First,
however, he had to go into a forest and find there and gather a golden bough, which he was to carry in his hand
to keep him safe.
Picture of The Sibyl of Cumae by Michaelangelo,
The Sistine Chapel
>Long he sought for the golden bough until two doves,
his mother's birds, came flying before him to show him the tree where gold gleamed through the boughs, and he found
the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe grows on the thorn.
Guarded with this and guided by the Sybil, Aeneas passed into a gloomy cave, where he came to the river Styx, round
which flew all the shades who had never received funeral rites, and whom the ferryman, Charon, would not carry
over. The Sybil made him take Aeneas across, his boat groaning under the weight of a living human body. On the
other side stood Cerberus, but the Sybil threw him a cake of honey and of some opiate, and he fell asleep. Aeneas
continued on and found in myrtle groves all who had died for love, among them to his surprise, was poor forsaken
Dido.
A little further on he found the home of the warriors and conversed with his old Trojan friends. He continued on
to the Elysian fields and found the spirit of his father Anchises and with him was allowed to see the souls of
all their descendants, as yet unborn. Thus he knew he would succeed on this journey to found a new land.
Aeneas continued on his quest and landed in Italy just as
his old nurse Caieta died, at the place which is still called Gaeta. After they had buried her, they found a grove
where they sat down on the grass to eat, using large round cakes to put their meat on. Little Ascanius cried out.
"We are eating our very tables!", and Aeneas, remembering the harpy's words, knew that their wanderings
were over.
The king of the country, Latium, was Latinus, where Aeneas
ended his wanderings, at first made friends with Aeneas and promised him his daughter Lavinia in marriage. But
Turnus, an Italian chief who had before been a suitor to Lavinia, stirred up a great war, and was captured and
killed after much hard fighting. Aeneas then married Lavinia.
Aeneas found a pig with thirty little piglets as foretold
by his cousin Helenus of Epirus and knew this was the right place for he and Lavinia to settle down. They founded
the city of Lavinius, where Aeneas and Lavinia reigned until he died. Aeneas' descendants, through his two sons,
Ascanius or Iulus and Aeneas Silvius, reigned after him for fifteen generations.
The last of these fifteen generations was Amulius, who took the throne from his brother Numitor.
The story of the founding of Rome continues with the birth
of Romulus and Remus, grandsons of King Numitor.
Select a topic
