In Virgil's poem, The Aeneid, the ideal Roman hero is depicted in the form of Aeneas. Not only does Aeneas represent the Roman hero, but he also represents what every Roman citizen is called to be. Each Roman citizen must posses two major virtues, he must remain pious, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race.
In the poem, Virgil says that all Romans ought to have two certain virtues: he must remain a pious Roman citizen, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race. In Virgil's poem, he uses Aeneas as a portrayal of not only a roman hero, but also as the ideal Roman citizen. For a man to be pious, he must do what he is called to do by the Fates and follow his destiny. Aeneas is above all pious. He follows the will of the gods, even when it makes him suffer. Aeneas' destiny is to lead the Trojan people to the new land of Rome. Although this is tough for him to do and he runs into difficulties along the way, he keeps on striving towards his final goal. Along the Greek gods develop new persona: a Roman form.
Aeneas was the son of Anchises. His mother was the Greek goddess Aphrodite or the Roman goddess Venus. A story of the conception of Aeneas can be found in the Homeric Hymns. One long hymn was dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite.
Aphrodite was a very playful and fun-loving goddess. At times she played jokes on the other gods and goddesses. One of her favorite targets was to make a male god, especially Zeus, fall in love with a mortal woman. Zeus did not want Aphrodite to be able to mock the gods because they had sired demigods with mortal women, so he decided to retaliate. He caused Aphrodite to look with desire on a mortal man so that she too would be the parent of a demigod. So Zeus put desire in her heart for Anchises, who was tending his cattle at that time among the hills near Mount Ida. When she saw him she was totally smitten. She then adorned herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appeared before him. He was quickly overcome by her beauty, believing that she was a goddess, but Aphrodite denied herself saying that she was a Phrygian princess. After they had sex Aphrodite revealed to him that she was actually the Goddess of Love. Anchises feared what might happen to him as a result of their liaison (Ares's and/or Hephaestus's fury ), so Aphrodite assured that he would be protected, and that she would bear him a son and would call him Aeneas. However, she warned him that he must never tell anyone that he had lain with her. When Aeneas was born, Aphrodite took him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directed them to raise the child to age five, and then take him to Anchises. Anchises later bragged about his time with Aphrodite at dinner party, and as a result was struck in the foot with a thunderbolt from Zeus and became forever lame.
The House of Troy had actually being divided into two branches: that of Dardania and that of Troy or Ilium. Aeneas actually belonged to the Dardania, a house older than Troy, but Troy became more powerful than Dardania. So in actual fact Aeneas was a Dardanian prince, not a Trojan.
Troy had fallen due to a ruse, in which the Greeks had hidden inside a giant Wooden Horse. The Greek fleet had gone, pretending they had left in defeat. At night, while the Trojan slept after an apparent victory over the Greeks, those inside the Trojan Horse would come out of its belly and opened the Troy's gate for the returning Greek army. Too many Trojans were killed in the first hour of treachery and massacre, despite their valiant stand to save their city.
When Aeneas realized that Troy could not be saved, he went to rescue his family. Since Anchises, former king of the Dardanians, was crippled, Aeneas had to carry his father on his back. Aeneas left his home, with his son in tow Ascanius (Iulus) and his wife Creusa, the daughter of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba, following behind them. During their flight, Cresua got separated from husband. She had vanished, apparently killed or captured by the Greeks.
Aeneas reached the safety of Mount Ida, with his father and son. Other survivors had also managed to reach Mount Ida. After the Greek left with Troy destroyed and the Trojan survivors enslaved, Aeneas and his followers left Troy, with twenty ships they sailed to Thrace, hoping to find a new home. However the ghost of his cousin Polydorus, son of Priam, warned them of his murder by the treacherous Thracian king named Polymestor.
Aeneas was advised by Polydorus to find a new home for his people from the land of their "ancient mother", which they assumed to be Crete, the original home of Teucer, the Trojan ancestor. They had only arrived on this island but only to decide to leave Crete when they found that the island was suffering from a famine.
It was only when they reached Buthrotum, in Epeirus that they met Helenus, the seer and the son of Priam. Helenus had being slave to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, but gained freedom, because of his wise counsel. Andromache, Hector's wife had also being freed, and she married the seer. It was Helenus who informed them that their final destination was Italy.
The journey to Italy was long and fraught with perils. Just before they met Helenus they were driven away by the Harpies on the islands of Strophades. They avoid the narrow strait where the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis.
They suffered from hardship in travel, they encountered the wild storms, the Harpies, and in Sicily, they rescued an Ithacan, named Achaemenides, whom Odysseus had left behind. Achaemenides' timely warning, allow Aeneas and his followers to escape from Polyphemus, the blind Cyclops. Also Aeneas' father died peacefully in Drepanum, in Sicily.
After a brief but fierce storm sent up against the group at Juno's request, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage after six years of wanderings. Has he finally filled his destiny or Juno leaving Aeneas to his death? Stay tune.
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