The Trojan prince
Aeneas is a member of the Trojan royal house and a leader of the Dardanians, a people allied to Troy. He fights well in Books V, XIII, and XX, and he is one of the few Trojans whom the poem treats with unqualified respect. When he is wounded by Diomedes in Book V, Aphrodite wraps him in her robe and carries him away; when he is overwhelmed by Achilles in Book XX, Poseidon rescues him.
Poseidon explains why: Aeneas is destined to survive, and his descendants will rule the Trojans after the city falls. The Iliad thus plants a future beyond its own ending, a future that Virgil will later develop into the Aeneid.
After the Iliad
The Iliad does not tell how Aeneas escapes Troy. Later tradition, followed by Virgil, has him carry his father and lead survivors to Italy, where his descendants found Rome. The Homeric poems know nothing of Rome; for them Aeneas is simply the Trojan whose line will continue.
His presence in the poem is a reminder that the fall of Troy is not the end of every Trojan. The city’s defeat is total, but one branch of its royal house is preserved by the gods, and the poem’s sympathies extend beyond the generation that dies at its walls.
Relations
Backlinks 4
The following entries mention “Aeneas”.