Anchises

Anchises was a Trojan prince of the royal house of Dardania, best known as the mortal lover of Aphrodite and the father of Aeneas. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells how the goddess came to him on Mount Ida, and Virgil’s Aeneid shows Aeneas carrying his lame old father out of burning Troy.

Family

Homer traces his ancestry through Dardanus, Erichthonius, Tros and Assaracus: Assaracus was the father of Capys, and Capys of Anchises (Homer, Iliad 20.215–241). Apollodorus names Capys’ wife as Themiste, a daughter of Ilus (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.2), and says that Anchises was the man with whom Aphrodite lay and to whom she bore Aeneas. Hesiod says the same: Aeneas was born when Aphrodite lay with the hero Anchises on the peaks of wooded Mount Ida (Hesiod, Theogony 1008–1010). In the Iliad, Alcathous married Hippodameia, the eldest of Anchises’ daughters, whom her father and mother loved above all girls of her age (Iliad 13.427–433). Anchises also bred horses: he secretly put his mares to the horses of Laomedon, and six foals were born in his halls, of which he kept four and gave two to Aeneas (Iliad 5.268–272).

Aphrodite and Anchises

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite explains how the goddess fell in love with Anchises. Zeus put into her heart a sweet longing to lie with a mortal man, so that she could not boast to the other gods of having made them mate with mortals while she herself had never done so (Homeric Hymn 5.45–55). Aphrodite went to Mount Ida, where Anchises was tending cattle in the high pastures, while the other herdsmen had gone to the pastures with the cows. She stood before him as an unwed maiden, so that he would not be frightened (Hymn 5.54–83).

She told him that she was a mortal, the daughter of Otreus, who ruled all of well-walled Phrygia, and that Hermes had carried her away from a chorus of maidens and brought her to Anchises, telling her she would be his wedded wife and bear him splendid children (Hymn 5.108–142). Anchises yielded: he lay with the immortal goddess, a mortal who did not know the truth (Hymn 5.166–167). When he woke, Aphrodite stood before him in her true form and he was afraid. She told him not to be afraid, that he would have a dear son who would rule among the Trojans, and that the child would be called Aeneas (Hymn 5.192–199). The mountain nymphs would raise the boy and bring him to Anchises when he was five years old (Hymn 5.256–277).

The thunderbolt

Aphrodite warned Anchises that if anyone asked, he should say the child was the son of one of the nymphs, and that if he boasted of having lain with Aphrodite, Zeus in anger would strike him with a smoking thunderbolt (Homeric Hymn 5.281–290). Hyginus says that Anchises did tell the story to his companions over wine, and for this Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, though some say he died a natural death (Hyginus, Fabulae 94). Virgil has Anchises say that he has been hated by the gods and useless for years, ever since the father of gods and king of men breathed on him with the winds of lightning and touched him with fire (Virgil, Aeneid 2.647–649).

The Fall of Troy

When Troy fell, Anchises refused to leave. Aeneas begged him to come, and in the end Aeneas took his father on his shoulders and went out of the burning city, with the boy Iulus holding his hand and his wife following behind (Virgil, Aeneid 2.634–640, 2.707–725). Aeneas gave his father the sacred objects and household gods of Troy to carry, since he himself was stained with blood from the fighting (Aeneid 2.717–720).

Death and the Underworld

Anchises died on the voyage west, at Drepanum on the coast of Sicily, after all the storms at sea. Aeneas calls him the relief of every care and sorrow (Virgil, Aeneid 3.707–711). A year after the burial, Aeneas marked the day with rites and games at his father’s tomb in Sicily (Virgil, Aeneid 5.42–48). In Book 6 Aeneas goes down to the underworld, and Anchises, in a green valley among the souls waiting to be born, shows him the descendants who will come from the Trojans, the line of Roman heroes, and tells him his fate (Virgil, Aeneid 6.679–759).

Anchises Sources

Homer, Iliad 5.268–272, 13.427–433, 20.215–241; Hesiod, Theogony 1008–1010; Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 45–290; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.2; Hyginus, Fabulae 94; Virgil, Aeneid 2.634–725, 3.707–711, 5.42–48, 6.679–759.

See Also: Aeneas, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hippodameia, Trojan War, Priam, Dardanus, Ida