Anchises- Greek FigureMortal"Prince of Dardania"

The Prince of Ida

Anchises was a prince of the Dardanian line — kin to the Trojans through their common ancestor Tros, but ruling separately on the slopes of Mount Ida. His blood ran back through Assaracus and Erichthonius to Dardanus, a son of Zeus, which meant that even as a herdsman among cattle-stalls he carried divine ancestry. In the Iliad, his son Aeneas recites the full line before fighting Achilles: six generations of kings from Dardanus to Anchises.

Aphrodite on Mount Ida

Anchises' beauty drew the attention of Aphrodite. Zeus planted desire in the goddess so that she could no longer boast of never having lain with a mortal. She found Anchises alone in his hut on Mount Ida, playing the lyre. Disguising herself as a young Phrygian maiden, she told him Hermes had brought her there and offered herself as his bride. Anchises suspected she was divine but was overcome by desire, and they lay together on a bed of bear and lion skins.

Afterward, Aphrodite woke him and revealed her true form. Anchises was terrified, covering his face and begging her not to leave him a broken man. She reassured him: she would bear a son, Aeneas, who would be raised by the nymphs of Ida and rule among the Trojans. But she gave him one warning — he must never tell anyone the child's mother was a goddess. If he boasted, Zeus would strike him with a thunderbolt.

Punishment and Flight from Troy

Anchises boasted. At a feast he let slip that he had lain with Aphrodite, and Zeus punished him. The Homeric Hymn implies the punishment was the thunderbolt itself; later traditions say he was lamed or blinded, left enfeebled for the rest of his days.

When Troy fell, Anchises was too infirm to walk. Aeneas hoisted his aged father onto his shoulders and carried him through the burning city, his young son Ascanius gripping his hand. Anchises had at first refused to leave, preferring death in his home, until a flame appeared on Ascanius's head and a shooting star confirmed the omen.

He sailed with Aeneas from Troy but did not live to see Italy. He died at Drepanum in Sicily. When Aeneas later descended to the underworld, he found his father among the blessed shades in Elysium, and Anchises showed him the future — the souls of his descendants waiting to be born, from Romulus to Augustus.