AENEAS
Aineias (Αἰνείας) · Roman Aeneas
Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aeneas.
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1618–1619
Early marble group by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese and still in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. Aeneas carries his aged father Anchises out of burning Troy while the boy Ascanius follows behind — three generations of the Trojan house stacked into a single spiralling column of flight.
Aeneas' Flight from Troy
Federico Barocci, 1598
Oil painting by Federico Barocci in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, a second version of a composition first painted for Emperor Rudolf II and now lost. Aeneas bears Anchises on his shoulders through the burning city, with his son Ascanius beside him and his wife Creusa behind — the family's desperate escape from the sack of Troy.
Aeneas Tells Dido of the Misfortunes of Troy
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, c. 1815
Oil painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. In a scene from the opening books of Virgil's Aeneid, the Trojan hero recounts the fall of his city to Dido, queen of Carthage, as evening falls over her court — the telling that kindles the queen's fatal love.