In Greek and Roman mythology, Anchises was a Dardanian prince of the Trojan royal line, son of Capys and Themiste, and the mortal lover of Aphrodite (Venus). He is best known as the father of Aeneas — conceived after Zeus made Aphrodite desire him while he herded cattle on Mount Ida — and for being carried from burning Troy on his son's shoulders in Virgil's Aeneid. He dies in Sicily during the Trojan exile and later appears as a shade guiding Aeneas in the underworld.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Anchises" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family and Aphrodite
Anchises belonged to the royal house of Dardania: Capys and Themiste, daughter of Ilus, were his usual parents; his brother Acoetes is named in some sources as father of the Trojan priest Laocoön. Zeus caused Aphrodite to fall in love with the handsome herdsman on the slopes of Ida. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells how she approached him disguised as a Phrygian princess, lay with him, then revealed herself and foretold the birth of Aeneas, warning him never to boast of the goddess as the child's mother.
When Anchises broke the silence, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt — versions differ on whether he was blinded, lamed, or killed. Apollodorus adds a second son by Aphrodite, Lyrus, who died childless; scholiasts give him a mortal wife Eriopis and other children, including a daughter Hippodamia named in the Iliad. Homer mentions a separate, wealthy Anchises of Sicyon, father of Echepolus — not this Dardanian prince.
II.Flight from Troy and the Aeneid
At Troy's fall the aged Anchises is carried from the flames by Aeneas, with Ascanius beside them and Creusa lost in the escape — a scene famous in ancient and later art. In Virgil, Anchises at first refuses to leave; a flame on Ascanius's head and a shooting star convince him that Jupiter wills their flight. He carries the household gods while Aeneas bears him on his back.
During the wanderings Anchises advises the refugees — notably misreading Apollo's oracle as pointing to Crete before the Penates correct the course toward Italy. He dies and is buried in Sicily; Aeneas holds funeral games at his tomb. In Book 6 his shade greets Aeneas in Elysium, reveals the doctrine of reincarnation at Lethe, and shows him the parade of future Roman heroes before leading him out of the underworld.
III.Reception
Ovid briefly recalls Anchises in the Metamorphoses — Venus asking that youth be restored to him, and Aeneas honoring his tomb. The father-on-shoulders motif became a byword for filial piety (pius Aeneas) and appears in Shakespeare and countless paintings. This notice concerns the Trojan Anchises of the Hymn and Aeneid, not the Sicyonian namesake in Homer.