Aeneas, e-ne'as, a legendary Trojan chief, second only to Hector in the defense of Troy. He was the son of Anchises and the goddess Venus. His wife Creusa was the daughter of Priam the king. Their one child was Ascanius. Virgil chose Aeneas for the hero of his chief work, calling it the Aeneid. According to this writer, Aeneas escaped from the sack of Troy. After performing prodigies of valor he took his son Ascanius by the hand, and bearing his aged father Anchises and his household gods on his shoulders, bade Creusa follow. In the confusion Creusa was lost and was never heard of again; but Aeneas made his way from the burning city to the shelter of Mount Ida, where he was joined by trusty companions. As soon as the times were propitious, twenty ships were built, and the remnant of the Trojans set out under his leadership to find a new home in the West. In the course of their wanderings, the aged Anchises died. Driven by a tempest to the coast of Africa, Dido, the queen of Carthage, received him kindly, and besought him to remain as her husband. Warned by the gods, however, Aeneas set sail, and the unhappy and deserted Dido put an end to her life on a funeral pile. Finally, Virgil would have us believe, Aeneas arrived at Italy and engaged in local wars, went down to the lower world to see his father, returned and settled in Latium, and married Lavinia, the king's daughter. He thus became the ancestor of the kings of Alba Longa, and of Romulus and Remus, the founders of ancient Rome. See VIRGIL; TROY; DIDO; AENEID.