Anchises. Anchises was a member of the royal family of Troy in Greek and Roman legend. He is most famously portrayed in scenes related to the Aeneid, where his son Aeneas carries him on his shoulders while fleeing the burning city of Troy, representing the survival of Trojan heritage. This scene, known as the Flight of Aeneas, is a recurring motif in classical and Renaissance art, symbolizing filial piety and the continuity of family and culture. Artists like Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Raphael have depicted Anchises as an elderly, frail man, emphasizing his vulnerability and reliance on Aeneas, with the focus on their emotional connection. In these portrayals, Anchises often embodies the weight of the past and the wisdom of the older generation, reinforcing themes of duty and legacy in Western art. He is most famous as the father of Aeneas and for his treatment in Virgil's Aeneid. Anchises' brother was Acoetes, father of the priest Laocoon. He was a mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. She fell in love with Anchises seeing him herding sheep on Mount Ida after Zeus persuaded Eros to shoot her an arrow to cause it. One version is that Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess and seduced him, only to later reveal herself and inform him that they would have a son named Aeneas; Aphrodite had warned Anchises that if he told anyone about her being the mother of his child, Zeus would strike him down with his thunderbolt. He did not heed her warning and was struck with a thunderbolt, which in different versions either blinds him or kills him. The principal early narrative of Aphrodite's seduction of Anchises and the birth of Aeneas is the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. According to the Bibliotheca, Anchises and Aphrodite had another son, Lyrus, who died childless. He later had a mortal wife named Eriopis, according to the scholiasts, and he is credited with other children beside Aeneas and Lyrus. Homer, in the Iliad, mentions a daughter named Hippodamia, their eldest, who married her cousin Alcathous. After the defeat of Troy in the Trojan War, the elderly Anchises was carried from the burning city by his son Aeneas, accompanied by Aeneas' wife Creusa, who died in the escape attempt, and small son Ascanius. The subject is depicted in several paintings, including a famous version by Federico Barocci in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The rescue is also mentioned in a speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when Cassius attempts to persuade Brutus to murder Caesar. Anchises himself died and was buried in Sicily many years later. Aeneas later visited Hades and saw his father again in the Elysian Fields. Homer's Iliad mentions another Anchises, a wealthy native of Sicyon in Greece and father of Echepolus. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite details how Aphrodite seduced Anchises. It begins by describing how only the three virgin goddesses are immune to Aphrodite's powers. She has made gods and goddesses fall in love with mortals. Not even Zeus was able to escape her powers and to put her in her place, he caused her to lust after the handsome mortal Anchises. Aphrodite first happens upon Anchises on the hills of Mount Ida, where he is grazing his cattle. Anchises is described as having the beauty of an immortal. Aphrodite goes to Cyprus and bathes. Then she returns to the Troad disguised as a mortal, and finds Anchises alone in a hut. When Anchises first sees Aphrodite, he is convinced that she is a goddess, a grace, or a nymph. She convinces him that she is a Phrygian princess and that Hermes brought her there to marry Anchises. Anchises is overcome with desire for her and declares that he must have her immediately, and the two of them make love.