Anchīses

, a son of Capys by Them is daughter of Ilus. He was of such a beautiful complexion, that Venus came down from heaven on mount Ida, in the form of a nymph, to enjoy his company. The godde became pregnant, and forbade Anchises ever to mention the favours he had received, on pain of being struck with thunder. The child which Venus brought forth was called Æneas; he was educated as soon as born by the nymphs of Ida, and, when of a proper age, was entrusted to the care of Chiron the centaur. When Troy was taken, Anchises was become so infirm that Æneas, to whom the Greeks permitted to take away whatever he esteemed most, carried him through the flames upon his shoulders, and thus saved his life. He accompanied his son in his voyage towards Italy, and died in Sicily, in the 80th year of his age. He was buried on mount Eryx by Æneas and Acestes king of the country, and the anniversary of his death was afterwards celebrated by his son and the Trojans on his tomb. Some authors have maintained that Anchises had forgot the injunctions of Venus, and boasted at a feast that he enjoyed her favours on mount Ida, upon which he was killed with thunder. Others say that the wounds he received from the thunder were not mortal, and that they only weakened and disfigured his body. Virgil, in the sixth book of the Æneid, introduces him in the Elysian fields, relating to his son the fates that were to attend him, and the fortune of his descendants the Romans. See: Æneas . Virgil , Æneid , bks. 1, 2, . — Hyginus , fables 94, 254, 260, 270.— Hesiod , Theogony , li. 1010 .— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 .— Ovid , Fasti , bk. 4 , li. 34 .— Homer , Iliad , bk. 20 , & Hymn to Aphrodite .— Xenophon , On Hunting , ch. 1 .— Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 1 , Roman Antiquities .— Pausanias , bk. 8 , ch. 12 , says that Anchises was buried on a mountain in Arcadia, which, from him, has been called Anchisia.――An A then i an archon. Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 8 .