Venus and Aeneas: Divine Mother, Mortal Son, and the Founding of Rome

Venus guiding Aeneas during the fall of Troy, symbolizing divine protection and destiny

Venus and Anchises had a son on a Trojan hillside, and Venus told Anchises to keep it secret. He didn’t. Jupiter struck him lame for the indiscretion. The son — Aeneas — went on to found the civilization from which Julius Caesar would eventually claim divine descent. That is how a goddess’s desire became Rome’s founding myth.