Anchises
Ἀγχίσης
The old man loved by Aphrodite, carried out of burning Troy on his son's shoulders.
He was a handsome herdsman tending cattle on Mount Ida. In the Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess disguises herself as a mortal maiden and comes to him.
The goddess warned him never to reveal who the child's father was. One version tells that Anchises boasted of it in his cups and was lamed by a thunderbolt from Zeus.
On the night Troy burned, his son Aeneas carried the father who could not walk out on his shoulders. It became the Romans' most beloved image of filial devotion.
SourcesHomeric Hymns, Hymn to Aphrodite