Anchises

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Anchises is mentioned by Dante as the father of Aeneas, the «son of Anchises who came from Troy» recalled by Virgil at the beginning of Dante's journey (Inf. I 74). His shade returns in the Heaven of Mars, where, according to the note on the canto, he makes himself present at the beginning by evoking the scene of the Elysian Fields in Book VI of the Aeneid: «the shade of Anchises reached out» to his descendant with paternal affection (Par. XV 25), establishing the parallel between Aeneas and Dante. The note clarifies that the word «pïa» indicates the pietas of the father toward the son, while the expression of the great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida is modeled on the words of the Virgilian Anchises: «venisti tandem… tempora dinumerans». In the Heaven of Mars Dante also recalls the place where Anchises «ended his long span of life», that is, the land in which he died (Par. XIX 132). The entry is limited to these elements drawn from the verses and the authorized notes.