. 820: "AEneas, whom holy Aphrodite
bore to the embraces of Anchises on the knowes of Ida, a Goddess couching
with a mortal." Again, in E. 313, AEneas is spoken of as the son of
Aphrodite and the neat-herd, Anchises. The celebrated prophecy of the
future rule of the children of AEneas over the Trojans (Y. 307), probably
made, like many prophecies, after the event, appears to indicate the
claim of a Royal House at Ilios, and is regarded as of later date than
the general context of the epic. The AEneid is constructed on this hint;
the Romans claiming to be of Trojan descent through AEneas. The date of
the composition cannot be fixed from considerations of the Homeric tone;
thus lines 238-239 may be a reminiscence of Odyssey, [Greek text]. 394,
and other like suggestions are offered. {41} The conjectures as to date
vary from the time of Homer to that of the _Cypria_, of Mimnermus (the
references to the bitterness of loveless old age are in his vein) of
Anacreon, or even of Herodotus and the Tragedians. The words [Greek
text], [Greek text], and other indications are relied on for a late date:
and there are obvious coincidences with the Hymn to Demeter, as in line
174, _Demeter_ 109, f. Gemoll, however, takes this hymn to be the
earlier.

About the place of composition, Cyprus or Asia Minor, the learned are no
less divided than about the date. Many of the grounds on which their
opinions rest appear unstable. The relations of Aphrodite to the wild
beasts under her wondrous spell, for instance, need not be borrowed from
Circe with her attendant beasts. If not of Homer's age, the Hymn is
markedly successful as a continuation of the Homeric tone and manner.

Modern Puritanism naturally "condemns" Aphrodite, as it "condemns" Helen.
But Homer is lenient; Helen is under the spell of the Gods, an unwilling
and repentant tool of Destiny; and Aphrodite, too, is driven by Zeus into
the arms of a mortal. She is [Greek text], shamefast; and her adventure
is to her a bitter sorrow (199, 200). The dread of Anchises--a man is
not long of life who lies with a Goddess--refers to a belief found from
Glenfinlas to Samoa and New Caledonia, that the embraces of the spiritual
ladies of the woodlands are fatal to men. The legend has been told to me
in the Highlands, and to Mr. Stevenson in Samoa, while my cousin, Mr. J.
J. Atkinson, actually knew a Kaneka who died in three days after an amour
like that of Anchises. The Breton ballad,