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Some one of Raphael's friends had no doubt told him the story, or read it to him out of Virgil's Æneid, which was one of the favorite books in that day, when men were delighting in the recovery of the great poetry of Greece and Rome. Here is a part of the story as told by Virgil in the translation by C. P. Cranch:—
"But when I reached my old paternal home,
My father, whom I wished to bear away
To the high mountains, and who first of all
I sought, refused to lengthen out his life,
And suffer exile, now that Troy was lost.
'O ye,' he said, 'whose blood is full of life,
Whose solid strength in youthful vigor stands,—
Plan ye your flight! But if the heavenly powers
Had destined me to live, they would have kept
For me these seats. Enough, more than enough,
That one destruction I have seen, and I
Survive the captured city. Go ye then,
Bidding this frame farewell—thus, lying thus
Extended on the earth! I shall find death
From some hand.'
'O father, dost thou think
That I can go and leave thee here alone?
Comes such bad counsel from my father's lips?
If't is the pleasure of the gods that naught
From the whole city should be left, and this
Is thy determined thought and wish, to add
To perishing Troy thyself and all thy kin,—
The gate lies open for that death desired.'"
So saying, Æneas calls for his arms, resolved to remain with Father Anchises fighting the Greeks to the death. Thereupon Creusa his wife begins to weep, begging him not to leave her and her little boy Iulus to perish in the flames. In the midst of her lamentations a sacred omen is given, in the appearance of lambent flames playing about the head of Iulus. Anchises is convinced of the will of the gods.
"'Now, now,' he cries, 'for us no more delay!
I follow; and wherever ye may lead,
Gods of my country, I will go! Guard ye
My family, my little grandson guard.
This augury is yours; and yours the power
That watches Troy. And now, my son, I yield,
Nor will refuse to go along with thee.'
And now through all the city we can hear
The roaring flames, which nearer roll their heat.
'Come then, dear father! On my shoulders I
Will bear thee, nor will think the task severe.
Whatever lot awaits us, there shall be
One danger and one safety for us both.
Little Iulus my companion be;
And at a distance let my wife observe
Our footsteps.'
This said, a tawny lion's skin
On my broad shoulders and my stooping neck
I throw, and take my burden. At my side
Little Iulus links his hand in mine,
Following his father with unequal steps.
Behind us steps my wife. Through paths obscure
We wend; and I, who but a moment since
Dreaded no flying weapons of the Greeks,
Nor dense battalions of the adverse hosts,
Now start in terror at each rustling breeze,
And every common sound, held in suspense
With equal fears for those attending me,
And for the burden that I bore along."