CREUSA

My name is Creusa. I am one of the fifty daughters of Priam, the king of Troy. I married Aeneas, but my destiny does not allow me to accompany my husband and our son Ascanius on the long journey that will take them to Latium.

My city is in flames, destroyed by the Greeks, and Aeneas is rushing to take his father Anchises, Ascanius and me to safety in the mountains. As we flee, I discreetly follow my husband, staying a few paces behind him, when suddenly Aeneas – having reached the gates of Troy – notices that I am no longer with them. In despair, he goes back the way he came, and searches for me, calling me in a loud voice amidst the ruins and fires ravaging the city, but he cannot find me. He cannot find me because in the meantime I have been ‘taken away by fate’.

Seeing my ‘sweet husband’ upset and disoriented, I wish to put an end to his ‘mad sorrow’. I appear to him in a dream and explain to him that my disappearance was at the behest of the gods. He must not be sad because it is the king of Olympus who is not allowing me to leave and face with him the long exile to Italy, where “happy events, a kingdom and a royal bride” await him. Aware that I cannot change my fate, I reassure Aeneas and tell him to stop crying because at least I will not be taken prisoner. So I let him go and entrust our son Ascanius to his love and care.

Resigned to his fate, and still in tears for my loss, Aeneas tries to embrace me, trying three times to wrap his arms around my neck, but my image is not real and dissolves in his hands like a light wind. I am not upset and I have no regrets because I know that in the “new homeland” there is no place for me. Everything happens by divine will.

© Image from Wikimedia Commons