Abraham and Aeneas

Abraham and Aeneas were two leaders who were both told to leave their homes and found a new nation. Aeneas' adventures are fictional, but he may have existed at one time. Abraham's ventures were recorded in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Abraham and Aeneas are very similar in terms of their life events and their characteristics.

In the Aeneid, Aeneas and his family traveled from Troy to Italy where his descendants would found Rome. On the way, he has many adventures guided by the gods and fate. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Abraham travels from Ur to Canaan to found Isreal where all of his descendants will be blessed. On his journey, he was guided by God.

Both Abraham and Aeneas were told by their God or gods to leave their homeland to found a new nation. Abraham was from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, while Aeneas was from Troy in Asia Minor. Abraham was blessed by God and Aeneas was blessed by the gods. They both brought their families along with them, Abraham brought his wife, Sarah, and his father, Terah, and Aeneas brought his wife, Creusa, his father, Anchises, and his son, Ascanius. On their journeys to the lands where they would found their nations, they both pause at a city which will later become their enemies: Abraham at Aram and Aeneas at Carthage. When they finally reach the land that was promised to them, they do not get the land but their descendants will. God tells Abraham that four hundred and thirty years after he dies, his descendants will inherit this land, "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." (King James Version, Exod. 12.41).