Aeneas alone, the son of
Aphrodite, the beloved of gods and men, escaped the universal carnage with his
son and his old father Anchises, whom he carried on his shoulders out of the
city. He first sought refuge on Mount Ida, and afterwards fled to Italy, where
he became the ancestral hero of the Roman people.
Menelaus now sought Helen in
the royal palace, who, being immortal, still retained all her former beauty and
fascination. A reconciliation took place, and she accompanied her husband on
his homeward voyage. Andromache, the widow of the brave Hector, was given in
marriage to Neoptolemus, Cassandra fell to the share of Agamemnon, and Hecuba,
the gray-haired and widowed queen, was made prisoner by Odysseus.
The boundless treasures of the
wealthy Trojan king fell into the hands of the Greek heroes, who, after having
levelled the city of Troy to the ground, prepared for their homeward voyage.