The Wandering Prince of Troy Punic Wars. In addition, where Aeneas spends a year in Carthage in Virgil's work, the ballad indicates that Aeneas fails to spend even an entire night. Thus, the ballad's final stanzas describing the hero's departure for Rome and his subsequent interactions with Dido's ghost also appear to be in conflict with Virgil's account of Aeneas's departure from Carthage. Rather than end with an encounter between Aeneas and Dido's ghost, eight more books exist in the "Aeneid" after his departure, telling of his travels to Italy and the underworld, and the wars he fights so that his descendents may ultimately found
Aeneas the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr. Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας ("Aineías"). In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας ("Aineías") for the αὶνóν ἄχος ("terrible grief") he caused her, where "Aineías" derives from the adjective αὶνóν ("ainon", meaning "terrible"). It is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, because the Aeneid was written by a philosopher it is meant to be read philosophically.