Which goddess is the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas?

The goddess Aphrodite is the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas.

In Greek mythology, Aeneas is the son of Aphrodite and Anchises, a mortal Trojan prince descended from the royal house of Troy. Their relationship is told most fully in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess disguises herself as a mortal woman before meeting Anchises near Mount Ida.

Aeneas appears in Homer’s Iliad as a respected Trojan warrior and leader of the Dardanian allies. Aphrodite protects him during the fighting, including when he is nearly killed by Diomedes. The poem also presents him as destined to survive Troy’s destruction, a destiny developed much more fully by the Roman poet Virgil.

A common source of confusion is the goddess’s Roman name: Aphrodite is Venus in Roman mythology. Virgil’s Aeneid makes Aeneas a legendary ancestor of the Roman people, while Greek tradition treats him primarily as a Trojan hero. His father Anchises and son Ascanius are therefore as important to his later story as his divine mother.