Aeneas was a prince of Troy.   He was the nephew of King Priam, but more important he was the son of the goddess Venus.   When the city of Troy fell to the Greeks, Aeneas escaped.
    Aeneas set sail with his father, Anchises, his son Ascanius and the gods of Troy.  He came to Thrace and planned to build a new home.   When he was making a sacrifice to Venus, he tore a branch off a bush and it began to bleed.
He learned that the Trojan prince Polydorus had been sent to Thrace with Troy's gold for safekeeping.  The king of Thrace murdered him and stole the gold.
Aeneas gave Polydorus a proper funeral and sailed away looking for a new home.

     Aeneas and the Trojans asked Apollo for advice on where to settle.  The Pythia told them to seek the land of their forefathers.  Anchises told them this was Crete and so they began to build their new city.  A plaque broke out and a second visit to the oracle told them they must go to the true land of their ancestors - Italy.  There the would found a great race that would rule the world.

     While trying to sail to Italy the Trojans were pushed onto the island of the harpies by a dark storm.  The harpies fouled all their food and so the Trojans attacked them.  The harpy Celaeno prophesized that if they go to Italy the Trojans would become so hungry that they would eat their tables.  

     Next the Trojans came to the land of Pyrrus only to discover it was now being ruled by the Trojan prince Helenus and Hector's widow Andromache.  Pyrrus was killed by Orestes leaving the Trojan captives in charge of his kingdom.  Helenus gave Aeneas advise.  Go the long way around Sicily and settle on Italy's west coast  - where there are no Greeks.   He warned them of Scylla and Charibdis and told them to appease the goddess Juno. 

     Aeneas and his fleet travelled the straight between Sicily and Italy - narrowly avoiding the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybidis.  They then land on the island of the cyclopes.  They discover a lone survivor of Odysseus' (Ulysses in Latin) crew who was left behind.  He tells the Trojans how Ulysses blinded Polyphemus and begs them to take him with them because the whole coastline was filled with man eatting one eyed cyclopes. 

    Finally the Trojans land Sicily and there Aeneas's father Anchises dies.