Who She Is
Creusa is the first wife of Aeneas and the mother of Ascanius. She appears in a single book, Book II, on the night Troy falls, and what she wants there is simple: that her husband not leave the family alone before the Greeks. The poem removes her from the scene that same night. She gets lost from the group during the flight, and what returns in her place is her shade, larger than in life, which explains to Aeneas why he cannot take her and announces the destiny that awaits him: a long exile, a land called Hesperia, a new kingdom, and a royal bride. For those who have not read the book, Creusa is the measure of the human price of the founding of Rome: the poem gives her few lines, and each one carries weight.
Trajectory
In Book II she enters the scene on the threshold of the house. Aeneas, resolved to die fighting after hearing that Anchises refuses to flee, takes up his arms again, and Creusa clings to his feet and holds out the boy to him. She gives him two options: if he is leaving to die, let them go with him to share everything, and if he still places hope in arms, let him first protect the house. She does not argue about the cause of Troy; she argues about who is left alone, and in doing so shows what his decision would leave behind: wife and son handed over to the first Greek who arrives.
Si periturus abis, et nos rape in omnia tecum; / Sin aliquam expertus sumptis spem ponis in armis, / Hanc primum tutare domum, if you are leaving to die, take us with you into everything; but if, having tried them, you still place some hope in arms, first protect this house.
What stops Aeneas is the portent that comes right after, the flame over Ascanius's head, and the family leaves the city in order: the father on the shoulders, the son by the hand, Creusa behind. Near the gates they hear footsteps, Aeneas is disturbed and veers off through unfamiliar streets, and that is when she disappears, without the text saying whether she lost her way or sat down out of exhaustion. He only notices her absence when everyone is already at the meeting point; he leaves his father, his son, and the Penates in a valley and goes back alone, through the burning streets, calling for her.
What he finds is her shade, which consoles him and gives him the explanation the text sustains: what has happened does not happen without the will of the gods, and it is not lawful for him to take Creusa along as a companion. She announces what is coming, the exile by sea, Hesperia, and a new wife, and says that, as a Dardanian and daughter-in-law of Venus, she will not serve Greek women, because the Mother of the gods keeps her there. By removing from Aeneas the obligation to save her, she frees him for his duty, and she ends by asking him to keep his love for their common son.
Quid tantum insano juvat indulgere labori, / O dulcis conjux? non haec sine numine divum / Eveniunt; nec te comitem asportare Creusam / Fas, aut ille sinit superi regnator Olympi. / Longa tibi exilia, et vastum maris aequor arandum., why does it please you so much to indulge in this insane grief, sweet husband? These things do not happen without the will of the gods; it is not lawful for you to carry Creusa off as your companion, nor does the ruler of high Olympus allow it. Long exiles await you, and a vast sea to plow.
Aeneas tries three times to embrace her, and three times the image slips from his hands, like light winds and like sleep on the wing. She leaves him while he still wanted to say much, and he returns to the group, lifts his father, and goes up to the hill.
Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum; / Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago, / Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno., three times I tried to throw my arms around her neck; three times the image, vainly grasped, escaped my hands, like light winds and very like winged sleep.
In Book VI she does not appear, but the failed embrace with the shade of Anchises repeats, almost in the same words, what happened to her, and the poem uses the repetition to say that not even the beloved father escapes the rule of the afterlife.
Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum; / Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago, / Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno, three times he tried there to throw his arms around his neck; three times the image, vainly grasped, escaped his hands, like light winds, very like the sleep that flies.
Themes Embodied
Creusa embodies Home, Exile, and Return in its narrowest sense: she is Aeneas's house, and the poem loses her before the exile begins. In her, Fate and Free Will appear as an explanation given by the victim herself, who accepts what the gods have arranged, and Duty appears in the price it demands, because Aeneas can only move on after giving up the search for her. War is the visible cause of the loss: she dies, or disappears, amid the fall of the city, without a single line about war itself.
Creusa is the first of the women whom the poem removes from Aeneas's path so that the mission can go on, and Dido is the second. The difference is the voice: Dido protests, accuses, and curses, while Creusa explains and consents. The two farewells show the same mechanism, the founding exacting what the hero loves, at unequal costs, in the mouth of the one who pays them.
Relationships
- Aeneas: the husband, who leaves her behind without knowing it and returns to look for her.
- Ascanius: the son, whom she holds out to his father on the threshold of the house.
- Anchises: the father-in-law, who refuses to flee and yields to the sign while she and the family beg him.
- Dido: the other woman the poem takes from Aeneas, with more voice and more violence.