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Anchises is Aeneas\' father. When you first meet him, he is an old man, stubbornly refusing to budge from burning Troy. That\'s where he\'s lived his life; that\'s where he\'s going to die. Only after he sees two impressive omens, which say that his grandson is destined for great things, is he willing to go. Aeneas carries him out of the city on his shoulders.
Anchises is literally and symbolically a burden to Aeneas. Aeneas loves and respects his father very much. But Anchises is basically rooted in the past, even though he becomes a fervent supporter of the Trojans\' search for a new city. Anchises makes mistakes--he sends the Trojans to Crete, which is relatively near Troy, instead of sending them to Italy. This shows that Anchises can\'t think radically. He\'s not up to a big change. He\'s naive. He thinks that the future will resemble the past. His naivete is shown by the fact that, unlike Aeneas, he doesn\'t seem to worry that much. He doesn\'t have doubts about the future. Anchises must die and go to the underworld before he will understand how different the future will be. Anchises symbolizes the old life and the old ways of Troy. Aeneas loves and respects these things, just as he loves and respects his father, but he must leave them behind and go on alone to find a totally new life in Italy. Anchises\' death symbolizes that he remains a Trojan, a man of an earlier era.
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