adventures of AEneas, as of the adventures of all ancient heroes, we
find a god or a goddess controlling or directing affairs, or in some
way mixed up with the course of events.

According to the religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans there were
a great many gods. They believed that all parts of the universe--the
heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the seas and rivers, and
storms--were ruled by different gods. Those beings it was supposed,
were in some respects like men and women. They needed food and drink
and sleep; they married and had children; and like poor mortals they
often had quarrels among themselves. Their food was am-bro'si-a, which
gave them immortality and perpetual youth, and their drink was a
delicious wine called nectar.

The gods often visited men and even accepted their hospitality.
Sometimes they married human beings, and the sons of such marriages
were the demigods or heroes of antiquity. AEneas was one of those
heroes, his mother being the goddess Ve'nus, of whom we shall hear
much in the course of our Story.

Though the gods never died, being immortal, they might be wounded and
suffer bodily pain like men. They often took part in the quarrels and
wars of people on earth, and they had weapons and armor, after the
manner of earthly warriors. But they were vastly superior to men in
strength and power. They could travel through the skies, or upon land
or ocean, with the speed of lightning, and they could change
themselves into any form, or make themselves visible or invisible at
pleasure.

The usual residence of the principal gods was on the top of Mount