Achates (Aeneid)

In the Aeneid, Achates was a close friend of Aeneas; his name became a by-word for a very intimate companion.

Mythology

Achates accompanied Aeneas throughout his adventures, reaching Carthage with him in disguise when the pair were scouting the area, and leading him to the Sibyl of Cumae. Virgil represents him as remarkable for his fidelity, and a perennial type of that virtue. However, despite being Aeneas's most important Trojan, he is notable for his lack of character development. In fact, he has only four spoken lines in the entire epic. Aeneas, surrounded by only a shadowy cast of allies, is thus emphasised as the lone protagonist and at the same time cut off from help on his quest.

Legacy after Antiquity

The expressions fidus Achates and “faithful Achates” appear in literature, notably in the works of Proust, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Proudhon, Walter Scott, James Joyce, and Sheridan Le Fanu.
Antoine Coypel, Aeneas and Achates Appearing to Dido. Musée Fabre, Montpellier.
In James Joyce’s Ulysses, Episode 6, “Hades”, Buck Mulligan is suggested as Stephen Dedalus’s fidus Achates, while Leopold Bloom takes on that role at the beginning of Episode 16, “Eumaeus.”
The Jupiter trojan asteroid Achates, discovered on 2 December 1991, was named in his honor.