Aeneid

Not to be confused withEnneadsorEneida.

Aeneid
byVirgil
Manuscript circa 1470,Cristoforo Majorana
Original title	AENEIS
Translator	John Dryden Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Seamus Heaney Allen Mandelbaum Robert Fitzgerald Robert Fagles Frederick Ahl Sarah Ruden
Written	29–19 BC
First published in	19 BC
Country	Roman Republic
Language	Classical Latin
Subject(s)	Epic Cycle,Trojan War,Founding of Rome
Genre(s)	Epic poem
Meter	Dactylic hexameter
Publication date	1469
Published in English	1697(1697)
Media type	Manuscript
Lines	9,896
Preceded by	Georgics
Full text
AeneidatWikisource

Aeneas Flees Burning Troy,byFederico Barocci(1598).Galleria Borghese,Rome, Italy

Map of Aeneas' fictional journey

TheAeneid(/ɪˈniːɪd/ih-NEE-id;Latin:Aenē̆is[ae̯ˈneːɪs]or[ˈae̯neɪs]) is aLatinepic poemthat tells thelegendarystory ofAeneas,aTrojanwho fled thefall of Troyand travelled toItaly,where he became the ancestor of theRomans.Written by the Roman poetVirgilbetween 29 and 19 BC, theAeneidcomprises 9,896 lines indactylic hexameter.The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon theLatins,under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

The hero Aeneas was already known toGreco-Romanlegend and myth, having been a character in theIliad.Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation ofRomeand his description as a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulouspietas,and fashioned theAeneidinto a compellingfounding mythornational epicthat tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained thePunic Wars,glorified traditional Roman virtues, and legitimised theJulio-Claudian dynastyas descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy.

TheAeneidis widely regarded as Virgil's masterpiece and one of the greatest works ofLatin literature.

Story

Mythology and origins

See also:Category:Characters in the Aeneid

TheAeneidcan be divided into halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy), commonly associated with Homer'sOdyssey,and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium), mirroring theIliad.These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rivalHomerby treating both theOdyssey's wandering theme and theIliad's warfare themes.This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind.

Although the definitive story of Aeneas escaping the fallen Troy and finding a new home in Italy, thus eventually becoming the ancestor of the Romans, was codified by Virgil, the myth of Aeneas' post-Troy adventures predates him by centuries.As Greek settlements began to expand starting in the sixth century BC, Greek colonists would often try to connect their new homes, and the native people they found there, to their pre-existing mythology;theOdysseycontaining Odysseus's travels in many far away lands already provided such a link.Aeneas's story reflects not just Roman, but rather a combination of various Greek, Etruscan, Latin and Roman elements.Troy provided for a very suitable narrative for the Greek colonists in Magna Graecia and Sicily who wished to link their new homelands with themselves,and the Etruscans, who would have adopted the story of Aeneas in Italy first, and quickly became associated with him.

Greek vases as early as the sixth century BC provide evidence for these early Greek mythological accounts of Aeneas founding a new home in Etruria predating Virgil by a wide margin,and he was known to have been worshipped inLavinium,the city he founded.The discovery of thirteen large altars in Lavinium indicates early Greek influence, dating to the sixth through fourth century BC.In the following centuries, the Romans would come in contact with Greek colonies, conquer them and subsume the legend of Aeneas into their own mythological narratives.It is most likely that they fully became interested in Greek myths—and their incorporation into their own foundation legends concerning Rome and the Roman people—following the war against KingPyrrhus of Epirusin 280 BC,as Troy offered a way to insert Rome into Greek historical tradition as good as the one it had in the past for Greeks to link themselves to their new lands.

Journey to Italy (books 1–6)

Theme

Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (Arma virumque cano...,"Of arms and the man I sing..." ) and an invocation to theMuse,falling some seven lines after the poem's inception (Musa, mihi causas memora...,"O Muse, recount to me the causes..." ). He then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddessJunoagainst theTrojanpeople. This is consistent with her role throughout theHomeric epics.

Book 1: Storm and refuge

Also in the manner ofHomer,the story proper beginsin medias res(into the middle of things), with the Trojan fleet in the easternMediterranean,heading in the direction of Italy. The fleet, led byAeneas,is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in thejudgment of Paris,and because her favourite city,Carthage,will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. Also,Ganymede,a Trojan prince, was chosen to be thecupbearerto her husband,Jupiter—replacing Juno's daughter,Hebe.Juno proceeds toAeolus,King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe (Deiopea,the loveliest of all her sea nymphs, as a wife). Aeolus agrees to carry out Juno's orders (line 77, "My task is / To fulfill your commands" ); the storm then devastates the fleet.

Paul Cézanne,Aeneas Meeting Dido at Carthage,c. 1875,Princeton University Art Museum

Neptunetakes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno's intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters, after making sure that the winds would not bother the Trojans again, lest they be punished more harshly than they were this time. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, reassuring them that they have been through worse situations before. There, Aeneas' mother, Venus, in the form of a huntress very similar to the goddessDiana,encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage. Eventually, Aeneas ventures into the city, and in the temple of Juno he seeks and gains the favour ofDido,queen of the city. The city has only recently been founded by refugees fromTyreand will later become a great imperial rival and enemy to Rome.

Meanwhile,Venushas her own plans. She goes to her son, Aeneas' half-brotherCupid,and tells him to imitateAscanius(the son of Aeneas and his first wife Creusa). Thus disguised, Cupid goes to Dido and offers the gifts expected from a guest. As Dido cradles the boy during a banquet given in honour of theTrojans,Cupid secretly weakens her sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husbandSychaeus,who was murdered by her brotherPygmalionback in Tyre, by inciting fresh love for Aeneas.

Book 2: Trojan Horse and sack of Troy

Hawara Papyrus 24, with a line of theAeneid(repeated 7 times, probably a writing exercise) that translates: "It is not the hated face of Spartan Helen..." ). 1st century AD, fromHawara,Egypt; displayed at theBritish Museum,London

In books 2 and 3, Aeneas recounts to Dido the events that occasioned the Trojans' arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the war described in theIliad.CunningUlyssesdevised a way forGreekwarriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a largewooden horse.The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior,Sinon,to mislead the Trojans into believing that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priestLaocoönsaw through the Greek plot and urged the horse's destruction, but his protests fell on deaf ears, so he hurled his spear at the horse. Then, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons. The Trojans then took the horse inside the fortified walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it, opening the city's gates to allow the returned Greek army to slaughter the Trojans.

In a dream,Hector,the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family. Aeneas awoke and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off the Greeks. He witnessed the murder ofPriamby Achilles' sonPyrrhus.His mother, Venus, appeared to him and led him back to his house. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son,Ascanius,his wifeCreusa,and his father,Anchises,after the occurrence of various omens (Ascanius' head catching fire without his being harmed, a clap of thunder and a shooting star). At the city gates, they notice that they have lost Creusa, and Aeneas has to re-enter the city in order to look for her. To his sorrow, he encounters only her ghost, who tells him that his destiny is to reachHesperia,where kingship and a royal spouse await him.

Book 3: Wanderings

Aeneas continues his account to Dido by telling how, rallying the other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean:Thrace,where they find the last remains of a fellow Trojan,Polydorus;Delos,whereApollotells them to leave and to find the land of their forefathers;Crete,which they believe to be that land, and where they build their city (Pergamea) and promptly desert it after a plague proves this is not the place for them; theStrophades,where they encounter the HarpyCelaeno,who tells them to leave her island and to look for Italy, though, she prophesies, they will not find it until hunger forces them to eat their tables; andButhrotum.This last city had been built in an attempt to replicate Troy. In Buthrotum, Aeneas meetsAndromache,the widow ofHector.She is still lamenting the loss of her valiant husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas sees and meets Helenus, one ofPriam's sons, who has the gift of prophecy. Through him, Aeneas learns the destiny laid out for him: he is divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known asAusoniaorHesperia), where his descendants will not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. In addition, Helenus also bids him to go to theSibylinCumae.

Heading into the open sea, Aeneas leaves Buthrotum, rounds the south eastern tip of Italy and makes his way towardsSicily(Trinacria). There, they are caught in the whirlpool ofCharybdisand driven out to sea. Soon they come ashore at the land of theCyclopes.There they meet a Greek,Achaemenides,one of Ulysses' men, who has been left behind when his comrades escaped the cave ofPolyphemus.They take Achaemenides on board and narrowly escape Polyphemus. Shortly after, atDrepanum,Aeneas' father Anchises dies of old age. Aeneas heads on (towards Italy) and gets deflected to Carthage (by the storm described in book 1). Here, Aeneas ends his account of his wanderings to Dido.

The suicide ofQueen Dido(book 4), sculpture byClaude-Augustin Cayot(1667–1722)

Book 4: Fate of Queen Dido

Dido realises that she has fallen in love with Aeneas. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting Aeneas from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a small cave in which Aeneas and Dido make love, after which Juno presides over what Dido considers a marriage ceremony.

Fama(the personification of rumour) spreads the news of Aeneas and Dido's marriage, which eventually reaches kingIarbas.Iarbas, who also sought relations with Dido but was rejected, angrily prays to his fatherJupiterto express his feeling that his worship of Jupiter has not earned him the rewards he deserves. As a result, Jupiter sendsMercuryto remind Aeneas of his duty, leaving him no choice but to depart.

When Aeneas attempts to leave clandestinely at the behest of Mercury, Dido discovers Aeneas' intentions. Enraged and heartbroken, she accuses Aeneas of infidelity while also imploring him to stay. Aeneas responds by attempting to explain that his duty is important and that he does not leave of his own volition, but Dido is not satisfied. Ultimately, her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon apyrewith Aeneas' sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas' people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is a possible invocation toHannibal.

Book 5: Sicily

Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees the smoke of Dido's funeral pyre, and although he does not understand the exact reason behind it, he understands it as a bad omen, considering the angry madness of her love.

Bo xing scene from theAeneid(book 5), mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa inVillelaure(France), c. 175 AD,Getty Villa(71.AH.106)

Hindered by bad weather from reaching Italy, the Trojans return to where they started at the beginning of book 1. Book 5 then takes place onSicilyand centres on thefuneral gamesthat Aeneas organises for the anniversary of his father's death. Aeneas organises celebratory games for the men—a boat race, a foot race, a bo xing match, and an archery contest. In all those contests, Aeneas is careful to reward winners and losers, showing his leadership qualities by not allowing antagonism even after foul play. Each of these contests comments on past events or prefigures future events: the bo xing match, for instance, is "a preview of the final encounter of Aeneas and Turnus", and the dove, the target during the archery contest, is connected to the deaths ofPolitesand King Priam in Book 2 and that of Camilla in Book 11.Afterwards, Ascanius leads the boys in a military parade and mock battle, theLusus Troiae—a tradition he will teach the Latins while building the walls of Alba Longa.

During these events, Juno, via her messenger Iris, who disguises herself as an old woman, incites the Trojan women to burn the fleet and prevent the Trojans from ever reaching Italy, but her plan is thwarted when Ascanius and Aeneas intervene. Aeneas prays to Jupiter to quench the fires, which the god does with a torrential rainstorm. An anxious Aeneas is comforted by a vision of his father, who tells him to go to the underworld to receive a vision of his and Rome's future. In return for safe passage to Italy, the gods, by order of Jupiter, will receive one of Aeneas' men as a sacrifice:Palinurus,who steers Aeneas' ship by night, is put to sleep bySomnusand falls overboard.

Book 6: Underworld

See also:The Golden Bough (mythology)

Aeneas, with the guidance of theCumaean Sibyl,descends into the underworld.They pass by crowds of the dead by the banks of the riverAcheronand are ferried across byCharonbefore passing byCerberus,the three-headed guardian of the underworld. Then Aeneas is shown the fates of the wicked inTartarusand is warned by the Sibyl to bow to the justice of the gods. He also meets the shade of Dido, who remains irreconcilable. He is then brought to green fields ofElysium.There he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome.

War in Italy (books 7–12)

Roman bas-relief, 2nd century: Aeneas lands inLatium,leadingAscanius;the sow identifies the place to found his city (book 8).

Book 7: Arrival in Latium and outbreak of war

Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle inLatium,where KingLatinusreceived oracles pointing towards the arrival of strangers and bidding him to marry his daughterLaviniato the foreigners, and not toTurnus,the ruler of another native people, theRutuli.Juno, unhappy with the Trojans' favourable situation, summons thefuryAlectofrom the underworld to stir up a war between the Trojans and the locals. Alecto incitesAmata,the Queen of Latium and the wife of Latinus, to demand that Lavinia be married to nobleTurnus,brings forth anger in Turnus which spurs him to war with the Trojans, and causes Ascanius to wound a revered deer during a hunt. Hence, although Aeneas wishes to avoid a war, hostilities break out. The book closes with a catalogue of Italic warriors.

Book 8: Visit to Pallanteum, site of future Rome

Venus Asks Vulcan to Forge Arms for her Son AeneasbyAnthony van Dyck,1630–1632

Given the impending war, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of the Rutuli, after having been encouraged to do so in a dream byTiberinus.At the place where Rome will be, he meets a friendly Greek, KingEvanderofArcadia.His sonPallasagrees to join Aeneas and lead troops against the Rutuli. Venus urges her spouse Vulcan to create weapons for Aeneas, which she then presents to Aeneas as a gift. On theshield,the future history of Rome is depicted.

Book 9: Turnus' siege of Trojan camp

Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is attacked by Turnus—spurred on byJuno,who informs him that Aeneas is away from his camp—and a midnight raid by the TrojansNisus and Euryaluson Turnus' camp leads to their death. The next day, Turnus manages to breach the gates but is forced to retreat by jumping into theTiber.

Book 10: First battle

A council of the gods is held, in which Venus and Juno speak before Jupiter, and Aeneas returns to the besieged Trojan camp accompanied by his new Arcadian and Tuscan allies. In the ensuing battle many are slain—notably Pallas, whom Evander has entrusted to Aeneas but who is killed by Turnus.Mezentius,Turnus' close associate, allows his son Lausus to be killed by Aeneas while he himself flees. He reproaches himself and faces Aeneas insingle combat—an honourable but essentially futile endeavour leading to his death.

Book 11: Armistice and battle with Camilla

After a short break in which the funeral ceremony for Pallas takes place, the war continues. Another notable native,Camilla,anAmazoncharacter and virgin devoted toDiana,fights bravely but is killed, poisoned by the coward Arruns, who in turn is struck dead by Diana's sentinelOpis.

Aeneas' defeat of Turnus (book 12), painting byLuca Giordano

Book 12: Final battle and duel of Aeneas and Turnus

Single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas is so obviously superior to Turnus that the Rutuli, urged on by Turnus' divine sister,Juturna—who in turn is instigated by Juno—break the truce. Aeneas is injured by an arrow but is soon healed with the help of his mother Venus and returns to the battle. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium (causing the queen of Latium tohang herselfin despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In the duel, Turnus' strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and Aeneas' spear goes through his thigh. As Turnus is on his knees, begging for his life, the epic ends with Aeneas initially tempted to obey Turnus' pleas to spare his life, but then killing him in rage when he sees that Turnus is wearing Aeneas' friend Pallas' belt over his shoulder as a trophy.

Reception

Critics of theAeneidfocus on a variety of issues.The tone of the poem as a whole is a particular matter of debate; some see the poem as ultimately pessimistic and politically subversive to theAugustanregime, while others view it as a celebration of the new imperial dynasty. Virgil makes use of the symbolism of the Augustan regime, and some scholars see strong associations between Augustus and Aeneas, the one as founder and the other as re-founder of Rome. A strongteleology,or drive towards a climax, has been detected in the poem. TheAeneidis full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the deeds of Augustus, his ancestors, and famous Romans, and theCarthaginian Wars;theshield of Aeneaseven depicts Augustus' victory at Actium in 31 BC. A further focus of study is the character of Aeneas. As the protagonist of the poem, Aeneas seems to constantly waver between his emotions and commitment to his prophetic duty to found Rome; critics note the breakdown of Aeneas' emotional control in the last sections of the poem where the "pious" and "righteous" Aeneas mercilessly slaughters the Latin warrior Turnus.

TheAeneidappears to have been a great success. Virgil is said to have recited Books 2, 4 and 6 to Augustus;the mention of her son,Marcellus,in book 6 apparently caused Augustus' sisterOctaviato faint. The poem was unfinished when Virgil died in 19 BC.

Virgil's death, and editing

Virgil, holding a manuscript of theAeneid,flanked by the musesClio(history) andMelpomene(tragedy).Roman mosaic,third century AD, fromHadrumetum,now in theBardo Museum,Tunis.

According to tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece around 19 BC to revise theAeneid.After meeting Augustus in Athens and deciding to return home, Virgil caught a fever while visiting a town nearMegara.Virgil crossed to Italy by ship, weakened with disease, and died inBrundisiumharbour on 21 September 19 BC, leaving a wish that the manuscript of theAeneidwas to be burned. Augustus ordered Virgil's literary executors,Lucius Varius RufusandPlotius Tucca,to disregard that wish, instead ordering theAeneidto be published with as few editorial changes as possible.As a result, the existing text of theAeneidmay contain faults which Virgil was planning to correct before publication. However, the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse that are metrically unfinished (i.e., not a complete line ofdactylic hexameter). Other alleged "imperfections" are subject to scholarly debate.

History

Folio 22 from theVergilius Vaticanus—flight from Troy

TheAeneidwas written in a time of major political and social change in Rome, with the fall of theRepublicand theFinal War of the Roman Republichaving torn through society and many Romans' faith in the "Greatness of Rome" severely faltering. However, the new emperor,Augustus Caesar,began to institute a new era of prosperity and peace, specifically through the re-introduction of traditional Roman moral values. TheAeneidwas seen as reflecting this aim, by depicting the heroic Aeneas as a man devoted and loyal to his country and its prominence, rather than his own personal gains. In addition, theAeneidgives mythic legitimisation to the rule ofJulius Caesarand, by extension, to his adopted son Augustus, by immortalising the tradition that renamed Aeneas' son, Ascanius (called Ilus fromIlium,meaning Troy),Iulus,thus making him an ancestor of thegens Julia,the family of Julius Caesar, and many other great imperial descendants as part of the prophecy given to him in the Underworld. (The meter shows that the name "Iulus" is pronounced as three syllables, not as "Julus".)

The perceived deficiency of any account of Aeneas' marriage to Lavinia or his founding of the Roman race led some writers, such as the 15th-century Italian poetMaffeo Vegio(through hisThirteenth Book of the Aeneidwidely printed in theRenaissance),Pier Candido Decembrio(whose attempt was never completed), Claudio Salvucci (in his 1994 epic poemThe Laviniad), andUrsula K. Le Guin(in her 2008 novelLavinia) to compose their own supplements.

Despite the polished and complex nature of theAeneid(legend stating that Virgil wrote only three lines of the poem each day), the number of half-complete lines and the abrupt ending are generally seen as evidence that Virgil died before he could finish the work. Some legends state that Virgil, fearing that he would die before he had properly revised the poem, gave instructions to friends (including the current emperor,Augustus) that theAeneidshould be burned upon his death, owing to its unfinished state and because he had come to dislike one of the sequences in Book VIII, in whichVenusandVulcanmade love, for its nonconformity to Roman moral virtues. The friends did not comply with Virgil's wishes and Augustus himself ordered that they be disregarded. After minor modifications, theAeneidwas published. Because it was composed and preserved in writing rather than orally, the text exhibits less variation than other classical epics.

Style

As with other classical Latin poetry, the meter is based on the length of syllables rather than the stress, though the interplay of meter and stress is also important. Virgil also incorporated such poetic devices asalliteration,onomatopoeia,synecdoche,andassonance.Furthermore, he usespersonification,metaphor,andsimilein his work, usually to add drama and tension to the scene. An example of a simile can be found in book II when Aeneas is compared to a shepherd who stood on the high top of a rock unaware of what is going on around him.It can be seen that just as the shepherd is a protector of his sheep, so too is Aeneas to his people.

As was the rule in classical antiquity, an author's style was seen as an expression of his personality and character. Virgil's Latin has been praised for its evenness, subtlety and dignity.

Structure

TheAeneid,like other classical epics, is written indactylic hexameters:each line consists of six metrical feet made up ofdactyls(one long syllable followed by two short syllables) andspondees(two long syllables). This epic consists of twelve books, and the narrative is broken up into three sections of four books each, respectively addressing Dido; the Trojans' arrival in Italy; and the war with the Latins. Each book has roughly 700–900 lines. TheAeneidcomes to an abrupt ending, and scholars have speculated that Virgil died before he could finish the poem.

Themes

Pietas

The Roman ideal ofpietas( "piety, dutiful respect" ), which can be loosely translated from the Latin as a selfless sense of duty toward one's filial, religious, and societal obligations, was a crux of ancient Roman morality. Throughout theAeneid,Aeneas serves as the embodiment of pietas,with the phrase "pious Aeneas" occurring 20 times throughout the poem,thereby fulfilling his capacity as the father of the Roman people. For instance, in Book 2 Aeneas describes how he carried his father Anchises from the burning city of Troy: "No help/ Or hope of help existed./ So I resigned myself, picked up my father,/ And turned my face toward the mountain range."Furthermore, Aeneas ventures into the underworld, thereby fulfilling Anchises' wishes. His father's gratitude is presented in the text by the following lines: "Have you at last come, has that loyalty/ Your father counted on conquered the journey?"

However, Aeneas'pietasextends beyond his devotion to his father: we also see several examples of his religious fervour. Aeneas is consistently subservient to the gods, even in actions opposed to his own desires, as he responds to one such divine command, "I sail to Italy not of my own free will."

In addition to his religious and familialpietas,Aeneas also displays fervent patriotism and devotion to his people, particularly in a military capacity. For instance, as he and his followers leave Troy, Aeneas swears that he will "take up/ The combat once again. We shall not all/ Die this day unavenged."

Aeneas is a symbol ofpietasin all of its forms, serving as a moral paragon to whom a Roman should aspire.

Divine intervention

One of the most recurring themes in theAeneidis that ofdivine intervention.Throughout the poem, the gods are constantly influencing the main characters and trying to change and impact the outcome, regardless of thefatethat they all know will occur.For example, Juno comes down and acts as a phantom Aeneas to drive Turnus away from the real Aeneas and all of his rage from the death of Pallas.Even though Juno knows in the end that Aeneas will triumph over Turnus, she does all she can to delay and avoid this outcome.

Divine intervention occurs multiple times, in Book 4 especially. Aeneas falls in love with Dido, delaying his ultimate fate of travelling to Italy. However, it is actually the gods who inspired the love, as Juno plots:

Dido and the Trojan captain [will come]
To one same cavern. I shall be on hand,
And if I can be certain you are willing,
There I shall marry them and call her his.
A wedding, this will be.

Juno is speaking to Venus, making an agreement and influencing the lives and emotions of both Dido and Aeneas. Later in the same book, Jupiter steps in and restores what is the true fate and path for Aeneas, sending Mercury down to Aeneas' dreams, telling him that he must travel to Italy and leave his new-found lover. As Aeneas later pleads with Dido:

The gods' interpreter, sent by Jove himself –
I swear it by your head and mine – has brought
Commands down through the racing winds!...
I sail for Italy not of my own free will.

Several of the gods try to intervene against the powers of fate, even though they know what the eventual outcome will be. The interventions are really just distractions to continue the conflict and postpone the inevitable. If the gods represent humans, just as the human characters engage in conflicts and power struggles, so too do the gods.

Fate

Fate,described as a preordained destiny that men and gods have to follow, is a major theme in theAeneid.One example is when Aeneas is reminded of his fate through Jupiter and Mercury while he is falling in love with Dido. Mercury urges, "Think of your expectations of your heir,/ Iulus, to whom the whole Italian realm, the land/ Of Rome, are due."Mercury is referring to Aeneas' preordained fate to found Rome, as well as Rome's preordained fate to rule the world:

He was to be ruler of Italy,
Potential empire, armorer of war;
To father men from Teucer's noble blood
And bring the whole world under law's dominion.

It is important to recognise that there is a marked difference between fate and divine intervention, as even though the gods might remind mortals of their eventual fate, the gods themselves are not in control of it.For example, the opening lines of the poem specify that Aeneas "came to Italy by destiny", but is also harassed by the separate force of "baleful Juno in her sleepless rage".Even though Juno might intervene, Aeneas' fate is set in stone and cannot be changed.

Later in Book 6, when Aeneas visits the underworld, his father Anchises introduces him to the larger fate of the Roman people, as contrasted against his own personal fate to found Rome:

So raptly, everywhere, father and son
Wandered the airy plain and viewed it all.
After Anchises had conducted him
To every region and had fired his love
Of glory in the years to come, he spoke
Of wars that he might fight, of Laurentines,
And of Latinus' city, then of how
He might avoid or bear each toil to come.

Violence and conflict

From the very beginning of theAeneid,violence and conflict are used as a means of survival and conquest. Aeneas' voyage is caused by the Trojan War and the destruction of Troy.Aeneas describes to Dido in Book 2 the massive amount of destruction that occurs after the Greeks sneak into Troy. He recalls that he asks his men to "defend/ A city lost in flames. Come, let us die,/ We'll make a rush into the thick of it." This is one of the first demonstrations of the way in which violence begets violence: even though the Trojans know they have lost the battle, they continue to fight for their country.

This violence continues as Aeneas makes his journey. Dido kills herself in order to end and escape her worldly problem: being heartbroken over the departure of Aeneas and now left alone, surrounded by violent rulers who desire her and her throne. Queen Dido's suicide is a double edged sword. While releasing herself from the burden of her pain through violence, her last words implore her people to view Aeneas' people with hate for all eternity:

This is my last cry, as my last blood flows.
Then, O my Tyrians, besiege with hate
His progeny and all his race to come:
Make this your offering to my dust. No love,
No pact must be between our peoples.

Furthermore, her people, hearing of their queen's death, have only one avenue on which to direct the blame: the already-departed Trojans. Thus, Dido's request of her people and her people's only recourse for closure align in their mutual hate for Aeneas and his Trojans. In effect, Dido's violent suicide leads to the violent nature of the later relationship between Carthage and Rome.

Finally, when Aeneas arrives in Latium, conflict inevitably arises.Juno sendsAlecto,one of theFuries,to cause Turnus to go against Aeneas. In the ensuing battles, Turnus kills Pallas, who is supposed to be under Aeneas' protection. This act of violence causes Aeneas to be consumed with fury. Although Turnus asks for mercy in their final encounter, when Aeneas sees that Turnus has taken Pallas' sword belt, Aeneas proclaims:

You in your plunder, torn from one of mine,
Shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come
From Pallas: Pallas makes this offering
And from your criminal blood exacts his due.

This final act of violence shows how Turnus' violence—the act of killing Pallas—inevitably leads to more violence and his own death.

It is possible that the recurring theme of violence in theAeneidis a subtle commentary on the bloody violence contemporary readers would have just experienced during the Late Republican civil wars.TheAeneidpotentially explores whether the violence of the civil wars was necessary to establish a lasting peace under Augustus, or whether it would just lead to more violence in the future.

Propaganda

Main article:Political commentary of the Aeneid

Written during the reign ofAugustus,theAeneidpresents the hero Aeneas as a strong and powerful leader. The favourable representation of Aeneas parallels Augustus in that it portrays his reign in a progressive and admirable light, and allows Augustus to be positively associated with the portrayal of Aeneas. Although Virgil's patronMaecenaswas obviously not Augustus himself, he was still a high figure within Augustus' administration and could have personally benefitted from representing Aeneas in a positive light.

In theAeneid,Aeneas is portrayed as the singular hope for the rebirth of the Trojan people. Charged with the preservation of his people by divine authority, Aeneas is symbolic of Augustus' own accomplishments in establishing order after the long period of chaos of theRoman civil wars.Augustus as the light of savior and the last hope of the Roman people is a parallel to Aeneas as the savior of the Trojans. This parallel functions aspropagandain support of Augustus,as it depicts the Trojan people, future Romans themselves, as uniting behind a single leader who will lead them out of ruin:

New refugees in a great crowd: men and women
Gathered for exile, young-pitiful people
Coming from every quarter, minds made up,
With their belongings, for whatever lands
I'd lead them to by sea.

Later in Book 6, Aeneas travels to the underworld where he sees his father Anchises, who tells him of his own destiny as well as that of the Roman people. Anchises describes how Aeneas' descendantRomuluswill found the great city of Rome, which will eventually be ruled by Caesar Augustus:

Turn your two eyes
This way and see this people, your own Romans.
Here is Caesar, and all the line of Iulus,
All who shall one day pass under the dome
Of the great sky: this is the man, this one,
Of whom so often you have heard the promise,
Caesar Augustus, son of the deified,
Who shall bring once again an Age of Gold
To Latium, to the land where Saturn reigned
In early times.

Virgil writes about the fated future ofLavinium,the city that Aeneas will found, which will in turn lead directly to the golden reign of Augustus. Virgil is using a form of literary propaganda to demonstrate the Augustan regime's destiny to bring glory and peace to Rome. Rather than use Aeneas indirectly as a positive parallel to Augustus as in other parts of the poem, Virgil outright praises the emperor in Book 6, referring to Augustus as a harbinger for the glory of Rome and new levels of prosperity.

Allegory

The poem abounds with smaller and greater allegories. Two of the debated allegorical sections pertain to the exit from the underworld and to Pallas' belt.

There are two gates of Sleep, one said to be of horn, whereby the true shades pass with ease, the otherall white ivory agleam without a flaw, and yet false dreams are sentthrough this one by the ghost to the upper world. Anchises now, his last instructions given, took son and Sibyl and let themgo by the Ivory Gate.

— Book VI, lines 1211–1218, Fitzgerald trans. (emphasis added)

Aeneas' leaving the underworld through the gate of false dreams has been variously interpreted: one suggestion is that the passage simply refers to the time of day at which Aeneas returned to the world of the living; another is that it implies that all of Aeneas' actions in the remainder of the poem are somehow "false". In an extension of the latter interpretation, it has been suggested that Virgil is conveying that the history of the world since the foundation of Rome is but a lie. Other scholars claim that Virgil is establishing that the theological implications of the preceding scene (an apparent system ofreincarnation) are not to be taken as literal.

The second section in question is

Then to his glance appeared the accurst swordbelt surmounting Turnus' shoulder, shining with its familiar studs—the strap Young Pallas wore when Turnus wounded him and left him dead upon the field; now Turnus bore that enemy token on his shoulder—enemy still. For when the sight came home to him, Aeneasragedat the relic of his anguish worn by this man as trophy.Blazing up and terrible in his anger,he called out: "You in your plunder, torn from one of mine, shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come from Pallas: Pallas makes this offering, and from your criminal blood exacts his due."He sank his blade in furyin Turnus' chest...

— Book XII, lines 1281–1295, Fitzgerald trans. (emphasis added)

This section has been interpreted to mean that for the entire passage of the poem, Aeneas, who symbolisespietas(piety or morality), in a moment becomesfuror(fury), thus destroying what is essentially the primary theme of the poem itself. Many have argued over these two sections. Some claim that Virgil meant to change them before he died, while others find that the location of the two passages, at the very end of the so-called Volume I (Books 1–6, theOdyssey), and Volume II (Books 7–12, theIliad), and their short length, which contrasts with the lengthy nature of the poem, are evidence that Virgil placed them purposefully there.

Influence

Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia,byJean-Joseph Taillasson,1787, an earlyneoclassicalpainting (National Gallery,London)

TheAeneidis a cornerstone of theWestern canon,and early (at least by the 2nd century AD) became one of the essential elements of a Latin education,usually required to be memorised.Even after thedecline of the Roman Empire,it "remained central to a Latin education".In Latin-Christian culture, theAeneidwas one of the canonical texts, subjected tocommentaryas a philological and educational study,with the most complete commentary having been written by the 4th-century grammarianMaurus Servius Honoratus.It was widely held to be the pinnacle of Latin literature, much in the same way that theIliadwas seen to be supreme in Greek literature.

The strong influence of theAeneidhas been identified in the development of European vernacular literatures—some English works that show its influence beingBeowulf,Layamon'sBrut(through the source textHistoria Regum Britanniae),The Faerie Queene,andMilton'sParadise Lost.The Italian poetDante Alighieriwas himself profoundly influenced by theAeneid,so much so that his magnum opusThe Divine Comedy,itself widely considered central to the western canon, includes a number of quotations from and allusions to theAeneidand features the author Virgil as a major character—the guide of Dante through the realms of the Inferno and Purgatorio. Another continental work displaying the influence of theAeneidis the 16th-century Portuguese epicOs Lusíadas,written byLuís de Camõesand dealing withVasco da Gama's voyage to India.

The importance of Latin education itself was paramount in Western culture: "from 1600 to 1900, the Latin school was at the centre of European education, wherever it was found"; within that Latin school, Virgil was taught at the advanced level and, in 19th-century England, special editions of Virgil were awarded to students who distinguished themselves.In the United States, Virgil and specifically theAeneidwere taught in the fourth year of a Latin sequence, at least until the 1960s;the current (2011)Advanced Placementcurriculum in Latin continues to assign a central position to the poem: "The AP Latin: Virgil Exam is designed to test the student's ability to read, translate, understand, analyze, and interpret the lines of theAeneidthat appear on the course syllabus in Latin. "

Many phrases from this poem entered theLatinlanguage, much as passages fromShakespeareandAlexander Popehave entered the English language. One example is from Aeneas' reaction to a painting of thesack of Troy:Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt— "These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart" (AeneidI, 462). The influence is also visible in very modern work:Brian Friel'sTranslations(a play written in the 1980s, set in 19th-century Ireland), makes references to the classics throughout and ends with a passage from theAeneid:

Urbs antiqua fuit—there was an ancient city which, 'tis said,Junoloved above all the lands. And it was the goddess' aim and cherished hope that here should be the capital of all nations—should the fates perchance allow that. Yet in truth she discovered that a race was springing from Trojan blood to overthrow some day these Tyrian towers—a peoplelate regem belloque superbum—kings of broad realms and proud in war who would come forth for Libya's downfall.

English translations

The first full and faithful rendering of the poem in anAnglic languageis theScotstranslation byGavin Douglas—hisEneados,completed in 1513, which also included Maffeo Vegio's supplement. Even in the 20th century,Ezra Poundconsidered this still to be the bestAeneidtranslation, praising the "richness and fervour" of its language and its hallmark fidelity to the original.The English translation by the 17th-century poetJohn Drydenis another important version. Most classic translations, including both Douglas and Dryden, employ a rhyme scheme; most more modern attempts do not.

Recent English verse translations include those byPatric Dickinson(1961); BritishPoet LaureateCecil Day-Lewis(1963), who strove to render Virgil's originalhexameterline;Allen Mandelbaum(honoured by a 1973National Book Award);Library of Congress Poet LaureateRobert Fitzgerald(1981); David West (1990);Stanley Lombardo(2005);Robert Fagles(2006);Frederick Ahl(2007);Sarah Ruden(2008);Barry B. Powell(2015);David Ferry(2017);Len Krisak(2020); andShadi Bartsch(2021).

There have also been partial translations, such as those byHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey(Book 2 and Book 4), andSeamus Heaney(Book 6).

Adaptations

Lea Desandreperforms the "Dido's Lament"aria fromPurcell'sDido and AeneaswithLes Arts Florissantsin 2020.

One of the first operas based on the story of theAeneidwas the English composerHenry Purcell'sDido and Aeneas(1688). The opera is famous for its aria "Dido's Lament"('When I am laid in earth'), of which the first line of the melody is inscribed on the wall by the door of thePurcell Room,a concert hall in London.

The story of theAeneidwas made into the grand operaLes Troyens(1856–1858) by the French composerHector Berlioz.

TheAeneidwas the basis for the 1962 Italian filmThe Avengerand the 1971–1972 television serialEneide.

In the musicalSpring Awakening,based on theplay of the same titlebyFrank Wedekind,schoolboys study the Latin text, and the first verse of Book 1 is incorporated into the number "All That's Known".

Ursula Le Guin's 2008 novelLaviniais a free prose retelling of the last six books of theAeneidnarrated by and centred on Aeneas' Latin wifeLavinia,a minor character in the epic poem. It carries the action forward to the crowning of Aeneas' younger sonSilviusas king of Latium.

A 17th-century popularbroadsideballadalso appears to recount events from books 1–4 of theAeneid,focusing mostly on the relationship between Aeneas and Dido. The ballad, "The Wandering Prince of Troy",presents many similar elements as Virgil's epic, but alters Dido's final sentiments toward Aeneas, as well as presenting an interesting end for Aeneas himself.

Parodies and travesties

A number ofparodiesandtravestiesof theAeneidhave been made.

• One of the earliest was written in Italian byGiovanni Batista Lalliin 1635, titledL'Eneide travestita del Signor Gio.
• A French parody byPaul Scarronbecame famous in France in the mid-17th century, and spread rapidly through Europe, accompanying the growing French influence. Its influence was especially strong in Russia.
• Charles Cotton's 17th-century workScarronidesincluded a travestiedAeneid.
• In 1791, the Russian poetN. P. OsipovpublishedEneida travestied(Russian:Виргилиева Энеида, вывороченная наизнанку,lit. 'Vergil's Aeneid, turned inside out').
• In 1798,Eneida,a Ukrainianmock-heroicburlesquepoem, was written byIvan Kotliarevsky.It is considered to be the first literary work published wholly in the modernUkrainian language.Kotliarevsky's epic poem was adapted into an animated feature film of the same name, in 1991, by Ukranimafilm.
• Some time between 1812 and the 1830s, the Belarusian poet Vikientsi Ravinski wrote the burlesque poemEneida inside-out(Belarusian:Энеіда навыварат).His work was inspired by the Russian and Ukrainian parodies.

See also

• Brutus of Troy
• Franciade
• Greek mythology
• Gulliver's Travels
• Hero's journey
• Les Troyens
• List of literary cycles
• Odyssey
• Parallels between Virgil'sAeneidand Homer'sIliadandOdyssey
• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 31
• Prosody (Latin)
• Roman mythology
• Sinbad the Sailor
• The Voyage of Bran

Bibliography

• Gagarin, Michael (2010).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome.Vol. 1. Oxford, New York:Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-517072-6.
• Schultz, Celia E.; Ward, Allen M.; Heichelheim, F. M.; Yeo, C. A. (2019).A History of the Roman People(7th ed.). New York:Routledge.ISBN978-1-138-70889-1.
• Kinsey, Brian (2012).Heroes and Heroines of Greece and Rome.New York: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC.ISBN978-0-7614-7952-9.
• Momigliano, Arnaldo (1977).Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography.Chicago:University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-53385-8.
• Neel, Jaclyn (2017).Early Rome: Myth and Society.Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN978-1119083795.

Further reading

• Buckham, Philip Wentworth; Spence, Joseph; Holdsworth, Edward; Warburton, William; Jortin, John,Miscellanea Virgiliana: In Scriptis Maxime Eruditorum Virorum Varie Dispersa, in Unum Fasciculum Collecta,Cambridge: Printed for W. P. Grant; 1825.
• Maronis, P. Vergili(1969), Mynors, R.A. B. (ed.),Opera,Oxford:Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0-19-814653-7
• Virgil(2001), Fairclough, H. R.; Goold, G. P. (eds.),Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid 1–6,Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press,ISBN0-674-99583-X
• Virgil(2001), Fairclough, H. R.; Goold, G. P. (eds.),Aeneid Books 7–12, Appendix Vergiliana,Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,ISBN0-674-99586-4
• Virgil;Ahl, Frederick (trans.) (2007),The Aeneid,Oxford: Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0-19-283206-1
• Virgil;Fitzgerald, Robert (trans.) (1983),The Aeneid,New York: Random House,ISBN978-0-394-52827-4Paperback reprint: Vintage Books, 1990.
• Gransden, K. W.; Harrison, Stephen J. (2003),Virgil: The Aeneid,Landmarks of World Literature (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-83213-6
• Hardie, Philip R. (1986),Virgil'sAeneid:Cosmos and Imperium,ISBN0-19-814036-3
• Heinze, Richard(1993),Virgil's Epic Technique,Berkeley:University of California Press,ISBN0-520-06444-5
• Johnson, W. R. (1979),Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid,Berkeley: University of California Press,ISBN0-520-03848-7
• Brooks Otis,Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry,Oxford, 1964
• Lee Fratantuono,Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid,Le xing ton Books, 2007.
• Joseph Reed,Virgil's Gaze,Princeton, 2007.
• Kenneth Quinn,Virgil's Aeneid: A Critical Description,London, 1968.
• Francis Cairns,Virgil's Augustan Epic,Cambridge, 1989.
• Gian Biagio Conte,The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Vergilian Epic,Oxford, 2007.
• Karl Gransden,Virgil's Iliad,Cambridge, 1984.
• Richard Jenkyns,Virgil's Experience,Oxford, 1998.
• Michael Burden,A woman scorned; responses to the Dido myth,London, Faber and Faber, 1998, especially Andrew Pinnock, 'Book IV in plain brown paper wrappers', on the Dido travesties.
• Wolfgang Kofler,Aeneas und Vergil. Untersuchungen zur poetologischen Dimension der Aeneis,Heidelberg 2003.
• Eve Adler,Vergil's Empire,Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
• Nurtantio, Yoneko (2014),Le silence dans l'Énéide, Brussels: EME & InterCommunications,ISBN978-2-8066-2928-9
• Markus Janka,Vergils Aeneis: Dichter, Werk und Wirkung,Munich, 2021.

External links

Translations

• The AeneidatStandard Ebooks
• Perseus ProjectA.1.1– Latin text, Dryden translation, and T.C. Williams translation (from the Perseus Project)
• Gutenberg Project:John Dryden translation (1697)
• Gutenberg Project:J. W. Mackail translation (1885)
• Gutenberg Project:E. F. Taylor translation (1907)
• Gutenberg Project:Rolfe Humphries translation (1951)
• Fairclough's Loeb Translation (1916)StoicTherapy(Complete)
• Fairclough's Loeb Translation (1916)Theoi(Books 1–6 only)
• The Online Library of Liberty Project fromLiberty Fund, Inc.:TheAeneid(Dryden translation, New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1909)(PDF and HTML)
• The Aeneidpublic domain audiobook atLibriVox

Text

• Aeneidos Libri XIILatin text by Publius Vergilius Maro, PDF format
• Menu PageTheAeneidin several formats atProject Gutenberg
• Latin Text Online

Sequels

• The Thirteenth Book of theAeneid:a fragment by Pier Candido Decembrio, translated by David Wilson-Okamura
• Supplement to the twelfth book of theAeneidbyMaffeo VegioatLatin textandEnglish translation

Illustrations

• Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (about 900 images related to theAeneid)

Commentary

• Commentary on selections from the Latin textatDickinson College Commentaries
• Four talks by scholars on aspects of theAeneid:Virgil's relationship to Roman history,the Rome of Caesar Augustus,the challenges of translating Latin poetry,andPurcell's operaDido and Aeneas,delivered at the Maine Humanities Council'sWinter Weekendprogram.
• Notes on the political context of theAeneid.
• Perseus/Tufts: Maurus Servius Honoratus. Commentary on theAeneidof Vergil. (Latin)
• TheAeneidonIn Our Timeat theBBC