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= Aeneid =
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Introduction
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The 'Aeneid' ( ; or ) is a Latin epic poem that tells the legendary
story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to
Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Written by the
Roman poet Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, the 'Aeneid' comprises 9,896
lines in dactylic 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 the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are
destined to be subsumed.
The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth,
having been a character in the 'Iliad'. Virgil took the disconnected
tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation
of Rome and his description as a personage of no fixed characteristics
other than a scrupulous 'pietas', and fashioned the 'Aeneid' into a
compelling founding myth or national epic that tied Rome to the
legends of Troy, explained the Punic Wars, glorified traditional Roman
virtues, and legitimised the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of
the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy.
The 'Aeneid' is widely regarded as Virgil's masterpiece and one of the
greatest works of Latin literature.
Mythology and origins
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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; the 'Odyssey' containing
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 in Lavinium, 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 King Pyrrhus of Epirus in 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.
Literary evidence of a pre-Virgil attestation of Aeneas' journey can
also be found. A fragment usually attributed to fifth-century BC
logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos' lost 'History of the Priestesses of
Argos' states that Rome was founded by Aeneas with the help of
Odysseus and named after Rhome, a Trojan woman Aeneas was acquainted
with. The attribution of this passage to Hellanicus has been met with
some doubt and rejection, but other scholars are less dismissive.
Around the fourth century BC, an otherwise unknown Alcimus apparently
made Aeneas the father of Romulus by Thyrrenia. Romulus' then grandson
Rhomus (Remus) went on to found Rome.
Story
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The 'Aeneid' can be divided into halves based on the disparate subject
matter of Books 1-6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy), commonly
associated with Homer's 'Odyssey', and Books 7-12 (the war in Latium),
mirroring the 'Iliad'. These two halves are commonly regarded as
reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the
'Odyssey's' wandering theme and the 'Iliad's' warfare themes. This is,
however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be
borne in mind.
Theme
=======
Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (' ...', "Of arms
and the man I sing ...") and an invocation to the Muse, falling some
seven lines after the poem's inception (' ...', "O Muse, recount to me
the causes ..."). He then explains the reason for the principal
conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against
the Trojan people. This is consistent with her role throughout the
Homeric epics.
Book 1: Storm and refuge
==========================
In the manner of Homeric epic, the story begins 'in medias res' (into
the middle of things), with the Trojan fleet in the eastern
Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. The fleet, led by
Aeneas, 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 the judgement of Paris, and because her
favourite city, Carthage, will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants.
Also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cupbearer to her
husband, Jupiter--replacing Juno's daughter, Hebe. Juno proceeds to
Aeolus, 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.
Neptune takes 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 goddess Diana, 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 of Dido, queen of the city. The city has only recently been
founded by refugees from Tyre and will later become a great imperial
rival and enemy to Rome.
Meanwhile, Venus has her own plans. She goes to her son, Aeneas'
half-brother Cupid, and tells him to imitate Ascanius (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 the Trojans, Cupid secretly
weakens her sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband Sychaeus,
who was murdered by her brother Pygmalion back in Tyre, by inciting
fresh love for Aeneas.
Book 2: Trojan Horse and sack of Troy
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In books 2 and 3, Aeneas recounts to Dido the events that occasioned
the Trojans' arrival. Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors
to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden
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 priest Laocoön saw 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 of Priam by Achilles' son Pyrrhus. His mother,
Venus, appeared to him and led him back to his house. Aeneas tells of
his escape with his son, Ascanius, his wife Creusa, 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 reach Hesperia, 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, where Apollo tells
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; the Strophades, where they encounter the Harpy
Celaeno, 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; and Buthrotum. This last city had been built in
an attempt to replicate Troy. In Buthrotum, Aeneas meets Andromache,
the widow of Hector. She is still lamenting the loss of her valiant
husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas sees and meets Helenus,
one of Priam'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 as 'Ausonia' or 'Hesperia'), where
his descendants will not only prosper, but in time rule the entire
known world. In addition, Helenus also bids him to go to the Sibyl in
Cumae.
Heading into the open sea, Aeneas leaves Buthrotum, rounds the south
eastern tip of Italy and makes his way towards Sicily (Trinacria).
There, they are caught in the whirlpool of Charybdis and driven out to
sea. Soon they come ashore at the land of the Cyclopes. There they
meet a Greek, Achaemenides, one of Ulysses' men, who has been left
behind when his comrades escaped the cave of Polyphemus. They take
Achaemenides on board and narrowly escape Polyphemus. Shortly after,
at Drepanum, 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.
Book 4: Fate of Queen Dido
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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 have sex, 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 king Iarbas. Iarbas, who
also sought relations with Dido but was rejected, angrily prays to his
father Jupiter to express his feeling that his worship of Jupiter has
not earned him the rewards he deserves. As a result, Jupiter sends
Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, leaving him no choice but to
depart.
When Aeneas clandestinely begins making preparations to leave 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 a pyre with 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 to Hannibal.
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.
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
on Sicily and centres on the funeral games that Aeneas organises for
the anniversary of his father's death. Aeneas organises celebratory
games for the men--a boat race, a foot race, a boxing 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 boxing 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 of Polites and King Priam in Book 2 and that of Camilla in
Book 11. Afterwards, Ascanius leads the boys in a military parade and
mock battle, the Lusus 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 by Somnus and falls
overboard.
Book 6: Underworld
====================
Aeneas, with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl, descends into the
underworld. They pass by crowds of the dead by the banks of the river
Acheron and are ferried across by Charon before passing by Cerberus,
the three-headed guardian of the underworld. Then Aeneas is shown the
fates of the wicked in Tartarus and 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 of Elysium. There
he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic
vision of the destiny of Rome.
Book 7: Arrival in Latium and outbreak of war
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Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to
settle in Latium, where King Latinus received oracles pointing towards
the arrival of strangers and bidding him to marry his daughter Lavinia
to the foreigners, and not to Turnus, the ruler of another native
people, the Rutuli. Juno, unhappy with the Trojans' favourable
situation, summons the fury Alecto from the underworld to stir up a
war between the Trojans and the locals. Alecto incites Amata, the
Queen of Latium and the wife of Latinus, to demand that Lavinia be
married to noble Turnus, 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
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Given the impending war, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies
of the Rutuli, after having been encouraged to do so in a dream by
Tiberinus. At the place where Rome will be, he meets a friendly Greek,
King Evander of Arcadia. His son Pallas agrees 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
the shield, the future history of Rome is depicted.
Book 9: Turnus' siege of Trojan camp
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Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is attacked by Turnus--spurred on by Juno,
who informs him that Aeneas is away from his camp--and a midnight raid
by the Trojans Nisus and Euryalus on Turnus' camp leads to their
death. The next day, Turnus manages to breach the gates but is forced
to retreat by jumping into the Tiber.
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 in single 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, an Amazon
character and virgin devoted to Diana, fights bravely but is killed,
poisoned by the coward Arruns, who in turn is struck dead by Diana's
sentinel Opis.
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 to hang
herself in 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
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Critics of the 'Aeneid' focus 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 the Augustan
regime, 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 strong
teleology, or drive towards a climax, has been detected in the poem.
The 'Aeneid' is full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the deeds
of Augustus, his ancestors, and famous Romans, and the Carthaginian
Wars; the shield of Aeneas even 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.
The 'Aeneid' appears 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' sister Octavia to
faint. The poem was unfinished when Virgil died in 19 BC.
Virgil's death, and editing
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According to tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece around 19 BC to
revise the 'Aeneid'. After meeting Augustus in Athens and deciding to
return home, Virgil caught a fever while visiting a town near Megara.
Virgil crossed to Italy by ship, weakened with disease, and died in
Brundisium harbour on 21 September 19 BC, leaving a wish that the
manuscript of the 'Aeneid' was to be burned. Augustus ordered Virgil's
literary executors, Lucius Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca, to
disregard that wish, instead ordering the 'Aeneid' to be published
with as few editorial changes as possible.
History
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The 'Aeneid' was written in a time of major political and social
change in Rome, with the fall of the Roman Republic and the Final War
of the Roman Republic having 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. The 'Aeneid' was 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,
the 'Aeneid' gives mythic legitimisation to the rule of Julius Caesar
and, by extension, to his adopted son Augustus, by immortalising the
tradition that renamed Aeneas' son, Ascanius (called Ilus from
'Ilium', meaning Troy), 'Iulus', thus making him an ancestor of the
'gens 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 poet Maffeo Vegio (through his 'Thirteenth Book
of the Aeneid' widely printed in the Renaissance), Pier Candido
Decembrio (whose attempt was never completed), Claudio Salvucci (in
his 1994 epic poem 'The Laviniad'), and Ursula K. Le Guin (in her 2008
novel 'Lavinia') to compose their own supplements.
Despite the polished and complex nature of the 'Aeneid' (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 the 'Aeneid' should 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 which Venus and Vulcan
made 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, the 'Aeneid' was
published. Because it was composed and preserved in writing rather
than orally, the text exhibits less variation than other classical
epics.
Style
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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
as alliteration, onomatopoeia, synecdoche, and assonance. Furthermore,
he uses personification, metaphor, and simile in 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
===========
The 'Aeneid', like other classical epics, is written in dactylic
hexameters: each line consists of six metrical feet made up of dactyls
(one long syllable followed by two short syllables) and spondees (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. The 'Aeneid' comes to an
abrupt ending, and scholars have speculated that Virgil died before he
could finish the poem.
''Pietas''
============
The Roman ideal of 'pietas' ("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 the 'Aeneid', Aeneas serves as the
embodiment of
'pietas', with the phrase "pious Aeneas" occurring 20 times throughout
the poem,
Search of the Latin from perseus.tufts.edu 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' 'pietas' extends 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 familial 'pietas', 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 of 'pietas' in all of its forms, serving as a moral
paragon to whom a Roman should aspire.
Divine intervention
=====================
One of the most recurring themes in the 'Aeneid' is that of divine
intervention. Throughout the poem, the gods are constantly influencing
the main characters and trying to change and impact the outcome,
regardless of the fate that 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 the 'Aeneid'. 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 the 'Aeneid', 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 sends Alecto, one of the Furies, 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 the 'Aeneid' is
a subtle commentary on the bloody violence contemporary readers would
have just experienced during the Late Republican
civil wars. The 'Aeneid' potentially 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
============
Written during the reign of Augustus, the 'Aeneid' presents 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 patron Maecenas was 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 the 'Aeneid', 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 the Roman 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 as propaganda in 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' descendant Romulus
will 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 of Lavinium, 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.
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 of
reincarnation) are not to be taken as literal.
The second section in question is
This section has been interpreted to mean that for the entire passage
of the poem, Aeneas, who symbolises 'pietas' (piety or morality), in a
moment becomes 'furor' (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, the 'Odyssey'), and Volume
II (Books 7-12, the 'Iliad'), and their short length, which contrasts
with the lengthy nature of the poem, are evidence that Virgil placed
them purposefully there.
Influence
======================================================================
The 'Aeneid' is a cornerstone of the Western 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 the
decline of the Roman Empire, it "remained central to a Latin
education". In Latin-Christian culture, the 'Aeneid' was one of the
canonical texts, subjected to commentary as a philological and
educational study, with the most complete commentary having been
written by the 4th-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus. It was
widely held to be the pinnacle of Latin literature, much in the same
way that the 'Iliad' was seen to be supreme in Greek literature.
The strong influence of the 'Aeneid' has been identified in the
development of European vernacular literatures--some English works
that show its influence being 'Beowulf', Layamon's 'Brut' (through the
source text 'Historia Regum Britanniae'), 'The Faerie Queene', and
Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri was himself
profoundly influenced by the 'Aeneid', so much so that his magnum opus
'The Divine Comedy', itself widely considered central to the western
canon, includes a number of quotations from and allusions to the
'Aeneid' and 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 the 'Aeneid' is
the 16th-century Portuguese epic 'Os Lusíadas', written by Luís de
Camões and dealing with Vasco 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 the 'Aeneid'
were taught in the fourth year of a Latin sequence, at least until the
1960s; the current (2011) Advanced Placement curriculum 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 the
'Aeneid' that appear on the course syllabus in Latin."
Many phrases from this poem entered the Latin language, much as
passages from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope have entered the English
language. One example is from Aeneas' reaction to a painting of the
sack of Troy: 'Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt'--"These
are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart"
('Aeneid' I, 462). The influence is also visible in very modern work:
Brian Friel's 'Translations' (a play written in the 1980s, set in
19th-century Ireland), makes references to the classics throughout and
ends with a passage from the 'Aeneid':
'Urbs antiqua fuit'--there was an ancient city which, 'tis said, Juno
loved 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 people 'late 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 an Anglic
language is the Scots translation by Gavin Douglas--his 'Eneados',
completed in 1513, which also included Maffeo Vegio's supplement. Even
in the 20th century, Ezra Pound considered this still to be the best
'Aeneid' translation, praising the "richness and fervour" of its
language and its hallmark fidelity to the original. The English
translation by the 17th-century poet John Dryden is 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 by Patric Dickinson
(1961); British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (1963), who strove to
render Virgil's original hexameter line; Allen Mandelbaum (honoured by
a 1973 National Book Award); Library of Congress Poet Laureate Robert
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); and Shadi
Bartsch (2021). Fagles' translation was generally well received. On
'Bookmarks Magazine' Mar/Apr 2007 issue, a magazine that aggregates
critic reviews of books, the book received a (5.0 out of 5) based on
critic reviews with the critical summary stating, "'The Aeneid' will
remain fresh for generations fortunate enough to be guided by Fagles’s
talents".
There have also been partial translations, such as those by Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey (Book 2 and Book 4), and Seamus Heaney (Book
6).
Adaptations
======================================================================
One of the first operas based on the story of the 'Aeneid' was the
English composer Henry Purcell's 'Dido 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 the Purcell Room, a concert hall in London.
The story of the 'Aeneid' was made into the grand opera 'Les Troyens'
(1856-1858) by the French composer Hector Berlioz.
The 'Aeneid' was the basis for the 1962 Italian film 'The Avenger' and
the 1971-1972 television serial 'Eneide'.
In the musical 'Spring Awakening', based on the play of the same title
by Frank 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 novel 'Lavinia' is a free prose retelling of the
last six books of the 'Aeneid' narrated by and centred on Aeneas'
Latin wife Lavinia, a minor character in the epic poem. It carries the
action forward to the crowning of Aeneas' younger son Silvius as king
of Latium.
A 17th-century popular broadside ballad also appears to recount events
from books 1-4 of the 'Aeneid,' 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 of parodies and travesties of the 'Aeneid' have been made.
* One of the earliest was written in Italian by Giovanni Batista Lalli
in 1635, titled 'L'Eneide travestita del Signor Gio'.
* A French parody by Paul Scarron became 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 work 'Scarronides' included a
travestied 'Aeneid'.
* In 1791, the Russian poet N. P. Osipov published ().
* In 1798, 'Eneida', a Ukrainian mock-heroic burlesque poem, was
written by Ivan Kotliarevsky. It is considered to be the first
literary work published wholly in the modern Ukrainian 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 poem 'Eneida inside-out' (). 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's 'Aeneid' and Homer's 'Iliad' and
'Odyssey'
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 31
* Prosody (Latin)
* Roman mythology
* Sinbad the Sailor
* The Voyage of Bran
Further reading
======================================================================
* Buckham, Philip Wentworth; Spence, Joseph; Holdsworth, Edward;
Warburton, William; Jortin, John,
[
https://archive.org/details/miscellaneavirg00jortgoog 'Miscellanea
Virgiliana: In Scriptis Maxime Eruditorum Virorum Varie Dispersa, in
Unum Fasciculum Collecta'], Cambridge: Printed for W. P. Grant; 1825.
*
*
*
*
* Paperback reprint: Vintage Books, 1990.
*
*
*
*
* Brooks Otis, 'Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry', Oxford, 1964
* Lee Fratantuono, 'Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid',
Lexington 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 lÉnéide, Brussels: EME
& InterCommunications,
* Markus Janka, 'Vergils Aeneis: Dichter, Werk und Wirkung', Munich,
2021.
* Elena Giusti, 'Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid: Staging the Enemy under
Augustus', March 2018
Translations
==============
*
* - Latin text, Dryden translation, and T.C. Williams translation
(from the Perseus Project)
* Gutenberg Project: [
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/228 John Dryden
translation (1697)]
* Gutenberg Project: [
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22456 J. W.
Mackail translation (1885)]
* Gutenberg Project: [
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18466 E. F.
Taylor translation (1907)]
* Gutenberg Project: [
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61596 Rolfe
Humphries translation (1951)]
* Fairclough's Loeb Translation (1916)
[
http://www.stoictherapy.com/elibrary-aeneid StoicTherapy.com]
(Complete)
* Fairclough's Loeb Translation (1916)
[
http://www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilAeneid1.html Theoi.com] (Books 1-6
only)
* The Online Library of Liberty Project from Liberty Fund, Inc.:
[
http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1175 The 'Aeneid' (Dryden
translation, New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1909)] (PDF and HTML)
*
Text
======
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20080406150447/http://bibliotecas.reduaz.mx/libros-e/libros/P._Vergilii_Maronis-Aeneidos.pdf
'Aeneidos Libri XII'] Latin text by Publius Vergilius Maro, PDF format
* [
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/227 Menu Page] The 'Aeneid' in
several formats at Project Gutenberg
* [
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/verg.html Latin Text Online]
Sequels
=========
* [
http://virgil.org/supplementa/decembrio.htm The Thirteenth Book of
the 'Aeneid': a fragment by Pier Candido Decembrio, translated by
David Wilson-Okamura]
* Supplement to the twelfth book of the 'Aeneid' by Maffeo Vegio at
[
http://virgil.org/supplementa/vegio-latin.htm Latin text] and
[
http://virgil.org/supplementa/vegio-twyne.htm English translation]
Illustrations
===============
*
[
http://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=8&cat_2=15&cat_3=626&cat_4=970
Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (about 900 images related to
the 'Aeneid')]
Commentary
============
*[
http://dcc.dickinson.edu/vergil-aeneid/preface Commentary on
selections from the Latin text] at Dickinson College Commentaries
* Four talks by scholars on aspects of the 'Aeneid':
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051655/https://mainehumanities.org/blog/podcasts/virgil-and-history/
Virgil's relationship to Roman history],
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051700/https://mainehumanities.org/blog/podcasts/the-rome-of-augustus/
the Rome of Caesar Augustus],
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051641/https://mainehumanities.org/blog/podcasts/translating-virgil/
the challenges of translating Latin poetry], and
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051648/https://mainehumanities.org/blog/podcasts/didos-lament-virgilian-epic-and-17th-century-english-opera/
Purcell's opera 'Dido and Aeneas'], delivered at the Maine Humanities
Council's
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20080705051809/http://mainehumanities.org/programs/winter.html
Winter Weekend] program.
* [
http://www.bijanomrani.com/?p=aeneid Notes on the political context
of the 'Aeneid'.]
* [
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Serv.+A.+toc
Perseus/Tufts: Maurus Servius Honoratus. Commentary on the 'Aeneid' of
Vergil. (Latin)]
*
License
=========
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid
