Aeneid (Plot)

He asks a muse to explain the anger of Juno, declaring the subject of “warfare and a man at war”.

Carthage is her favourite city (as they have always worshipped her) and there is a prophecy that the race descended from the Trojans will someday destroy it.

Paris did not grant her the golden apple.

Elektra is a Trojan ancestor, and Juno’s main competition for Jupiter’s affection.

Jupiter made Ganymede, a Trojan prince, the cupbearer of the gods.

Paris (a Trojan) judged Venus to be fairer in a divine beauty contest.

Venus and Anchises

Storm

Olympus

Venus

Temple

Cupid

Juno calls on Aeolus to bring a storm down on Aeneas’ crew while they are sailing South of Sicily, after the Trojan war.

Aeneas lifts his hands to the sky and prays. He also grieves that his death will not be honourable like those at Troy.

However, Neptune rages that Aeolus overstepped on his dominion with the storm and so calmed the waters.

This is described in a simile like “a statesman calming a mob”, representing Augustus who brought peace to the empire after years of civil war.

7

Book 1

When they reach the shore of Libya, Aeneas comforts his crew, reminding them that they have survived worse, and that they have a fated end towards which they strive.

Venus is comforted by Jupiter, who gives a prophecy foretelling:

• Aeneas will win a great battle and found the new city of Lavinium

• Ascanius will rule over Alba Longa for 30 years after Aeneas

• The Romans will have an empire without end, and will be the race that wears the toga

He then sends Mercury to Carthage, to put them and Dido in a good mood to receive the Trojans.

Aeneas and Achates encounter Venus in disguise as a Spartan girl looking for her sister — she tells them where they are & Dido’s backstory: she had to flee Tyre after her brother (Pygmalion) murdered her husband (Sychaeus).

This is particularly tragic as Sychaeus’ murder occurred on an altar, his body was left unburied, and Dido was unbeknownst until he appeared to her in a dream.

She explains to them an omen of 12 swans flying in formation, initially pushed out of it but now in a long column. She prophecises this as their safe arrival in Carthage, where she advises they go to Dido’s castle.

She shrouds them in a cloud to make them invisible.

He realises her identity upon her departure (due to a rosy light and smell of ambrosia) and is upset with her elusiveness.

Aeneas kills 7 deer, equivalent to the number of ships still with him, to feed all of the refugees.

When they arrive in Carthage, Virgil describes the peoples as like “bees in the start of summer” — this represents their homogeneity, a central characteristic of ideal society.

When they reach the Temple of Juno, using ekphrasis they see scenes from the Trojan war depicted on its frieze; these include the death of Troilus, the rage of Achilles (dragging Hector’s body), Athene refusing women supplicating her, and even himself depict amongst the confusion.

Dido and her attendants enter, along with the men from Aeneas’ missing ships. At this point their shroud vanishes, and Aeneas appears with joyful eyes and beautiful hair, due to a makeover by Venus.

Dido is compared to Diana, since she urges on the work of her people.

At this point she is good in all senses — diligent to her people, sympathetic to the Trojans, sacrificing to the gods, and sending livestock for them to enjoy.

Invited to a banquet, Aeneas sends for Ascanius but Venus replaces him with Cupid in disguise as the boy, to fill Dido with passion for Aeneas and thus ensure his safety from Juno’s wrath.

Horse

War

Furor

Family

Creusa

Dido is questioning Aeneas about it at the banquet.

In the 10th year Ulysses had an idea and the Greeks built an enormous wooden horse, which was rumoured to have been an offering to Minerva to gain her protection.

Laocoon (a priest of Neptune) who warned them that it was a war machine and threw a spear at it — after this two serpents emerged from the sea and killed himself and his two sons.

This is described in a simile as a bull being sacrificed, evident as the serpents afterwards made for the citadel of Pallas Athene, where they sheltered under her feet.

Sinon, a Greek captive, said that he had deserted Ulysses’ army after learning that he was intended as a sacrifice, and he affirmed the rumours of the horse, adding that if it was harmed then Minerva would destroy Troy for its impiety, however if they brought it within city walls, they would conquer Greece.
Of course, this was all a deliberate lie. Here, emphasis is placed on the youths in the scene who sing and carouse.

That night Sinon released the soldiers while the Trojans slept, and opened the gates of Troy to the rest of the Greek forces.

• When the Trojan horse is being brought in, emphasis is placed on the youths in the scene who sing and carouse.

• Eventually, in the battle some Trojans began disguising themselves as Greeks to better traverse the streets however this meant being murdered by their own allies.

Cassandra is the priestess of Apollo predicted their fate but is not believed due to the curse of the gods.
She is seen dragged by Ajax the Lesser from the temple of Minerva with her eyes turned in vain to heaven (despite having taken sanctuary).

Hector (son of King Priam) appears to Aeneas in a dream, streaming with tears and looking as he did when dragged by Achilles, urging him to flee as all is lost. He also tells him to take the Penates (gods of hearth and household).

Gods of the hearth and household

Aeneas desperately joins the battle and arrives at the palace, witnessing Pyrrhus (son of Achilles) murdering Polites (son of Priam), in front of the king. He is described as having “vomited his life’s blood before them”. Pyrrhus then kills Priam himself at the altar of Jupiter.

Aeneas encounters Helen next and, convinced that her elopement with Paris was the cause of the war, is overcome with furor and would have killed her however Venus intervenes last minute, telling him that the war is willed by the gods. She causes them to appear in a series of visions to Aeneas.
This scene of furor however would have been more digestible to the Romans who would have also hated Helen. Elements of his furor are excusable as a proto-Roman.

Upon return home, his father Anchises is refusing to leave Troy, while his family refuse to leave Troy without him despite facing certain death.
A portent appears of a flame around Iulus’ head — Anchises prays to Jupiter for another sign and thunder rumbled in affirmation, as well as a star streaking across the sky in the direction of Mount Ida.

Aeneas holds Ascanius’ hand and carries Anchises on his back. He also commands Anchises to carry the sacraments of the household gods as Aeneas’ hands have miasma on them. He tells the slaves to go to the temple of Ceres. Creusa follows behind.

Aeneas turns to look for Creusa when they reach the outside of the city, and she is missing. He goes back alone to try and find her but encounters her ghost instead — she tells him he is destined to marry again in his new homeland, Hesperia. He tries and fails to hug her 3 times.

Blood

Apollo

Harpies

Scylla

Cyclops

Book 3 details the journey of the Trojans after escaping from Troy.

They sail to Thrace where Aeneas pulls at a tree and blood seeps from it.
The tree speaks as the spirit of Polydorus (son of Priam) who said that the Thracians killed him. Therefore they held a funeral and left.

Landing at Delos, Apollo instructs Aeneas to go to his ancestors’ land.
He interprets this as Crete, however a plague hits them upon arrival and Aeneas’ dream makes him aware of his mistake.
He realises he must go to Italy/Hesperides.

A storm lands them on Strophades, where they slaughter animals for feast. A harpy (Celaeno) prophecises that they won’t establish their city until hunger drives them to eat their tables.

In Buthrotum, Helenus (son of Priam) is king since Pyrrhus’ death. Andromache says they have to take the long way around Sicily since Scylla and Charybdis occupy the short path.

They rest on a beach and are approached by an estranged man from Ulysses’ crew, after escaping the cyclops. They all make a quick escape.

However, Anchises dies on the ship. This concludes Aeneas’ flashback, when he says that divine intervention landed them at Carthage.

Anna

Cave

Mercury

Suicide

Iris

Dido confides to her sister Anna her feelings for Aeneas, and she advises that the dead do not care about the romantic lives of the living so it would not break her vow to Sychaeus to pursue Aeneas.
This parallels Sophocles’ Antigone — a tragedy play which begins with the protagonist and her sister discussing the main conflict.

Dido is described as “like a wounded doe with an arrow stuck in its side that will eventually kill it” — this foreshadows her death due to her feelings for Aeneas & implies — since she was previously compared to Diana, goddess of the hunt — that she has become a victim of the divine.

She becomes obsessed with Aeneas and abandons her projects.

Juno and Venus scheme to make them elope: Juno wants to delay Aeneas’ journey to Italy and Venus wants to ensure his safety. However the scheme is framed as a peace treaty between the two.

Aeneas and Dido are out hunting, & a storm forces them to seek shelter in a cave, where they have sex. Divine intervention is reiterated here as it says the heavens were witness to the marriage, and the act is described using the same language when Juno and Venus are plotting it and when it actually happens.
Dido later attempts to legitimise this by calling it marriage, the message of which is spread by the personified Rumour.

When King Iarbas hears of this he is enraged as he gave some of his land to Dido and probably expected to marry her. He prays to Zeus, who therefore sends Mercury to encourage Aeneas to leave.

Jupiter sends Mercury who visits Aeneas to urge him to leave Carthage, reminding him of his duties to Iulus (playing on patrilineal customs) and of his fate. He returns twice, the second time emphasising that women are fickle creatures.

Dido discovers Aeneas’ plan to depart and decides to commit suicide — at this point she is compared to a Maenad.
She asks her sister Anna to prepare a pyre which she says she will heap high with belongings of Aeneas'.

When dawn comes and she sees the Trojan fleet at sea, she calls upon Jupiter and plants her curse which states that Carthage and Troy will always be at war.
(This therefore later extends to the wars with the Romans — the Punic Wars).

She then mounts the pyre and stabs herself with Aeneas’ sword.
While Anna holds Dido’s body, Juno sends Iris to cut a lock of Dido’s hair as an offering to Dis (Hades) so that her spirit will be free.

Games

Fire

Nautes

Anchises

Palinurus

Due to a storm that forms, Aeneas directs his crew to Eryx (a Sicilian port), as his friend Acestes rules there.

Upon arrival he proposes 8 days of sacrifice and then a 9th day of games to honour the anniversary of Anchises’ death.

Juno sends Iris to manipulate the Trojan women, distributing torches and encouraging them to burn their ships, so that they don’t continue their journey.

The men see the smoke and douse the ship in water — however ultimately Aeneas’ prayer to Jupiter ultimately causes the rainstorm that puts the fires out.

He is an advisor of Aeneas — tells him to leave the old and/or frail in Sicily, rather than forcing them along — Acestes agrees to host them.

The ghost of Anchises appears to Aeneas, also advising him to leave some Trojans behind but continue his journey with the strongest amongst him. He further warns of a difficult battle ahead of him in Latium (West Italy) however, before that he requests Aeneas to visit him in the underworld.

Venus makes Neptune agree to allow the Trojans safe passage — he agrees given the offering of one sacrifice.
Palinurus thus falls asleep at the helm of the ship, and falls into the sea.

Temple

Sibyl

Pre-quests

Acheron

2Ds

Groves

At Cumae, Aeneas visits the temple of Apollo which (on the doors) is depicted with the stories of Daedalus, the Minotaur, and Icarus.

The story of Daedalus serves an aetiological function, explaining how the temple came to be — this plays into the wider themes of the epic: the depictions begin and end with the deaths of young men (Androgeus, Icarus) and also include the ill-fated loves of Pasiphae (mother of the Minotaur) and Ariadne (who fell in love with Theseus). It also includes the sacrifice of 7 Athenian youths to the Minotaur, and the sibyl makes Aeneas sacrifice 7 cattle.

The sibyl tells Aeneas to sacrifice seven young bulls and seven ewes to Apollo, whom he then prays to.
She is then possessed by him and predicts that they will fight a bloody war in Italy, and there will be a second coming of Achilles. She also says that once again a foreign bride will cause their suffering.

Before entering the Underworld he is instructed to first find and bury the body of a dead comrade, Misenus, who was drowned by Triton for challenging him to a trumpeting contest.

Then he has to find the golden bough from a tree in a nearby forest.

They performed funerary rites such as washing and anointing his body and heaping offerings onto the funerary pyre. Aeneas also makes his own burial spot, marking it with his oar and trumpet.

he is guided to by Venus as she sends two doves for him to follow.

Upon entering the Underworld after performing sacrifices, they encounter Palinurus, who cannot cross the river — the sibyl comforts him by telling him that a tomb will be built for him and a cape of land named in his honour.

Charon is reluctant to ferry Aeneas until he reveals the bough.

Once they pass they see Cerberus the 3-headed dog, to whom the sibyl throws a drugged honeycake to send him to sleep and allow their safe passage.

Aeneas encounters Dido — until this point he was unaware of her suicide. He weeps and says he left unwillingly, however she will not speak to him and withdraws to her husband, Sychaeus.

Aeneas also meets Deiphobus (son of Priam) who married Helen after Paris died.

Her first husband Menelaus and Ulysses killed him.

His face and hands are cruelly torn, and his ears ripped from his head. He says that there are two paths — to Tartarus or to Elysium.

Aeneas glances towards Tartarus but does not go in as the sibyl says that pure souls cannot.
However we do get some description form the sibyl — such as the Fury Tisiphone who tortures souls, and the tortures of Tityus (who attempted to rape Leto and his liver is pecked out by a vulture eternally) and Ixion who murdered his father in law & attempted to seduce Juno (tied to spinning wheel of fire).

Aeneas places the golden bough as an offering, and enters the Elysium which has a glowing light and where people are living as before, dancing and feasting

He reunites with Anchises, who he attempts and fails to hug 3 times.

Anchises explains how the spirits filling the air were previously humans with their memories wiped after drinking from the water of Lethe, waiting for their souls to be born again.

Anchises then introduces the pageants of “future” Roman heroes including Romulus (founder of Rome), Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, and concludes with Marcellus (nephew of Augustus who died before becoming heir). He says that the role of Romans is to govern the peoples of the world in the Empire.

Aeneas and the sibyl then return to the world of the living by passing through the gates of false dreams & ivory.

Intro

Lavinia

Harpy

Allecto

Conflict

They sail North, past Aeaea, and dock their ships in the River Tiber

Invokes the muse of poetry

In Latinus’ palace, a laurel tree had a swarm of bees come and rest upon it — this is interpreted as a stranger & his army gaining control of the citadel.

Saturn
Amata & Lavinia — Lavinia is set to be married to the leader of the Rutulian tribe, Turnus

Latinus is told so by the oracle of his father, Faunus — he says the strangers will intermarry with the Latins and produce great descendants

Her hair and crown catches on fire — this is interpreted by seers as her having glorious days to come but first bringing war to the Latins.

On the shore the Trojans feast on harvested crops and used wheaten cakes as platters on which to heap the food. They then consume these at the end — Ascanius’ jokes that they’re “eating their tables”, fulfilling the Harpy’s prophecy.

Aeneas pours libations to Jupiter and calls upon Anchises with prayers in gratitude. In response, Jupiter thunders 3 times and displays a burning cloud with rays of golden light.

Aeneas sends 100 gift-bearing men to Latinus and begins laying out his plans for his new city — this causes Latinus to conclude Aeneas as the foreigner Lavinia should marry (instead of Turnus)

She is furious that Latinus decided Lavinia will be wed to Aeneas instead of Turnus

• Allecto infects Amata by throwing a snake at her

• Allecto infects Turnus by throwing a burning torch at him

• Allecto incites Ascanius to injure the pet stag of a Latium family with an arrow

• Allecto sounds the war horn

• Juno throws open the twin gates of the Temple of Mars

Juno enlists the fury Allecto, commanding her to create a war: Allecto goes to Amata (who favours Turnus), takes one of the snakes from her head, and throws it on her chest so that it enters her heart and stirs madness.

Argues with Latinus — when his opinion is unchanged she is enraged and hides Lavinia in the forest, where she goes pretending to be a Bacchant, bringing the other mothers, described as a “spinning top”, referencing both her frenzy but also that she is controlled by a higher being.

Disguised as an old woman, Allecto then visits Turnus, instructing him to defend his right to marry Lavinia by attacking the Trojans.

She reveals her true form with all her snakes hissing — she throws a burning torch at him which embeds in his heart.
At this point lots of fire imagery is used — e.g. Turnus is likened to “a heap of brushwood crackling and burning under the sides of a bronze vessel” — which links to furor.

She then goes to the Trojan camp and incites Ascanius to wound a Latium family’s pet stag with an arrow, driving them to retaliate.

Juno throws open the twin gates of Mars’ temple, and Allecto sounds the war horn, sounding like the voice of Tartarus.

Virgil uses a simile of a sea “slowly stirring itself, its waves higher and higher until it reaches…the heights of heaven” to describe how a small conflict rised into a great war.

Tiber

Evander

Hercules

Shield

Agylla

he river god appears to Aeneas in a dream, saying that he will find on the shore a white sow and her litter of 30, representing Ascanius’ rule over Alba Longa 30 years after Aeneas. When he finds them, he kills them all as a sacrifice to Juno.

He also tells Aeneas to sail upstream to Pallanteum, and seek the aid of King Evander.

The crew are warmly received by Evander, who explains that the two are blood relatives as both are descendants of Atlas. He promises his full support against Turnus, and invites him to their yearly ceremony for Hercules.

Evander explains the story of Cacus and Hercules: Cacus was a monster that stole some cattle from Hercules who killed him for it. This could foreshadow the war with the Latins and could link to the Batlle of Actium.

He tells Aeneas about a “golden age” of civilisation where Saturn came to Latium and brought together the scattered and wild mountain people and brought them peace.
He is then shown sites that will be famous in Roman times including the Capitol — so this could allude to Augustus in extension of Aeneas.

He advises that they go to Agylla and seek the help of the Etruscans, who have been told by a seer to choose a non-Italian leader. Therefore they will welcome Aeneas.

Seduces him

In Agylla, under an oak tree

Ekphrasis

• The Battle of Actium 31BCE (centre) including Augustus’ triumphal procession in 29 BCE, also depicts Roman gods against “grotesque deities” and Cleopatra fleeing
  

• Rape of the Sabine Women by Romulus to provide wives for the Romans
  

• The wolf suckling Romulus and Remus who will later found Rome

• Death of the traitor Mettus Fufetius being torn apart by chariots