The Aeneid (/ɪˈniːɪd/; Latin: Aeneis [ae̯ˈneːɪs]) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and

19 BC,[1] that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became
the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter.[2] The first six of the
poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's 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's 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
legitimized 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[3][4] and one of the greatest works of Latin
literature.[5][6]

The Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6
(Aeneas's journey to Latium in Italy) and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium). 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.[7] This is, however, a rough correspondence, the
limitations of which should be borne in mind.[8]

Journey to Italy (books 1–6)[edit]

Theme[edit]
Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (Arma virumque cano ..., "Of arms and the man
I sing ...") and an invocation to the Muse, 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 goddess Juno against the Trojan people.
This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics.
Book 1: Storm and Refuge[edit]
Also in the manner of Homer, the story proper 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 judgment of Paris, and because her favorite city, Carthage,
will be destroyed by Aeneas's 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 does not accept the bribe, but 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, ca. 1875, Princeton University Art Museum

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's 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 favor 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's half-brother Cupid, and tells
him to imitate Ascanius (the son of Aeneas and his first wife Creusa). Disguised as such, Cupid goes
to Dido and offers the gifts expected from a guest. With Dido's motherly love revived as she 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 had been murdered by her brother, Pygmalion.
Book 2: The Trojan Horse and the Sack of Troy[edit]
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 the Iliad. 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 they lost Creusa, and Aeneas goes
back into the city to look for her. He only encounters her ghost, who tells him that his destiny is to
reach Hesperia, where kingship and a royal spouse await him.
Book 3: Wanderings[edit]
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; Crete, which they believe to be the land where they are to
build their city, which they name Pergamea (but they are set straight by Apollo); the Strophades,
where they encounter the Harpy Celaeno, who tells them to leave her island and to look for Italy;
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 go to the Sibyl in Cumae.

The suicide of Queen Dido (book 4), sculpture by Claude-Augustin Cayot [fr] (1667–1722)

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, Anchises dies peacefully of old age, and Aeneas sails to Carthage.
Book 4: Fate of Queen Dido[edit]
Aeneas finishes his story, and Dido realises that she has fallen in love with Aeneas. Juno seizes
upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas's 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 covered grove in which Aeneas and
Dido presumably made love, an event that Dido takes to indicate a marriage between them. But
when Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, he has no choice but to part. At the
behest of Mercury's apparition, he leaves clandestinely at night. Her heart broken, Dido commits
suicide by stabbing herself upon a pyre with Aeneas's sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal
strife between Aeneas's people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans.
Fitzgerald) is a possible invocation to Hannibal.[9]
Book 5: Sicily[edit]
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.

Boxing scene from the Aeneid (book 5), mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa in Villelaure (France), ca. 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 on Sicily and centers 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.[10] 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 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's men as a sacrifice: Palinurus, who steers Aeneas's ship by night, is put to sleep
by Somnus and falls overboard.
Book 6: Underworld