Summary
Aeneas continues his story, recounting the aftermath of
the fall of Troy. After escaping from Troy, he leads the survivors
to the coast of Antander, where they build a new fleet of ships.
They sail first to Thrace, where Aeneas prepares to offer sacrifices.
When he tears at the roots and branches of a tree, dark blood soaks
the ground and the bark. The tree speaks to him, revealing itself
to be the spirit of Polydorus, son of Priam. Priam had sent Polydorus
to the king of Thrace to be safe from the war, but when Troy fell,
the Thracian king sided with the Greeks and killed Polydorus.
After holding a funeral for Polydorus, Aeneas and the
Trojans embark from Thrace with a sense of dread at the Thracian
violation of the ethics of hospitality. They sail southward to the
holy island of Delos. At Delos, Apollo speaks to Aeneas, instructing
him to go to the land of his ancestors. Anchises interprets Apollo’s
remark as a reference to the island of Crete, where one of the great
Trojan forefathers—Teucrus, after whom the Trojans are sometimes
called Teucrians—had long ago ruled.
Aeneas and his group sail to Crete and began
to build a new city, but a terrible plague soon strikes. The gods
of Troy appear to Aeneas in a dream and explain that his father
is mistaken: the ancestral land to which Apollo referred is not
Crete but Italy, the original home of Dardanus, from whom the Trojans
take the name Dardanians. These hearth gods also reassert the prophecy
of Roman supremacy, declaring, “You must prepare great walls for
a great race” (III.223).
The Trojan refugees take to the sea again. A cover of
black storm clouds hinders them. They land at the Strophades, islands
of the Harpies, fierce bird-creatures with feminine faces. The Trojans slaughter
many cows and goats that are roaming free and hold a feast, provoking
an attack from the Harpies. To no avail, the Trojans attempt to
fight the Harpies off, and one of the horrible creatures places
a curse upon them. Confirming that they are destined for Italy,
she prophesies that the Trojans will not establish their city until
hunger forces them to try to eat their very tables.
Disturbed by the episode, the Trojans depart for the
island of Leucata, where they make offerings at a shrine to Apollo.
Next, they set sail in the direction of Italy until they reach Buthrotum,
in Chaonia. There, Aeneas is astonished to discover that Helenus,
one of Priam’s sons, has become king of a Greek city. Helenus and
Andromachë had been taken by Pyrrhus as war prizes, but seized power over
part of their captor’s kingdom after he was killed.
Aeneas meets Andromachë and she relates the story of
her and Helenus’s captivity. Helenus then arrives and advises Aeneas
on the path ahead. Andromachë adds that to reach the western coast
of Italy it is necessary to take the long way around Sicily, to
the south. The short path, a narrow gap of water between Sicily
and Italy, is rendered practically impossible to navigate by two
potentially lethal hazards: Charybdis, a whirlpool, and Scylla,
a six-headed monster.
