On the Mediterranean Sea, Aeneas
and his fellow Trojans flee from their home city of Troy, which
has been destroyed by the Greeks. They sail for Italy, where Aeneas
is destined to found Rome. As they near their destination, a fierce
storm throws them off course and lands them in Carthage. Dido, Carthage’s
founder and queen, welcomes them. Aeneas relates to Dido the long
and painful story of his group’s travels thus far.
Aeneas tells of the sack of Troy that ended the Trojan
War after ten years of Greek siege. In the final campaign, the Trojans
were tricked when they accepted into their city walls a wooden horse that,
unbeknownst to them, harbored several Greek soldiers in its hollow
belly. He tells how he escaped the burning city with his father,
Anchises; his son, Ascanius; and the hearth gods that represent
their fallen city. Assured by the gods that a glorious future awaited
him in Italy, he set sail with a fleet containing the surviving citizens
of Troy. Aeneas relates the ordeals they faced on their journey.
Twice they attempted to build a new city, only to be driven away
by bad omens and plagues. Harpies, creatures that are part woman
and part bird, cursed them, but they also encountered friendly countrymen
unexpectedly. Finally, after the loss of Anchises and a bout of
terrible weather, they made their way to Carthage.
Impressed by Aeneas’s exploits and sympathetic to his
suffering, Dido, a Phoenician princess who fled her home
and founded Carthage after her brother murdered her husband, falls
in love with Aeneas. They live together as lovers for a period,
until the gods remind Aeneas of his duty to found a new city. He
determines to set sail once again. Dido is devastated by his departure, and
kills herself by ordering a huge pyre to be built with Aeneas’s castaway
possessions, climbing upon it, and stabbing herself with the sword
Aeneas leaves behind.
As the Trojans make for Italy, bad weather blows them
to Sicily, where they hold funeral games for the dead Anchises.
The women, tired of the voyage, begin to burn the ships, but a downpour
puts the fires out. Some of the travel-weary stay behind, while
Aeneas, reinvigorated after his father visits him in a dream, takes
the rest on toward Italy. Once there, Aeneas descends into the underworld, guided
by the Sibyl of Cumae, to visit his father. He is shown a pageant
of the future history and heroes of Rome, which helps him to understand
the importance of his mission. Aeneas returns from the underworld,
and the Trojans continue up the coast to the region of Latium.
The arrival of the Trojans in Italy begins peacefully.
King Latinus, the Italian ruler, extends his hospitality, hoping
that Aeneas will prove to be the foreigner whom, according to a
prophecy, his daughter Lavinia is supposed to marry. But Latinus’s
wife, Amata, has other ideas. She means for Lavinia to marry Turnus,
a local suitor. Amata and Turnus cultivate enmity toward the newly
arrived Trojans. Meanwhile, Ascanius hunts a stag that was a pet
of the local herdsmen. A fight breaks out, and several people are
killed. Turnus, riding this current of anger, begins a war.
Aeneas, at the suggestion of the river god Tiberinus,
sails north up the Tiber to seek military support among the neighboring
tribes. During this voyage, his mother, Venus, descends to give
him a new set of weapons, wrought by Vulcan. While the Trojan leader
is away, Turnus attacks. Aeneas returns to find his countrymen embroiled
in battle. Pallas, the son of Aeneas’s new ally Evander, is killed
by Turnus. Aeneas flies into a violent fury, and many more are slain
by the day’s end.
The two sides agree to a truce so that they can bury
the dead, and the Latin leaders discuss whether to continue the
battle. They decide to spare any further unnecessary carnage by
proposing a hand-to-hand duel between Aeneas and Turnus. When the
two leaders face off, however, the other men begin to quarrel, and
full-scale battle resumes. Aeneas is wounded in the thigh, but eventually
the Trojans threaten the enemy city. Turnus rushes out to meet Aeneas,
who wounds Turnus badly. Aeneas nearly spares Turnus but, remembering
the slain Pallas, slays him instead.
