Summary
[The Roman race was] destined to bring
under [its] empire the peoples of earth, to impose the rule of submissive
nonresistance, to spare the humbled and to crush the proud.
See Important Quotations Explained
Written during the Pax Augusta, a time of great optimism
for Rome, Virgil’s Aeneid chronicles the adventures
of Aeneas, the Trojan hero and mythical progenitor of the Roman
people. Due to the help of his mother, he is the lone Trojan able
to escape defeat at the hands of the Greeks, fleeing with his father
on his back and his son in his hand. Aeneas eventually winds up
in Italy, where his son founds the city Alba Longa, the predecessor
of Rome. Between the two cities, however, Aeneas has a long journey
and many adventures.
In a dream, Aeneas is told that he is destined to sail
to Italy, known then as Hesperia, the Western Country. On the way,
he and his crew encounter the same Harpies whom the Argonauts battled. Unable
to defeat them, they are forced to escape. They next encounter Hector’s
widow, Andromache, enslaved by Achilles’ son after the war. After
her captor’s death, she marries the Trojan prophet Helenus. Helenus
tells Aeneas that he should land on the western coast of Italy and
gives him directions and tells him how to avoid the dire Scylla
and Charybdis. He seemingly does not know about other dangers along
the route. Luckily, when the Trojans land on the island of the Cyclopes,
they meet a sailor whom Ulysses (Odysseus) has left behind. They
escape just as Polyphemus charges the ship.
Juno is still angry with the Trojans, however, as she
still resents Paris choosing Venus over her and has learned that
Aeneas’s descendants are fated to found a city that will one day
destroy Carthage, her favorite city. Juno recruits Aeolus, King
of the Winds, to send a gigantic storm. Though Neptune’s intervention
saves the Trojans, they are blown off course all the way to Africa,
near Carthage, of all cities. Juno conspires to have Aeneas fall
in love with Carthage’s queen, Dido, figuring that if he does, he
will not leave Carthage. Venus makes her own plan, however, and
sends Cupid to ensure that Dido falls in love with Aeneas and that
Aeneas never reciprocates the feelings. Nonetheless, as Dido lavishes
attention on Aeneas and his men, he grows used to the luxury and
lingers in Carthage. At last, Jupiter, acting on Venus’s behalf,
sends Mercury to Aeneas. Mercury urges Aeneas to go fulfill his
destiny, so he soberly takes his leave of a sobbing Dido. Sailing
away, he sees smoke rising from Carthage, never knowing that the
source is her funeral pyre.
Helenus had also told Aeneas to find the prophetic Sibyl
of Cumae upon reaching Italy. They find the Sibyl, who says she
must take Aeneas to the underworld to meet his father, Anchises,
who has died earlier in the journey. To travel to the underworld,
Aeneas and his friend Achates must find a mystical golden bough
that gains them admittance. Venus eventually leads them to the bough,
which Aeneas bears as he and the Sibyl enter the underworld. They
pass by many horrors—lost souls, frightening spirits of Disease
and Hunger, even Dido herself, who refuses to acknowledge Aeneas.
Charon sees the golden bough and ferries them across his river.
They mollify Cerberus with cake and finally find Anchises, who shows
Aeneas the souls who will one day rise to be his future descendants.
He also tells Aeneas where and how to establish his new home in
Italy.
Aeneas returns to the surface and sails up the Italian
coast with his crew. Latinus, king of the Latins, warmly receives
them. Latinus plans to marry his daughter, Lavinia, to the majestic
Aeneas. Juno, however, makes Alecto, one of the Furies, cause trouble.
Alecto convinces Latinus’s wife to oppose the marriage, and Alecto
tells Turnus, King of the Rutulians and suitor of Lavinia, about
Aeneas. Finally, Alecto makes Ascanius, Aeneas’s son, unwittingly
kill a certain stag very popular among the Latins. The advancing
army of the Rutulians joins with the Latins to oppose the small
band of Trojans. The two armies are also aided by Mezentius, a cruel
ex-leader of the Etruscans, and Camilla, a renowned female warrior.
Aeneas again receives divine help, however. Father Tiber, god of
the famous Roman river, tells him to retreat upstream to find Evander,
king of the town that will one day become Rome. There, Evander and
his son, Pallas, receive Aeneas warmly but can offer no real help. Evander
tells Aeneas that he can seek the help of the powerful Etruscans,
who are anxious to get revenge against the tyrannical Mezentius.
Evander gives the few men, including Pallas, whom he can spare.
While Aeneas seeks these allies, the Trojans face a huge
offensive from Turnus. They must get word to Aeneas, but Nisus and
Euryalus are the only Trojans brave enough to sneak past enemy lines
to send the message. Euryalus is captured and, Nisus, rather than
run away, tries to save Euryalus, only to be killed alongside him.
Aeneas returns with Etruscan reinforcements. After the deaths of
Camilla, Pallas, and others, Turnus and Aeneas meet in single combat. Aeneas
kills Turnus, marries Lavinia, and founds the Roman people.
Analysis
This is the only chapter exclusively devoted to a distinctly
Roman—not Greek—myth. The story is taken from Virgil’s Aeneid and
displays the similarities and differences between this epic and
the other myths. The numerous similarities show the compatibility
of the Greek and Roman worldviews. Most of these myths moved easily from
one culture to the other. The form of the Aeneid is
similar to the epics of Odysseus, Jason, and Perseus—and, to a lesser
degree, Hercules and Theseus. A hero sets out in search of glory
but, by the will of the gods, travels a long journey full of perilous
adventures. At the end of the journey, he encounters a violent king
whom he eventually defeats. Though he is challenged throughout by
a god who is bent on his destruction, in the end he achieves his
destiny.
The role of fate is strong in the Aeneid: Aeneas
is destined to found the Roman race, and nothing, not even Juno,
can stand in his way. The goddess is helpless before fate, and despite
her best intentions, she cannot save Carthage. The idea of myth-as-fable
also returns here, as the Aeneid is also a fable
of the origins of Rome and a political fable on Rome’s gripping
defeat of arch-rival Carthage.
The most interesting similarity between the Aeneid and
the Greek myths are their complex view of good and evil. Evil is
not concentrated in a single demonic antagonist; Aeneas faces challenges
that rise from himself and out of the web of circumstances—many
of them beyond his control—in which he finds himself. In this regard,
Aeneas’s affair with Dido is interesting: despite the luxury of his
stay in Carthage, the gods pluck him out and send him back into the
fray so that he may achieve his destiny for the benefit of future generations.
It may seem cruel that Dido kills herself strictly because she is
caught between the warring desires of gods—Juno, Venus, and Zeus—who
all have their own priorities. However, the needless suffering the
gods cause is an essential part of the worldview that uses myths
to attempt to explain the problem of inexplicable evil.
Though the Aeneid resembles Greek epics
in some respects, in other ways it is foreign. We see this in the
nature of Aeneas’s heroism. Most of the Greek heroes display intelligence,
wit, depth, and greatness of soul, and mortal fallibility that causes
introspective struggle and growth. As Hamilton points out, Roman
society placed far more emphasis on pure military courage and strength.
She quotes from Virgil: “[The Romans] left to other nations such
things as art and science, and ever remembered that they were destined
to bring under their empire the peoples of earth . . . to spare
the humbled and crush the proud.” Aeneas—a brave warrior who sacrifices love
for duty—fits this mold. The final episode of the Aeneid, in which
Aeneas becomes a figure of godlike power, is non-Greek. Rather,
it typifies the militaristic and grandiose outlook of the Romans—rulers
of the largest empire in history at the time of Virgil’s writing.
payment page
