Book I
Aeneas is travelling away from the ruins of Troy in the aftermath of the Trojan War, together with a band of fellow survivors, his elderly father and infant son. They are looking for a place to found a new city, the next Troy, but must also contend with the relentless wrath of the goddess Juno. Juno holds a personal resentment towards Aeneas because it is prophesied that the descendants of Troy will one day destroy her beloved city of Carthage. She also scorns the Trojans in general, as it was a Trojan named Paris who once spurned her beauty over Aphrodite’s in the myth of the golden apple.
Juno conjures a great storm while the Trojans are sailing, but it does not hinder Aeneas, who makes it to the land of Carthage. Dido is the queen of this city, and she welcomes Aeneas and those of his companions who survived the storm. Aeneas’ mother, the goddess Venus, becomes worried that Juno will set Dido and the Phoenicians against Aeneas. To prevent this, Venus sends her son Cupid to shoot Dido with his magical arrow, so that she falls in love with Aeneas. This done, Dido entreats Aeneas to recount his story of how he came upon her land.
Book II
This book is narrated entirely by Aeneas as he tells the Phoenicians how he happened upon Carthage. He tells the story of the Trojan horse, and how he managed to escape the destruction of Troy with his family. But, as they were running away, Aeneas noticed that his wife was missing. On returning to Troy to see if she was there, her ghost appeared to him, telling him to focus only on his love for their son, and to make sure he is always safe. Aeneas left the burning city with his small band of Trojans to found Troy anew.
Book III
Aeneas resumes his narrative. He, his father, son and some other Trojan soldiers sailed first to Thrace. Here, Aeneas pulled at the branches of a tree during a sacrifice to the gods. He was alarmed when blood started to pour from the tree, and it revealed itself to be Polydorus, son of Priam. Priam sent Polydorus to be safe with the king of Thrace during the Trojan War, but the king switched sides, becoming a Greek supporter, and killed Polydorus.
Scared of what might happen to them if they stayed, the Trojans travelled away from Thrace to Delos, where Apollo spoke to Aeneas about his next destination. After some general misunderstandings about where he was supposed to be, a gory plague and a bloody meeting with the Harpies, Aeneas found himself in Sicily. Here, the Trojans were interrupted by a filthy Greek stranger, who claimed to have been left behind by Odysseus in the cave of the Cyclops. They allowed the Greek to travel with them and made it to Drepanum, where Aeneas’ father died. From there, they stumbled upon Dido’s city. Aeneas’ story is concluded.
Book IV
Dido’s love for Aeneas after being pierced by Cupid’s arrow has become all consuming. Venus and Juno conspire to get Dido and Aeneas to marry, thus forming a bond between the Trojans and the Tyrians. Dido and Aeneas become lovers, and though Dido considers them married, no formal ceremony actually took place.
The god Mercury comes down to Aeneas one day, to angrily remind him of his duty – to found a city for his son, not to marry Dido and stay in Carthage. Although he wishes to stay behind, Aeneas understands that he must obey the god, and he sets sail from Carthage. A distraught Dido, feeling betrayed, kills herself.
Book V
When a huge storm causes Aeneas to turn his ships away from Italy, the Trojans land instead at Sicily. Here they are greeted by Aeneas’ friend and ruler of the land Acestes. Aeneas remembers that it has been one year since his father died, and so he organises a funeral with sacrificial offerings and a day of games.
Juno, as deceitful and rancorous as ever, stirs a rioting nature in the hearts of the Sicilian women, who consequently burn the Trojan ships so that Aeneas and his men will be forced to settle in Sicily. When they see the rising flames, the Trojans pray to Jupiter to put out the fire, and he sends a storm which does so.
Aeneas now wonders if he should indeed stay at Sicily, but decides in the end to leave behind only the old or ill Trojans who do not wish to travel. His decision is supported by his father, who comes to him in a vision, telling him that before he reaches Latium – where he ominously predicts that a grave fight will take place – Aeneas must first journey to the Underworld to speak with him.
Aeneas and the Trojans set sail for Italy. The chapter concludes quite suddenly when one of the crew falls off the ship and dies while keeping watch during the night.
Book VI
Aeneas lands in Italy, and immediately makes for the Temple of Apollo to consult with a priestess. She forewarns a great battle and more dealings with Juno. Aeneas asks if he can take her to Dis (the Underworld) so he can meet with his father as instructed; after he finds a sign from the gods, she agrees to take him there.
While in Dis, Aeneas sees many people familiar to him, one of whom is the Trojan who fell from their ship in the night. He is waiting at the river entrance to the Underworld, denied a crossing because he has not yet been buried. He asks Aeneas personally to find his body where it has washed up on the Italian shoreline and to give him a proper burial.
Next, Aeneas finds Dido in the Fields of Mourning. He tries to better explain his reasons for leaving Carthage, but she refuses to engage with him and eventually runs off. The priestess and Aeneas pass Rhadamanthus, who reads out the terrible punishments of sinners such as Prometheus. Finally, Aeneas finds his father, who explains to him how the roles of the dead and the reincarnated work in Dis. He also prophesies the founding of Rome by Romulus, its peak golden age, and the coming of a great and noble Caesar. Aeneas leaves Dis, and prepares his ships and men for the next stage of their journey.
Book VII
The Trojans arrive at a place near Latium, which is ruled by King Latinus. Latinus has a daughter, Lavinia, who is desired by many, but the king was once instructed by an oracle to marry her to a foreigner, not a Latin man.
When they arrive, the Trojans settle down to eat. One of them jokes that they’ve eaten the tables, as they were using slabs of bread as tables. This prompts Aeneas to remember a prophecy he heard: that when they eat the tables, they will found a city where they’re sitting. Aeneas resolves to stay here, to found Rome. He asks Latinus for some of his land, and Latinus agrees, with the added promise of his daughter Lavinia’s hand in marriage.
But Juno is not finished with the Trojans. If she cannot stave off their arrival at Italy forever, she will at least attempt to delay the founding of Rome. She stirs anger in the heart of Turnus, a Latin man who is in love with Lavinia, and causes him to rally up a huge army to fight against the Trojans.
Book VIII
Aeneas travels up the River Tiber to ask the Acadian king Evander to be his ally in the war against Turnus. Evander agrees to send troops to Aeneas’ army. Meanwhile, Venus’ husband Vulcan crafts divine armour and a huge shield for their son Aeneas, decorated with famous battle scenes.
Book IX
Juno informs Turnus that Aeneas has left camp to visit Evander, and urges him to attack now while the Trojans are leaderless. The Trojans spot the Latins advancing and hide, armed. Turnus sets fire to their ships in order to get them to come out, but the mother of Jupiter, Cybele, extinguishes the fire and turns the fleet into sea nymphs. Turnus ignores this sign.
During the night, two of Aeneas’ men, Euryalus and Nisus, venture into the sleeping Latin camp, ostensibly to spy and bring news of Turnus’ plan. But they seem to get carried away with themselves and begin gruesomely slaughtering high ranking Latin soldiers. On the way home the next morning, the two Trojans are caught and killed by Turnus’ soldiers after Euryalus took the helmet of a Latin he had killed – the soldiers saw the helmet glinting in the light, and pounced upon the Trojans.
The Latin soldiers back at camp attack the Trojans. Turnus is almost killed, but manages to jump from a tower they are ambushing into the River Tiber. He floats downstream back to the Latin camp.
Book X
Jupiter calls a council of the gods to discuss the battle that is happening in Italy. Venus blames Juno for the endless conflicts between Aeneas and almost anyone else he happens upon; Juno retaliates, and Jupiter, tired of their arguing, says he will remain neutral, and leave it to the free human will of the men below to settle the battle.
Meanwhile, one of the greatest Trojan fighters and son of Evander, Pallas, engages in one-on-one combat with Turnus. Turnus kills Pallas, gruesomely. Aeneas wants to avenge Pallas’ death and so he goes charging after Turnus. But Juno begs Jupiter to allow her to spare Turnus from Aeneas’ wrath; Jupiter consents, and Juno creates a vision of Aeneas which Turnus chases onto a ship nearby. Before the real Aeneas can reach the ship, Juno cuts its moors to the shore and it floats away, carrying Turnus with it.
The Latin fighter Mezentius takes up Turnus’ command, but is quickly killed by Aeneas. The Trojans have won.
Book XI
Aeneas brings Pallas’ dead body to Evander, so they can mourn together. Turnus’ Latin army request a brief ceasefire so that both sides can bury their dead; Aeneas agrees, and the Latins privately think to themselves that if Aeneas and Turnus were to have a one-to-one duel, the war could quickly be over. Before they can discuss this deeply, a messenger arrives with news that the Trojans are advancing upon them. The Latins scramble to their posts, where they are joined by the infamous warrior Camilla, who proves to be one of the greatest fighters present. However, she is eventually killed, and the Latins lose heart and begin to retreat. Turnus is called back to the city from where he had been fighting further out in the surrounding area. Next to him rides Aeneas, who is also returning to the Trojan camp. Perhaps oddly, they travel alongside each other peacefully and reach their camps without delay.
Book XII
The Latins and Trojans devise a “peace” treaty, while simlutaneously agreeing that Aeneas and Turnus should fight a duel to settle the battle. Juno sends Turnus’ sister, Juturna, to protect Turnus at all costs, because Juno believes Aeneas would beat him in a duel. Juturna comes to the Latins disguised as a high ranking soldier, and encourages them to break the treaty. Fighting breaks out once more and Aeneas is shot by an arrow.
Aeneas’ arrow wound is treated by his goddess mother Venus, and he reappears on the battlefield to fight with Turnus. Juno tells Jupiter that she will allow Aeneas to win so long as his new city speaks the Latin language. Aeneas defeats Turnus, considers sparing him, and then sees the belt of Pallas which Turnus donned in hubris after killing him. Enraged, Aeneas kills Turnus.
Analysis
When reading the Aeneid, it is important to consider an interesting historical and contextual question: is the Aeneid a pro- or anti-Augustan poem? That is, is Virgil trying to promote the ideology of the Emperor Augustus, or to undermine it?
Historians who attempt to answer this question are often divided into two groups: those of the Harvard school of thought, and those of the European school. The former group of historians generally believe that the Aeneid is a pro-Augustun poem, while the European scholars believe it is typically anti-Augustun. (The European/Harvard categorisation is assigned to historians regardless of where they come from.)
There are plenty of arguments to support either theory. For example, the fact that one of Virgil’s literary patrons was one of Augustus’ most trusted advisors may suggest that Virgil was very pro-Augustan. Historians of the Harvard school also consider the fact that Emperor Augustus claimed descent from Aeneas as proof of his positive relation with Virgil.
One scholar of the Harvard school, Brooks Otis, cited Book 6 of the Aeneid as proof that Virgil’s epic was pro-Augustun. In Book 6, Aeneas travels to the Underworld (much like Odysseus does in the Odyssey). Otis argues that Aeneas entered the Underworld still very much wallowing in his past, and generally unprepared for the founding of a great city. Otis believes that he emerges from the kingdom of Dis (the Roman equivalent of Hades) much awakened and looking to the future: i.e. having taken the advice of his father, who told him to be wise and merciful, and ready to found the Rome which Augustus will only come to greaten.
However, Anthony Boyle of the European school argues the very opposite. He believes that his trip to the Underworld had no effect on Aeneas at all. Boyle argues that the Sybil, who guides Aeneas through Dis’ kingdom, only serves to distract Aeneas so that he couldn’t learn anything from his visit if he tried. According to Boyle, this shows that the dream of Rome will never come true, either by Aeneas or by Augustus, because Aeneas is still stuck in his past and not looking to his goals.
In Book 8 of the Aeneid, Venus asks her husband Vulcan to forge their son Aeneas a shield to take into battle. Vulcan decorates the shield with battle depictions and scenes from the history of Rome, including pictures of Romulus and Remus suckling on the she-wolf, and Augustus’ victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. However, the shield also depicts some less pro-Augustun (or indeed, less pro-Roman) scenes, such as the rape of the Sabine women and other cruel and brutal events that make up an integral part of Roman history. Therefore, it is unclear, from Aeneas’ shield, whether Virgil is praising Augustus or scorning the society he helped to build.
Dr. Sharon Marshall, whose Massolit course on the Aeneid I have been watching, argues that Virgil’s opinions on Augustus are probably not as clear cut as this. However, she leans towards a more anti-Augustun reading of the epic. To support her theory she points to the ending of Book 6, which finishes with the tragic character Marcellus. Marcellus was related to Augustus and symbolises not the magnificence of Rome, but, Virgil implies, the magnificence that might have been.
Book 4 of the Aeneid focuses on the relationship between Queen Dido of Carthage and Aeneas, and it raises a question over the nature of their relationship and whether Dido can be blamed for the tragedies that would ensue.
The third of Aristotle’s five key components of a tragedy is that the conflict between the two characters in question should be caused by an external factor. There is no disputing that the conflict between the love-stricken Dido and Aeneas were caused externally: had it not been arranged by the gods for Dido to fall in love with Aeneas, none of the tragedies that followed their brief time together would have occurred. The fourth of Aristotle’s components claims that the the hero or heroine in question should make a fatal mistake, the punishment for which should be greater than they deserve. Virgil implies that Dido’s mistake was in believing that she and Aeneas were married: this belief is the root cause of her suffering, as she thinks that Aeneas has betrayed their marriage by leaving for Italy. However, no official marriage ceremony ever took place. In addition, Aeneas did tell her about what the gods had planned for him, so theoretically, she should have known that he wasn’t destined to be with her.
Another important point to consider is how crucial the character Aeneas was to Rome’s imperial destiny. Throughout the Aeneid, he is portrayed quite plainly as an agent of fate (“I don’t seek Italy of my own accord”; see also his despair at having to leave Dido, Book 4). This could be interpreted to mean that he was absolutely integral to Rome’s destiny, as without him the seeds of Rome would never have been sown, but one could also argue that this shows the needlessness of Aeneas as a character, for surely without him the gods would still have willed it that Rome came about somehow.
But the Romans themselves seemed to see the significance of Aeneas in their history. Julius Caesar claimed descent from Aeneas, and of course Romulus and Remus, essentially the founding fathers of Rome, were also directly descended from Aeneas.
In order to understand what is distinctive about Roman epic and what has simply been stolen from Greek poets, we can look at the works of Roman poets such as Ennius. Ennius, in his Annales, claimed a sense of obligation to Homer, but also made a point of giving his epic new Roman airs. In the Homeric epics, the Aeneid and the Annales, we see a familiar scene common to all four books: the wood-gathering scene, in which men gather wood for a funeral pyre after a gruesome battle. On the other hand, Ennius introduces themes of Roman glory and might and even downplays the accomplishments of Greece, where Homer, of course, does the very opposite.