The Aeneid

by Virgil

When Publius Vergilius Maro—Virgil in common usage—was born in 70 B.C., the Roman Republic was in its last days.

In 67 B.C. Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) was given an extraordinary, wide command to clear the Mediterranean, which the Romans claimed was “our sea”—mare nostrum—of the pirates who made commerce and travel dangerous.

Virgil died in 19 B.C. Octavian, who assumed the title of Augustus in 27 B.C., ruled what was now the Roman Empire until his death in A.D. 14, when he was succeeded peacefully by Tiberius.

In his comparatively short life Virgil became the supreme Roman poet; his work overshadowed that of his successors, and his epic poem, the Aeneid, gave Homeric luster to the story of Rome’s origins and its achievement—the creation of an empire that gave peace and the rule of law to all the territory surrounding the Mediterranean, to what are now Switzerland, France, and Belgium, and later to England.

Full Roman citizenship was finally granted to the inhabitants of the area by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C., when Virgil was already a young man.

Most of Italy was cultivated by slave labor on land owned by absentee landlords who lived in Rome.

he met Augustus in Athens on Augustus’ return from the East and was persuaded to return to Italy with him. However, passing from Athens to Corinth, at Megara Virgil contracted a fever, which grew worse during the voyage to Brundisium, where he died on September 21. He was buried near Naples, and on his tomb were inscribed verses that he is said to have composed himself: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces. Mantova gave me life, the Calabrians took it away, Naples holds me now; I sang of pastures, farms, and commanders. (trans. Knox)

The Aeneid, of course, is based on and often uses characters and incidents from the Homeric epics. In the Iliad Aeneas is an important warrior fighting on the Trojan side. He is the son of the love-goddess Aphrodite (Venus in the Roman pantheon) and Anchises, and he is often rescued from death at the hands of Greek warriors by divine intervention: from Diomedes by Aphrodite (Iliad 5.495

Unlike the Greeks whom they added to their empire, and admired for their artistic and literary skills, but who never acted as a united nation, not even when invaded by the forces of the Persian Empire in 480 B.C., the Romans had a profound sense of national unity, and the talents and virtues necessary for a race of conquerors and organizers, of empire-builders and rulers.

The Aeneid is to be Rome’s Iliad and Odyssey, and it derives also from Homer its picture of two different worlds, each with its own passions and actions.

As in Homer, the passions and actions of the gods affect the actions and passions of the heroes on earth.

Three goddesses, Juno, Athena, and Venus, disputed which was the most beautiful and finally decided on a beauty contest to be judged by Paris, a son of Priam, king of Troy.

Venus offered the love and the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta in Greece. He judges Venus the most beautiful, goes to Sparta, runs off to Troy with Helen, and the ten-year war begins. Juno never forgot this insult; it is mentioned at the beginning of Virgil’s poem, “the judgment of Paris, the unjust slight to her beauty” (1.34).

in medias res,

In a dream he sees his dead father, Anchises, who tells him he must go to the land of the dead, guided by the Sibyl, to meet him in Elysium, “the luminous fields where the true / and faithful gather” (5.814–15).

But Juno intervenes again—this is where she makes her famous proclamation: “if I cannot sway the heavens, I’ll wake the powers of hell!”

the almighty Father

And the mighty god, stirred to his depths, lifts his head from the crests 150 and serene in power, gazing out over all his realm, he sees Aeneas’ squadrons scattered across the ocean, Trojans overwhelmed by the surf and the wild crashing skies.

But first I had better set to rest the flood you ruffled so.

Power over the sea and ruthless trident is mine, not his—it’s mine by lot, by destiny.

Quicker than his command he calms the heaving seas, putting the clouds to rout and bringing back the sun.

Just as, all too often, some huge crowd is seized by a vast uprising, the rabble runs amok, all slaves to passion, rocks, firebrands flying. Rage finds them arms but then, if they chance to see a man among them, one whose devotion and public service lend him weight, 180 they stand there, stock-still with their ears alert as he rules their furor with his words and calms their passion.

fill themselves with seasoned wine and venison rich and crisp.

Aeneas most of all, devoted to his shipmates, 260 deep within himself he moans for the losses…

Surely from them the Romans would arise one day

Reaching Italy, he erected a city for his people, a Trojan home called Padua—gave them a Trojan name, hung up their Trojan arms and there, after long wars, he lingers on in serene and settled peace.

“But we, your own children, the ones you swore would hold the battlements of heaven—now our ships are lost, 300 appalling! We are abandoned, thanks to the rage of a single foe, cut off from Italy’s shores.

Aeneas will wage a long, costly war in Italy, crush defiant tribes and build high city walls for his people there and found the rule of law.

There, in turn, for a full three hundred years the dynasty of Hector will hold sway till Ilia, a royal priestess great with the brood of Mars, will bear the god twin sons. Then one, Romulus, 330 reveling in the tawny pelt of a wolf that nursed him, will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars and after his own name, call his people Romans.

On them I set no limits, space or time: I have granted them power, empire without end.

his kingdom will have no end.

these Romans, lords of the earth, the race arrayed in togas.

From that noble blood will arise a Trojan Caesar, his empire bound by the Ocean, his glory by the stars: Julius, a name passed down from Iulus, his great forebear.

allusion to a constructed past.

Vesta and silver-haired Good Faith 350 and Romulus flanked by brother Remus will make the laws.

So Venus asked and the son of Venus answered: “Not one of your sisters have I seen or heard… but how should I greet a young girl like you? Your face, your features—hardly a mortal’s looks and the tone of your voice is hardly human either.

Many a victim will fall before your altars, we’ll slaughter them for you!” But Venus replied: “Now there’s an honor I really don’t deserve.

Phoenician Dido is in command, she sailed from Tyre, in flight from her own brother.

Pygmalion,

the wealth Pygmalion craved

“Goddess, if I’d retrace our story to its start,

by chance, some whim of the winds, some tempest drove us onto Libyan shores. I am Aeneas, duty-bound.

My fame goes past the skies. 460 I seek my homeland—Italy—born as I am from highest Jove.

Venus could bear no more of his laments and broke in on his tale of endless hardship: 470 “Whoever you are, I scarcely think the Powers hate you: you enjoy the breath of life, you’ve reached a Tyrian city. So off you go now.

He knew her at once—his mother— and called after her now as she sped away: “Why, you too, cruel as the rest? So often you ridicule your son with your disguises! Why can’t we clasp hands, embrace each other, exchange some words, speak out, and tell the truth?”

Reproving her so, he makes his way toward town but Venus screens the travelers off with a dense mist, 500 pouring round them a cloak of clouds with all her power, so no one could see them, no one reach and hold them, cause them to linger now or ask why they had come.

But she herself, lifting into the air, wings her way toward Paphos, racing with joy to reach her home again where her temples stand and a hundred altars steam with Arabian incen...

The hive seethes with life, exhaling the scent of honey sweet with thyme.

And on he goes, cloaked in cloud—remarkable—right in their midst he blends in with the crowds, and no one sees him.

Here Dido of Tyre was building Juno a mighty temple, rich with gifts and the goddess’ aura of power.

all at once he sees, spread out from first to last, the battles fought at Troy, the fame of the Trojan War now known throughout the world,

Dido replies with a few choice words of welcome: “Cast fear to the winds, Trojans, free your minds. Our kingdom is new. Our hard straits have forced me to set defenses, station guards along our far frontiers.