Synopsis – Aeneid Summary

In keeping with the style of the epics of Homer, the poem begins with an invocation to the
poet’s Muse, and an explanation of the principal conflict of the early part of plot, which stems
from the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people.

The action begins with the Trojan fleet, led by Aeneas, in the eastern Mediterranean, heading
towards Italy on a voyage to find a second home, in accordance with the prophecy
that Aeneas will give rise to a noble and courageous race in Italy, which is destined to become
known throughout the world.

The goddess Juno, however, is still wrathful at being overlooked by the judgment of Paris in
favour of Aeneas‘s mother, Venus, and also because her favourite city, Carthage, is destined to
be destroyed by Aeneas‘ descendants, and because the Trojan prince Ganymede was chosen to
be the cup-bearer to the gods, replacing Juno’s own daughter, Hebe. For all these reasons, Juno
bribes Aeolus, god of the winds, with the offer of Deiopea (the loveliest of all the sea nymphs) as
a wife, and Aeolus releases the winds to stir up a huge storm, which devastates Aeneas’ fleet.

Although himself no friend of the Trojans, Neptune is infuriated by Juno’s intrusion into his
domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters, allowing the fleet to take shelter on the coast
of Africa, near Carthage, a city recently founded by Phoenician refugees from Tyre. Aeneas,
after encouragement from his mother, Venus, soon gains the favour of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

At a banquet in honour of the Trojans, Aeneas recounts the events which led upto their arrival,
beginning shortly after the events described in “The Iliad”. He tells of how the
crafty Ulysses (Odysseus in Greek) devised a plan for Greek warriors to gain entry into Troy by
hiding in a large wooden horse. The Greeks then pretended to sail away, leaving Sinon to tell the
Trojans that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be
able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest, Laocoön, saw through the Greek plot and urged the
horse’s destruction, but he and both his sons were attacked and eaten by two giant sea snakes in
an apparently divine intervention.

The Trojans brought the wooden horse inside the city walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks
emerged and began to slaughter the city’s inhabitants. Aeneas valiantly tried to fight off the
enemy, but he soon lost his comrades and was was advised by his mother, Venus, to flee with his
family. Although his wife, Creusa, was killed in the melée, Aeneas managed to escape with his
son, Ascanius, and his father, Anchises. Rallying the other Trojan survivors, he built a fleet of
ships, making landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean, notably Aenea in Thrace,
Pergamea in Crete and Buthrotum in Epirus. Twice they attempted to build a new city, only to be
driven away by bad omens and plagues. They were cursed by the Harpies (mythical creatures
that are part woman and part bird), but they also unexpectedly encountered friendly countrymen.

In Buthrotum, Aeneas met Hector’s widow, Andromache, as well as Hector‘s brother, Helenus,
who had the gift of prophecy. Helenus prophesied that Aeneas should seek out the land of Italy
(also known as Ausonia or Hesperia), where his descendants would not only prosper, but in time
would come to rule the entire known world. Helenus also advised him to visit the Sibyl in
Cumae, and Aeneas and his fleet set off towards Italy, making first landfall in Italy at Castrum
Minervae. However, on rounding Sicily and making for the mainland, Juno raised up a storm
which drove the fleet back across the sea to Carthage in North Africa, thus bringing Aeneas’
story up to date.

Through the machinations of Aeneas’ mother Venus, and her son, Cupid, Queen Dido of
Carthage falls madly in love with Aeneas, even though she had previously sworn fidelity to her
late husband, Sychaeus (who had been murdered by her brother Pygmalion). Aeneas is inclined
to return Dido‘s love, and they do become lovers for a time. But, when Jupiter sends Mercury to
remind Aeneas of his duty and his destiny, he has no choice but to leave Carthage. Heart-
broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself on a funeral pyre with Aeneas’ own sword,
predicting in her death throes eternal strife between Aeneas’ people and hers. Looking back from
the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees the smoke of Dido‘s funeral pyre and knows its meaning only
too clearly. However, destiny calls him, and the Trojan fleet sails on towards Italy.

They return to Sicily to hold funeral games in honour of Aeneas’ father, Anchises, who had died
before Juno’s storm blew them off course. Some of the Trojan women, tired of the seemingly
endless voyage, begin to burn the ships, but a downpour puts the fires out. Aeneas is
sympathetic, though, and some of the travel-weary are allowed to stay behind in Sicily.

Eventually, the fleet lands on the mainland of Italy, and Aeneas, with the guidance of the Sibyl
of Cumae, descends into the underworld to speak with the spirit of his father, Anchises. He is
given a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome, which helps him to better understand the
importance of his mission. On returning to the land of the living, at the end of Book
VI, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle in the land of Latium, where he is welcomed and begins to
court Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus.

The second half of the poem begins with the break out of war between the Trojans and the
Latins. Although Aeneas has tried to avoid war, Juno had stirred up trouble by convincing Queen
Amata of the Latins that her daughter Lavinia should be married to a local suitor, Turnus, the
king of the Rutuli, and not Aeneas, thus effectively ensuring war. Aeneas goes to seek military
support among the neighbouring tribes who are also enemies of Turnus, and Pallas, son of King
Evander of Arcadia, agrees to lead troops against the other Italians. However, while the Trojan
leader is away, Turnus sees his opportunity to attack, and Aeneas returns to find his countrymen
embroiled in battle. A midnight raid leads to the tragic deaths of Nisus and his companion
Euryalus, in one of the most emotional passages in the book.

In the battle that follows, many heroes are killed, notably Pallas, who is killed by Turnus;
Mezentius (Turnus’ friend, who had inadvertently allowed his son to be killed while he himself
fled), who is killed by Aeneas in single combat; and Camilla, a sort of Amazon character devoted
to the goddess Diana, who fights bravely but is eventually killed, which leads to the man who
killed her being struck dead by Diana’s sentinel, Opis.
A short-lived truce is called and a hand-to-hand duel is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus in
order to spare any further unnecessary carnage. Aeneas would have easily won, but the truce is
broken first and full-scale battle resumes. Aeneas is injured in the thigh during the fighting, but
he returns to the battle shortly afterwards.

When Aeneas makes a daring attack on the city of Latium itself (causing Queen Amata to hang
herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In a dramatic scene, Turnus’
strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and he is struck by Aeneas‘ spear in the leg.
Turnus begs on his knees for his life, and Aeneas is tempted to spare him until he sees that
Turnus is wearing the belt of his friend Pallas as a trophy. The poem ends with Aeneas, now in a
towering rage, killing Turnus.

Analysis – What is the Aeneid about Back to Top of Page

The pious hero Aeneas was already well known in Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been
a major character in Homer’s “The Iliad”, in which Poseidon first prophesies that Aeneas will
survive the Trojan War and assume leadership over the Trojan people. But Vergil took the
disconnected tales of Aeneas‘ wanderings and his vague mythical association with the
foundation of Rome and fashioned them into a compelling foundation myth or nationalist epic. It
is notable that Vergil chooses a Trojan, and not a Greek, to represent the heroic past of Rome,
even though Troy lost the war to the Greeks, and this may reflect a Roman uncomfortableness
with talking about the glories of Greece’s past, in case they might seems to eclipse the glories of
Rome itself. Through his epic tale, then, Vergil at once manages to tie Rome to the heroic
legends of Troy, to glorify traditional Roman virtues, and to legitimize the Julio-Claudian
dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.

Vergil borrowed heavily from Homer, wishing to create an epic worthy of, and even to surpass,
the Greek poet. Many contemporary scholars hold that Vergil‘s poetry pales in comparison
to Homer‘s, and does not possess the same originality of expression. However, most scholars
agree that Vergil distinguished himself within the epic tradition of antiquity by representing the
broad spectrum of human emotion in his characters as they are subsumed in the historical tides of
dislocation and war.

“The Aeneid” can be divided into two halves: Books 1 to 6 describe Aeneas‘ journey to Italy,
and Books 7 to 12 cover the war in Italy. These two halves are commonly regarded as
reflecting Vergil‘s ambition to rival Homer by treating both the wandering theme of “The
Odyssey” and the warfare theme of “The Iliad”.

It was written in a time of major political and social change in Rome, with the recent fall of the
Republic and the Final War of the Roman Republic (in which Octavian decisively defeated the
forces of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra) having torn through society, and the faith of many
Romans in the greatness of Rome was seen to be severely faltering. The new emperor, Augustus
Caesar, however, began to institute a new era of prosperity and peace, specifically through the
re-introduction of traditional Roman moral values, and “The Aeneid” can be seen as purposely
reflecting this aim. Vergil finally felt some hope for the future of his country, and it was the deep
gratitude and admiration he felt for Augustus that inspired him to write his great epic poem.

In addition, it attempts to legitimize the rule of Julius Caesar (and by extension, the rule of his
adopted son, Augustus, and his heirs) by renaming Aeneas‘ son, Ascanius, (originally known as
Ilus, after Ilium, another name for Troy), as Iulus, and putting him forward as an ancestor of the
family of Julius Caesar and his imperial descendants. In the epic, Vergil repeatedly foreshadows
the coming of Augustus, perhaps in an attempt to silence critics who claimed that he achieved
power through violence and treachery, and there are many parallels between Aeneas‘ actions and
Augustus’. In some respects, Vergil worked backward, connecting the political and social
situation of his own day with the inherited tradition of the Greek gods and heroes, in order to
show the former as historically derived from the latter.

Like other classical epics, “The Aeneid” is written in dactylic hexameter, with each line having
six feet made up of dactyls (one long syllable and two shorts) and spondees (two long syllables).
It also incorporates to great effect all the usual poetic devices, such as alliteration, onomatopoeia,
synecdoche and assonance.

Although the writing of “The Aeneid” is generally highly polished and complex in nature,
(legend has it that Vergil wrote only three lines of the poem each day), there are a number of
half-complete lines. That, and its rather abrupt ending, is generally seen as evidence
that Vergil died before he could finish the work. Having said that, because the poem was
composed and preserved in writing rather than orally, the text of “The Aeneid” that has come
down to us is actually more complete than most classical epics.

Another legend suggests that Vergil, fearing that he would die before he had properly revised the
poem, gave instructions to friends (including the Emperor Augustus) that “The Aeneid” should
be burned on his death, partly due to its unfinished state and partly because he had apparently
come to dislike one of the sequences in Book VIII, in which Venus and Vulcan have sexual
intercourse, which he saw as non-conformity to Roman moral virtues. He supposedly planned to
spend up to three years editing it, but fell ill while returning from a trip to Greece and, just before
his death in September 19 BCE, he ordered that the manuscript of “The Aeneid” be burned as he
still considered it unfinished. In the event of his death, though, Augustus himself ordered that
these wishes be disregarded, and the poem was published after only very minor modifications.

The main overall theme of “The Aeneid” is that of opposition. The main opposition is that
of Aeneas (as guided by Jupiter), representing the ancient virtue of “pietas” (considered the key
quality of any honorable Roman, incorporating reasoned judgment, piety and duty towards the
gods, the homeland and the family), as against Dido and Turnus (who are guided by Juno),
representing unbridled “furor” (mindless passion and fury). However, there are several other
oppositions within “The Aeneid”, including: fate versus action; male versus female; Rome
versus Carthage; “Aeneas as Odysseus” (in Books 1 to 6) versus “Aeneas as Achilles” (in Books
7 to 12); calm weather versus storms; etc.
The poem emphasizes the idea of a homeland as one’s source of identity, and the Trojans’ long
wanderings at sea serve as a metaphor for the kind of wandering that is characteristic of life in
general. A further theme explores the bonds of family, particularly the strong relationship
between fathers and sons: the bonds between Aeneas and Ascanius, Aeneas and Anchises,
Evander and Pallas, and between Mezentius and Lausus are all worthy of note. This theme also
reflects Augustan moral reforms and was perhaps intended to set an example for Roman youth.

In the same way, the poem advocates the acceptance of the workings of the gods as fate,
particularly stressing that the gods work their ways through humans. The direction and
destination of Aeneas’ course are preordained, and his various sufferings and glories over the
course of the poem merely postpone this unchangeable destiny. Vergil is trying to impress on his
Roman audience that, just as the gods used Aeneas to found Rome, they are now using Augustus
to lead it, and it is the duty of all good citizens to accept this situation.

Aeneas’s character throughout the poem is defined by his piety (he is repeatedly referred to as
“pious Aeneas”) and the subordination of personal desire to duty, perhaps best exemplified by
his abandonment of Dido in the pursuit of his destiny. His behaviour is particularly contrasted
with Juno’s and Turnus’ in this regard, as those characters fight fate every step of the way (but
ultimately lose out).

The figure of Dido in the poem is a tragic one. Once the dignified, confident and competent ruler
of Carthage, resolute in her determination to preserve the memory of her dead husband, Cupid’s
arrow causes her to risk everything by falling for Aeneas, and she finds herself unable to
reassume her dignified position when this love fails. As a result, she loses the support of the
citizens of Carthage and alienates the local African chieftains who had previously been suitors
(and now pose a military threat). She is a figure of passion and volatility, starkly contrasted with
the order and control represented by Aeneas (traits that Vergil associated with Rome itself in his
own day), and her irrational obsession drives her to a frenzied suicide, which has struck a chord
with many subsequent writers, artists and musicians.

Turnus, another of Juno’s protégés who must eventually perish in order for Aeneas to fulfill his
destiny, is a counterpart to Dido in the second half of the poem. Like Dido, he represents the
forces of irrationality in contrast to Aeneas‘ pious sense of order and, whereas Dido is undone by
her romantic desire, Turnus is doomed by his unrelenting rage and pride. Turnus refuses to
accept the destiny Jupiter has decreed for him, stubbornly interpreting all the signs and omens to
his own advantage rather than seeking their true meaning. Despite his desperate desire to be a
hero, Turnus’ character changes in the last few battle scenes, and we see him gradually lose
confidence as he comes to understand and accept his tragic fate.

Some have found so-called “hidden messages” or allegories within the poem, although these are
largely speculative and highly contested by scholars. One example of these is the passage in
Book VI where Aeneas exits the underworld through the “gate of false dreams”, which some
have interpreted as implying that all of Aeneas’ subsequent actions are somehow “false” and, by
extension, that the history of the world since the foundation of Rome is but a lie. Another
example is the rage and fury Aeneas exhibits when he kills Turnus at the end of Book XII, which
some see as his final abandonment of “pietas” in favour of “furor”. Some claim
that Vergil meant to change these passages before he died, while others believe that their
strategic locations (at the very end of each half of the overall poem) are evidence
that Vergil placed them there quite purposefully.

“The Aeneid” has long been considered a fundamental member of the Western canon of
literature, and it has been highly influential on subsequent works, attracting both imitations as
well as parodies and travesties. There have been numerous translations over the years into
English and many other languages, including an important English translation by the 17th
Century poet John Dryden, as well as 20th Century versions by Ezra Pound, C. Day Lewis, Allen
Mandelbaum, Robert Fitzgerald, Stanley Lombardo and Robert Fagles.