Aeneid
The Aeneid (Latin, Aeneis) is a Latin epic written by the Roman poet Virgil in the I a. C. It was commissioned by Emperor Augustus in order to glorify the Empire by attributing a mythical origin to it. Virgil produced a rewriting, rather than a continuation, of the Homeric poems, taking the Trojan War and the destruction of that city as his starting point, and presenting the founding of Rome in the manner of the Greek myths.
Virgil worked on this work from the year 29 a. C. until the end of his days (19 BC). It is often said that Virgil, on his deathbed, ordered the burning of the Aeneid because he considered that the work had not yet reached the perfection sought.
Formal characteristics
The work, of almost 10,000 dactylic hexameters, is divided into 12 books that in turn can be grouped into two parts:
- Books I to VI, in which, in imitation of the Odyssey, the travels of Eneas are narrated until they reach Italy.
- Books VII to XII, in which, in imitation of the Iliad and Trojan Cycle, the conquests of Eneas are narrated in Italy.
Virgil uses literary figures such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and synecdoche; he also uses similes, personifications and other metaphors, frequently to provide the passages with tension and dramatic force.
As in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the narrative of the Aeneid begins in medias res, in this case with the Trojan fleet in the western part of the Mediterranean and heading for Italy.
Models from which the work is based
It is said that, even more than an imitation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Virgil raised a kind of competition with Homer. Thus, compared to the 24 songs of which each of the Homeric epics is made up, the Aeneid is made up of 12. Parallels can be found, with their corresponding oppositions, between the two Greek works and this other Latin one:
- Return or nostrilsmore like the Odyssey and the first half of the Eneida.
- In the Latin work, the return is not that of a hero to his home, but that of a people to one of the places of origin of the stirpe of some or some of his heroes, place determined by divine choice and that the heroes will find out. In mythical chronology, the journey of the literary Eneas would coincide in time with the nostoi Greeks. Like in the OdysseyIn the Eneida There is a deity that opposes the hero to reach his destiny (Poseidon in the Greek poem and Juno in the Latin), other deities that join with it, others that help the hero (some, having it as its protected: Athena protects Odysseus; Venus protects Eneas), changes in alliances and deities that do not take a party.
- The justification of the war between two peoples with mythical motives and love and dismay.
- In the Iliadand in general in the Trojan Cycle, is presented as a human cause of the immediate, contemporary or recent war the despect of Menelaus for the abandonment of which is subject by Helena, although this will be explained by matters of the gods. In the EneidaAs a human cause of future wars, Dido's suspicion is presented by the abandonment that is subject by Eneas, and such abandonment must also be explained by divine intrigues.
Virgil's poem is also compared to the Argonauticas of Apollonius, and it is easy that the Roman poet had Varro's Latin translation in mind. Also in this case, there are similarities and differences between one work and the other in various aspects, beginning with the love of Dido and Aeneas and those of Jason and Medea.
The most important Latin models used by Virgil for the composition of the Aeneid and for the contrast with them are the Punic War (Poenicum Bellum ) of Nevio and, above all, the Annales (Annales) of Ennius, the great classic of Roman epic at that time. In various passages of the Aeneid others from Ennius's poem are quoted, sometimes literally.
History of composition
Already in the Georgics, Virgil announced his intention to write an epic:
Soon, however, I will prepare to sing the burning battles
of Caesar and to carry the fame of his name to so many ages
those that have elapsed since he had in Titon his first origin.mox tamen ardentis accingar dicere
Caesaris et nomen fame tot ferre per annos,
Tithoni prima quot abest ab originates Caesar.Georgicon, III, 46-48.
Augusto was very interested in the composition of a work of these characteristics, and he asked the poet for it.
In principle, Virgilio intended to write it in prose, but later he decided on verse and, specifically, on dactylic hexameters. During the elaboration of the songs, he made several public readings to test their sound and the effect they had on the public. He had set out to forge a poem abundant in detail and with a high degree of quality.
It maintains the tradition that Virgil read Cantos II, IV and VI to Augustus and his sister Octavia, and that the mention of Marcellus in Canto VI caused Octavia to faint.
Also according to tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece around the year 19 BC. C. to review the Aeneid. After meeting Augustus in Athens and later making the decision to return home, he paid a visit to a city near Megara, where he caught a fever. Later, during the voyage, he weakened, and died in the port of Brundisium (Brindisi) on September 21 of that same year, having expressed his wish that the manuscript of the Aeneid be burned for to be unfinished and because he disliked one of the passages of Canto VIII: in it, Venus and Vulcan have carnal enjoyment together, which was not considered in accordance with Roman morality. After the author's death, Augustus forbade his literary executors, Lucio Vario Rufo and Plotio Tuca, to comply with this last wish, and ordered that the work be published with as little modification as was acceptable.
The work, being incomplete, presents verses that do not make up the dactylic hexameter: some consist of a single hemistich. In addition, since Augustus had ordered that the modification to be made be minimal, it is not easy to distinguish the work of the poets who gave it the form that is known.
Plot
Summary
Aeneas, prince of Dardania, flees from Troy when the city was taken by the Achaean army. Among his people, his father (Anchises) and his son (Ascanio) go with him. In the confusion of her flight, Aeneas loses her wife, Creúsa, for which he returns from her and calls her among the ruins of the city. This one of hers is present in the form of her apparition and asks her not to shed any more tears for her, since her destiny has assigned her another consort of royal blood (The Aeneid, Book II).
Juno, wife of Jupiter, still bitter against all the Trojan lineage, tries to divert the surviving fleet from its inevitable destination: Italy.
Aeneas' pilgrimages last for seven years, until, when the last one arrived, he is welcomed into the emerging kingdom of Carthage, ruled by Dido (also called Elisa of Tyre). By a ruse of Venus and Cupid, Dido falls madly in love with Aeneas and, after the latter's departure by order of Jupiter, she takes her own life, first cursing the entire lineage of Aeneas and crying out for the rise of an avenging hero: of In this way, the picture is created that justifies the eternal enmity between two peoples, that of Carthage and that of Rome, which would lead to the Punic wars.
On the way to Italy, the soul of his father Anchises appears to Aeneas and asks him to go see him in Avernus: Aeneas relents and, accompanied by the Sibyl of Cumae, tours the kingdoms of Pluto, and Anchises shows him all the glory and pomp of his future lineage: the Romans.
When the Trojans finally arrived in Italy, King Latinus received them peacefully, and, remembering that an ancient prophecy said that his daughter Lavinia would marry a foreigner, he decided to ally himself with Aeneas and give Lavinia as his wife.
Unhinged by the Furies, Turnus, king of the Rutulians and Lavinia's cousin and suitor, declares war on Aeneas. The two armies acquire allies and face off fiercely, the Trojans aided by Venus and the Rutulians by Juno, without Jupiter intervening. Deaths ensue on both sides and eventually Aeneas kills Turnus.
Book I
Juno, aware of the glorious destiny that awaits the Trojans, since they will have to found the Roman Empire, tries to prevent them from reaching Italy. For this, she asks Aeolus to use her winds to shipwreck the fugitives, and in exchange she offers him as a wife one of the nymphs of her own entourage: Deyopea (Δηιόπεια), the one with the most beautiful body. Aeolus, although he does not accept the bribe, does agree to help Juno, and the Trojans end up dispersing into the sea. Upon learning of this, Neptune takes it as an insult, since the sea is his domain, and helps the Trojans to reach the beaches of Libya, but they do not arrive all together, but in two groups separated by the storm.
Meanwhile, Venus, mother of Aeneas, appears in the form of a Spartan virgin and with a huntress appearance very similar to that of the goddess Diana as well, and informs them that the lands they are on belong to Queen Dido Pygmalion, Dido's brother, had had Sichaeus, their uncle and her husband, killed. Dido fled, bought some land, and founded a city there.
Aeneas goes to the city and, when he arrives, he sees the companions from whom the sea had separated them. Arrived in that land, they had asked the queen for hospitality and to help them find her leader. When this one appears, Dido welcomes him along with the rest of the Trojans.
Intending Dido to treat Aeneas well, Venus asks her son Cupid to take the form of his maternal nephew Ascanius, supplant him, and instill in the queen a love for the Trojan, and Cupid agrees. Venus puts her grandson Ascanio to sleep and takes him to Idalion, her place of worship.
As requested by her mother, Cupid instills in Dido a passionate love for Aeneas and a maternal love for Ascanius, whom he himself supplants. But Dido swore to her husband never to marry again.
During the banquet in honor of the newcomers and their meeting with their countrymen, Dido asks Aeneas to recount their misfortunes.
Book II
Books II and III are stories within stories. Aeneas, at Dido's request, recounts the fall and sack of Troy (Book II) and the tribulations suffered by himself and his people since that event (Book III).
The Trojan recounts almost immediate events that are referred to at the end of the Iliad. Aeneas' account of the capture of Troy opens with the episode of the horse: Ulysses, along with other Greek soldiers, hides on a wooden horse "high as a mountain" (instar montis equum), while the rest of the Greek troops hide on the island of Tenedos, opposite Troy. The Trojans, ignorant of the deception, understand that the Greeks have fled and bring the horse into their city. They think that it is an offering to the gods, despite Laocoon's warnings, that he is killed with his two sons by two sea monsters. When night falls, Ulysses and his men get off the horse and open the city gates for the other Greeks to enter, and together they subject Troy to fire and terror. At the time of the assault, Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream, announces the end of Troy and orders him to save the Penates and to flee.
The noises of the combat end up waking Aeneas, who, seeing his city on fire and at the mercy of the Greeks, decides at first to fight with his companions to the death. He visits King Priam's palace and witnesses the death of his son, Polites, at the hands of Pyrrhus, who then beheads Priam.
In the midst of the chaos, Aeneas sees Helen and, full of anger, prepares to punish the culprit of the war. Venus, mother of Aeneas, appears to him and orders him to restrain himself: the real culprits are the gods, not Helen. Venus then sends Aeneas to find his family and the Penate gods.
Aeneas searches for and finds his father Anchises and his son Ascanius. At first, Anchises is reluctant to leave, until a divine omen convinces him. They then escape from the burning city. Having lost sight of her wife, Creusa, who has been taken from her by Venus and then yet another victim of slaughter, Aeneas returns to Troy in search of her. Finally, after the shadow of Creusa appeared to him and it was revealed to him by her that her destiny is the founding of Rome, Aeneas returned with his people to the outskirts of Troy, and there he prepared what was necessary for her departure.
Book III
Aeneas flees with his people to the city of the Thracians, who were his friends. Having disembarked there, Aeneas wants to fulfill his intention to found the new city on that land. To light the sacrificial bonfire, they take branches from a bush, and these begin to bleed. Aeneas is in front of the tumulus of Polidoro, and the branches are the spears that Polymestor used to kill him. A voice sounds from inside the mound: it is that of the shadow of Polydorus, who warns the Trojans that the king of Thrace is in favor of the Greeks. The travelers then decide to leave that contaminated place.
Aeneas and his people then go to the court of King Anio, in Delos. There they come to know from the oracles of Apollo that they will have to search for the Ancient Mother (antiqua mater) and found a new city where their ancestors lived, from where their future generations will be the only rulers of the world.. Anchises thinks that the oracle refers to Crete, the place of worship of the goddess Cybele and the land where her ancestor Jupiter was born, and there they go.Arriving on the island, they found the city of Pergamum.
It is midsummer, a severe drought sets in, and men and beasts die. Anchises asks Aeneas to consult the oracle of Apollo again, although it will not be necessary, since the Penates, commanded by Apollo, will appear to Aeneas in a dream. From them he will learn of the resentment of the supreme god, that they are not allowed to stay and that the lands alluded to by the oracle of Apollo are those of Italy or Lazio. Anchises remembers that his ancestor Dárdano was born there, and they decide to travel to those places.
The fugitives put to sea, and must endure a three-day storm. On the fourth day, between the islands of the Ionian Sea, they arrive at the so-called Estrofades (Στροφάδες). They disembark in one of them and there they find unguarded herds, of small and large cattle. With some of them they offer sacrifices to Jupiter and begin the celebration. Harpies harass them by flying around the camp and dropping their droppings on the meat. Aeneas prepares a successful ambush for them, and when the creatures manage to escape, one of them, Celeno, predicts to the Trojan that, when they reach the land they are looking for, they will starve there.
The travelers leave the Strophades, then sail near Ithaca, the island of Ulysses, one of their worst enemies, and end up arriving at the beach of Accio. There they celebrate some games, and leave the shield of Abas, the captain of one of the ships, in the temple of Apollo.
Later, Aeneas learns that a son of Priam, Helenus, who has married Andromache, Hector's widow who after the death of the Trojan hero had been Pyrrhus' concubine, queen of Butrinthus, a nearby city, and there the Trojans go. They arrive at Butrinto at the beginning of winter, and see that it is a replica of Troy. Already welcomed, Helenus predicts to Aeneas that he will arrive in Italy, but that to enter it he will have to suffer a little, since Greeks live there. He tells him that he must also take care of Scylla and Charybdis, and advises him to implore the numen of Juno and to listen to the oracle of the Sibyl of Cumae.
Continuing their journey, the Trojans pass the Ceraunias Mountains. Before heading to Trinacia, they offer sacrifices to Juno and Minerva. Already near the coast of Trinacia, they see the plume of Etna.
Already in the Strait of Messina, for trying to avoid Scylla, they almost ended up decimated by Charybdis, but the whirlpool of the beast propels them out to sea, and thus, lost, they arrive at the shores of the Cyclops. There they find themselves with a Greek abandoned by Ulysses and his men: Achaemenides (Ἀχαιμενίδης), who asks them to take him with him and advises them to escape soon. The Cyclops prepare to attack them, but fail to reach them.
Having escaped from the Cyclopes, Achaemenides will lead the Trojans into Trinacia. They pass through Ortigia, and then through the port of Drépano, where Anchises dies.
Reporting these facts, Aeneas finishes telling the story to his hostess.
Book IV
Queen Dido, under the influence of Cupid, falls in love with the Trojan Aeneas, who is staying at her house in Carthage. The queen decides to share her feelings with her sister Anna, she tells her that she is in a dilemma, since she has fallen in love with the Trojan hero, but she continues to respect the memory of Siqueo, her deceased husband, died by fratricide (killed by her brother). Her sister encourages her to go ahead with her love, since in all the time that she had been a widow, she had rejected many of her suitors. Knowing this, Juno decides to ally with Venus to get Aeneas to fall in love with Dido, with the intention of diverting his route to the promised kingdom of Rome, making him stay in Carthage (Libya), along with Dido to always. Venus accepts Juno's complicity and they devise a plan so that both of them, alone, consume the hymen.
Aeneas and Dido go hunting. In the course of it, the goddesses send a great storm. Aeneas and Dido remain refugees in a cave, where the goddess's plan is carried out, with which they unite their two towns.
Fama (the rumor) operates, and news of the marriage reaches Iarbas, king of Numibia, and Dido's rejected suitor. This, enraged, begs Jupiter not to allow Aeneas to stay in those lands with Dido, since it was he who gave the land to the queen to rebuild the city. When Jupiter finds out, fearing that Aeneas will stop his journey, he sends Mercury to remind the Trojan that his destiny is to found Rome. Aeneas and Dido are already having a great city built when Mercury arrives to give him the message. The Trojan does not know how to tell the queen, so he decides to send Sergesto, Seresto and Mnesteo to prepare the fleet with stealth and secrecy. But Fame acts again, and Dido finds out what is happening. When he goes to reproach him and beg him to stay with Aeneas, he does not give in, since he defends himself by telling him about his future, decided by the gods. Dido is not satisfied with the intention of Aeneas, but allows his departure. He only asks his sister to convince him to set sail with a favorable wind and better weather conditions.
Dido's grief at Aeneas's departure causes her to consider committing suicide, as she wants neither to remarry the former suitors nor to follow the Trojan army to defeat them. He devises a secret plan with the help of a priestess who is an expert in love matters, but tricks her sister into believing that there is no danger for her life, but for Aeneas' belongings.
Mercury visits Aeneas again in a dream and hastens his departure, as he warns him of the dire consequences it could have. Aeneas listens to him and, in the middle of the night, he wakes up his soldiers and they leave immediately.
When Dido finds out, she begins her plan. He makes a large pyre with objects from Aeneas, all surrounded by altars and sacrifices. He climbs on her and sticks a sword under her chest, a sword given by Aeneas. In his death speech, he cries out for an avenger.
Aeneis, IV, 622-629.
Because of her cries and those of the maidens, her sister comes and sees her dying. She goes up to the pyre and laments that she had hidden her plans from him. Dido continues to die while her sister holds her in her arms washing her wound. Juno takes pity on her and sends Iris to cut the blonde hair that unites people with life. Thus, doing the work of Proserpina (Persephone, wife of Pluto, ruler of Hell), Iris complies with Juno's request and Dido dies in the arms of her sister. In its approach to female spite, it is one of the most intense and moving chapters of the work.
Book V
Having already set sail, Aeneas sees from the sea the flame that burns on the coast of Carthage, and he knows all too well what it is about.
The travelers try to go to Italy, but another storm breaks out and, when it calms down, they try to reach Trinacia again. Having reached Trinacia, the Trojans head to the lands of their friend Acestes, for whom they are well received.
One year after the death of Anchises, Aeneas has his funeral carried out. During the sacrifices, a snake eats the offerings from the altar. Not knowing if it is a bad creature or the genius of the place, Aeneas prefers to take it as a good omen.
Then Aeneas orders some games to be held. Cloanthus wins the rowing competition. In the race, Salio and Niso (Asio's brother) stumble, and then Euríalo wins, but all three receive prizes. In the fight, nobody wants to face Dares, until the old Entelo dares to do it and defeats him. In archery, Acestes wins. Later, Ascanio and his friends make a representation of the war.
Juno sends Iris again: this time to make the Trojan women want to travel no more. Taking Iris the form of the old Beroe, who has not come because she is sick, she addresses the Trojan women, who have been left apart from the games, she tells them that Cassandra has appeared to her in a dream and that she has told her that there is She has to burn the ships, since the objective of the trip has already been reached, and she fulfills the task by taking the women to burn the ships and starting the fire herself. Pyrgo, who was Priam's nurse, warns the others that Beroe has not come because she is sick, and that this other one is very similar to a goddess. Immediately, the messenger makes herself known by leaving there in the form of a rainbow. The Trojan women, excited, take the torch from Neptune's altar and begin to set fire to the boats.
The men and the boys see the flames, and Ascanio, the son of Aeneas, approaches with his mount and manages to reason and "get rid of Juno" to the arsonists.
Eumelo warns Aeneas, who quickly arrives at the place. Once there, Aeneas implores Jupiter, and he makes it start to rain.
Only four pieces of the fleet have been lost, but it is advisable to found a city for those who want to stay and refuse to continue the journey. Nautes, the oldest councilor, agrees.
Aeneas is still undecided, and that night his father Anchises appears to him in a dream, recommending that he do as Nautes says: in Latium it will be necessary to defeat a warlike people, so only the fittest should go for it. Anchises tells Aeneas that, so that he can give him more details of his fate, he will have to visit him in the underworld. To get there, Aeneas will first have to consult the Sibyl of Cumas and offer sacrifices.
The Trojans founded the city for those who did not want to continue the journey, and they named it Acestes. Finally, they set sail, and the women, who now wanted to go, bid them farewell with tears. Once again, travelers try to make their way to Italy.
Venus begs Neptune that the Trojans no longer suffer ills, and the sea god promises that they will reach the gates of Hell with just one less man:
a head for many will be givenunum pro multis dabitur caput
At midnight, everyone sleeps, even Palinuro, the helmsman, for which Somnus, the Dream, has taken care of. Palinuro and the rudder fall into the water, and the rest continue to sleep. The ship drifts, but Aeneas wakes up, takes Palinuro's position and corrects the course, and just in time, since the ship was already heading towards the domain of the Sirens.
Book VI
The Trojans arrive at the beaches of Cumae, and visit the cave of the Sibyl accompanied by the priestess Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucio. The Sibyl is possessed by Apollo, and Aeneas asks the god for his oracles and to allow the Trojans to settle in Lazio. Apollo predicts that battles will be fought over a woman, but that Aeneas will emerge victorious. The Trojan asks to be told how to enter hell. The Sibyl says that Aeneas will have to present a golden branch and that, in addition, he will first have to bury a friend of his, unburied until now.
Aeneas leaves the cave and finds out about the death of Misenum, so he orders their funerals. Venus then sends two doves to carry Aeneas to the tree where the golden branch is. Aeneas takes it and takes it to the cave of the Sibyl, which will then lead him to a forest.
They arrive in hell, and arrive at the current crossed by the ferryman Charon to take the souls to the other world. Aeneas sees Palinuro, who asks him to look for his body in the port of Velia and bury it so that his shadow can be admitted into Charon's boat. The sibyl objects, since doing so would be contrary to the established destiny, but Palinuro is promised that his own enemies will erect a cenotaph for him, and that a cape or promontory will bear his name.
To be taken away in Charon's boat, Aeneas and the Sibyl present him with the golden branch.
Already sailing, they see the cave of Cerberus, the judges of the dead and the weeping fields. Aeneas sees Dido, regrets what happened and asks for her forgiveness, but she does not respond. Aeneas also sees many souls of great warriors from other times, such as Deiphobo, who married Helen after Paris died.
After a while, the boat's passengers see a fork: a path leads to Pluto's palace; the other, to Tartarus. Afterwards, they arrive at the lucky woods, and there they look for Anchises.
After a nostalgic meeting, Anchises tells Aeneas that good souls, after a thousand years, lose their memory and are sent back to earth in other bodies. Anchises predicts the great lineage of Aeneas: his son Silvio (who will be born to him from his wife Lavinia), Camilo, César, Máximo, Serrano, Romano, Marcelo and others. He also tells her of the battles he is destined for, and how he will come out of them.
Aeneas then returns to where his friends await him by an ivory doorway from Dream. Immediately, they all go to the port of Cayeta.
Book VII
Finally, they head to the Lazio forest through which the Tiber River flows. He lives in those Latino lands, Amata's husband. Both are parents of Lavinia, who is betrothed to Turno, king of the Rutullians, although it has been predicted that she will not marry him, but a foreigner.
The Trojans have a meal, but are left hungry. Then, Aeneas remembers that it was predicted to him that, when that happened, the end of his evils would come. Aeneas sends a hundred emissaries to the court of King Latinus, who receives them. On behalf of Aeneas and relying on the oracles, Ilioneo asks Latinus for land where the Trojans can settle. Latinus recognizes in Aeneas the promised son-in-law, and asks the Trojans that his leader come to see him.
Meanwhile, Juno, intent on causing a war to harm the Trojans, sends Alecto to sow discord. With one of her snakes, Alecto injects the furies into Amata, and she confronts her husband so that she does not give Lavinia's hand to Aeneas, but to Turno. Seeing that Latino does not change his mind, Amata tries to side with the other women and hides Lavinia. Later, Alecto goes to Ardea, the city in which Turno reigns, and, to arouse in the monarch the hatred of Aeneas as a usurper, he plunges one of the serpents into him, full of fury. Turno then decides to confront Latino for Lavinia's hand.
Alecto then exerts his influence on the hunting dogs of Iulo (Ascanio), who lead their master after a deer owned by the Latino Tirreo. When the Latinos found out, a battle is started and the first victims are the result of it. Alecto is satisfied, and with her, so is Juno. All the Latins ask their king to declare war on the Trojans, but he resists. Meanwhile, the allies arrive, such as Lauso, Aventino, Catilo and Camila.
Book VIII
The river Tiber speaks to Aeneas and recommends that he seek an alliance with the Palanteans, whose city he will be able to reach precisely by following its course. Aeneas prepares the trip and then recognizes a good omen.
Accompanied by Achates, Aeneas arrives in the city just as King Evander and his son Pallas are offering sacrifices to Hercules, and ask the king to form an alliance to deal with the Rutulians. Evandro accepts, seeing that both nations were descendants of Atlante. Evandro invites Aeneas to take part in the sacrifices to Hercules.
Meanwhile, Venus asks her husband Vulcan to make weapons for Aeneas, and Vulcan agrees.
Then, Venus warns her son that divine weapons will arrive. Then, Evandro sends Aeneas with his son Pallas to seek more alliances. Subsequently, Aeneas already receives the weapons promised by his mother and everyone marvels at them.
Book IX
Juno sends Iris to bring Turno promptly into battle. The messenger informs the king that the Trojans are without his leader. Aeneas has ordered his people to take refuge behind the palisade if attacked. Turno tries to burn down the fortification and everything else. Then, Ops, mother of Jupiter, separates the Trojan ships from the fire, turning them into nymphs.
Turnus thinks that this way the Trojans will not be able to escape, and he makes his troops rest and merry drinking wine.
Realizing this, Niso and Euryalus ask for permission to go in search of Aeneas, to whom he has entrusted the command: Mnesteo and Seresto. Iulo promises many prizes for the feat to Niso and Euríalo, and they leave immediately.
Niso leads the way by slaying some sleeping Rutulians. On the way, Euríalo falls behind and is caught up by Volscente. Warning him, Nisus returns to rescue his friend, entrusts himself to Apollo and kills several Rutulians. in the fray, Euríalo, Niso and Volscente die. Then the heads of the two Trojans are displayed by the Rutulians.
Mesapo manages to open the stockade and a bloody battle ensues. Ascanio enters the battle and kills Numano. Mars instills strength in Latinos. Then Turno is surrounded by the Trojans without Juno being able to help him, but he throws himself into the river and is saved.
Book X
Jupiter forbids the other gods from participating in the battle. Venus asks for mercy for her Trojans, and Juno ignores it. Then Jupiter decides that no one will favor him in battle.
Aeneas arrives by sea with signed alliances. He is followed by warriors like Másico, Abante, Asilas, Astur and others. The Trojan ships turned into nymphs approach Aeneas and inform him of the battle.
Aeneas and his allies arrive on the battlefield, and Turnus does not let up his attack. Thus begins a fierce combat. Turno asks his sister, the goddess Juturna, to help him in battle. After having done great damage, Pallas is killed by Turno, taking some of his weapons. In anger, Aeneas kills many Rutulians.
Meanwhile, Jupiter taunts Juno and she asks him to delay Turno's death. She herself takes the figure of Aeneas and, confusing Turno, makes him chase her and thus saves him. Turno, realizing the deception, tries to retrace his steps, but the goddess does not allow it.
Mecentius takes Turno's place in the battle, which is watched by the gods. Aeneas wounds Mecencio, whose son Lausus, who assists him and helps him to flee, is killed by Aeneas. Mecencio returns to the battle and also finds death at the hands of the Trojan.
Book XI
Aeneas sends the body of Pallas to his father. Latin emissaries then arrive asking for a truce in order to bury their dead, to which Aeneas agrees. Meanwhile, Evandro grieves over the death of his son, but does not withdraw his support for Aeneas. In the kingdom of Latinus, some are still in favor of Turno, but others ask that Lavinia's hand be given to the Trojan Aeneas.
Some emissaries arrive from the city of Diomedes, who advises the Latins to be very careful with Aeneas for what he has done.
Latino wants to stop the war by giving land to the Trojans. Drances also recommends giving Lavinia's hand to Aeneas. Turno opposes and promotes new battles, supported by Queen Camila. Diana asks her servant Opis to protect that warrior, and gives her a bow for that purpose.
The Trojans approach the Latin walls and the fight breaks out again. Camila stands out for his exploits. Jupiter instills courage in Tarcon. Arruntes, entrusting himself to Apollo, shoots an arrow at Camila and achieves his goal of killing her. Opis laments then. The Rutulians flee, but Turno, aware of the facts, does not leave the field. Night comes and the battle is interrupted.
Book XII
Latino and Amata ask Turno to stop the war, but he, in love with Lavinia, sends Aeneas a message challenging him to single combat. Aeneas agrees.
Juno employs a new ruse: she sends Turno's sister, Juturna, to seek to break the agreements that are made, knowing that Turno is less skillful with weapons than Aeneas.
Meanwhile, oaths are sworn before Jupiter so that the end of the war is reduced to the combat between Aeneas and Turnus. But Juturna assumes the form of the Camertan warrior and urges Rutulian intervention in the battle. In that, an omen is interpreted by Tolumnio as favorable to what Juturna requests in the form of Camerto, and the agreements are broken.
Aeneas, on the other hand, opposes the breaking of the agreements and wants to engage in single combat. Suddenly, he is wounded by an arrow that is not known who shot it. Turno then makes great havoc.
Iulo takes his father to safety. Venus inspires the aged Yapige to heal Aeneas.
The Trojan hero regains his strength and returns to battle. The Rutulians flee, but Aeneas only searches for Turnus; he also seeks combat with Aeneas, but his sister Juturna prevents him from doing so.
Venus instills in Aeneas's mind the idea of heading to the city. Queen Amata, seeing them coming, thinks that Turno is dead and kills herself, much to the regret of King Latino.
When Turno finds out, he breaks away from his sister to go in search of Aeneas, and he, hearing that his adversary is approaching, goes to meet him.
Turno inherited from his father Daunus a sword made by Vulcan, but it is not the one he carries now, since he has mistakenly taken that of one of his companions. In the combat with Aeneas, Turno's weapon is broken, and he flees in search of his own. Aeneas chases him, but his spear gets stuck between the roots of Rauno, the divine tree. Venus unravels the spear; for her part, Turnus retrieves the sword from him. The combat resumes.
Meanwhile, Jupiter asks Juno what she expects from the war and forbids her from taking part in it again. Juno acknowledges having persuaded Juturna to help his brother, and agrees to stop intervening in the war, but asks that when the Trojans join the Latins, the name of the former disappears. Jupiter agrees and sends a Fury onto the battlefield to remove Juturna.
Aeneas harasses Turno, and he begins to feel fear. Aeneas wounds Turnus with his spear, who on his part throws a huge stone at his opponent that misses him. Already exhausted, Turno asks Aeneas to spare his life and stay with Lavinia. The Trojan is hesitant at first, but realizing that Turnus is carrying weapons from Pallas, he charges again and kills the Rutulian king.
Controversial aspects of the content of the work
Gods, men and fate
The gods intervene in human affairs, but mortals are not mere playthings to their whims, and a mortal often receives help from a deity. Most of the deities represent fortune, while Jupiter represents the fatum that will break it: the teleological aspect of history. fate (fatum), the other gods sometimes operate against it and other times in its favor.
Virgil tries to show that it is the will of Aeneas to submit to his destiny, which is often linked to the prosperous future of Rome, but other times it is linked to events that have nothing to do with that goal, as occurs when Creusa disappears, and Aeneas is to be sent to seek the fulfillment of his mission. Even though the hero has submitted, Aeneas says to Dido
I'm not going after Italy by my willItalym non sponte sequorAeneis, IV, 361.
Aeneas and Dido
There has been a desire to understand Aeneas's relationship with Dido as a conflict
- between duty and desire: Eneas is a disinterested hero and at the service of a higher cause, and, at the request of the supreme god, Jupiter, who is also the god of personal happiness.
- between male coldness and sincere love: this is how the feet (loyalty, devotion or sense of duty) of Eneas with fur (loud or passion) of Dido, as will be done later with that of Turno, who is also an enemy.
The mind remains still, tears fall without effectmens immota manet, lacrimae volvuntur inanes
It has been disputed whether those tears are those of Dido or those of Aeneas. Ovid, in the Heroides, seems to accept the second interpretation rather.
Aeneas and Turnus
Since Aeneas kills Turnus when he is defenseless, for Lactantius the hero is impius (disloyal). How to reconcile that act of Aeneas with the fate of the Romans as the soul of Anchises advises Aeneas in Song VI?
forgive the defeated and dominate the proudparcere subiectis et debellare superbos
In principle, Aeneas intends to spare Turnus's life, but, seeing that he bears the weapons of Pallas, he kills him with
ardent fury and angerfuriis accensus et ra
This fact is explained because the death of Pallas by Turno has been unjust: Turno has been prey to furor impius, and his character, presented as capricious and delivered to the lowest instincts, without exercising control of his passions, he corresponds to the model of Achilles, in contrast to the new hero, full of pietas, represented by Aeneas, who can be interpreted as a stylization of Augustus in his role as avenger of Julius Caesar, as would be done years after the readings of the Aeneid in the Temple of Mars the Avenger (Templum Martis Ultoris).
Fate of Aeneas, Rome and Augustus
Perhaps the most problematic aspect in the modern reading of the poem is the glorification of imperial Rome and Augustus as the ultimate goal of history.
From the beginning of the work, the remoteness of the final objective of the tribulations of the Trojans is perceived:
of such great magnitude was to found the Roman peopleso much molis erat Romanam condere gentemAeneisI, 33.
Augusto appears in various passages as the culmination of that development. The sought-after political situation is presented, and partly achieved, as an imperium sine fine, while seeking to show compassion for the victims of Roman hegemony.
As in so many other cases, the work must be understood as a product of its time and its civilization. It was written at a time of major political and social change, in which the last war in the days of the republic and its fall had deeply undermined faith in the "greatness of Rome." Augustus, the new emperor, ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity, particularly with the restoration of traditional Roman morality. Virgil's poem was seen as a reflection of those intentions, presenting a hero devoted loyally to his nation and its hegemony rather than his own benefit, and embarking on a journey for the aggrandizement of Rome. The work was also an attempt to legitimize the role of Julius Caesar (and, hence, also that of his adoptive son Augustus and that of his heirs) by renaming Ascanius, also called Ilo (from "Ilium", the ancient name of Troy).), as Iulo, and thus presenting him as an ancestor of the gens Julia, in addition to mentioning many great figures of the empire as part of a prophecy heard by the hero in the underworld.
After a century of bloody civil wars, many Romans saw Augustus as a savior, and he openly asked Virgil for an Augustea, a poem to the glory of the leaders. For this reason, the hero of the poem will be immersed in a plan of destiny and will have to fulfill his duty: duty, obligation, office, pietas will constitute the driving motive of the Aeneid . Having made clear the legitimacy of the position of Julio's successor and that of the empire, the greatness of this lies in his mission, and it is not about an empty destiny, but to establish laws and bring peace to the world.
you, Roman, think of governing under your power the peoples
(this will be your arts), and to peace put standards,
to forgive those who have been subjected and to abhor the proud.your regere empire populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imposere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbosEneidaVI, 851-853.
You, Roman, rule the world;
This, and peace to dictate, assigns the fairy,
Humiliating the proud, the furious,
Picking up the surrender, the bastard.Eneida, VI, 851-853 (translation of Miguel Antonio Caro in real octave).
In the list of distinguished Romans pronounced by the soul of Anchises for his son Aeneas, the number of verses dedicated to Augustus is comparable to those of Romulus and Numa combined.
A propaganda aspect that draws attention due to its anachronism is that the Battle of Actium is represented on Aeneas' shield.
A line of American research established in the 1960s known as the Harvard School upholds the theory of the two voices: on the one hand, the poem attempts to glorify Augustus; on the other, the end of the work presents the hero as a moral loser, in accordance with the observation of Lactantius and in a similar way to how in the end of Book VI the return of Aeneas and the sibyl to the world of the living is given by the the ivory door instead of the horn door: just like Aeneas, Virgil has made an effort to fulfill what has been entrusted to him; but at the end of his life he prefers that his work be made to disappear, to which Augustus, as was to be expected, will refuse.
Later influence
That of the Aeneid was an important influence on literature throughout the centuries, especially in the Middle Ages. The epic character par excellence at that time was Aeneas, even more so than Ulysses, whose prestige was not very high: the latter was considered a cunning character, who conquered Troy thanks to a stratagem; in Dante's Divine Comedy, for example, Ulysses will be in hell. Instead, it was considered an honor to descend from Aeneas: thus, in his Historia regum Britanniae, Godfrey of Monmouth presents the Britons as descendants of Britus or Brutus, himself a descendant of Aeneas.
Antiquity
The Aeneid is considered one of the cornerstones of the Western canon. Despite being an incomplete work, it was used in the schools of Roman civilization. In that area, it displaced the Annals of Ennius. Virgil's poem exerted a strong influence on other ancient works, including some Christian ones, and translations into Greek were made. Lucan's Farsalia was a counterproposal to Virgil's poem, but it did not achieve the cultural importance of Virgil.
Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Aeneid was still considered an essential tool for Latin education. In Latin Christian or Western Christian culture, the Aeneid i> was one of the canonical texts, and was used as an object of commentary to serve educational and philological purposes. The most complete of the known commentaries of that historical period is the work of Servius, a grammarian of the fourth century.
Just as the Iliad was considered the supreme work of Greek literature, the Aeneid was generally considered the crowning work of Latin literature, and even the Late Antiquity was held as an exemplary work.
At the end of the s. IV or early s. V, from the circle of Symmachus came an improved edition known as the Vatican Virgil (Vergilius Vaticanus). As its name indicates, it is kept in Vatican City (Cod. Vat. lat. 3225; Vergilius Vaticanus).
Along with those of Lucanus and Claudianus, The Aeneid served as orientation to Coripus for his epic work.
The manuscript tradition flows without interruption until the Middle Ages, when Virgil was considered the poet par excellence.
Medieval versions
In imitation of The Aeneid, inspired by it or one thing and the other, various works appeared in vernacular languages during the Middle Ages:
- Romance de Eneas (Roman d’Énéas, ca. 1160), epic work in ancient French.
- Romance de Eneas (Eneasroman or Eneide, ca. 1183), by Heinrich von Veldeke, a work in upper middle German based on the previous one.
Literature in vernacular languages influenced by the Aeneid
The great influence of Virgil's poem on the development of European literatures in vernacular languages has been pointed out.
Some English works that show this characteristic are these:
- Beowulf.
- Brut of LayamonLa Riamons Brut, ca. 1190-1215) or The Chronicle of Britannia (in modern English, Layamon's Brut or The Chronicle of Britain). It is a poem in middle English with initial rhyme, and often also final, among the hemistiquies of each verse. The work, whose title alludes to Bruto de Troya, is based on the Roman de Brut, treats in extension the facts of King Arthur and was collected and arranged by Layamon, who presented himself in his writing as clergy.
- The Queen Fairy (The Faerie Queen, 1590 and 1596), by Edmund Spenser, the work of the isabeline period.
- The Lost Paradise (Paradise Lost1667) John Milton.
Dante's work shows a strong influence from The Aeneid. Specifically, the Divine Comedy, also considered part of the western canon, has a style very similar to it from Book VI (the one about the journey to the underworld) and presents Virgil as Dante's guide. in his visit to Hell and Purgatory. Dante did not speak Greek, so he could only base himself on Virgil's vision of hell, influenced in turn by Canto XI of the Odyssey.
Translations into vernacular languages
Virgil's poem was also translated into European vernaculars. Some are these:
- To the Spanish, the one of Enrique de Villena (1427-1428).
- The first complete and faithful translation of the original work that was made to an Anglican language was the version to the average scot that ended in 1513 Bishop Gavin Douglas (ca. 1474-1522): Eneadoswhich included the continuation of the work of Virgilio that Maffeo Vegio had written in 1419. Even in the centuryXX.Ezra Pound considered that it was finished by Douglas to be the best translation of Virgilio's poem among those carried out in Anglican languages.
- The German of 1515 by Thomas Murner (1475-1537): Vergilii Maronis Dryzehen Aenneadische Bücher von troianischer Zerstörung und Uffgang des Römischen Reichs (The thirteen books of the "Eneida" of Virgilio Marón, from the destruction of Troy, and the dawn of the Roman Empire).
- The English translation of the centuryXVII of the poet John Dryden.
Most classical translations in the Anglo-Saxon world, including Gavin Douglas's and John Dryden's, were done with rhyming stanzas, a very un-Roman procedure that is generally avoided in modern versions.
Among recent English verse translations is that of 1963 by British poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, who endeavored to reproduce Virgil's hexameter.
Literary works dealing with characters from the Aeneid
The story of Dido and Aeneas was treated in works by Boccaccio (Amorous Vision, which presents features similar to those of the Divine Comedy), Petrarch and Chaucer (The Legend of the Good Woman and The House of Fame).
Other literary works that deal with these characters are these:
- MOLZA, Francesco Maria: Died dying (Dido moritura).
- MARLOWE, Christopher: Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage (The Tragedie of Dido, Queene of Carthage, ca. 1586), maybe finished by Thomas Nashe.
- BARCELÓ CHICO, Isabel: Dido, Queen of Carthage, 2008.
The Aeneid in education after the Middle Ages
Latino education was considered essential in Western culture:
[...] from 1600 to 1900, Latin learning was the marrow of European education, where it was given.[...] from 1600 to 1900, the Latin school was at the center of European education, wherever it was found.The Classical Tradition
In that learning of Latin, the work of Virgil was taught in the upper courses. In England in the 19th century, outstanding students were awarded special editions of texts by Virgil.
During the time of Weimar classicism and, above all, during Romanticism, the reputation of Virgil waned, considered then as an epigone, and he preferred the "original genius": Homer.
In the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in Virgil's poem. As in antiquity and later times, in the XX century the importance of the work was recognized to the point of realizing secondary education courses the custom, as before, to memorize it.
Continuations
Since ancient times there have been attempts to complete the Aeneid with a 13.er book. The notorious lack of the narration of the marriage of Aeneas with Lavinia and of the founding of Rome in Virgil's poem led some writers to try to correct this deficiency:
- 1419: Maffeo Vegio, with his call Mapheus Vegius (Libri XIII Aeneidos Supplementum), of which there would be many impressions during the Renaissance and which would be included in the 1513 translation of Bishop Gavin Douglas.
- Lost Decembrio, who did not finish his work.
- Claudio Salvucci: Laviniada (The Laviniad1994).
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Lavinia (2008). ISBN 0-15-101424-8
Music
In music, the Aeneid has inspired numerous composers to score operas. The best known are La Didone (1641) by Francesco Cavalli, Dido and Aeneas (1689) by Henry Purcell—the first opera in the English language—and the great heroic opera The Trojans (Les Troyens, 1858) by Hector Berlioz. Another well-known opera is that of Joseph Martin Kraus: Aeneas in Carthage or Dido and Aeneas, VB 23 (Aeneas i Carthage eller Dido och Aeneas, 1781-1791, 1799).
The comedy-zarzuela from 1698 Destinos vencencenezas finezas, by Lorenzo de las Llamosas, and the melologist from 1811 Dido, by Franz Danzi are also well known.
Cinema
- 1961: The War of Troy (The War of Troia), directed by Giorgio Ferroni (1908-1981) and with Steve Reeves on the role of Eneas. The action takes place from the death of Hector and from the point of view of Eneas.
- 1962: The legend of Eneas (The leggenda di Enea), sequel to the previous film; this 1962 film was directed by Giorgio Venturini (f. 1984), and also featured Steve Reeves on the main role.
- 1991: The Eneida (in Ukrainian, ?in Russian, Edeneda), cartoon film produced by Ucranimafilm (ркранімафільм)[7] Archived on 30 January 2020 at Wayback Machine. and directed by Volodimir Dajnó (in Ukrainian, Володимир яахно; in Russian, Владимир дахно: Vladimir Dajnó; 1932-2006). It is an adaptation of the homonymous poem by the Ukrainian writer Iván Kotliarevski (in Ukrainian, Іван Котляревський, 1769-1838). In the poem, parody of the Eneida of Virgilio, the author replaces the heroes of the Trojan War by the Cossacks of Zaporozhia.
Television
- 1971: The Eneida (Eneide or Le avventure di Enea), mini-series directed by Franco Rossi which is co-production of the RAI with West Germany, France and Yugoslavia.
(year XLIX, No. 3, January 16, 1972; original in color.)
Location scenes were shot in Yugoslavia.
From that work for television, a production would later be made for the cinema: Le avventure di Enea (1974).