The Aeneid

Aeneis

Virgil · c. 29–19 BC · Latin

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What it is

Aeneas, a Trojan prince, escapes burning Troy with his father, his young son and a band of survivors, bound by fate to found a new home in Italy. Storms, the goddess Juno's hatred and his love for Dido, queen of Carthage, hold him back; in the second half he lands in Latium and must fight a war against the Latins for his place there.

Why it matters

Rome's national epic, which Virgil built on Homer to tie his city's origins to Troy and to honour Augustus. The core of the Latin curriculum for two thousand years, it made Virgil Dante's guide through Hell and gave Milton his model of epic.

Reading it

About 450 pages. Medium difficulty: it asks for steady attention, but stands on its own.

Where to buy

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Your notes

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Influenced by2

Built on
The Iliad · Homer · c. 750 BC
The second half of the Aeneid, Aeneas's war in Latium, is modelled on the Iliad's battles, part of Virgil's bid to rival Homer on both of his subjects.
Wikipedia, Aeneid, Story
Built on
The Odyssey · Homer · c. 725 BC
The Aeneid's first six books, Aeneas's wanderings from fallen Troy to Italy, answer the Odyssey's voyage home, as Virgil sets out to rival Homer's epic of wandering.
Wikipedia, Aeneid, Story

Influenced5

Built on it
The Divine Comedy · Dante Alighieri · c. 1308–1321
Dante makes Virgil his guide through Hell and Purgatory and draws on the Aeneid, which he praises like Scripture, for the poem's style, history and mythology.
Wikipedia, Divine Comedy, Influences (Classical)
Built on it
The Lusiads · Luís de Camões · 1572
Camões models The Lusiads on the Aeneid, opening with a line that mimics Virgil's first and treating Vasco da Gama's voyage as a national founding epic.
Wikipedia, Os Lusíadas, lead and Synopses of Cantos (Canto I)
Built on it
The Faerie Queene · Edmund Spenser · 1590–1596
The Faerie Queene follows the Aeneid as dynastic epic: as Virgil traced Augustus to Troy, Spenser links the Tudor line to King Arthur in praising Elizabeth.
Wikipedia, Aeneid, Influence; The Faerie Queene, Politics
Built on it
Paradise Lost · John Milton · 1667; revised 1674
Paradise Lost bears the Aeneid's strong influence, and Milton's 1674 second edition rearranged the poem into twelve books on the Aeneid's pattern.
Wikipedia, Paradise Lost, lead; Aeneid, Influence
Built on it
Watership Down · Richard Adams · 1972
Watership Down retells the Aeneid's flight from a doomed city: the rabbits escape Sandleford before its ruin, seek a new home and fight Woundwort as Aeneas fought Turnus.
Wikipedia, Watership Down, Themes (The Hero, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid)

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