Aeneid book summaries
Book 1
- Juno mad due to Punic wars & asks Aeolus to send storm
- Aeneas wishes he died
- Neptune stops the storm
- Trojans land in Carthage
- Venus asks Jupiter why – Jupiter gives Rome prophecy
Founding of Rome, war with Italians and ‘trojan Caesar’
- Jupiter sends mercury to make Carthage hospitable
- Aeneas and Achates meet Venus in disguise
- Venus tells them about dido
- Ekphrasis of freezes – trojan war
- Dido compared to Diana, welcomes trojans and Aeneas
- Venus disguises cupid as Iulus and places ‘loves deadly arrow’ on dido
- Dido meets cupid and becomes ‘doomed’
- Aeneas asked to retell his story
Book 2
- Aeneas recounts his story
- Trojans wake up and see Greeks are gone
- Laocoon says horse is a trick and throws a spear on its side
- Sinon plays hate on hate of Ulises (Odysseus) and says its an offering to the gods
- Priam pities Sinon and brings the horse into the city
- Horse stops 4 times
- Laocoon killed by two snakes sent by Minerva along with his two sons
- Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream – tells him to leave troy
- Aeneas ignores him and tries to save the city in a ‘frenzy’
- Aeneas mentions the death of Priam, Polites and his father – blames Helen and wants to kill her
- Venus tells Aeneas to flee troy with his family because even the gods are attacking
- Aeneas’ father refuses to leave – Aeneas is mad
- Aeneas’ father changed his view after 2 omens – Ascanius’ head on fire and a shooting star
- Aeneas carried Anchises on his back
- Aeneas’ wife Creusa dies
- Aeneas goes back to find her – meets her ghost and she tells him to continue without him and love
their son and that he has a ‘long exile and a vast amount of sea’ before Italy
- Aeneas goes back to his comrades and leads an army of exiles from troy to found a new city in Latium
Book 4
- Dido tells his sister she likes Aeneas – she tells her to marry him
- Juno persuades Venus to allow dido and Aeneas to get married and stay in Carthage
- Venus agrees but knows that Juno is playing her
- Dido and Aeneas go on a hunt
- Juno makes a storm
- Dido and Aeneas have sex in a cave and are married
- Rumour spreads to a neighbouring tribe
- Barbas prays to Jupiter to make Aeneas leave Carthage
- Jupiter hears the prayer and sends mercury to tell Aeneas to leave
- Aeneas prepares to leave without telling dido
- Rumour tells dido
- Dido is pissed – compared to a bacchant by Virgil
, - Dido begs Aeneas to stay and says he ruined her name Aeneas says that ‘it is not by my own will that I
search for Italy’
- Dido is more pisses and calls Aeneas a ‘traitor’ and foreshadows her own death
- Dido speaks to her sister anna for her to persuade Aeneas to stay
- Dido tricks anna into making a funeral pyre
- Dido says she must die
- Mercury tells Aeneas to leave are ‘women are unstable creatures’
- Aeneas goes
- Dido kills herself and burns herself with Aeneas’ things
- She tells her descendants to never be at peace with Rome
- Anna is pisses and would have killed herself as well
- Dido’s death was her choice – not fate
Book 6
- Aeneas lands in Cumae (Italy)
- Aeneas goes to apollo’s temple for the sibyl’s prophecy
- Ekphrasis of gates of temple (made by Daedalus – father/son theme)
- Labyrinth story (parallel of Ariadne v dido)
- Aeneas prays that the ‘fortunes of troy’ don’t follow them
- The sibyl says that a ‘second Achilles’ is waiting to fight in Lavinium
- She tells Aeneas that he needs the golden bough and to bury misensus before entering the
underworld
- Aeneas enters the underworld and sees souls who can’t cross the Styx (as they weren’t given funeral
rites)
- Aeneas sees Palinurus (a trojan) who begs him to bury him
- Sibyl comforts Palinurus by saying a city will be named after him
- Aeneas sees dido – she refuses to talk to him and leaves with her old husband
- The sibyl shows Aeneas ‘the place set apart for brave soldiers’ and Tartarus (Greek hell)
- Sibyl then shows Aeneas ‘the land of joy’
- Aeneas sees his father again but they cant touch each other
- Anchises tells Aeneas about ‘the souls to whom Fate owes a second body’ – many of the souls will be
Aeneas’ descendants
- Anchises tells Aeneas the ‘glory that lies instore for the sons of Dardanus’
- His father shows him the soul of Augustus who ‘will bring back the golden years to the fields of
Latium’ and protect Rome from Egypt
- His father shows Pompey and Julius Caesar’s future souls and the civil war they’ll cause
- Anchises gives him 2 rules – ‘you must be the first to show clemency’ and to govern the people of the
world in his empire and pardon the defeated
- Aeneas is told about the wars he will soon fight
- Anchises ‘kindled in his mind a love for the glory that was to come’
- The sibyl takes Aeneas out of the gate of ivory
- Aeneas leaves for Latium
Book 7
- Caieta dies in Italy and Aeneas performs rites
- Virgil says the second half is more important – ‘this is a greater work I now set in motion’
- Lavinia (king Latinus’ daughter) sees 2 omens – a cloud of bees swarming and settling on a laurel tree
and her hair catching on fire but not being hurt
- Latinus tells his dad
- Latinus’ father (Faunus) says Lavinia should marry a stranger who will ‘raise out name to the stars’
- Ascanius says the trojans are eating their tables in Latium – a sign they are home
- Aeneas builds a camp and sends an envoy to Latinus
Book 1
- Juno mad due to Punic wars & asks Aeolus to send storm
- Aeneas wishes he died
- Neptune stops the storm
- Trojans land in Carthage
- Venus asks Jupiter why – Jupiter gives Rome prophecy
Founding of Rome, war with Italians and ‘trojan Caesar’
- Jupiter sends mercury to make Carthage hospitable
- Aeneas and Achates meet Venus in disguise
- Venus tells them about dido
- Ekphrasis of freezes – trojan war
- Dido compared to Diana, welcomes trojans and Aeneas
- Venus disguises cupid as Iulus and places ‘loves deadly arrow’ on dido
- Dido meets cupid and becomes ‘doomed’
- Aeneas asked to retell his story
Book 2
- Aeneas recounts his story
- Trojans wake up and see Greeks are gone
- Laocoon says horse is a trick and throws a spear on its side
- Sinon plays hate on hate of Ulises (Odysseus) and says its an offering to the gods
- Priam pities Sinon and brings the horse into the city
- Horse stops 4 times
- Laocoon killed by two snakes sent by Minerva along with his two sons
- Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream – tells him to leave troy
- Aeneas ignores him and tries to save the city in a ‘frenzy’
- Aeneas mentions the death of Priam, Polites and his father – blames Helen and wants to kill her
- Venus tells Aeneas to flee troy with his family because even the gods are attacking
- Aeneas’ father refuses to leave – Aeneas is mad
- Aeneas’ father changed his view after 2 omens – Ascanius’ head on fire and a shooting star
- Aeneas carried Anchises on his back
- Aeneas’ wife Creusa dies
- Aeneas goes back to find her – meets her ghost and she tells him to continue without him and love
their son and that he has a ‘long exile and a vast amount of sea’ before Italy
- Aeneas goes back to his comrades and leads an army of exiles from troy to found a new city in Latium
Book 4
- Dido tells his sister she likes Aeneas – she tells her to marry him
- Juno persuades Venus to allow dido and Aeneas to get married and stay in Carthage
- Venus agrees but knows that Juno is playing her
- Dido and Aeneas go on a hunt
- Juno makes a storm
- Dido and Aeneas have sex in a cave and are married
- Rumour spreads to a neighbouring tribe
- Barbas prays to Jupiter to make Aeneas leave Carthage
- Jupiter hears the prayer and sends mercury to tell Aeneas to leave
- Aeneas prepares to leave without telling dido
- Rumour tells dido
- Dido is pissed – compared to a bacchant by Virgil
, - Dido begs Aeneas to stay and says he ruined her name Aeneas says that ‘it is not by my own will that I
search for Italy’
- Dido is more pisses and calls Aeneas a ‘traitor’ and foreshadows her own death
- Dido speaks to her sister anna for her to persuade Aeneas to stay
- Dido tricks anna into making a funeral pyre
- Dido says she must die
- Mercury tells Aeneas to leave are ‘women are unstable creatures’
- Aeneas goes
- Dido kills herself and burns herself with Aeneas’ things
- She tells her descendants to never be at peace with Rome
- Anna is pisses and would have killed herself as well
- Dido’s death was her choice – not fate
Book 6
- Aeneas lands in Cumae (Italy)
- Aeneas goes to apollo’s temple for the sibyl’s prophecy
- Ekphrasis of gates of temple (made by Daedalus – father/son theme)
- Labyrinth story (parallel of Ariadne v dido)
- Aeneas prays that the ‘fortunes of troy’ don’t follow them
- The sibyl says that a ‘second Achilles’ is waiting to fight in Lavinium
- She tells Aeneas that he needs the golden bough and to bury misensus before entering the
underworld
- Aeneas enters the underworld and sees souls who can’t cross the Styx (as they weren’t given funeral
rites)
- Aeneas sees Palinurus (a trojan) who begs him to bury him
- Sibyl comforts Palinurus by saying a city will be named after him
- Aeneas sees dido – she refuses to talk to him and leaves with her old husband
- The sibyl shows Aeneas ‘the place set apart for brave soldiers’ and Tartarus (Greek hell)
- Sibyl then shows Aeneas ‘the land of joy’
- Aeneas sees his father again but they cant touch each other
- Anchises tells Aeneas about ‘the souls to whom Fate owes a second body’ – many of the souls will be
Aeneas’ descendants
- Anchises tells Aeneas the ‘glory that lies instore for the sons of Dardanus’
- His father shows him the soul of Augustus who ‘will bring back the golden years to the fields of
Latium’ and protect Rome from Egypt
- His father shows Pompey and Julius Caesar’s future souls and the civil war they’ll cause
- Anchises gives him 2 rules – ‘you must be the first to show clemency’ and to govern the people of the
world in his empire and pardon the defeated
- Aeneas is told about the wars he will soon fight
- Anchises ‘kindled in his mind a love for the glory that was to come’
- The sibyl takes Aeneas out of the gate of ivory
- Aeneas leaves for Latium
Book 7
- Caieta dies in Italy and Aeneas performs rites
- Virgil says the second half is more important – ‘this is a greater work I now set in motion’
- Lavinia (king Latinus’ daughter) sees 2 omens – a cloud of bees swarming and settling on a laurel tree
and her hair catching on fire but not being hurt
- Latinus tells his dad
- Latinus’ father (Faunus) says Lavinia should marry a stranger who will ‘raise out name to the stars’
- Ascanius says the trojans are eating their tables in Latium – a sign they are home
- Aeneas builds a camp and sends an envoy to Latinus
