AENEID

Publius Vergilius Maro usually called Virgil or Vergil lived from about October 15 70 BC up to September 21, 19
BC was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for his three majore works of Latin literature:
the Eclogus (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.

The Trojan prince Aeneas leads a small band of survivors in search of a new home in Italy. Unfortunately, as they
sail on their way, they got spotted by the goddess Juno. Juno hates the Trojans because of an old grudge, and because
they are destined to become the Romans, who will destroy Carthage. Conspiring with the god of the winds, Juno
whips up a storm, forcing the Trojans to take refuge in Carthage.

Venus, the mother of Aeneas introduces him to Dido, the beautiful queen of Carthage, who is recently widowed.
Venus gets Amor, the personification of love, to make Dido fall madly in love with Aeneas. That night, at a banquet
in his honor, Aeneas tells Dido the story of how Troy was captured, and how he escaped, carrying his father,
Anchises, on his back, and leading his son, Ascanius, refugees’ wanderings over the sea, including their close
encounters with various weird mythological creatures. Aeneas’ story ends with the death of his father, Anchises.

Aeneas and the Trojans end up wintering in Carthage, and he and Dido become an item. Jupiter gets worried that
Aeneas is abandoning his destiny of founding a new city. He sends the god Mercury to tell him to get moving.
Aeneas does as he’s told, and Dido kills herself.

A storm forces the Trojans to stand in Sicily-the exact place where they buried Anchises a year before. While the
Trojans hold athletic contests in the old man’s honor, Juno convinces the Trojan women to set fire to the ships.
Realizing that not everyone is as jazzed about going to Italy as he is, Aeneas leaves some people in Sicily and sails
on to Italy with his team. Their first step is Cumae, in the Bay of Naples, where they visit the Sibyl, a prophetess.
She leads Aeneas down to the underworld, where he sees a lot of spooky stuff, talks with his father Anchises, and
sees the spirits of future Roman heroes, waiting to be born. He also encounters Dido. He tries to talk to her, but she
rejects him.

Fired up by what he has seen in the underworlds, Aeneas sails to Latium. As it happens, Latinus, the local king, has
received an oracle saying his only child, Lavinia, must marry a foreign husband; he offers her to Aeneas in marriage.
The problem is that Amata, Latinus’s wife, wants their daughter to marry the local prince Turnus. Seeing her
opportunity, Juno sends a Fury down to make both Amata and Turnuus crazed with rage. Then she tricks Ascanius to
shoot a stag kept as a pet by Latinus’ gamekeeper. This provokes a war between the Italians and the Trojans.

While the Italians are gathering allies, the god of the River Tiber appears to Aeneas in a dream and tells him to make
an alliance with the Arcadian King Evander who lives upriver.

Meanwhile, in Aeneas’ absence, Turnus and his men attack the Trojan fort but are unable to capture it. That night,
two Trojan warriors, Nisus and Euralysus, try to break through the Italian lines to reach Aeneas, but end up being
killed by an Italian patrol.

That evening, Turnus decides to fight Aeneasone-on-one for Lavinia and the kingdom. Unfortunately, the next day,
when they are about to fight their duel, the nymph Juturna (Turnus’ sister) provokes one of the Italians to throw a
spear at the Trojans, starting a new battle. After much fighting, Aeneas finally comes head-to-head with Turnus and
wounds him with his spear. As Turnus begs for mercy, Aeneas considers sparing him-until he sees that Turnus is
wearing a belt he stole from Pallas. Enraged, Aeneas kills Turnus with his sword.