The Aeneid (Book Review)

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Title: The Aeneid
Author: Virgil
Written: 29-19 B.C.
Translator: Robert Fagles (2006)
Publication Date: 19 BC (in Latin), 2006 (audio)
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Narrated By: Simon Callow

The Aeneid is the epic poem, written by Virgil, wherein the poet recounts the founding of Rome from the ashes of fallen Troy. The work aims for the standard set by Homer’s two earlier epics, with the first half of the piece mirroring The Odyssey and the second half of the piece recalling The Illiad.  

From wiki:

The Aeneid (/ɪˈniːɪd/ ih-NEE-id; Latin: Aenē̆is [ae̯ˈneːɪs] or [ˈae̯neɪs]) is a Latin epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Written by the Roman poet Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, the Aeneid comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem’s twelve books tell the story of Aeneas’ wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem’s second half tells of the Trojans’ ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas’ wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and his description as a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous pietas, and fashioned the Aeneid into a compelling founding myth or national epic that tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the Punic Wars, glorified traditional Roman virtues, and legitimised thec Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy.

The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgil’s masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature.

THE PLOT

Via Wiki: 

Journey to Italy (books 1–6)

Theme

Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (Arma virumque cano …, “Of arms and the man I sing …”) and an invocation to the Muse, falling some seven lines after the poem’s inception (Musa, mihi causas memora …, “O Muse, recount to me the causes …”). He then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics.

Book 1: Storm and refuge

Also in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res (into the middle of things), with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris, and because her favourite city, Carthage, will be destroyed by Aeneas’ descendants. Also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cupbearer to her husband, Jupiter—replacing Juno’s daughter, Hebe. Juno proceeds to Aeolus, King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe (Deiopea, the loveliest of all her sea nymphs, as a wife). Aeolus agrees to carry out Juno’s orders (line 77, “My task is / To fulfill your commands”); the storm then devastates the fleet.

Neptune takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno’s intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters, after making sure that the winds would not bother the Trojans again, lest they be punished more harshly than they were this time. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, reassuring them that they have been through worse situations before. There, Aeneas’ mother, Venus, in the form of a huntress very similar to the goddess Diana, encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage. Eventually, Aeneas ventures into the city, and in the temple of Juno he seeks and gains the favour of Dido, queen of the city. The city has only recently been founded by refugees from Tyre and will later become a great imperial rival and enemy to Rome.

Meanwhile, Venus has her own plans. She goes to her son, Aeneas’ half-brother Cupid, and tells him to imitate Ascanius (the son of Aeneas and his first wife Creusa). Thus disguised, Cupid goes to Dido and offers the gifts expected from a guest. As Dido cradles the boy during a banquet given in honour of the Trojans, Cupid secretly weakens her sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband Sychaeus, who was murdered by her brother Pygmalion back in Tyre, by inciting fresh love for Aeneas.

Book 2: Trojan Horse and sack of Troy

In books 2 and 3, Aeneas recounts to Dido the events that occasioned the Trojans’ arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the war described in the Iliad. Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse. The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior, Sinon, to mislead the Trojans into believing 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 his protests fell on deaf ears, so he hurled his spear at the horse. Then, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons. The Trojans then took the horse inside the fortified walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it, opening the city’s gates to allow the returned Greek army to slaughter the Trojans.

In a dream, Hector, the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family. Aeneas awoke and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off the Greeks. He witnessed the murder of Priam by Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. His mother, Venus, appeared to him and led him back to his house. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son, Ascanius, his wife Creusa, and his father, Anchises, after the occurrence of various omens (Ascanius’ head catching fire without his being harmed, a clap of thunder and a shooting star). At the city gates, they notice they lost Creusa, and Aeneas goes back into the city to look for her. He only encounters her ghost, who tells him that his destiny is to reach Hesperia, where kingship and a royal spouse await him.

Book 3: Wanderings

Aeneas continues his account to Dido by telling how, rallying the other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean: Thrace, where they find the last remains of a fellow Trojan, Polydorus; Delos, where Apollo tells them to leave and to find the land of their forefathers; Crete, which they believe to be that land, and where they build their city (Pergamea) and promptly desert it after a plague proves this is not the place for them; the Strophades, where they encounter the Harpy Celaeno, who tells them to leave her island and to look for Italy, though, she prophesies, they will not find it until hunger forces them to eat their tables; and Buthrotum. This last city had been built in an attempt to replicate Troy. In Buthrotum, Aeneas meets Andromache, the widow of Hector. She is still lamenting the loss of her valiant husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas sees and meets Helenus, one of Priam‘s sons, who has the gift of prophecy. Through him, Aeneas learns the destiny laid out for him: he is divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known as Ausonia or Hesperia), where his descendants will not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. In addition, Helenus also bids him to go to the Sibyl in Cumae.

Heading into the open sea, Aeneas leaves Buthrotum, rounds the south eastern tip of Italy and makes his way towards Sicily (Trinacria). There, they are caught in the whirlpool of Charybdis and driven out to sea. Soon they come ashore at the land of the Cyclopes. There they meet a Greek, Achaemenides, one of Ulysses’ men, who has been left behind when his comrades escaped the cave of Polyphemus. They take Achaemenides on board and narrowly escape Polyphemus. Shortly after, at Drepanum, Aeneas’ father Anchises dies of old age. Aeneas heads on (towards Italy) and gets deflected to Carthage (by the storm described in book 1). Here, Aeneas ends his account of his wanderings to Dido.

Book 4: Fate of Queen Dido

Dido realises that she has fallen in love with Aeneas. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas’ mother, with the intention of distracting Aeneas from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido’s love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a small covered grove in which Aeneas and Dido presumably made love, after which Juno presides over what Dido considers a marriage ceremony. But when Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, he has no choice but to part. At the behest of Mercury’s apparition, he leaves clandestinely at night. Her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon a pyre with Aeneas’ sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas’ people and hers; “rise up from my bones, avenging spirit” (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is a possible invocation to Hannibal.

Book 5: Sicily

Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees the smoke of Dido’s funeral pyre, and although he does not understand the exact reason behind it, he understands it as a bad omen, considering the angry madness of her love.

Hindered by bad weather from reaching Italy, the Trojans return to where they started at the beginning of book 1. Book 5 then takes place on Sicily and centres on the funeral games that Aeneas organises for the anniversary of his father’s death. Aeneas organises celebratory games for the men—a boat race, a foot race, a boxing match, and an archery contest. In all those contests, Aeneas is careful to reward winners and losers, showing his leadership qualities by not allowing antagonism even after foul play. Each of these contests comments on past events or prefigures future events: the boxing match, for instance, is “a preview of the final encounter of Aeneas and Turnus”, and the dove, the target during the archery contest, is connected to the deaths of Polites and King Priam in Book 2 and that of Camilla in Book 11. Afterwards, Ascanius leads the boys in a military parade and mock battle, the Lusus Troiae—a tradition he will teach the Latins while building the walls of Alba Longa.

During these events, Juno, via her messenger Iris, who disguises herself as an old woman, incites the Trojan women to burn the fleet and prevent the Trojans from ever reaching Italy, but her plan is thwarted when Ascanius and Aeneas intervene. Aeneas prays to Jupiter to quench the fires, which the god does with a torrential rainstorm. An anxious Aeneas is comforted by a vision of his father, who tells him to go to the underworld to receive a vision of his and Rome’s future. In return for safe passage to Italy, the gods, by order of Jupiter, will receive one of Aeneas’ men as a sacrifice: Palinurus, who steers Aeneas’ ship by night, is put to sleep by Somnus and falls overboard.

Book 6: Underworld

Aeneas, with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl, descends into the underworld. They pass by crowds of the dead by the banks of the river Acheron and are ferried across by Charon before passing by Cerberus, the three-headed guardian of the underworld. Then Aeneas is shown the fates of the wicked in Tartarus and is warned by the Sibyl to bow to the justice of the gods. He also meets the shade of Dido, who remains unreconcilable. He is then brought to green fields of Elysium. There he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome.

War in Italy (books 7–12)

Book 7: Arrival in Latium and outbreak of war

Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle in Latium, where King Latinus received oracles pointing towards the arrival of strangers and bidding him to marry his daughter Lavinia to the foreigners, and not to Turnus, the ruler of another native people, the Rutuli. Juno, unhappy with the Trojans’ favourable situation, summons the fury Alecto from the underworld to stir up a war between the Trojans and the locals. Alecto incites Amata, the Queen of Latium and the wife of Latinus, to demand that Lavinia be married to noble Turnus, brings forth anger in Turnus which spurs him to war with the Trojans, and causes Ascanius to wound a revered deer during a hunt. Hence, although Aeneas wishes to avoid a war, hostilities break out. The book closes with a catalogue of Italic warriors.

Book 8: Visit to Pallanteum, site of future Rome

Given the impending war, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of the Rutuli, after having been encouraged to do so in a dream by Tiberinus. At the place where Rome will be, he meets a friendly Greek, King Evander of Arcadia. His son Pallas agrees to join Aeneas and lead troops against the Rutuli. Venus urges her spouse Vulcan to create weapons for Aeneas, which she then presents to Aeneas as a gift. On the shield, the future history of Rome is depicted.

Book 9: Turnus’ siege of Trojan camp

Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is attacked by Turnus—spurred on by Juno, who informs him that Aeneas is away from his camp—and a midnight raid by the Trojans Nisus and Euryalus on Turnus’ camp leads to their death. The next day, Turnus manages to breach the gates but is forced to retreat by jumping into the Tiber.

Book 10: First battle

A council of the gods is held, in which Venus and Juno speak before Jupiter, and Aeneas returns to the besieged Trojan camp accompanied by his new Arcadian and Tuscan allies. In the ensuing battle many are slain—notably Pallas, whom Evander has entrusted to Aeneas but who is killed by Turnus. Mezentius, Turnus’ close associate, allows his son Lausus to be killed by Aeneas while he himself flees. He reproaches himself and faces Aeneas in single combat—an honourable but essentially futile endeavour leading to his death.

Book 11: Armistice and battle with Camilla

After a short break in which the funeral ceremony for Pallas takes place, the war continues. Another notable native, Camilla, an Amazon character and virgin devoted to Diana, fights bravely but is killed, poisoned by the coward Arruns, who in turn is struck dead by Diana’s sentinel Opis.

Book 12: Final battle and duel of Aeneas and Turnus

Single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas is so obviously superior to Turnus that the Rutuli, urged on by Turnus’ divine sister, Juturna—who in turn is instigated by Juno—break the truce. Aeneas is injured by an arrow but is soon healed with the help of his mother Venus and returns to the battle. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium (causing the queen of Latium to hang herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In the duel, Turnus’ strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and Aeneas’ spear goes through his thigh. As Turnus is on his knees, begging for his life, the epic ends with Aeneas initially tempted to obey Turnus’ pleas to spare his life, but then killing him in rage when he sees that Turnus is wearing Aeneas’ friend Pallas’ belt over his shoulder as a trophy.

MY REVEW

I read The Aeneid for the first time in college, and then I read it several more times in the years after because I enjoyed it so much. My degree was in Letters, which included a heavy dose of Classics, including Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Aristotle, Plato, Seneca, Cicero, and so on, as well as many hours studying the Latin language (which I do not recommend.) My mind has never entirely moved on from the ancient Mediterranean. Over the last couple of years, I have learned that many others (men in particular) share my interest, as the internet has repeatedly told me that other men think about the Roman Empire all the time. I certainly do. My phone case looks like a Roman scutum shield.  

I will add a bit of caution, though. Typically when I listen to an audiobook, I multitask. That is one of the advantages of the format. One can be free to direct the attention of his eyes elsewhere if his ears are doing the heavy-lifting. The Aeneid is not the sort of work that allows for a distracted audience. It will most likely not keep your attention unless you give that attention away entirely. The book contains a lot of names, places, and fast-moving action. You will almost certainly get lost if you attempt to listen to this while doing other things.  

The story is the Roman poet’s effort to write down a Founding Myth for the Roman people, and to match the much earlier Greek works of Homer. The first six books of the story are intended to mirror The Odyssey, with Aeneas and his fellow Trojans wandering across the sea, immediately after the Fall of Troy, in search of their new home, while the last six books reflect The Iliad, with the Trojans and their new Italian allies fighting a ferocious war that is heavily influenced by the machinations of the gods. This time, though, the Trojans win. If you have ever wondered why so many school mascots are named the Trojans, despite their defeat at the hands of the Greeks, this story is the probable answer.  

Interestingly, Virgil wrote the story of Aeneas on the basis of centuries old, already-existing mythology. (via wiki)

Although the definitive story of Aeneas escaping the fallen Troy and finding a new home in Italy, thus eventually becoming the ancestor of the Romans, was codified by Virgil, the myth of Aeneas’ post-Troy adventures predates him by centuries. As Greek settlements began to expand starting in the sixth century BC, Greek colonists would often try to connect their new homes, and the native people they found there, to their pre-existing mythology; the Odyssey containing Odysseus’s travels in many far away lands already provided such a link. Aeneas’s story reflects not just Roman, but rather a combination of various Greek, Etruscan, Latin and Roman elements. Troy provided for a very suitable narrative for the Greek colonists in Magna Graecia and Sicily who wished to link their new homelands with themselves, and the Etruscans, who would have adopted the story of Aeneas in Italy first, and quickly became associated with him. Greek vases as early as the sixth century BC provide evidence for these early Greek mythological accounts of Aeneas founding a new home in Etruria predating Virgil by a wide margin, and he was known to have been worshipped in Lavinium, the city he founded The discovery of thirteen large altars in Lavinium indicates early Greek influence, dating to the sixth through fourth century BC. In the following centuries, the Romans would come in contact with Greek colonies, conquer them and subsume the legend of Aeneas into their own mythological narratives. It is most likely that they fully became interested in Greek myths—and their incorporation into their own foundation legends concerning Rome and the Roman people—following the war against King Pyrrhus of Epirus in 280 BC, as Troy offered a way to insert Rome into Greek historical tradition as good as the one it had in the past for Greeks to link themselves to their new lands.

I am always a bit cautious to assert with certainty that a widely held belief about history, among the ancients, was purely myth. Not long ago, Troy itself was considered to be a myth. Today, we know for certain that it was a real city, we know when it fell, and archaeologists even believe they have uncovered the actual Trojan horse. If that much can be true, who can say with certainty that someone named Aeneas did not lead a group of Trojan refugees to Italy? 

The story focuses on several themes, some of which might be more relatable than others. The Aeneid was written at the dawn of the Roman Empire, as a harkening back to the moral values of the earlier Republic years. For this reason, the chief characteristic of Aeneas – the father of the Roman people – is his piety. In the Roman sense, that means he is perpetually duty-bound, regardless of circumstances. We see that in his interactions with his family, his men, and the gods. 

The story is also about fate, divine intervention, and mankind’s relationship with the gods more generally. We see throughout the tale that the gods, divided among themselves, create strife for the people they influence. Man’s role is not to strive with the gods, directly, but to do one’s duty regardless of the outcome. In the end, the gods arrive at their own peace – which we see as both Juno and Athena end the saga pleased by the outcome. Human beings – even the best of them – are not masters of their own outcomes and the greater extent to which one accepts that reality, the better for that person. Aeneas’ heart might prefer to stay and comfort the grieving Dido, but his piety leads him to do the will of the gods. 

With respect to the gods, Virgil shows us that even they are bound to some degree by Fate, though they have a greater ability than mortal man to create difficulties and delay in reaching a Fated outcome. Juno knows throughout the story what the fate of Aeneas is, but she creates obstacles, difficulties, and trials for him nonetheless. 

As mentioned above, Virgil’s book was published at the beginning of the Roman Empire, during the reign of Augustus. His story features a very bloody and violent war between the different factions of people who would eventually go on to be part of the Roman Republic and then the new Empire. It is possible – perhaps it is likely – that Virgil is using a Founding Myth to comment on Rome’s then-recent history of civil war. As the ancestors emerged from civil war stronger, perhaps so too will the Romans as they move into their Empire age. 

What I Did Not Like:     

• The battle scenes were occasionally so fast-paced that it was difficult to follow along.
• The story ends pretty abruptly, with Aeneas killing Turnus in a rage. Perhaps it’s my modern sensibilities speaking, but I wanted a great sense of resolution .

What I Liked:

• Simon Callow’s narration is fantastic and he kept me engaged in the story.
• The story was filled with timeless and still-palpable emotion, ranging from the grief of Aeneas over the death of his wife, to the suicide of Dido, and the rage of Aeneas at seeing Turnus wearing the dead Pallas’ belt like a trophy.
• The way Virgil writes about the scheming among the gods was a very interesting peak into the worldview of the ancients regarding the divine and man’s relationship therewith. 
• The prose itself is excellent, with a lot of very quotable lines.  

Favorite Lines

“Of arms and the man I sing.”

“Let me rage before I die.”

“Do the gods light this fire in our hearts or does each man’s mad desire become his god?”

“My comrades, hardly strangers to pain before now, we all have weathered worse.”

“The descent into Hell is easy.”

“What good are prayers and shrines to a person mad with love? The flame keeps gnawing into her tender marrow hour by hour, and deep in her heart the silent wound lives on.”

Almost from the time it was published, The Aeneid was a required part of having a proper Latin language education, with a lot of students even required to memorieze its lines. Then during Renaissance and the centuries after, it returned to that role as a vital part of one’s Western education. The book – which focuses on the fall of Troy and the beginnings of Rome – was written for an audience who had experienced the rapid moral and civic decline of their society, bloody civil wars that followed, and then a new beginning.  It was timely and it declared that the future was bright, in spite of what has just happened. There is much to be learned from the story of Aeneas. Perhaps first and foremost, we should be motivated toward personal piety, and to do our part for our society now, so that it might avoid the horrific fate of Troy and the struggles that ensued for its survivors. Second, though, we should be encouraged that despite the struggles of our present time, eventually, better days may be ahead for those who persevere.

The Aeneid is a book about struggle, loss, duty, and what it means to be human. It is an excellent read and I recommend it highly.