The Aeneid
The Aeneid is Virgil’s Latin epic about Aeneas, a Trojan survivor whose journey to Italy prepares the way for Rome. It links Rome’s beginnings to the Trojan War while showing the grief, sacrifice, and violence that accompany Aeneas’s duty to his people.
What The Aeneid contains
Escape from Troy
Aeneas escapes the burning city with his father and son, but loses his wife, Creusa. He leads surviving Trojans in search of a new home.
In The Aeneid, Aeneas tells Dido how he carried his father, Anchises, out of Troy and later searched the ruined streets for Creusa.
In The Aeneid by Virgil
Dido and Carthage
Dido, queen of Carthage, falls in love with Aeneas. When the gods order him to continue toward Italy, his departure leaves her in despair.
In The Aeneid, Dido watches the Trojans prepare to sail, confronts Aeneas, and eventually takes her own life on a funeral pyre.
In The Aeneid by Virgil
The journey to the underworld
Guided by the Sibyl, Aeneas enters the world of the dead. His father shows him the future generations connected with Rome.
In The Aeneid, Aeneas carries a golden bough into the underworld and meets Anchises, who explains the future awaiting their descendants.
In The Aeneid by Virgil
War in Italy
The Trojans’ arrival leads to war with Italian peoples led by Turnus. Aeneas must fight for the settlement promised to him.
At the end of The Aeneid, Aeneas hesitates over the defeated Turnus, then sees the belt Turnus took from the slain Pallas and kills him.
In The Aeneid by Virgil
How to recognise The Aeneid in stories
- Look for a Trojan exile carrying his father from a burning city.
- Notice Dido, the golden bough, and journeys among the dead.
- Watch for conflicts between personal love and duty to a future people.
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Does Aeneas found Rome?
No, Aeneas does not found Rome himself. In The Aeneid, he reaches Italy and fights to establish a home for his people. Rome belongs to the future of his descendants, and that promised future gives his journey its larger purpose.
How is it connected to Homer’s epics?
The Aeneid continues the story of Troy from the Trojan side and draws on both of Homer’s epics. Its sea journeys recall The Odyssey, while its battles in Italy recall The Iliad. Aeneas’s task, however, is to secure a new homeland rather than return to an old one.
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