Virgil

A prose translation, but by a well known authority at that time. Like the Iliad, this is the most prominent literary work from a major Hellenistic power. It is what most Romans had in their heads about the legendary foundations of their polity. Though the poem itself was incomplete, Vergil having died beore completion, there were several acounts finishing the receisved story . I can't pass an opinion on the beauty of the Latin poem, being twice removed from it, nontheless, one should have read some version of this work to complete an education.… (more)

A twelve-book-long epic poem it describes the early mythology of the founding of Rome. The hero Aeneas, a Trojan prince and son of Venus, faces trials and tribulations as he escapes Troy as it burns and sails the Mediterranean searching for a new home.

The Aeneid alludes to both the Odyssey and the Iliad, tales of the Trojan War composed as epic poems by Homer. The first six books of the Aeneid are the stories of Aeneas and other Trojan survivors travelling around the Mediterranean, in the style of Odysseus and his crew in the Odyssey. The latter half of Virgil's work focuses on warfare, as Aeneas fights Turnus, king of the Rutuli and a warrior said to be more powerful than Achilles. The Aeneid also contains epic tropes that hearken back to Homer. For instance, in Book V Aeneas puts on funeral games for his dead father, Anchises. These games are strongly reminiscent of the funeral games hosted in honour of Patroclus in Book XXVIII of the Iliad. Later, in Book VI of the Aeneid, Aeneas descends into the Underworld where he encounters his father and Dido, his spurned lover and former Queen of Carthage; Odysseus makes a similar journey in Book XI of the Odyssey. Divine intervention is another prominent feature in the Aeneid; gods such as Jupiter and Venus compel and assist Aeneas to fulfill his destiny, while other divine figures, Juno, for example, actively plot against Aeneas, and attempt to thwart his attempts to reach Italy and lay the foundations of Rome.

The epic begins in media res, the standard technique in epic poetry as Aeneas and his men wash up on an unfamiliar shore. He is whisked inland to the court of Dido, Queen of Carthage, where, in Book II, he tells the story of the fall of Troy from the Trojan perspective. In his account, he describes the Trojan Horse on the shores outside Troy, the warning of Laocoön, the Greeks' emergence from the hollow horse and the storming of the gates, the death of King Priam at the hands of Neoptolemus (Achilles' nephew), and the annunciation of his quest to take the Trojan gods and found a new city in the West. Aeneas goes on to describe his journey across the Mediterranean Sea. As he finishes the story, Dido is struck by an arrow of Cupid, Aeneas' half-brother, and falls in love with the Trojan. (This scheme is hatched by Juno to keep Aeneas in Carthage) Their love was not meant to be, as Jupiter, via Mercury, reminds Aeneas of his destiny and orders him to embark once again in search of his new home. After that divine reminder, Aeneas sets sail on the Mediterranean, still seeking the location of Troy's successor.

Aeneas settles the Trojans in Latium, a region in western Italy, at the invitation of Latinus, king of the Latin tribe. Aeneas begins to court Latinus's daughter, Lavinia, with her father's blessing.… (more)