Aeneid summary Flashcards
Background
Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, judged Venus to be more beautiful than Juno and Pallas Athene, and claimed his reward, Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. The Greeks gathered an army and sacked the city of Troy after a ten years’ siege.
Aeneas escaped with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius Iulus. Driven by the jealous hatred of Juno, he wandered across the Mediterranean for six years, trying to found a new city. At the opening of the poem, his father has just died in Sicily and Aeneas is sailing for Italy.
Book 1 - Storm and Banquet
Juno sends a fearful storm which wrecks the Trojan ships on the coast of Libya, near Carthage. There the Trojans are hospitably received by Dido, queen of Carthage. Venus, mother of Aeneas, anxious for the safety of her son, contrives that Dido should fall in love with him.
Book 2 - The Fall of Troy
Takes the form of a flashback as Aeneas tells the banqueters the story of the fall of Troy. The Greeks had erected a huge wooden horse and persuaded the Trojans to drag it into the city. In the dead of night Greek soldiers pour from the horse and open the gates to their comrades. The Trojans put up a fierce but hopeless resistance, and Aeneas escapes from the city with his father and son.
Book 4 - Dido
Dido now loves Aeneas and Juno arranges a kind of marriage in order to keep him with Dido and prevent him from founding the city which was fated to destroy her beloved Carthage. Jupiter reminds Aeneas of his destiny and orders him to leave Dido. She senses that he is going to leave her and builds a great pyre, ostensibly to cure herself of love by burning the relics of Aeneas’ stay. She curses Aeneas, calls upon her Carthaginians to wage eternal war against his people and dies in the flames.
Book 6 - The Underworld
Aeneas arrives in Italy at last, landing in Cumae just north of the Bay of Naples. There he consults the Sibyl, begging her to allow him to go down to the Underworld to see his father Anchises. She agrees to escort him on condition that he finds a golden branch in a dark tree and buries the body of Misenus, a comrade who has been drowned. These tasks he achieves and in the Underworld they meet, in reverse order of their deaths, Palinurus, Dido and heroes who had died at Troy. They proceed to the place of eternal torture of the damned and to the Fields of the Blessed where they find Anchises, who explains the creation of the universe and the origin of life, and takes them to see a parade of great Romans of the future marching up family by family towards the light of life.
Book 7 - War in Latium
Aeneas and his fleet sail into the mouth of the River Tiber and build a camp on its banks. Latinus, the king of Latium, welcomes them and offers Aeneas his daughter, Lavinia in marriage. Juno sends down Allecto to stir up resentment against Aeneas. She persuades Queen Amata to oppose Aeneas’ marriage and whips us Turnus, a neighbouring Latin prince, to go to war against the Trojans. She then engineers a skirmish between the local people of Latium and a Trojan hunting party led by Ascanius. War has begun.
Book 8 - Aeneas in Rome
With the blessing of the god of the River Tiber, Aeneas foes to the village of Pallenteum. King Evander describes how Hercules had saved them from the monster Cacus and tells the story of Mezentius, a brutal Etruscan despot who has been dethroned by this subjects and is being harboured by Turnus. Evander tells Aeneas of a prophecy which forbids the Etruscans to be led by an Italian, and advises him to go with a detachment of cavalry led by his son Pallas, to claim leadership of all the armies opposed to the Latins. Venus, concerned for Aeneas’ safety, persuades Vulcan to make new armour and a prophetic shield depicting the future wars of Rome.
Book 9 - Nisus and Euryalus
When Aeneas and Pallas are on their mission to the Etruscans, the Trojan camp is attacked by Turnus and his Rutulians. In accordance with the strict instructions given by Aeneas, the Trojans close the gates and decline battle. Nisus and Euryalus die on a night foray and Ascanius kills Numanus. The siege continues and Turnus breaks into the Trojan camp. In his fury and folly he slaughters Trojans instead of opening the gates, and eventually he is forced to withdraw and swim the Tiber to return to his men.
Book 10 - Pallas and Mezentius
Aeneas returns at the head of the Etruscan armies. Turnus kills Pallas and tears the belt off his dead body. As Aeneas slaughters the Latin in revenge, Juno saves Turnus from his fury by spiriting him from the battlefield. Mezentius takes his place, and in battle with Aeneas, his life is saved by the intervention of his son Lausus. Aeneas kills Lausus and the wounded Mezentius challenges him and dies in single combat.
Book 11 - Drances and Camilla
Pallas is mourned and his funeral rites conducted. The Latins send an embassy to Aeneas to beg a truce in order to gather up the dead. He consents and makes it clear that the war was not of his choosing. Turnus could have met him in single combat and only one man would have died. The Latins engage in fierce debate, Drances abusing Turnus and pleading for an end to the war, Turnus returning the abuse and offering to meet Aeneas in single combat. Despite that, when news comes that Aeneas is approaching the city, Turnus rouses his forces for battle. The maiden Camilla volunteers to confront the enemy cavalry while Turnus waits in ambush for Aeneas in a pass in the hills. Camilla is killed and Turnus gives up his ambush. Aeneas enters the pass and both armies move towards Latium within sight and sound of each other.
Book 12 - Truce and Duel
Turnus demands to meet Aeneas in battle. Aeneas and Latinus strike a treaty agreeing that the victor will receive Lavinia in marriage and that is Aeneas if defeated, the Trojans will withdraw peacefully and settle with Evander in Pallenteum. But Juno suborns Turnus’ divine sister Juturna to engineer a violation of the treaty. In the melee which follows, Aeneas is wounded by an arrow shot by an unknown assailant. He is healed by Venus and returns to battle. Juturna rescues Turnus from the wrath of Aeneas, but when he attacks Latium, Turnus realises his responsibilities and returns to the field. Jupiter and Juno are reconciled and Juno gives up her opposition to the destiny of Rome. Aeneas wounds Turnus and kills him as he begs for mercy.
