CLASSICS 2D03 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Acerbas, Aeneid, Tyrant
13 Jun 2018
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The Aeneid – WEEK #12
Virgil – The Aeneid
• Virgil opens his epic poem by declaring its subject, “warfare and a man at war,” and asking a
muse, or a goddess of inspiration, to explain the anger of Juno (Hera), queen of the gods.
• The man in question is Aeneas, who is fleeing the ruins of his native city, Troy, which has been
ravaged in a war with Achilles and the Greeks (The Trojan War).
▪ The surviving Trojans accompany Aeneas on a perilous journey to establish a new home in
Italy, but they must contend with the vindictive Juno.
• Juno harbors anger towards Aeneas because Carthage is her favorite city, and a prophecy holds
that the race descended from the Trojans will someday destroy Carthage.
▪ Juno also holds a permanent grudge against Troy because another Trojan, Paris, judged
Juno’s rival Venus (Aphrodite) fairest in a divine beauty contest.
• Juno calls on Aeolus, the god of the winds, directing him to bring a great storm down upon
Aeneas as he sails south of Sicily in search of a friendly harbor.
▪ Aeolus obeys, unleashing a fierce storm upon the battle-weary Trojans
• Aeneas watches with horror as the storm approaches.
▪ Winds and waves buffet the ships knocking them off course and scattering them.
▪ As the tempest intensifies, Neptune (Poseidon), the god of the sea, senses the presence of
the storm in his dominion.
• He tells the winds that Aeolus has overstepped his bounds and calms the waters just as
Aeneas’s fleet seems doomed.
• 7 ships remain, and they head for the nearest land in sight: the coast of Libya.
▪ When they reach the shore, before setting out to hunt for food, a weary and worried
Aeneas reminds his companions of previous, more deadly adversities they have overcome
and the fated end toward which they strive.
• Meanwhile, on Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, Aeneas’s mother, Venus, observes the
Trojans’ plight and begs Jupiter (Zeus), king of the gods, to end their suffering.
▪ Jupiter assures her that Aeneas will eventually find his promised home in Italy and that two
of Aeneas’s descendants, Romulus and Remus, will found the mightiest empire in the world.
▪ Jupiter then sends a god down to the people of Carthage to make sure they behave
hospitably to the Trojans.
• Aeneas remains unaware of the divine machinations that steer his course.
▪ While Aeneas is in the woods, Venus appears to him in disguise and relates how Dido came
to be queen of Carthage.
• Dido’s wealthy husband, Sychaeus, who lived with her in Tyre (a city in Phoenicia, now
Lebanon), was murdered for his gold by Pygmalion, her brother.
• Sychaeus appeared to Dido as a ghost and advised her to leave Tyre with those who
were opposed to the tyrant Pygmalion.
• She fled, and the emigrant Phoenicians settled across the sea in Libya. They found
Carthage, which has become a powerful city.
▪ Venus advises Aeneas to go into the city and talk to the queen, who will welcome him.
• Aeneas and his friend Achates approach Carthage, shrouded in a cloud that Venus conjures to
prevent them from being seen.
• On the outskirts of the city, they encounter a shrine to Juno and are amazed to behold a grand
mural depicting the events of the Trojan War.
▪ Their astonishment increases when they arrive in Dido’s court to find many of their
comrades who were lost and scattered in the storm, asking Dido for aid in rebuilding their
fleet.
▪ Dido gladly grants their request and says that she wishes she could meet their leader.
• Achates remarks that he and Aeneas were clearly told the truth regarding their warm
welcome, and Aeneas steps forward out of the cloud.
• Dido is awestruck and delighted to see the famous hero. She invites the Trojan leaders
to dine with her in her palace.
• Venus worries that Juno will incite the Phoenicians against her son.
▪ She sends down another of her sons, Cupid (Eros), the god of love, who takes the form of
Aeneas’s son, Ascanius.
• In this disguise, Cupid inflames the queen’s heart with passion for Aeneas.
• Dido begs for Aeneas to tell the story of his adventures during the war and the 7 years
since he left Troy.
Book 2:
• Fulfilling Dido’s request, Aeneas begins his sorrowful story, adding that retelling it entails
reexperiencing the pain.
• Aeneas takes us back to ten years into the Trojan War; at the moment the tale begins.
▪ The Danaans (Greeks) have constructed a giant wooden horse with a hollow belly.
• The secretly hide their best soldiers, fully armed, within the horse, while the rest of the
Greek army lies low some distance from Troy.
▪ The sight of the massive horse standing before their gates on an apparently deserted
battlefield baffles the Trojans.
▪ Near the horse, the Trojans find a Greek youth named Sinon.
• Sinon explains that the Greeks have wished to flee Troy for some time but were
prevented by fierce storms.
• A prophet told them to sacrifice one of their own, and Sinon was chosen.
• But Sinon managed to escape during the preparations, and the Greeks left him behind.
▪ The Trojans show him pity, and ask the meaning of the great horse.
• Sinon says that is was an offering to the goddess, Minerva (Athena), who turned against
the Greeks after the desecration of one of her temples by Ulysses (Odysseus).
• Sinon claims that if any harm comes to the wooden statue, Troy will be destroyed by
Minerva’s wrath, but if the Trojans install the horse within their city walls, they will rise
victorious in war against the southern Greece, like a tidal wave, with Minerva on their
side.
• Aeneas continues his story:
▪ After Sinon finishes speaking, two giant serpents rise up from the sea and devour the Trojan
priest Laocoon and his two sons as punishment for hurling a spear at the horse.
• The snakes then slither up to the shrine of Minerva.
▪ The Trojans interpret the snakes’ attack as an open that they must appease Minerva, so
they wheel the horse into the city of Troy.
▪ Night falls, and while the city sleeps, Sinon opens the horse’s belly, releasing the Greek
warriors.
• The warriors kill the Trojan guards and open the gates of the city to the rest of their
forces.
▪ Meanwhile, Hector, the fallen leader of the Trojan army, appears to Aeneas in a dream and
informs him that the city has been infiltrated.
• Climbing to the roof, Aeneas sees fighting everywhere and Troy in flames.
• He runs for arms and then heads for the heart of the city, joined by a few of his men.
▪ Aeneas and his men surprise and kill many Greeks, but are too badly outnumbered to make
a difference.
• Eventually, the go to King Priam’s palace, where a battle is brewing.
• The Greeks, led by Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus), break into the palace.
• Pyrrhus kills Polites, the young son of Priam and Hecuba, and then slaughters Priam on
his own alter.
• Aeneas continues relating his story:
▪ Nearly overcome with grief over this slaughter, he sees Helen, the cause of the war, hiding.
• He determines to kill her, but Venus appears and explains that blame for the war
belongs with the gods, not Helen.
• Venus advises Aeneas to flee Troy at once, since his fate is elsewhere.
▪ Aeneas then proceeds to the house of his father, Anchises, but Anchises refuses to leave.
• But after an omen appears – first as a harmless tongue of flame on Ascanius’s (Aeneas’s
son) forehead, then a bright falling star in the sky – Anchises is persuaded to flee the
city.
▪ Aeneas takes his father on his back and flees with his wife, Creusa, his son, Ascanius, and
many other followers.
• Unfortunately, in the commotion, Creusa is lost from the group.
▪ As everyone exits the city, Aeneas returns to search for Creusa but instead meets her shade,
or spirit.
• She tells him not to be sorrowful because a new home and wife awaits him in Hesperia.
• Somewhat comforted, Aeneas leaves Troy burning and leads the survivors into the
mountains.
Book 3:
• Aeneas continues his story, recounting the aftermath of the fall of Troy.
▪ After escaping from Troy, he leads the survivors to the coast of Antander, where they build a
new fleet of ships.
▪ They sail first to Thrace, where Aeneas prepares to offer sacrifices.
• When he tears the roots and branches of a tree, dark blood soaks the ground and the
bark.
• The tree speaks to him, revealing itself to be the spirit of Polydorus, son of Priam.
• Priam had sent Polydorus to the king of Thrace to be safe from the war, but when Troy
fell, the Thracian king sided with the Greeks and killed Polydorus
▪ After holding a funeral for Polydorus, Aeneas and the Trojans embark from Thrace with a
sense of dread at the Thracian violation of the ethics of hospitality.
▪ They sail southward to the holy land of Delos.
• At Delos, Apollo speaks to Aeneas, instructing him to go to the land of his ancestors.
• Anchises interprets Apollo’s remark as a reference to the island of Crete, where one of
the great Trojan forefathers – Teucrus, after whom the Trojans are sometimes called
Teucrians – had long ago ruled.
Document Summary
Italy, but they must contend with the vindictive juno. Juno harbors anger towards aeneas because carthage is her favorite city, and a prophecy holds that the race descended from the trojans will someday destroy carthage. Juno also holds a permanent grudge against troy because another trojan, paris, judged. Ju(cid:374)o"s (cid:396)i(cid:448)al venus (aphrodite) fairest in a divine beauty contest. Juno calls on aeolus, the god of the winds, directing him to bring a great storm down upon. Ae(cid:374)eas"s fleet see(cid:373)s doo(cid:373)ed: 7 ships remain, and they head for the nearest land in sight: the coast of libya, when they reach the shore, before setting out to hunt for food, a weary and worried. Aeneas reminds his companions of previous, more deadly adversities they have overcome and the fated end toward which they strive: meanwhile, on mount olympus, the home of the gods, ae(cid:374)eas"s (cid:373)othe(cid:396), ve(cid:374)us, o(cid:271)se(cid:396)(cid:448)es the. T(cid:396)oja(cid:374)s" plight a(cid:374)d (cid:271)egs jupiter (zeus), king of the gods, to end their suffering.
