The Aeneid - Virgil

Plot summaries - Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Book 1

• Juno is angry with Aeneas because he is a surviving Trojan, so bribes Aeolus with the promise of a nymph into unleashing a storm to disrupt his journey to Italy, but Neptune intervenes because the sea is his domain.

• During the storm, Aeneas wishes he had died at Troy instead of facing such hardships. They are eventually shipwrecked in Carthage, Juno’s favourite city, prophesized to be destroyed by a race descended from the trojans.

• Jupiter tells Juno of this prophecy, that Aeneas’ descendants, Romulus and Remus, will establish the best empire (i.e. Rome)

• They land in Carthage where they meet Queen Dido, who offers hospitality.

Book 2

• Aeneas recounts the fall of Troy, detailing the Greeks' deceit with the Trojan Horse.

• He tells them how the Greeks much outnumber the Trojans, killing Priam and his son Polites.

• Aeneas does demonstrate good leadership skills, rallying the remaining Trojans to flee the burning city and escape to safety.

• He wishes to kill Helen for her role in the war, but does not because his mother, Venus, intervenes and reminds him of his destiny.

• He goes to flee with his wife, son and father, but somehow manages to lose his wife Creusa, who is unable to escape and is left behind in the chaos of Troy's destruction. He wants to go back, but she appears to him as a ghost who tells his to flee and to not mourn her death.

Book 4

• Juno manipulates the relationship between Dido and Aeneas by getting Venus involved. Never one to stray away from matchmaking, she makes them fall in love.

• Juno casts a storm, which forces Aeneas and Dido into a cave, where they make love and are unofficially married.

• Mercury tries to force Aeneas back on track, reminding him of his destiny to found Rome. He leaves, without saying anything and Dido tragically kills herself, stabbing herself with Aeneas’ sword and jumping onto a funeral pyre of his belongings. She curses Rome to always be fighting with Carthage in her last breath.

Book 6

• Aeneas arrives in Italy and decides he needs to visit the underworld. He finds Sybil, who tells him to find the golden branch.

• He is guided to it by some doves, sent by Venus, where he breaks off the golden bough, so Sybil takes him into the underworld.

• Aeneas finds Dido in the fields of mourning, and also finds that the Greeks cower at the sight of him, showing that he was a good warrior.

• He finds his father, Anchises, in the fields of Elysium, where he tells Aeneas of the prophecy and what is to become of his future lineage.

Book 7

• Eating of the tables! Cursed by the furies, Aeneas and his crew were told that they would only know they had reached the right place when they ate their tables - and here, they eat the flatbread that they were eating off - so, they know they have made it to the right place!

• Suitors line up in Latium to marry Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, who has been told by an oracle that his daughter should marry a foreigner. Turnus is dubbed to be the favourite, but Latinus sees Aeneas and decides he is the perfect match.

• Juno is not done. She sends Alecto to get the natives angry with the Trojans, who end up pleading with king Latinus to launch an assault. They do.

• (It’s basically just the Iliad at this point…but ig plagiarism wasn’t a thing back then)

Book 8

• Aeneas, disheartened by the Latin advance, is reassured by the River Tiber in the dream of his prophecy, and is told that Aeneas will find a white sow with thirty piglets, signifying the founding of Alba Longa by his son Ascanius in thirty years time.

• When he wakes up, he sees the sow and has it sacrificed to Juno.

• Aeneas allies with King Evander, who offers support for his cause in the form of some troops.

• Venus gets Vulcan to forge some new weaponry and armour for Aeneas, who gifts them to him at the Trojan Camp.

Shield of Aeneas, depicting

• Romulus and Remus

• The rape of the Sabine women

• Cato and the Catilinarian conspiracy

• Battle of Actium

• Mettius Fufetius

• Octavian

• Porsenna attacks Rome; Clocles and Cloeilia

Book 9

• Aeneas leaves the camp to find Evander and so Juno seizes the opportunity, sending Iris down to tell Turnus and rally the Latins.

• The Latins look around the camp, trying to spot a weakness, but are unable to find one, so settle on burning the unprotected ships. However, the ships are immortal, because of a curse created by Cybele, so instead of sinking, the ships submerge and resurface as nymphs.

• Nisus and Euryalus volunteer to go and tell Aeneas, so leave the camp, but both are killed upon their exit (this is the lovely simile of the flower, cut down too soon)

• The Latins then attack, and Turnus actually makes it into the camp, putting up a good fight. However, when it becomes clear that he is outnumbered, he jumps into the river to save himself.

Book 10

• Jupiter decides that he is not going to help either side.

• Aeneas and the Trojans, having returned, disembark onto the shores, where Turnus fights - and kills - Pallas, the son of Evander sending Aeneas into a furor.

• Aeneas slaughters many of the Latin troops, his rage evoking fear in them.

• Jupiter decides to let Juno spare Aeneas, sending him down the river.

Book 11

• Aeneas send Pallas’ body back to King Evander, who wishes for Turnus’ death. He wishes, sobbing over his son’s body, that Pallas receive a Trojan-style burial, showing that he does not condemn the Trojans.

• The Latins send messengers to the Trojan camp, who ask for a 12 day truce in order to bury their dead. Aeneas agrees, but criticizes them for wishing to fight in the first place. Both the Latins and Trojans hold funerals for their dead.

• There is then a Latin council, where the soldiers declare that they don’t really want to fight anymore, backed and lead by Drances. Turnus disagrees with this, saying his words don’t really back up his actions.

• The Trojans march on the Latins. Camilla arrives but is promptly killed, and, following her death, the Latin army starts to fall apart.

Book 12

• Turnus wishes to fight Aeneas to wind the hand of Lavinia (sounds familiar…right?) King Latinus begs him not to, but he does it anyway. Amarta says that if he dies, she will.

• Aeneas is forced off the battlefield by an arrow to the leg and Turnus, seeing his opportunity, goes to fight him.

• Amarta kills herself.

• Juno has pretty much given up on him at this point; she has to accept that - even she, a Goddess, cannot really interfere with prophecy. She abandons her grudge.

• Turnus is killed by Aeneas.

Key themes across the text

• Prophecy/ Fate

• Divine Intervention

• War/ Reality of war

• Grief

• Piety to:

  1. Family

  2. Country

  3. The Gods