Book Summaries (Aeneid)
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Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How does the book begin?
Similar to the Odyssey: asking a muse to recount Aeneas’s story, mentioning his misfortunes and Juno’s hatred of him
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
Which god hinders Aeneas? Why?
Juno (goddess of the hearth) - she hates the to-be-Romans because they are descendants of Trojans and:
Paris chose Aphrodite over her as the most beautiful goddess
Fates decide Carthage (which Juno loves, even more than Samos) will be overthrown by the Romans
Trojans are descendants of Dardanus, which remind her of her husband’s infidelity
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
Who does Juno invoke to hinder Aeneas?
What does she offer in return?
What is Aeneas’s reaction?
She goes to Aeolus in Aeolia and asks him to use his power of manipulating the winds to sink Aeneas’s ships.
In return, Juno offers him Deiopea, the most beautiful of her 14 nymphs.
Upon seeing the deadly winds, Aeneas wishes he had nobly died in Troy. AENEAS SUICIDAL IDEATION COUNTER: 1
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
Examples of Aeneas’s men listed in the mess at sea (5)
Which god ends the hindrance?
Where do Aeneas and his crew go?
Orontes
Ilioneus
Achates
Abas
Aletes
Neptune orders the winds to be calmed while Cymothoe and Triton push the shipwrecked ships off the rocks.
Aeneas and his crew of 7 ships sail to the nearest piece of land, in Libya.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How does Aeneas attempt to maintain the morale of his men upon reaching land?
He hunts and kills 7 deer, one for each ship, and serves them with wine gifted to them by Acestes while giving his men a hopeful speech.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
What does Jupiter prophesy will happen to the descendants of Trojans?
Aeneas will found the city of Latium in Italy after defeating the Rutulians and rule for 3 years
His son, Ascanius, will take on the surname Iulus and rule for 30 years, building the walls of Alba Longa
Trojans will continue to rule the land for 300 years until Ilia gives birth to Romulus and Remus
The Romans will rule for an indefinite amount of time according to Jupiter
They will then conquer the Greek cities of Phthia and Argos
Caesar will be born
Augustus will be born
he will be deified
he will have great victory in the East
he will bring an era of peace to Rome
the gates of Janus will be closed
He then sends Mercury to Dido in Carthage to make the Carthaginians and their queen subconsciously like the Trojans.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How do Aeneas and Venus interact with each other?
What tale does Venus recount to Aeneas?
Venus approaches Aeneas in disguise while he is out hunting with Achetes. Aeneas doesn’t recognise her but understands her to be divine and asks where he and his men have landed.
Venus tells him the story of how Dido came to rule Carthage:
Her husband, Sychaeus, was murdered by her brother, Pygmalion, king of Tyre, in front of the altars.
The murder was kept a secret from Dido until Sychaeus’s ghost came to Dido in a dream, telling her to flee before showing her to the location of a secret amount of gold hidden underground.
Dido fled from her brother and founded Carthage into a prosperous city
Aeneas then recounts his woes and how he initially sailed the Phrygian sea with twenty ships and now only has seven, before Venus interrupts him to instruct him to find Dido. Only then does she reveal herself and Aeneas laments about not being able to see his mother in her true form. She places Aeneas and Achates under a mist so no one can disrupt them while she flies away back to Paphos.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How are the Carthaginians described? What are they doing? What simile does Virgil use? What does Aeneas notice?
The Carthaginians are:
building and raising the citadel;
making magistrates, laws, and a senate;
beginning the construction of a theatre.
Virgil compares them to bees.
Upon entering Dido’s palace (who was busy constructing a temple for Juno) he notices a mural accurately depicting the Trojan War.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
Examples of details Aeneas notices on Dido’s Trojan mural (3)
Rhesus’s tents which were massacred by Diomedes
Troilus being dragged by his own chariot’s horses
Queen Penthesilea leading her Amazonian soldiers
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
What happens before Aeneas and Dido first interact?
Aeneas and Achates, still hidden in Venus’s mist, see some of their comrades who were seemingly lost in Aeolus’s storm (e.g. Antheus). Ilioneus, one of the Trojans, asks for help from Dido, which she happily obliges, telling the Trojans they can stay in Carthage. She laments the loss of Aeneas before the mist dissipates and he is revealed (enhanced by Venus to look more beautiful).
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How do Dido and Aeneas first interact?
Upon revealing himself, Dido praises Aeneas’ appearance and bravery, gifting him and the Trojans more than 20 bulls, 100 pigs, and more. While a feast is prepared for them, Aeneas sends Achates to deliver the news to Ascanius and he prepares gifts for Dido, including a robe worn by Helen.
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
What plan does Venus concoct?
Make Dido fall in love with Aeneas:
Cupid (made to look like Ascanius by Venus) will arrive at the palace in place of the real Ascanius
This will allow him to get close enough to Dido on her lap to breathe fire into her to make her fall for Aeneas and forget Sychaeus
Meanwhile Venus makes the real Ascanius fall alseep and carries him to Idalia
Book 1 - ‘Storm and Banquet’
How does the book end?
Iopas, Dido’s bard taught by Atlas, plays ballads. Dido asks Aeneas to recount the sacking of Troy and the Greeks’ trickery.
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
The building of the Horse:
When did the Greeks build it?
Who helped them build it?
How is the Horse described?
What is it made of?
What did the Greeks claim its purpose was?
Where did the rest of the Greeks hide?
After 10 years of the Greeks trying to besiege Troy and being denied by the Fates
Pallas Athene
The size of a mountain
Pine (and maple according to Sinon)
Religious offering in exchange for a safe return back to Greece
Island of Tenedos
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
Who is the first Trojan to suggest taking the Horse inside Troy’s walls?
Who didn’t trust the horse?
What is the general opinion of the Trojans?
Thymoetes
Capys and “those of sounder mind”
Divided
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
Which Trojan tests the Horse? How does he test the Horse? What ends up happening to him?
Laocoön, a priest of Neptune, throws a spear at the Horse but the inside rings hollow. Later, after Sinon says anyone who harms the Horse (an offering to Athene) will be harmed, Laocoön (while sacrificing a bull) and his sons are killed by two serpents that emerge from the sea.
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
Sinon and His Lie
How does Sinon enter the scene?
What does he say first to get the Trojans to hear him out?
Where is he from?
What does he emphasise about himself?
Whose story does he recount?
What happened to him?
Who caused his death?
How is he related to Sinon?
What was Sinon’s (and his father’s) social standings like?
Why does Sinon encourage the Trojans to kill him?
Why are the Greeks still here?
How are the Greeks expected to return home?
How did Sinon leave the Greeks?
What does Sinon say the Horse is for?
2 Greek warriors fuck shit up for the Greeks: who are they?
What did they do?
What does Calchas prophesy?
What will happen to the Trojans if they desecrate the Horse? What will happen if they let it in?
Trojan shepherds bring him in with his hands chained behind his back
He says he has no place among the Greeks
Argos, Greece
That he is truthful/not a liar
Palamedes, son of Belus
He was put to death by the Greeks for the false information that he objected to the war
Ulixes/Odysseus spread the lies about him
They were close friends/kinsmen
His father was poor; Sinon had some standing until Palamedes was killed and he feel into disrepute as Ulixes spread rumours about him
They’d be benefiting their enemy if they were to do so
The Greeks kept trying to leave but were withheld by bad winds. They sent Eurypylus to ask an oracle of Apollo’s why and it was because they killed Agamemnon’s daughter (a virgin) to appease the winds on the journey to Troy. To make it right and return to Greece, they have to sacrifice another Greek life.
The prophet Calchas, after 10 days, is forced by Odysseus for Sinon to be the sacrifice
He escapes the sacrifice and hid in the reeds of a marsh
King Priam releases him from his shackles and asks about the horse. Sinon swears (religiously) that he no long aligns himself with the Greeks
Diomede and Ulixes
desecrated Pallas Athene’s temple in Troy and stole her statue with bloody hands
Greeks will not be able to defeat Troy until the statue is brought back
Ultimately the horse is to appease Athena
Troy will be completely destroyed. The Trojans will win Asia
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
What struggles do the Trojans encounter trying to take the Horse in?
It gets stuck at the gates 4 times
Cassandra warns them but they are fated to not believe her
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
Who appears to Aeneas in a dream?
What instructions is he given?
What does he try to do instead?
What does Aeneas rally his people to do?
Hector
escape: Troy is being pillaged from the inside, take your households gods (Vesta) and look for a great city to establish for them
tries to fight, starts putting on armour and wishes he dies in battle AENEAS SUICIDAL IDEATION COUNTER: 2
fight
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
What plan is suggestsed?
Who suggests it?
How does it go?
What interrupts the fighting?
Where does the fighting continue?
disguise themselves as Greeks
Coroebus
not good — the Trojans start fighting and killing them
Cassandra (Coroebus’ love) is tied up and taken by Ajax and the Greeks. The Trojan fighters are then killed by the Greeks (Coroebus is slaughtered by the altar of Minerva).
Aeneas ponders that if it had been his time to die it would’ve been rightfully earned AENEAS SUICIDAL IDEATION COUNTER: 3
Priam’s palace, which Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus breaks into
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
What happens to Priam and his family?
Priam, despite his age, put his armour on to fight for his city.
When his wife, Hecuba, noticed, she told him it was hopeless and instead told him to sit with her by the altar to be protected
One of their sons, Polites, entered the room and died by Pyrrhus’s hand after seeing his mother and father
Priam speaks at Pyrrhus with shame for how he treats his enemies, weakly throws his useless spear, and is killed by Pyrrhus at the altar
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
What does Aeneas do?
Aeneas thinks about his father, his wife Creusa and his soldiers who all either deserted him or thrown themselves into the flames
He notices Helen and is engulfed by fury.
He goes to kill her but is stopped by a vision of his mother Venus
He goes to his father’s house to take him and escape but Anchises refuses to go with him (I guess suicidal ideation is hereditary)
Aeneas starts putting his armour on again but Creusa stops and begs him to take them with him.
Ascanius’s head seems to burn with fire that doesn’t hurt him but Anchises takes it as an omen from Jupiiter. He asks Jupiter to confirm the omen and a shooting star is seen. Anchises is finally able to be moved
The family escapes with Aeneas carrying Anchises, holding Iulus/Ascanius by the hand, and Creusa walking behind them but she gets lost at the fault of fate
Aeneas tries to look for her but does not find her
A vision of her appears to him telling Aeneas to continue the journey
Book 2 - ‘The Fall of Troy’
How does the book end?
Aeneas returns from trying to find Creusa to a pitiable group of surviving Trojans ready to follow him, setting out for the mountains at the dawn of a new day.