Name: _____________
Due Monday
#2 Aeneas- the Other Roman Founder
Please read my summary of Virgil’s Aeneid. Aeneas is hero who the Romans believed
lived long before Romulus, around 1200 BCE but who does not become so important a
figure in Roman founding mythology until later in Rome’s history. We will talk about it in
class…it might be a little confusing. Just enjoy the story and compare him to Romulus.
1) After you have finished reading, go back over the story and put a star* next to five
actions by Aeneas that you think best define his character. Be prepared to share
these in class.
2) Please write paragraph responses to each question below.
a) What do you think the Romans found most appealing about Aeneas as a
founding hero and also about his story in traveling to Italy to found a new
Troy? Discuss at least three major points from the reading…
b) Compare the characters and stories of Aeneas and Romulus- what do you see
as the greatest similarities and the greatest differences? Discuss at least
two major points for each side. Do they contradict or complement each
other as heroes and stories? Do you see inconsistencies between them?
Do they both seem equally Roman?
3) Write down at least two questions that came up for you from the reading or from
writing responses to these questions.
A Summary of the Virgil’s Aeneid
(written for the Emperor Augustus between 26-19 BCE)
The Trojan War was the ancient world’s most famous mythical war. It was the basis for
the Ancient Greeks’ beloved stories by Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer’s
epics were like the Greeks’ bible telling about their core beliefs and values and were the
subject of countless works of art, literature, and theater for over 800 years in Greek
culture. By the time of the Punic Wars in 264 BCE, the Romans had conquered the
Greeks in Magna Graecia in Southern Italy and Homer became quite popular among
the Romans, especially the Odyssey which chronicled Odysseus’ 10 year struggle to
get home after the Trojan War. The Odyssey was one of the first Greek texts ever
translated into Latin, a language still in its infancy in the 200s. Previous to this, most
Latin writing was legalistic- the 12 Tables, Rome’s law code is the best evidence of
early Roman writing.
The poetic potential of Latin was not fully recognized until Virgil wrote the Aeneid,
Rome’s sequel to the Iliad and the Odyssey written between 26 and 19 BCE. The
Aeneid quickly became Rome’s national epic, memorized by all school children. Virgil
dedicated his epic to the new emperor Augustus, adopted son of Julius Caesar who
defeated Antony and Cleopatra in war and restored peace and order in Rome.
Augustus’ reign began the 200 year period of the Pax Romana, in which all of Rome’s
civil wars were put to rest and the government smoothly transitioned from republic to
monarchy under the responsible one-man rule of Augustus. Future emperors like
Caligula and Nero were not nearly as good as old Augustus.
Back to the story…
How did the Trojan War begin? The Greeks believed it began with a beauty contest
between three goddesses- Athena (Minerva), Hera (Juno) , and Aphrodite (Venus.)
They got into a fight over who was the most beautiful goddess and asked a mortal,
Paris, prince of Troy, to choose. Each goddess offered Paris a bribe and he chose
Venus because she offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Helen
happened to be married to King Menelaus of Sparta in Greece. When Paris seduced
Helen and brought her back to Troy, all of Greece rallied around Menelaus and his
brother, Agamemnon to destroy Troy and bring Helen back. The Greeks sent “1000
ships” filled with troops to besiege the high walls of Troy. All the great heroes of Greece
assembled – Achilles, Odysseus (Ulysses), Ajax.
Even the gods got involved. Needless to say, the two loser goddesses, Juno and
Minerva hated the Trojans and help the Greeks destroy them. Venus loved the Trojans
and did all she could to help them survive. She is also the mother of Aeneas, the hero
of Virgil’s story.
For ten years, the war was a stalemate. Both sides were exhausted and their best
soldiers, Hector for the Trojans and Achilles for the Greeks had been killed in battle.
But alas, the great city of Troy was fated to be destroyed. It could not be stopped, even
by the gods. The turning point came from the wily Odysseus (Ulysses) who came up
with a trick to help the Greeks break into the walls of Troy once and for all.
One day, the people of Troy awoke to discover that the Greeks were gone. Their camp
was empty. The ships were nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a huge wooden
horse left standing before the gates of the city.
They cautiously went out to inspect the horse. Some feared a trick by the Greeks.
Others wanted to believe it signified the end of the long ordeal and that the horse was a
peace offering to the gods. One priest, Laocoon encouraged the Trojans to burn the
horse, saying, “Beware of the Greeks even when they bear gifts.” But then the gods
sent a sea serpent to kill him and his sons (there is a painting of this on the wall in the
classroom by El Greco) The Trojans took this as a sign that the gods were offended by
Laocoon and wanted them to take in the wooden horse. They opened their gates,
which had protected them for ten years against the Greeks. The Trojans partied until
they passed out in exhaustion. Only then did the Greeks soldiers lying in wait in the
belly of the horse emerge to set fire to the city.
That night, Prince Aeneas of Troy had a strange dream. He was a member of the royal
family of Troy but not a son of King Priam. His father was Anchises who was now very
old but had been so handsome in his youth that the goddess Venus fell in love with him.
Together they had Aeneas. Homer makes only a few references to him in the Iliad but
in one scene he is saved in battle by his mother Venus and it is said that he will survive
the war and fulfill a great destiny.
In Aeneas’ strange dream, he sees the ghost of Prince Hector, Trojan hero of Homer’s
Iliad, who was killed and brutalized by Greek hero Achilles. Hector’s ghost was covered
in blood and sand, his feet still swollen from the wounds Achilles made when he
dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot. “Wake up Aeneas,” Hector’s ghost ordered.
“Greek soldiers are burning the city. You must take your family and the household gods
and leave. You are destined to found another Troy.” Aeneas awoke.
Seeing flames and hearing screams, he immediately donned his armor and ran into the
street ready to defend his city. He had thoughts that if he could not save his city, then
he would gladly die with it. He ran towards Priam’s palace, killing Greeks as he went.
He witnessed the brutal murder of King Priam by Achilles’ son, Pyrrhus while praying at
his altar. He watched Greeks soldiers rape Priam’s daughter, Cassandra. He thought
of his own family and fled the palace to save them.
He went first to his elderly father’s home. When he reached Anchises, his father
refused to leave. He was too tired and would only be a burden. Aeneas urged him to
carry their most important ancestor statues and then lifted his father onto his back and
ran to his own house, fighting Greeks and dodging flaming debris the whole way. While
still carrying his father and the statues, he took the hand of his only son, Iulus and told
his wife, Creusa to stay close to their side as they evacuated the city.
It was only after they slipped out of the city gates that Aeneas noticed that his wife
Creusa had disappeared. He ordered his son and father to hide in the shadows and ran
back into the burning city to look for her, his heart pounding with dread. Not far from
their home he crumbled when he found her dead body lying in the street. As he knelt
beside her and wept, her ghost appeared to him and said, “You cannot help me, my
love. Do not be sad. No Greek warrior can abuse me or lead me into slavery. You
must take our son, Iulus and flee. You are destined to found a new home for our people
and our gods on the banks of the Tiber River. And you will find love again. Now go.”
By morning, it was all over. Troy still smoldered, the men all killed, the Trojan women
stood in chains waiting to be brought back as Greek slaves. From a hill overlooking
what was left of the city, Aeneas watched Greek soldiers hurl Hector’s infant son from
the walls seeking to extinguish the best of all future generations of Trojans. The Greek
ships soon sailed away.
With his father and son, Aeneas gathered other Trojan survivors and despite his own
private anguish and at times, even suicidal thoughts, he remembered Creusa’s and
Hector’s words about his destiny to found a new Troy, and ordered the building of a fleet
of ships. He needed to be the leader his people needed despite his own sadness.
Like Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, Aeneas spends the next ten years wandering the
Mediterranean Sea, only instead of trying to get home like Odysseus, Aeneas was
searching for a new home. In fact, Aeneas visits many of the same places as Odysseus
in the Odyssey- he even has a run in with the Cyclops and rescues a Greek whom
Odysseus left behind.
While Odysseus had incurred the wrath of the sea god Poseidon, Aeneas was harassed
by the goddess Juno, who was determined to sabotage Aeneas’ efforts to reach Italy.
While Aeneas’ mom Venus gleefully reminded Juno that it was Aeneas’ destiny and
thus, could not be stopped, Juno defiantly vowed to slow Aeneas down as much as
possible. So she hit Aeneas’ ships with storms that blew his ships to the shores of the
great city of Carthage in North Africa, where he met Queen Dido. We learn that
Carthage is Juno’s most beloved city, which she would like to make a superpower in the
Mediterranean. And Juno knows that when Aeneas reaches Italy, that Carthage is
destined to fall. She wants to stop him from getting to Italy as long as possible. Not
trusting Juno’s intentions and fearing for Aeneas’ safety in Carthage, Venus sends her
messenger Cupid to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas.
Aeneas immediately feels a bond with Queen Dido who founded Carthage after fleeing
her home in Phoenicia when her brother murdered her husband. She was quickly
turning Carthage into a booming city but had taken a vow never to remarry. But since
she was under the spell of Cupid, she fell deeply in love with Aeneas. He told her of his
entire ten year Odyssey from Troy to Carthage. She understood him. Aeneas began to
wonder if Carthage was the right place to settle. His wife, Creusa had told him he would
fall in love again.
Juno does all she can to push Aeneas and Dido closer together. While on a hunt, Juno
causes a sudden rainstorm that forces Aeneas and Dido to take shelter in a cave where
they make love. In Dido’s mind, this meant that she and Aeneas were effectively
married. Juno is the goddess associated with marriage after all. All Aeneas knew was
that he liked Dido and was relieved to have found a place that felt like home.
He is jolted out of his comfort by visits from the messenger god, Mercury (Hermes) sent
by Jupiter (Zeus.) When he finds Aeneas, he is wearing royal purple (a dye that
Phoenicia and Carthage were famous for producing) and laying foundation stones for
Dido’s new palace. Mercury tells Aeneas he is in the wrong place, that he has an even
greater destiny in Italy. When Aeneas expresses reluctance, Mercury makes his most
compelling argument, “If you do not care about fulfilling your destiny for yourself, then
you have a duty to your son, Iulus and all succeeding generations. They will make Italy
the leader of the world.” Aeneas agrees to leave.
But he is ashamed to face Dido and orders his people to ready the ships ASAP. Dido
catches him preparing to leave. Aeneas stumbles, “I go to Italy against my will.” He
tells her he wishes he had died back in Troy but that fate and his duty to his son
compels him to go to Italy. With Cupid’s arrow still burning in her heart, Dido begs
Aeneas for a son. Then she tells him she can’t live without him. Even though Aeneas
wants to stay to console her, he boards his ship and leaves.
Dido commits suicide by climbing onto a burning pyre of all of Aeneas’ belongings and
stabbing herself. As she dies, she curses Aeneas and all his descendents.
“Carthaginians, hound his descendents and all his future race with your hatred! Give
this gift to my ashes. No love, no treaties between our peoples. Arise, some great
avenger, from my bones to pursue the Trojan settlers with fire and the sword... I beg
our shores to be against theirs, our seas against theirs, swords against swords. Let our
descendents be eternally at war!” The goddess Juno mourns the passing of Dido.
Dido’s burning pyre foreshadows the burning of all of Carthage by Rome at the end of
the 3rd Punic War.
Finally Aeneas and the Trojan survivors reach the west coast of Italy. It is here that the
Aeneid shifts from the travel story of Homer’s Odyssey to the war story of Homer’s Iliad.
Aeneas has no easy time once he reaches Italy. He meets friendly Italians like King
Latinus, King of the Latins who had received a prophecy that his daughter Lavinia would
marry a handsome foreigner. Aeneas and Lavinia prepare to marry. (While Virgil does
not give Lavinia nearly the depth he gives Dido, she is apparently the love that Aeneas
was destined to find…frankly, I, Mr. Kendall would have stuck with Dido…) But he also
meets many hostile Italians led by the chieftain Turnus who was planning to marry
Lavinia. From the moment Aeneas arrives in Italy, it is war war war, fighting for a spot
in Italy that he can call his own for his people. The Aeneid ends with an epic one-onone battle between Aeneas and Turnus that echoes the duel at the end of the Iliad
between Hector and Achilles. It ends with Turnus begging for mercy and
acknowledging Aeneas as Lavinia’s rightful husband and claimant to land in Italy. Yet
after a long epic of showing self-control, Aeneas loses it and brutally stabs Turnus.
With his wife, Aeneas founds the town of Lavinium along the Tiber River and son Iulus
grows up to found the town of Alba Longa where several generations later, Romulus
and Remus will be born. After his death, Aeneas is made into a god and worshiped as
Aeneas Indiges or “Native born.”