Aeneid 1
The poem opens with an invocation to Caliope: the muse of epic poetry. This story is about “arms (war) and the man (pious Aeneas) who was driven on by fate and the relentless anger of Juno across land and sea, underwent countless ordeals to lead his people to a new home. The poet (Virgil) asks Caliope to begin by explaining the reasons for Juno’s unbridled anger: her furor.
The opening parallels with Homer’s Iliad for two reasons. Firstly the poet’s primary subject is War. It also parallels with the Odyssey because it is the story of a man who is trying to get home, albeit to a new home and again the poet tips his hat towards the Iliad when he asks the Muse to begin the story with the reasons for Juno’s hatred of the Trojans just as Homer asks her to begin with the quarrel the broke out between Agamemnon and Achilles in the Iliad.
The 3 reasons why Juno hates the Trojans
- Through certain prophecies and omens the goddess has realised that her favourite city: Carthage, for which she has high hopes, is fated one day to be sacked by a race descended from the Trojans.
[Omens and prophecies are as important in the Aeneid as they are in the Odyssey because even the gods put great stock in them]
- She remembers how Paris of Troy slighted her beauty by choosing Venus instead of her or Minerva for the prize of Discord’s apple (The Judgment of Paris)
- She also loathes the thoughts of how Jupiter chose Ganymedes (a Trojan prince: the son of Dardanus and brother to Ilus and Assaracus) as a cup-bearer snubbing her own dear daughter Hebe whom Zeus gave to Hercules in marriage.
All three combine to make Juno extremely paranoid. She fears that with Carthage gone no one on earth will honour her anymore.
The story proper begins when Juno spies the Trojans sailing around Sicily. They are nearing Italy at last. She bribes Aeolus with the hand of Deiopea: one of her 14 nymphs (which parallels with how in The Iliad Hera bribes Hephaestus to help her thwart the Trojans with the hand of the youngest of the Graces: Charis.)Kind and obliging Aeolus assures the Queen of Heaven that he needs no bribes to carry out his duty and unleashes the winds as commanded.
As the storm engulfs the Trojan fleet, Aeneas’ courage fails him and he wishes he had fallen in Troy to the spear of Diomedes(Just as Odysseus wishes he too had fallen in Troy when Poseidon’s storm engulfs his ship in Odyssey 5)
Neptune however is displeased that the arrogant winds should have disturbed his domain (the sea) without his permission. Neptune silences the winds and calms the storm.
The sea god is not Aeneas’ enemy but nor is he necessarily his friend. In the Odyssey it is the hero’s guardian Athena who quells the storm to save her favourite. Neptune simply calms a storm that threatens to wreck a fleet of ships to which he is indifferent. He is more annoyed that the winds should have disturbed the sea without his permission.
Aeneas’ fleet moors at Libya where The Trojans spill out to make camp and recover from the ordeals at sea. Aeneas however climbs a cliff alone to search the horizon for his lost ships (compare with Odysseus in Laestrygonia and Aiaia)
He spots a herd of deer and quickly beckons Achates to hand him his bow and arrows then shoots down 7 deer; one for each of his ships. Compare with Odysseus in Odyssey 9
Returning and dividing out the carcasses (one per ship) and doling out the wine that King Acestesof Sicily gifted him he reminds his people of the hardships they have endured: Scylla and Charybdis, the Cyclopes (compare with how Odysseus reminds his men of all that they have endured to give them heart for the voyage ahead)
Meanwhile on Olympus, Venus appeals to her father Jupiter reminding him of his promise that the Romans would rise from the descendants of Teucer through the bloodline of her son Aeneas. (Compare with Odyssey 1 Athena talks to Zeus on Odysseus’ behalf). She reminds him that Antenor has already escaped through the Danaan ships and founded the city of Padua (Venice) in northern Italy.
To ease his daughter’s mind Jupiter unravels the secret scroll of destiny [Fatum is written in a scrol that Jupiter alone possesses](Compare with how Zeus calms Athena and conspires to bring about Odysseus’ deliverence from Ogygia)
The destiny of the Trojans
- Aeneas will wage and win a war against the Rutuli from Lavinium in Latia.
- He will rule as king for 3 years until his death.
- Then his son, now called Ascanius but renamed Ilus (in rememberence of the Ilus who founded Ilion) will go on to found the city of Alba Longa and rule for 30 years.
- The Trojan line of kings will reign in Alba Longa for 300 years
- Then a priestess-queen Ilia will bear twin sons to Mars.
- One of these twins: Romulus, will found Rome after himself
- Jupiter has placed no limits on the duration and wealth of the Romans!
- Juno will eventually calm down and respond to better judgment.
- One day Romans descended from the Trojans will enslave Achilles’ Phthia, and capture Agamemnon’s Mycenae.
- A Trojan Caesar: Augustus, will spread the empire to very edges of known world and he will be deified after his death.
- Augustus will usher in a golden age of peace when the Temple of Janus will be closed forever trapping Furor inside bound with 100 bronze chains.
This is a blend of myth, history and political propaganda. Remember Virgil was charged by Caesar Augustus to write a Roman epic to rival the Greek epics of Homer. Homer composed entertaining and thought-provoking epics. Virgil however must match Homer’s epics without copying them, honour Homer’s heroes without honouring the Greeks and somehow manage to rig the poem so that it inspires Romans in his own time to take pride in their heritage and their future. It is a lot to ask of a poet.
Next, Jupiter sends Mercury down to Carthage to warn Dido to welcome the Trojans in their land.
Meanwhile Aeneas strolls on the beach accompanied only by Achates and is met in the trees by his mother (Venus) disguised as a Spartan or Thracian hunting girl. Compare with how Athena meets Odysseus in Book 13 and also in Book 6. She asks Aeneas if he has seen her sister. Aeneas recognises her for an immortal but not his mother and asks her to tell him where he is and what people inhabit the land. Venus tells her son that the land is called Libya and is ruled by Dido, formerly of Tyre in Phoencia. Dido’s tale is a sad one. Her father had given her in marriage to the wealthiest man in the land: Sychaeus, but her wicked brother Pymalion had murdered him and for a time concealed his crime with lies. Sychaeus’ ghost came to Dido in a dream however, exposed Pygmalion’s treachery and urged her to quit Tyre in search of a new home. To speed her on her way he even showed her the location of a secret horde of buried treasure. She led her people to Libya where she bought land with thet reassure (as it turns out later from King Iarbus: a local Berber chieftain and a son of Jupiter through his mother: a nymph of the desert. Iarbus gave Dido the land in the hopes that Dido would marry him). Dido founded a city that is now being built called Carthage.
Venus now asks Aeneas who he is and he explains that he is the famous Aeneas who led his people from doomed Troy guided by his mother Venus and has been battered by the waves ever since. He is searching for a new home in Italy. He left Troy with 20 ships. Only 7 now remain; proof of how much he is hated by the gods.
Venus now interupts him and assures him that since he is safe and sound he cannot be hated by the gods and urges him to go into Carthage and seek the aid of Queen Dido and find his lost comrade safe and sound in the harbour. Compare with Book 6 when Athena disguised as a Phaeacian girl sends Oydsseus into Scherie to beseech the help of Alcinous through Queen Arete having filled him in on who’s who and what’s what first.
As proof she points to a line of 12 flying swans in the air and an eagle (Jupiter’s bird), which had distrubed them but now they are settled and continue en route to the rest. So too, she promises, Aeneas will find his lost comrades safe or en route to safety in Carthage. Omens are important in Roman religion as they are in Homer’s epics – even the gods use them.
As Venus turned to leave the divine light reflected off her neck and as she walked Aeneas recognised his mother as she vanished. Aeneas calls afer her accusing her of cruelty, begging to embrace her and talk to her face to face. (Compares and contrasts with how Athena appears to Odysseus in Book 13. Whilst Aeneas recognises his mother Venus Pallas Athene reveals herself to her champion: Odysseus.)
But whilst Venus made for her temple on Paphos she spread a mist around Aeneas and Achates as they appraoched Carthage so no one could see them. (Compare with how Athena conceals Odysseus under a mist in Scherie).
Aeneas and Achates move through the streets of Carthage marvelling at the industry of the Tyrians and stop in a sacred grove wherein Dido has built a temple dedicated to Juno. Here the two stop and marvel at the freizes on the temple walls.
Throughout the Aeneid Virgil paints tableus (describes rich imagery at length) The Virgiliantableu is a clever device used to condense a potentially long winded passage that is largely irrelevent to the quest of Aeneas but serves to fill the reader in on the background to the story or places the proceeding episode in context. Instead of simply telling the story, which would take a long time, Virgil imagines the story carved in a frieze and proceeds to summarise the narrative of the relief carving.
The frieze captures the story of Troy in its correct order. Aeneas sees the sons of Atreus: Agamemnon and Menelaus. He see Achilles and he sees Priam, king of Troy, the war and eventual sack of the city. He even sees himself carved within the tapestry of stone. This tableau prepares us for Book 2 in which Virgil has Aeneas recount the sack of Troy in vivid detail; a story which the reader wants to revisit because Homer’s Iliad stops just before the Sack of Troy.
As Aeneas and Achates marvel at the frieze Dido arrives with her entourage and takes her seat on the throne in front of the temple where she begins the business of the day. Just then Aeneas sees the captains of his three lost ships awaiting an audience with the queen. Aeneas and Achates are both happy and afraid to see their comrades and for the meantime remain aloof confused by the unexpected turn of events.
Iloneus is given leave to speak first. He tells Dido that they are Trojans who were separated on the sea from the main fleet heading to the land the Greeks call Hesperia (Western Land/Italy) and washed up on her shores. He assures her that they mean no harm and wish only to repair their ships so they can either search and rejoin their leader pious Aeneas or else return to King Acestes in Sicily.
Dido responds by easing his mind telling him that the Phoenicians have heard tell of Aeneas and of Troy and bids them rest a while in Carthage where she will see to it that their ships are mended and they are afforded all the help they need but she also invites them to make their home in Carthage where she says Tyrians and Trojans will live as equals. She also wishes Aeneas himself were present and offers to send search parties along the Libyan coast in case he washed up elsewhere. Hearing this Achates turns to Aeneas and asks him what they should do pointing out that all their friends are now accounted. Aeneas moves towards Dido and his 3 comrades and as he does so the mist disperses. (Compare with Odysseus in Scherie)
Virgil tells us that Aeneas looks like a god when he appears miraculously at the Temple of Juno in Carthage but unlike Homer whose hero Odysseus is frequently in rags or filthy before Athena supernaturally enhances his looks for the benefit of those around him Aeneas is actually the son of Venus and Virgil tells us she imparted to him good looks and stature. Venus has left for Paphos at this stage. She doesn’t need to make Aeneas look divine. He always looks semi-divine because he is the son of a goddess.
Homer uses several nomenclatures for “the Greeks” in is epics. The Achaeans are the inhabitants of Achaea: later the Peloponnese where Sparta, Mycenae, Corinth, Argos, Tiryns and Pylos are located and to which Ithaca is geo-politically linked but after Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel in the Iliad and Achilles goes on strike he refers to them as Argives signifying that they are the followers of Agamemnon who rules the Argeid plain from his citadel at Mycenae. The Hellenes are the people of Hellas: southern Greece , where Achilles has his kingdom of Phthia in Thessaly. So too does Virgil uses different words in referring to the Trojans. In connection with the hoary antiquity of the Trojan race he sometimes calls them the sons of Teucer or the Teucrians because Teucer was the pelasgian ruler of the Troad before Tros was born. Generally however he calls them Dardans/Dardanians. When specifically referring to Anchises’ bloodline he refers to the sons of Assaracus; Aeneas great grandfather, and he also calls them simply the Trojans or else the Aeneadae (the sons or people of Aeneas).
Dido welcomes Aeneas to Carthage telling him of that the Teucrians were friends and allies of her father Belus and how she herself remembers when Teucer visited Tyre and was given Cyrpus to rule by Belus. She invites Aeneas and his comrades into her palace and orders up a feast. She also sends 20 bulls down to Aeneas’ ships along with 100 swine and 200 sheep. Aeneas sends Achates back with them to fetch Ascanius and some fine gifts: a fine dress wrought with gold and a cloak worn by Helen herself, the sceptre of Ilone (Priam’s eldest daughter), a pearl necklace and a bejewelled golden tiara which he intends to gift to Dido in gratitude for her lavish hospitality.
The Roman guest and host exchange gifts, whereas in Homeric xenia the onus falls completely on the host to make a gift to his guest.
Venus however has other plans. She contrives to send her son Cupid in Ascanius’ place to titillate the heart of Dido with the gifts and arouse deep feelings of desire in her for Aeneas because she fears the duplicity of the Tyrians: Juno’s people. Venus gives Cupid his mission and he takes on the look and step of his nephew Ascanius whilst Venus spirits the real Ascanius away to her shrine in Idalia wrapped in sweet sleep.
Achates now leads Cupid back to Carthage with the gifts and once he has satisfied Aeneas’ desires to see his son safe and sound he begins to work on Dido’s heart gradually erasing all memory of Sychaeus and warming a heart unused to love with his fire. The Trojans and Tyrians feasted long into the night and Dido brought out the cup of Belus, which her people had long used at such feasts. As the cup is passed around she asks Aeneas all about Troy, about Priam and Helen and not satisfied with the bitty answers she finally asks him to recount the full tale of Greek trickery that saw the doom of Troy.
End of Book 1
Major Themes in Book 1
Fatum (Fate), The Greatness and Personality of Rome, Character and role of Pius Aeneas, Roles of Juno and Venus, the character and role of Dido, Virgil’s narrative style
Aeneid 2: The Fall of Troy
At Dido’s bidding Aeneas reluctantly begins his sad tale ...
The Wooden Horse
The war had waged for ten long years without any decided victor when one day the Trojans awoke to find the beach-head deserted. Overjoyed they rushed down to inspect the Greek camp and were met by nothing but a gigantic wooden horse.
The Trojans were initially divided on what to do next. Thymoetus urged them to either cast it into the sea or set it aflame whereas Capys urged them to haul it inside the city as an offering to the gods. As the Trojans argued Neptune’s priest Laocoon came rushing down from the citadel. He cried, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” and asked them to reflect on whether or not gift-giving fit with Ulysses’ reputation. He proclaimed that the horse was obviously some sort of trick; either it was a siege engine for ramming their city walls or else it concealed Greeks hiding inside and with that he hurled his spear at the belly of the horse where it stuck quivering as the hollow womb resonated from force of the spear.