Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris, and because her favorite city, Carthage, will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics.Īlso in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res (into the middle of things), with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. He then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme ( Arma virumque cano ., "Of arms and the man I sing .") and an invocation to the Muse, falling some seven lines after the poem's inception ( Musa, mihi causas memora ., "O Muse, recount to me the causes ."). This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. These two-halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odyssey 's wandering theme and the Iliad 's warfare themes. The Aeneid can be divided into halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy) and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium). See also: Characters in the Aeneid and Parallels between the Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey 1.2.6 Book 12: Final battle and duel of Aeneas and Turnus.1.2.5 Book 11: Armistice and battle with Camilla.1.2.3 Book 9: Turnus' siege of Trojan camp.1.2.2 Book 8: Visit to Pallanteum, site of future Rome.1.2.1 Book 7: Arrival in Latium and outbreak of war.
The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The Aeneid ( / ɪ ˈ n iː ɪ d/ ih- NEE-id Latin: Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.