The Aeneid

Citation

Virgil. (1990). The Aeneid (R. Fitzgerald, Trans.). Vintage.

Chapter Summary

Overview of the Poem and the Edition

The Aeneid is Virgil's unfinished Latin epic in twelve books, written in the last decade of his life (he died in 19 BCE) at the time of Augustus. This Vintage paperback reprints Robert Fitzgerald's verse translation, which first appeared from Random House in 1983, and it is about 460 pages long. In the contents, Book III begins on page 63, Book V on page 123 and Book VII on page 193, so the second half of the poem takes up more of the volume than the first. The translator's Postscript comes after the text. The poem divides naturally into two halves: Books I to VI, often compared with the Odyssey because they follow a wanderer across the sea, and Books VII to XII, often compared with the Iliad because they are about a war.

Books I–II: Storm, Carthage and the Fall of Troy

Book I opens with Juno's anger. A storm scatters the Trojan fleet, and Aeneas reaches the African coast, where Venus appears to him and he is received by Dido, queen of Carthage. In Book II Aeneas tells Dido how Troy fell: the wooden horse, the treachery of Sinon, the sack of the city, and Aeneas's flight carrying his father Anchises, with his son Ascanius at his side and his wife Creusa lost behind them.

Book III: The Wanderings

Aeneas continues his narrative of the seven years after Troy. The fleet tries one landfall after another, misreads oracles, meets the Harpies and the survivors of Troy at Buthrotum, and passes the Cyclopes before Anchises dies in Sicily. The contents of this edition head this book "Sea Wanderings and Strange Meetings".

Book IV: Dido

The love of Dido and Aeneas, the intervention of Mercury, who reminds Aeneas of his mission, and Dido's furious grief and suicide on the pyre. It is the part of the poem most often read on its own, and it shows most plainly how public destiny costs private lives.

Books V–VI: Funeral Games and the Underworld

Book V holds the games Aeneas gives for his dead father in Sicily, the burning of some of the ships, and the loss of the helmsman Palinurus. In Book VI the Sibyl of Cumae guides Aeneas through the underworld, where he meets the shade of Dido and then Anchises, who shows him the future line of Roman heroes. The book ends with Aeneas leaving the underworld by the gate of ivory, a famously puzzling detail.

Books VII–VIII: Latium and the Site of Rome

In Book VII King Latinus welcomes the Trojans and offers his daughter Lavinia; Juno uses the Fury Allecto to stir up war, and the Italian forces are listed. Book VIII takes Aeneas to Evander's settlement on the site of later Rome, where he hears the story of Hercules and Cacus, receives an alliance and Evander's son Pallas, and is given armour by his mother Venus, including a shield engraved with scenes of Roman history.

Books IX–X: Fighting

Book IX contains the night raid of Nisus and Euryalus, who are friends, and the Trojan camp under siege. Book X begins with a council of the gods, after which Pallas dies at Turnus's hand and Aeneas kills Mezentius, a king who scorns the gods, and his son Lausus.

Books XI–XII: Burial, Camilla and the Duel

Book XI covers the burial of Pallas, a truce and a divided Latin council, and the death of the warrior-maiden Camilla. In Book XII the poem ends with the duel between Aeneas and Turnus. Turnus, defeated, asks for mercy, but Aeneas sees on him the belt of the dead Pallas and kills him. The poem stops at that moment.

Key Concepts

Books I–VI

• Pietas: the sense of duty to family, gods and people that marks Aeneas, who is repeatedly called "pious"; it is also what he sacrifices to hold to his mission.
• Fate and divine intervention: Jupiter's plan for Rome is settled, but Juno resists it throughout, and the gods act on every stage of the voyage.
• Founding story as origin of Rome: Anchises' review of Roman heroes in Book VI ties the myth to the history of the city and to Augustus.

Books VII–XII

• Furor: the rage that overtakes the warriors in the second half, including Aeneas in the last lines.
• Alliance and the Roman future: Evander's settlement and the shield of Book VIII link the war in Italy to the later history of Rome.
• Mercy and vengeance: the closing scene turns on whether Aeneas will spare Turnus, and the belt of the dead Pallas decides it.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A readable full translation. The review quotations on the publisher's page (from the New York Review of Books, the Boston Globe, The New Republic and The Boston Review) describe a rendering that is both readable and faithful to Virgil. The Boston Globe singles out its faintly archaic vocabulary and its ear for rhythm.
• A translator's own account. The Postscript at the back lets a student see what choices a poet-translator made, which suits a course that compares translations.
• The whole poem in one paperback. The volume carries all twelve books in a single, portable volume, so it is easy to carry, mark up and reread.

Limitations

• An older translation. The translation dates from 1983. Several English verse translations of the poem have appeared since, and a course that wants the newest scholarship on Virgil's language will need to supplement it.
• Different line numbers from the Latin. Fitzgerald numbers his own lines, and Book XII alone runs past line 1290 in citations of this translation, against 952 lines in the Latin. Citations from commentaries keyed to the Latin will not match the page.
• The poem is unfinished. Virgil died before he could revise it, and scholars have long discussed its abrupt ending. A reader expecting a tidy resolution should know this in advance.
• Support beyond the poem. One aid this edition offers is the translator's Postscript. Readers who want line-by-line notes on Roman politics, Greek models or the geography of the voyage should pair it with a commentary or an introductory history.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the classical literature course, The Aeneid is the Latin epic that answers the two Homeric poems on the list: the Iliad in Emily Wilson's verse translation and the Odyssey in E. V. Rieu's revised Penguin translation. The poem is best read after both, because Virgil constantly echoes them (a wanderer's voyage in the first half, a war in the second). For orientation, the short surveys by Rutherford (Classical Literature: A Concise History) and by Allan (Classical Literature: A Very Short Introduction) place Virgil among Greek and Roman writers, while Conte's Latin Literature: A History and Lesky's A History of Greek Literature give period-by-period accounts for further reading.

How to Use This Book

No Latin or prior study of epic is needed. Students should know the outline of the Trojan War in advance, because Books I and II assume it. The poem can be read straight through in about a week of steady reading. For a course with limited time, Books I, II, IV, VI, VIII and XII carry the main argument: the fall of Troy, Dido, the underworld and the shield of Rome, and the death of Turnus. Books III, V and IX to XI can then be read afterwards for the voyage, the games, and the war.

While reading, keep track of three things: where Aeneas acts from duty and where from anger, who in the poem pays for Rome's future (Dido, Pallas, Turnus, Camilla), and how the gods push events forward. Read the Postscript after the poem rather than before, and read Book VI and the last lines of Book XII twice. When citing, note that the page and line numbers of this translation differ from those of the Latin.