Publius Vergilius Maro’s
The Aeneid
A Reader’s Guide
For those who have selected this greatest of all Latin poems – in translation, of
course – for summer reading, I would provide the following suggestions to aid in
your reading:
1
Read the introduction carefully (pp. v – ix) to get a good background
sense on what the book is, who Vergil was, and why the epic was
written.
2
Take with you one of the mythology reference books to help you
distinguish among the many, sometimes little-known references to
Roman gods and legends. There is a helpful glossary at the end of the
edition we are using.
3
Note that a number of characters will be referred to in a variety of ways:
the goddess Juno is also called “Queen of the gods,” “mother god,” “the
supreme god’s wife,” and so on. Dido is also called more than one
name. Be alert to this so you can keep track of what is going on.
4
This is an epic poem. It belongs to the genre of narrative poetry,
meaning, a story told in poetry. The Latin poetry is beautiful, its English
translations less so. The translation is in rhyming couplets (2
consecutive lines rhyme) but the original did not contain end rhyme and
its meter was quite different, dactylic hexameter.
5
Here is the beginning of the Latin text:
Arma virumque canō, Troiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs
Italiam fātō profugus Lāvīniaque vēnit
lītora, multum ille et terrīs iactātus et altō
vī superum, saevae memorem Iūnōnis ob īram,
multa quoque et bellō passus, dum conderet urbem
īnferretque deōs Latiō; genus unde Latinum
Albānīque partrēs atque altae moenia Rōmae.
I sing of arms and of the man who first from the coasts of Troy
driven by fate came to the Lavinian shores,
that man has been cast much about both on lands and the sea
by the force of the supreme gods, of Juno, savage in her unforgettable anger,
and he has also suffered many things in war … until he might build a city
and bear his gods to Latium from whence the Latin race
and the Alban fathers and the walls of lofty Rome shall come.
[In a few lines Vergil is laying it out:
he is writing about Aeneas who
escaped from Troy but who continues to suffer because Juno hates
him, and all Trojans, so much. Yet, he very well may establish his
gods on Italian soil and give rise to the new Troy – Rome.]
6 scholar and translator named Sydney Lombardo, who has also
translated Homer, has produced a work titled The Essential Aeneid, from
which I take the following suggested cuts (parts not really necessary to
read to get the main idea).
BOOK I:
Read it all. Rather than beginning with the Fall of Troy, Vergil starts
in the middle (not the exact middle), which tells us about his loyal
fleet, some of the dangers they have faced, their landing on the strange shores of
Carthage where in the epic tradition after a banquet Aeneas tells his tale to this
point.
BOOK II:
Read it all. Here Aeneas begins his tale which
starts near the end of Troy, telling about the Greek trick, the
destruction of the city, and his escape with his father and son but not his wife
[this is a key if seemingly minor point because it informs the queen of Carthage—
Dido—that he is “available” and may even suggest that he is “ready”].
BOOK III:
Lombardo says to skip this book but I suggest you read it
because you have touched on some of the adventures described in it
and you may enjoy reading a fuller telling of them.
BOOK IV:
Read it all. This is my favorite book in the epic.
It is the love story of Dido and Aeneas and is fascinating, powerful,
and filled with pathos. It shows the conflict between human wants & needs and
the paths the gods set out for them: this is the conflict between pietas (piety,
sense of duty to the gods) and furor (passion, the emotional drive that can keep
us from doing what we should). It is a great book, the opening depiction of Dido’s
falling in love with Aeneas and the concluding Dido’s curse on Aeneas and all his
descendants.
BOOK V:
Again, Lombardo says to skip it, but it does contain some things you
might enjoy: the sacrifice of one of his men, for example.
BOOK VII.
Read most of it. Lombardo would have you skip
from p. 206 (“When next the rosy morn disclos’d the day …” to p. 212
(start with “But jealous Juno…”) but I don’t see the point in bothering to skip such
a relatively small piece.
Lombardo also cuts the equivalent of our pages 219 bottom (“While
Turnus urges …”) to 232 middle (begin with “Amid the troops …”) because it
repeats the fights in the battle … in this it is an example of epic catalogue, a
convention of epic poetry, in which lists are given of a similar person or thing or
deed.
BOOK VIII. You may omit our pages 241 (at “But when the rage of hunger …”) to
p. 248 (begin 2/3 of the page down at “Then underneat a lowly roof
he led/The weary prince…” – the “weary prince” is Aeneas whose mother Venus
appears a few lines below). The missing part goes something like this:
At the feast, Evander tells the story of Hercules’ battle with Cacus [which you may enjoy
reading since you have looked at the Latin version on our test]
BOOK IX
Omit the opening in which:
Turnus attacks the Trojans and tries to burn their ships which are saved by being
(magically, of course) turned into sea nymphs. So Turnus and his Rutulians camp on the plain near the
ships).
Begin at page 271 (“Nigh where the foes their utmost guards advance”) and read
through p. 282, finishing with the 4 lines ending “And spread, where ‘er the
Roman eagle flies!”
Lombardo summarizes the omitted section thus:
Turnus and the Rutulians attack the Trojan camp again. Ascanius kills the boastful
Numanus; as a result, Apollo takes Ascanius out of the war. Turnus, inside the camp, kills
many but is hard pressed by the Trojans. He dives into the Tiber to escape.
Book X
Lots more war. This is wear the poem bogs down for me.
Omit pages 304 – 318 (read “And to his palace …” p. 304 and then
go to “Meantime Juturna warns …p 318.) Lombardo tells us this occurs between:
The battle continues. Aeneas sails back to the camp with allies. The sea nymphs who had
once been the ships of his fleet meet him at sea. Heartened by this sign, Aeneas lands his ships and
leads his troops into battle … he and Pallas distinguish themselves in the fighting.
BOOK XI
Start on p. 360 (“While they debate …”)
Aeneas has ordered his troops to march to Latium. The two sides agree to a truce in order to
bury their dead. Pallas’ body is brought to Evander for burial. Latinus holds a council in which Turnus,
determined to continue the war, prevails.
Book XII
This book was completed by someone other than Vergil, who had
died before his final edits of the later books were done.
You may start, as Lombardo does, at p. 400 top and read to the end.