The Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem composed by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC in dactylic hexameter. It comprises some 9,900 lines divided into twelve books, although it was left unfinished at the poet's death. It is regarded as his masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature.

The poem tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who escapes the fall of Troy and travels to Italy, where he becomes the ancestor of the Romans. Virgil deliberately reworked the Homeric epics: the first six books follow the model of the Odyssey, with the hero's wanderings, while the last six draw on the Iliad, with the war against the Latins, under whose name the Trojans will eventually be absorbed. Aeneas already appeared as a minor figure in the Iliad, and the tales of his adventures were scattered and vague; Virgil joined them into a founding myth that tied Rome to Troy, explained the Punic Wars, celebrated traditional Roman virtues, especially piety (pietas), and legitimised the Julio-Claudian dynasty as heir to the gods, heroes and founders of Rome.

The action falls into two halves. In the first, Juno, hostile to the Trojans, tries to prevent the voyage, and Aeneas reaches Carthage, where Queen Dido falls in love with him; when the hero departs on divine orders, Dido takes her own life, cursing his descendants. In the second, Aeneas descends to the underworld, receives a prophecy of Rome's future greatness and, once in Italy, fights Turnus and the Latins until a victory that closes the poem. The narrative opens in medias res, as in the Homeric epics, and uses devices such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile and metaphor to heighten dramatic tension.

Several anecdotes circulate about the composition: Virgil, ill during a journey to Greece, is said to have asked for the manuscript to be burned because he considered it unfinished, but Augustus ordered its publication with minimal changes. From antiquity it was read as a national poem, and it has exerted an enormous influence on Western literature, from the Middle Ages to Dante, Milton and later writers.