Aeneid
Questions
The most common questions about Aeneid, answered from the poem.
- Who Is Aeneas?Aeneas is the hero of the Aeneid: a Trojan prince, son of the goddess Venus and Anchises, who escapes burning Troy and, after years of wandering over...
- What is a summary of the Aeneid?The Aeneid tells how the Trojan Aeneas, fleeing burning Troy, crosses the Mediterranean by order of fate, is loved by Dido in Carthage and leaves...
- How Does the Aeneid End?The Aeneid ends with Aeneas killing Turnus in a duel, after Turnus has asked for his life: the last line says that the Rutulian's life "flees...
- Why Does Dido Kill Herself?Dido kills herself because Aeneas leaves her to fulfill the order of the gods to sail to Italy, and because she, after begging in vain that he at...
- What is Aeneas's pietas?Pietas, usually translated as piety, is the duty of one who honors what binds him to others: the gods, the father, the son, the homeland. In the...
- What is the theme of the Aeneid?The central theme of the Aeneid is the founding of Rome as the work of destiny, paid for with the suffering of those who carry it out: a man obeys an...
- Who Is Turnus in the Aeneid?Turnus is the young chief of the Rutulians, the warrior who opposes Aeneas in the war for Latium and dies at his hand in the last line of the...
- What does Aeneas see in the world of the dead?In Book 6, Aeneas descends to the world of the dead guided by the Sibyl of Cumae and sees, in order, the evils of life at the gate of Orcus, the...
- What is engraved on Aeneas's shield?The shield that Vulcan forges for Aeneas bears engraved the future history of Rome, from the twins suckled by the she-wolf to the battle of Actium...
- Why does Juno hate the Trojans?Juno hates the Trojans for two reasons the poem gives at the very beginning: an old grudge against Troy, tied to the judgment of Paris, who preferred...
- What is the Trojan horse, and how does Troy fall in the Aeneid?In the Aeneid, the Trojan horse is a trap: the Greeks build an enormous horse of fir, hide chosen warriors in its belly, pretend to offer it to the...
- Who are Nisus and Euryalus in the Aeneid?Nisus and Euryalus are two Trojan warriors, inseparable companions, who in Book 9 leave the besieged camp by night to bring Aeneas word of the siege...
- Who Is Camilla in the Aeneid?Camilla is queen of the Volscians, a virgin warrior who commands the cavalry allied with Turnus and dies in Book 11, the only woman in the poem with...
- Is the Aeneid Augustan propaganda?The Aeneid celebrates Augustus and the greatness of Rome, and for that reason many read it as the official poem of the empire, but the text also...
- How Many Books Does the Aeneid Have?The Aeneid has twelve books, divided into two halves of six: Books 1 to 6 tell Aeneas's voyage from Troy to Italy, and Books 7 to 12 tell the war in...