Aeneid
The events in the order the book tells them.
Books I to VI
- Book I1
Juno's Storm
Juno, who bears a grudge against the Trojans, orders the king of the winds to unleash a storm on Aeneas's fleet. Neptune calms the sea, and seven ships reach the coast of Libya.
- Book I2
Jupiter's Prophecy
Venus, mother of Aeneas, complains to Jupiter, who reassures her: her son will found a city in Latium, and the Romans, his descendants, will receive an empire without limit of space or time.
- Book II3
The Wooden Horse
The Greeks leave before Troy a giant wooden horse, with warriors hidden inside, and pretend to sail away. Convinced by Sinon, a Greek who poses as a fugitive, the Trojans take the horse within the walls.
- Book II4
The Night Troy Fell
At night, the warriors come out of the horse and open the gates, and the Greeks set the city on fire. Aeneas fights through the streets, sees Pyrrhus kill King Priam, and hears from his mother, Venus, that the gods themselves are bringing down Troy.
- Book II5
Creusa Is Lost
Aeneas flees Troy with his father on his shoulders and his son by the hand, but loses his wife, Creusa, on the way. When he goes back to look for her, he finds only her shade, which announces exile and a kingdom in Hesperia.
- Book III6
The Blood of Polydorus
In Thrace, Aeneas pulls up a branch and the bush bleeds: it is Polydorus, son of Priam, killed by the local king for his gold. The Trojans abandon the city they had begun to build there.
- Book III7
The Prophecy of the Harpies
On the Strophades islands, the Harpies, winged monsters, steal the Trojans' food. The Harpy Celaeno foretells that they will have walls only when hunger forces them to gnaw their own tables.
- Book III8
The Death of Anchises
After fleeing the coast of the Cyclopes, where they pick up Achaemenides, left behind in Polyphemus's cave, the Trojans reach Drepanum, in Sicily, where Anchises dies. There Aeneas ends the account he was giving Dido of the fall of Troy and the voyage.
- Book IV9
Dido's Love
Dido, queen of Carthage and a widow, falls in love with Aeneas. During a hunt, a storm drives them to the same cave, and she begins to call what she lived with him a marriage.
- Book IV10
The Order to Depart
Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of the mission in Italy. Dido discovers the preparations of the fleet and confronts him, and he answers that he leaves by the order of the gods, not by his own will.
- Book IV11
Dido's Pyre
Dido raises a pyre with the arms and the bed of Aeneas, asks that an avenger be born from her bones, and kills herself with his sword, asking that Aeneas, from the sea, see the fire.
- Book V12
The Funeral Games
In Sicily, Aeneas celebrates a year since Anchises' death with games: a ship race, a footrace, boxing, archery and a parade of boys on horseback led by Ascanius.
- Book V13
The Ships in Flames
Iris, sent by Juno, leads the Trojan women to set fire to the ships, and a storm sent by Jupiter saves nearly all of them. On the next crossing, the pilot Palinurus is thrown into the sea and disappears.
- Book VI14
The Golden Bough
At Cumae, the Sibyl, prophetess of Apollo, tells Aeneas that descending to the world of the dead is easy and returning is hard, and orders him to pick a golden bough consecrated to Proserpina.
- Book VI15
The Encounter with Dido
Among the dead, Aeneas meets Dido in the Fields of Mourning and swears that he left by the order of the gods. She does not answer, keeps her eyes on the ground and goes to meet Sychaeus, her former husband.
- Book VI16
Anchises Shows Rome
In Elysium, Anchises shows his son the souls of the future Romans, from Romulus to Augustus, and defines Rome's mission: to govern the peoples, spare the conquered and subdue the proud.
Books VII to XII
- Book VII17
Latinus Promises His Daughter
The Trojans reach the mouth of the Tiber. King Latinus, warned by an oracle that a foreign son-in-law will come, welcomes Aeneas and promises him his daughter, Lavinia, whom Queen Amata wanted to give to Turnus.
- Book VII18
Allecto the Fury
Juno sends the Fury Allecto to sow discord: she drives Amata mad, incites Turnus and leads Ascanius to wound a tame deer. The Latins take up arms, and war begins.
- Book VIII19
Evander and Future Rome
Guided by the god of the Tiber River, Aeneas reaches Evander, king of the Arcadians, who lives in poverty where Rome will one day stand. Evander accepts the alliance and gives him his son Pallas and two hundred horsemen, to which two hundred more are added in the young man's name.
- Book VIII20
Vulcan's Shield
Venus asks Vulcan for arms for her son. On the shield he engraves the future history of Rome, from the she-wolf with the twins to the battle of Actium and Augustus's triumph, which Aeneas admires without understanding.
- Book IX21
The Siege of the Camp
With Aeneas absent, Turnus surrounds the Trojan camp and tries to set the ships on fire. The goddess Cybele turns the ships into sea nymphs, and the Trojans stay behind the walls, as Aeneas had ordered.
- Book IX22
Nisus and Euryalus
Nisus and Euryalus, two young friends, go out at night to warn Aeneas and kill sleeping Rutulians. Caught by the horsemen of Volscens, they die together, and Euryalus's mother weeps before the walls.
- Book X23
The Death of Pallas
Turnus meets Pallas in combat and kills him with his spear, then strips him of his baldric, the shoulder belt. On learning this, Aeneas advances furiously across the field and kills without sparing the enemy.
- Book X24
Mezentius and Lausus
Aeneas wounds Mezentius, the Etruscan king driven out by his own people. His son Lausus throws himself against Aeneas to save him and dies, and Mezentius returns to the fight, asks only for a grave beside his son and is killed.
- Book XI25
Pallas's Funeral Procession
Aeneas sends the body of Pallas to his father, Evander, wrapped in a cloak that Dido had woven. The Latins obtain twelve days' truce to bury their dead, and Turnus agrees to face Aeneas.
- Book XI26
The Death of Camilla
Camilla, queen of the Volsci raised in the mountains and consecrated to Diana, faces the Etruscan cavalry and kills many warriors. Aruns wounds her with a dart, and she dies after handing command over to Turnus.
- Book XII27
The Pact for the Duel
Turnus demands that Latinus seal the pact: he and Aeneas will fight, and the victor will take Lavinia. A Rutulian augur reads a sign as favorable and throws the first spear, and the treaty breaks in tumult.
- Book XII28
Aeneas's Wound
Aeneas, wounded by an arrow, is healed by Venus with an herb from Mount Ida and returns to the fight. He threatens to set Laurentum on fire, and Amata, believing Turnus dead, hangs herself.
- Book XII29
The Death of Turnus
Wounded in the thigh, Turnus begs to be spared or to have his body returned to his father. Aeneas hesitates, sees on the shoulder of the vanquished the baldric of Pallas and kills him, and the poem ends there.