Summary of "The Aeneid" - Book I - by Virgil
A few points to start out with. First, this is not Odyssey fan-fiction nor is this just Imperial propaganda. While there are parallels between Aeneas and Odysseus, Aeneas is not simply the Roman Odysseus. He is different than Odysseus; he is pious to his family/the gods/his culture/his people/his mission. He, and the Trojans, are compassionate and brave and focused on order in their ranks. They have a god-given mission which drives them on like the Christian pilgrim, like our Founding Fathers, like Abraham, or the Israelites. He is "duty-bound" Aeneas, which does not translate directly to Odysseus for many reasons discussed in my posts on The Odyssey. Also, Odysseus in the story is highlighted only to his kind of negative qualities - well certainly negative to those who suffer from his cunning and lies. Likewise, while there are stretches and connections certainly done to connect to Rome, this is not just propaganda, but a genuine asking and seeking to the identity of the Roman people.
The epic begins in a parallel fashion to The Odyssey with an invocation of the muses, the introduction of our hero, and a god(dess) who is angry with them, leading to an adventure seeking their (new) home. In this case, though, it is the Trojan hero Aeneas, son of Aphrodite (Venus), who is being recalled, and it is Hera (Juno) who is angry with him as he seeks a new homeland in Italy.
The epic begins in a parallel fashion to The Odyssey with an invocation of the muses, the introduction of our hero, and a god(dess) who is angry with them, leading to an adventure seeking their (new) home. In this case, though, it is the Trojan hero Aeneas, son of Aphrodite (Venus), who is being recalled, and it is Hera (Juno) who is angry with him as he seeks a new homeland in Italy.
Juno's Attack
And so as Aeneas is about to reach Italy, Juno being angry, sent a storm to throw him off course. Juno loved Carthage in Libya as her own and given that the Romans would eventually destroy it, she was angry. Likewise she was also angry still at the Trojans from the war (and of course being slighted in the beauty contest that kicked so much of this off). To pull this attack off Juno visits the prison of the storms where Aeolus rules and promises him a wife if he will release as storm to attack Aeneas. He does it and all but seven of Aeneas ships are destroyed. Poseidon is awakened and puts a stop to this unapproved storm. Aeneas must land in Libya. There they rest and find food. Aeneas encourages his men. "My comrades, hardly strangers to pain before now, we all have weathered worse. You've threaded the rocks resounding with Scylla's howling rabid dogs, and taken the brunt of the Cyclops' boulders, too. Call up your courage again. Dismiss your grief and fear. A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this. Through so many hard straits, so many twists and turns our course holds firm for Latium. There Fate holds out a homeland, calm, at peace. There the gods decree the kingdom of Troy will rise again. Bear up. Save your strength for better times to come."
And so as Aeneas is about to reach Italy, Juno being angry, sent a storm to throw him off course. Juno loved Carthage in Libya as her own and given that the Romans would eventually destroy it, she was angry. Likewise she was also angry still at the Trojans from the war (and of course being slighted in the beauty contest that kicked so much of this off). To pull this attack off Juno visits the prison of the storms where Aeolus rules and promises him a wife if he will release as storm to attack Aeneas. He does it and all but seven of Aeneas ships are destroyed. Poseidon is awakened and puts a stop to this unapproved storm. Aeneas must land in Libya. There they rest and find food. Aeneas encourages his men. "My comrades, hardly strangers to pain before now, we all have weathered worse. You've threaded the rocks resounding with Scylla's howling rabid dogs, and taken the brunt of the Cyclops' boulders, too. Call up your courage again. Dismiss your grief and fear. A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this. Through so many hard straits, so many twists and turns our course holds firm for Latium. There Fate holds out a homeland, calm, at peace. There the gods decree the kingdom of Troy will rise again. Bear up. Save your strength for better times to come."
Venus Appeals to Zeus
Venus goes to Zeus and appeals for her son, reminding him of the promise that the Trojan bloodline would be saved and not destroyed. Zeus tells her that he will keep his promise and gives a prophecy about how the Roman empire will come about and will be great.
"Aeneas will wage a long, costly war in Italy, crush defiant tribes and build high city walls for his people there and found the rule of law. Only three summers will see him govern Latium, three winters pass in barracks after the Latins have been broken. But his son Ascanius, now that he gains the name of Iulus—Ilus he was, while Ilium ruled on high— will fill out with his own reign thirty sovereign years, a giant cycle of months revolving round and round, transferring his rule from its old Lavinian home to raise up Alba Longa's mighty ramparts. There, in turn, for a full three hundred years the dynasty of Hector will hold sway till Ilia, a royal priestess great with the brood of Mars, will bear the god twin sons. Then one, Romulus, reveling in the tawny pelt of a wolf that nursed him, will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars and after his own name, call his people Romans. On them I set no limits, space or time: I have granted them power, empire without end. Even furious Juno, now plaguing the land and sea and sky with terror: she will mend her ways and hold dear with me these Romans, lords of the earth, the race arrayed in togas. This is my pleasure, my decree. Indeed, an age will come, as the long years slip by, when Assaracus' royal house will quell Achilles' homeland, brilliant Mycenae too, and enslave their people, rule defeated Argos. From that noble blood will arise a Trojan Caesar, his empire bound by the Ocean, his glory by the stars: Julius, a name passed down from lulus, his great forebear. And you, in years to come, will welcome him to the skies, you rest assured-laden with plunder of the East, and he with Aeneas will be invoked in prayer. Then will the violent centuries, battles set aside, grow gentle, kind. Vesta and silver-haired Good Faith and Romulus flanked by brother Remus will make the laws. The terrible Gates of War with their welded iron bars will stand bolted shut, and locked inside, the Frenzy of civil strife will crouch down on his savage weapons, hands pinioned behind his back with a hundred brazen shackles, monstrously roaring out from his bloody jaws."
"Aeneas will wage a long, costly war in Italy, crush defiant tribes and build high city walls for his people there and found the rule of law. Only three summers will see him govern Latium, three winters pass in barracks after the Latins have been broken. But his son Ascanius, now that he gains the name of Iulus—Ilus he was, while Ilium ruled on high— will fill out with his own reign thirty sovereign years, a giant cycle of months revolving round and round, transferring his rule from its old Lavinian home to raise up Alba Longa's mighty ramparts. There, in turn, for a full three hundred years the dynasty of Hector will hold sway till Ilia, a royal priestess great with the brood of Mars, will bear the god twin sons. Then one, Romulus, reveling in the tawny pelt of a wolf that nursed him, will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars and after his own name, call his people Romans. On them I set no limits, space or time: I have granted them power, empire without end. Even furious Juno, now plaguing the land and sea and sky with terror: she will mend her ways and hold dear with me these Romans, lords of the earth, the race arrayed in togas. This is my pleasure, my decree. Indeed, an age will come, as the long years slip by, when Assaracus' royal house will quell Achilles' homeland, brilliant Mycenae too, and enslave their people, rule defeated Argos. From that noble blood will arise a Trojan Caesar, his empire bound by the Ocean, his glory by the stars: Julius, a name passed down from lulus, his great forebear. And you, in years to come, will welcome him to the skies, you rest assured-laden with plunder of the East, and he with Aeneas will be invoked in prayer. Then will the violent centuries, battles set aside, grow gentle, kind. Vesta and silver-haired Good Faith and Romulus flanked by brother Remus will make the laws. The terrible Gates of War with their welded iron bars will stand bolted shut, and locked inside, the Frenzy of civil strife will crouch down on his savage weapons, hands pinioned behind his back with a hundred brazen shackles, monstrously roaring out from his bloody jaws."
Encountering the Spartan Huntress
Picking up with the story, the prophecy of Zeus ends and Mercury (Hermes) is sent down to Carthage to make Dido willing to accept Aeneas into her city. And so while Aeneas is exploring the coast trying to figure out who lives there, his mother appears to him in the disguise of a huntress woman. Aeneas flatters her so to try to find out who the people are (Certainly seems to be a parallel to Odysseus and Nausikka here). The lady gives the backstory of the queen Dido to him. She was to be married to the richest man in Tyre, Sychaeus, before her evil brother, Pygmalion, killed the man in cold blood to get his money. He hid the murder from his sister until the ghost of Sychaeus appeared to Dido and told her what happened and where the treasure was. She got the treasure and fled Tyre and settled the whole new city of Carthage.
Aeneas then gives his own backstory briefly. The woman then reveals that his comrades were actually saved and were in the city. Aeneas then gets a glimpse of the woman's beauty and realizes that it is his mother, who then flees. But Venus does cover Aeneas and his companion Achates with a mist so no one can see them and they can go into the city of Carthage secretly. As they go into the city they see that it is a bustling place of high culture and development. They reach the heart of the city where Juno's temple is and where Dido currently is. There they see scenes depicted of the Trojan war. "...'is there anywhere, any place on earth not filled with our ordeals?'". He even sees a scene with himself in it.
They then see their comrades, who they thought were dead, there in the temple appealing to Dido for welcome. They state that they come in peace and that they are really seeking for Italy. They say that their king was Aeneas, but that there is another Trojan settlement in Sicily under king Acestes which is viable for them also if Aeneas is dead. Dido welcomes them, offers them help to Italy, or even to stay there and become one with her people.
Aeneas Revealed to Dido
Here the mist fades and Aeneas and Achates are revealed to Dido. They say that they will not be able to repay her kindness but that the gods will reward her. Dido reveals that she knows his family and welcomes Aeneas. She has food sent to all of Aeneas' men and a feast is prepared for their guests. Aeneas offers the few gifts that he had saved from Troy to her. [It is unclear if these are good gifts or cursed ones, considering that one of them is Helen's only robe that she took from Mycenae when she fled for Troy.]
Venus, looking out for Aeneas, her son, asks her other son Cupid (Eros) to take on the appearance of Aeneas' son Iulus in order to get close to the affections of Dido and to infect her heart with desire for Aeneas. "... you can breathe your secret fire into her, poison the queen and she will never know." A huge feast is thrown and indeed Cupid does stoke the fire of passion in Dido through the guise of Iulus. Dido offers a prayer to the gods, and then a bard sings the history of creation. Dido asks all night about Troy and asks Aeneas to tell his story in full. It is revealed that it has been seven years that Aeneas has been sailing since the destruction of Troy.
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