The Aeneid Summaries

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Jess May
Slide Set by Jess May, updated more than 1 year ago
Jess May
Created by Jess May over 6 years ago
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Slide 1

    Book 1
     Going to tell the story of how Aeneas made his way from Troy to Italy and founded Rome.  Aeneas is going to have a hard time due to Juno's (Hera's) anger She is mad for two reasons. 1. She hates Trojans because Paris picked Venus (Aphrodite) over her and Minerva (Athene)  in a contest.                                                         2. She loves Carthage and knows that the Romans will destroy it in the Punic Wars. Aeneas is sailing past Sicily. Juno doesn't like this and decides to find Aeolus and tell him to stir up the sea in return for Deiopea. He takes his spear and pounds on the mountain releasing the East Wind and the South Wind. They speed down and stir up a storm. Aeneas wishes he had died in battle in Troy. 3 ships crash and 3 get stuck on sandbars. Neptune (Poseidon) tells off the winds for stirring up the ocean without his permission and the storm ends. Aeneas and his remaining ships decide to head for the nearest land; Libya. They pull into a natural harbour and disembark. They make a fire and eat grain by the seashore. Aeneas and Achates climb a nearby hill to search for the lost ships but instead, he finds a troop of wild deer. He chases after them and shoots seven – one for each of his ships and takes them down to the shore He gives a speech reminding them of their sufferings but stay positive, they will feel nostalgia for these hardships. Aeneas is staying strong for his men. He feels more grief for their lost companions than anyone.  The Trojans feast on the deer and get their strength back. That evening, Jupiter is looking down at the world. Venus, complains to Jupiter of Aeneas' unfair sufferings. Other Trojans (Antenor) have already settled in parts of Italy. Jupiter explains the prophecy of Aeneas' war against the Rutulians. After he will reign for 3 years. Ascanius will rule for 30 in Alba Longa. Alba Longa will be the capital for 3 centuries until the queen (Ilia) gets pregnant by Mars and gives birth to Romulus and Remus.  Jupiter says he'll give Romans unlimited power. Most powerful in the reign of Caesar (Emperor Augustus)-  great era of peace. Jupiter sends down Hermes to make the Carthaginians welcome the Trojans. That night, Aeneas is lying awake thinking. He decides to go exploring the next day with Achates. While walking in the woods, they run into Venus, disguised as a Spartan girl. Aeneas asks the huntress what goddess she is. But Venus keeps up her disguise. She explains how Dido was married to Sychaeus, the richest man in Tyre. Her brother, Pygmalion, was the king of Tyre. Pygmalion killed Sychaeus for his money. Dido assumed he was lost until he appeared in a dream and explained what happened.  Sychaeus told Dido to flee and also told her where some treasure was buried, to finance her trip. Dido gathered other men and sailed to where she is building the city of Carthage. Venus asks Aeneas who he is. He tells her and ends by saying how he got slammed by the storm and lost a bunch of his companions. Venus shows him 12 swans flapping in peace just after being chased by an eagle. Venus interprets this as a sign that everyone's OK. Then the goddess turns to go, and, as she does, Aeneas recognizes her but she doesn't reply. She wraps them in mist, allowing them to walk into Carthage. People are very busy building the new city. Aeneas is jealous. The Trojans are building a temple to Juno. Aeneas goes up to the temple. On its gates, there are scenes from the Trojan War.  Dido comes with attendants. She takes her seat in front of Juno's shrine. Representatives from the lost ships follow- just as Venus predicted. They explain who they are and complain of struggles they've gone through and say the gods are on their side.  They ask to stay to repair their ships then they'll go to Latium if they reconnect with Aeneas or Sicily, where another Acestes, is king. Dido apologises for the trouble they've had; she explains her need for security while their city gets on its feet. She has heard of Aeneas and tells them to can go wherever with a Carthaginian escort. Or they can stay in Carthage as equal citizens. She wishes Aeneas was there and promises to send out scouts to search for him. The cloud vanishes from Achates and Aeneas. Venus makes Aeneas look super-impressive and handsome. He thanks Dido for her hospitality. Dido is impressed with Aeneas explaining how she is an exile too, from Tyre. She leads him into her palace and declares it a feast day. Aeneas sends Achates to bring Ascanius and gifts to the feast. Specifically,  things Helen brought with her to Troy. Venus decides to make Amor take Ascanius's form to infect Dido with love. She will hide Ascanius away in one of her shrines. Amor arrives with the gifts, talks to Aeneas then goes to sit on Dido's lap. Amor inflames Dido with love for Aeneas and takes away her memory of Sychaeus. Dido fills a bowl with wine, drinks from it, and passes it around. The poet Iopas sings a song about the cosmos and the natural world. Dido, growing more enthralled by the minute, asks Aeneas questions about the Trojan War. Finally, she asks him how Troy was captured, and how he came to North Africa.

Slide 2

    Book 2
    After some initial hesitation, Aeneas begins to tell the story of Troy's downfall. Everything that follows in this book is told by Aeneas, and so reflects his perspective. Aeneas begins by telling how the Greeks, unable to defeat the Trojans in battle, sail away from Troy. On the beach, they leave behind a giant wooden horse, with Greek warriors hidden inside it – though the Trojans don't know that yet. Something else the Trojans don't know is that the Greeks didn't actually sail home. Instead, they made their way to the nearby island of Tenedos, and parked their navy behind it. The Trojans are amazed at the horse and come out of their city to have a better look at it. Some argue in favor of taking it inside the city. Others say it should be destroyed. Laocoön, a priest, comes down from the city to have a look. He says not to trust anything having to do with the Greeks. He even guesses that there are Greeks hiding inside it, and throws his spear at the horse. It echoes, revealing that it is hollow. The Trojans would have followed Laocoön's lead and destroyed the horse, but they are interrupted by a commotion. It turns out that all the ruckus is coming from some shepherds, who step forward with a prisoner – a Greek! The captive's name is Sinon, and he has a story to tell. Sinon claims to be related to Palamedes, a Greek hero who came to oppose the Trojan War. As a result of this, Palamedes was executed on a trumped-up charge, as a result of Ulysses's (a.k.a. Odysseus's) trickery. Sinon says that because he complained about this injustice, Ulysses had it in for him. He also says that the Greeks tried several times to sail home, but, every time, they were held back by bad weather. He says that their problems only got worse after the horse was built. Finally, they sent a guy called Eurypylus to ask the oracle of Apollo what they should do. The oracle told Eurypylus that a human sacrifice was required for them to get home, just as a human sacrifice was required for them to get to Troy. (Huh? The oracle is referring to the fact that, on the way to Troy the Greek king Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigeneia, to convince the winds to blow the right way.) As you can imagine, this made everyone pretty nervous. Ulysses asked Calchas, the soothsayer, to interpret the true will of the gods. Calchas kept silent for ten days, but finally caved in to Ulysses's pestering, and named Sinon as the victim. Everyone else was cool with that. When the day of the sacrifice rolled around, however, Sinon managed to escape. In the end, the Greeks sailed off without finding him. So ends Sinon's story. In concluding, he begs the Trojans, in the name of the gods, to spare his life. The Trojans feel pity for Sinon, and Priam orders them to remove his chains. At this point, Priam thinks it's time to ask Sinon about the elephant in the room – that is, the horse on the beach. Sinon first swears that he is no longer loyal to the Greeks. Then he explains how the Greeks' troubles started when Ulysses and Diomedes stole a statuette of Minerva from the Trojan citadel. (You can learn more about this daring raid here.) After they brought the statuette back to camp, however, wacky stuff started happening. The statuette started sweating, flaming, and moving its eyes. Oh yeah, and the goddess herself kept appearing out of the ground amid flashes of lightening. Calchas, the seer, interpreted these events to mean that Troy could not be captured. They would have to sail home and wait for another sign from the gods before making war on it again. According to Sinon, it was on Calchas's orders that they constructed the horse – as a replacement for what they had stolen. He says that the reason they made it so big was so that the Trojans wouldn't be able to take it inside their city. Sinon tells the Trojans that if any of them damage the horse, it will bring destruction on all of Troy. On the other hand, if they take it inside the city, it will bring destruction on all the Greeks (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Here ends Sinon's second story. At this point, Laocoön, the priest guy who threw the spear at the side of the horse, starts making a sacrifice to Neptune, the god of the sea. All of a sudden, two giant serpents slither out of the sea, crawl up to Laocoön, and strangle him and his two sons to death. (A picture's worth a thousand words.) Then the serpents make their way into Troy, head to Minerva's citadel, and curl up behind the statue's shield. The Trojans interpret this as punishment from the gods for spearing the horse. They decide to take the horse inside the city. They actually have to knock a hole in the wall to bring it in. Everyone is celebrating. Four times the horse jars on its way into the city, and four times the weapons of the Greeks inside clatter. No one notices. The Trojan princess Cassandra, who has the gift of prophesy, tries to prevent them from taking the horse inside the city. Unfortunately, the gods have cursed her so that her predictions will not be believed. As indeed they aren't. Night comes. The Greek fleet sails back from Tenedos. Sinon lets the Greeks out of the horse. They kill the Trojan sentries and open the city gates for their friends who are just arriving at the city. Meanwhile, in the city, Aeneas is asleep. The Trojan warrior Hector appears to him in his dream, all covered in blood and dirt as he was on the day he was killed by the Greek hero Achilles. Hector tells Aeneas that Troy is about to be captured. He tells him to gather up his household gods and go found a new city for them. Aeneas wakes up and climbs up to his roof. From there, he hears a terrible clamor, and can see numerous houses burning. His first thought is to arm himself for battle. Then, at his door appears Pantheus, the priest of Apollo, who is carrying some images of the gods, and leading his grandson. Aeneas asks Pantheus where they should take their stand to defend Troy, but Pantheus tells him that the city is done for. All the same, Aeneas rushes into the fight, and gathers up some companions. Together, they fight with suicidal courage. They kill some Greeks and take their equipment. With these disguises, they are able to join the ranks of other Greeks and kill them through trickery. But then Coroebus, one of Aeneas's comrades, who also happens to be the husband of Cassandra, sees his wife being dragged out of Minerva's temple by some Greek warriors. Like a madman, he rushes into the fight, and everyone else follows. In the chaos, they are hit by a bunch of missiles thrown by Trojans hiding out of top of the temple – they mistook Aeneas and company for Greeks because of their stolen armor. Realizing the Trojans' deception, the Greeks rally, and a furious battle breaks out in front of the temple. Many Trojans are killed, including Coroebus. But then the Trojans are distracted when they realize that Priam's palace is being besieged. Aeneas and some other men sneak in a back entrance to help out. They make their way to the roof, where they knock a tower off onto the Greeks below. But there are too many of them, and they keep coming on. The most fearsome of the Greeks is Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Meanwhile, Priam puts on his armor and prepares to face down the Greeks, old and decrepit as he is. When his wife Hecuba sees him, however, she tells him to stop being such a fool. She makes him come over with her and some women who are clinging to an altar for safety. (They are assuming that the Greeks will not violate the holiness of the place.) Just then, Polites, one of Priam's sons, rushes in, wounded, with Neoptolemus in pursuit. Neoptolemus catches up to him and kills him. Enraged, Priam prepares to attack Neoptolemus. Priam reminds Neoptolemus about how his father, Achilles, once had pity on him when he gave Hector's body back for burial. (This scene is described in Book 23 of Homer's Iliad.) Priam tells Neoptolemus that his horrible behavior makes it seem as if he isn't a true son of Achilles. Priam feebly attacks his younger foe, but does not succeed in wounding him. Instead, Neoptolemus drags Priam through the blood of his son to the altar, and kills him there. Aeneas, who has been watching this whole scene, suddenly thinks of his own father, Anchises. On his way home, he runs into Helen. She is trying to hide, afraid of both the Trojans and the Greeks. Aeneas is about to kill her, when his mother, Venus, appears and tells him not to blame her. She says that what is happening to Troy is not Helen's fault; it is the will of the gods. Venus takes the mist away from Aeneas's sight so he can see various gods at work destroying the city. Then Aeneas runs home, finds his father, and tells him to get ready: they're going to head for the hills! But Anchises refuses. He says that he has lived and suffered long enough. Creusa, Aeneas's wife, and Ascanius, his son, try to bring Anchises around, but he keeps refusing. Finally, Aeneas gathers his weapons in order to go out and die fighting. Creusa tells him to take her and Ascanius along with him. Just then, flames burst out of Ascanius's head, but do not burn him. Anchises prays for a sign from the gods, and suddenly a shooting star flashes overhead. Anchises accepts the sign and decides to go with Aeneas. Now thinking of survival instead of suicide, Aeneas takes his father on his shoulders. He gives his father the images of the household gods to carry. Then he takes Ascanius by the hand. After Aeneas tells some servants that they will meet up at a certain cypress tree by an inland gate of the city, they head off, with Creusa following behind. In a moment of confusion, however, Aeneas ducks down some alleyways, and Creusa gets lost. Aeneas doesn't realize this until they get to the cypress tree. He goes back alone through the flaming city, looking for her, but does not find her. Suddenly, her ghost appears and tells him that it is too late. She tells him to go to where the Tiber river flows (i.e., in Italy). There he will get a new kingdom – and a new wife. Aeneas accepts Creusa's words and heads back to the cypress tree, where many refugees have now gathered. Together, they set out on their voyage.
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