Aeneid
Virgil's epic poem following the Trojan hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome
The Meaning of Aeneid
The Aeneid, composed by Virgil between 29 and 19 BCE, traces the journey of Aeneas, a Trojan prince who escapes the burning city carrying his father Anchises on his back and leading his young son Ascanius by the hand. Commanded by the gods to found a new homeland in Italy, Aeneas and his fleet endure years of wandering across the Mediterranean. A storm drives them to Carthage, where Queen Dido falls deeply in love with Aeneas, but he is compelled by divine duty to abandon her — she takes her own life on a funeral pyre as his ships depart. In Book Six, Aeneas descends to the underworld, where his father's shade reveals the future glory of Rome. Arriving in Latium, Aeneas must fight a brutal war against the local Rutulian prince Turnus before he can establish his settlement. The poem ends with Aeneas killing Turnus in single combat. Though Roman in purpose, the Aeneid draws deeply on Greek mythological tradition.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Virgil requested on his deathbed that the Aeneid be burned because he considered it unfinished, but Augustus overruled him and preserved it
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Argonautica
💭 conceptLiterature
Apollonius of Rhodes' epic poem narrating Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece
Iliad
💭 conceptLiterature
Homer's epic poem recounting the wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War
Virgil
💭 conceptEpic poetry, Rome, fate
Roman poet who composed the Aeneid linking Rome's founding to the Trojan War through Aeneas's journey
Dionysiaca
💭 conceptLiterature
Nonnus's sprawling epic poem narrating the life and conquests of the god Dionysus in forty-eight books
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Hippolytus and Phaedra
💭 conceptNarrative
A tragedy of forbidden desire, false accusation, and divine cruelty destroying an innocent young prince
Nonnus
💭 conceptEpic poetry, Dionysus
Late antique poet who composed the Dionysiaca, the longest surviving epic poem from Greco-Roman antiquity
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
Theogony
💭 conceptLiterature
Hesiod's epic poem describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods
Return of Odysseus
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's perilous ten-year journey home from Troy and his reclamation of his kingdom in Ithaca
Bellerophon and Chimera
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's aerial battle against a fire-breathing monster while riding the winged horse Pegasus
Theban Cycle
💭 conceptepic, dynasty
The cycle of myths surrounding the cursed royal house of Thebes, from Cadmus's founding through Oedipus's tragedy to the war of the Seven and their sons.