Themes in the Aeneid

Virgil’s Aeneid is a Latin epic in twelve books on the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escapes the fall of Troy and travels to Italy. The poem’s recurring concerns include duty to family and gods, the workings of fate, the founding of Rome, the loss of home, and the human cost of war. The sections that follow take each in turn, with the Argument that heads each book in the Dryden translation serving as a guide to where it appears.

Pietas: Duty to Family and Gods

Pietas, the Latin term for dutiful obligation to gods, family and country, shapes the conduct of Aeneas. In Book 2 he carries his father Anchises on his shoulders, leads his young son by the hand, and takes his household gods from the burning city. In Book 5 he holds funeral games in honor of his father. In Book 10 the Argument sets two opponents against each other: Mezentius is described as an atheist, and Lausus as a pious and virtuous youth.

Fate and the Gods

The journey of Aeneas unfolds under divine direction and divine opposition. In Book 1 Juno asks Aeolus to raise a storm against the Trojan fleet, while Venus appeals to Jupiter, who sends Mercury to secure a welcome for Aeneas at Carthage. In Book 3 a mistaken reading of the oracle at Delos leads Aeneas to settle in Crete, until his household gods give him the true sense of the oracle in a dream. In Book 4 Jupiter sends Mercury to warn Aeneas away from Carthage. In Book 10 Jupiter calls a council of the gods and forbids them to take either side in the war.

Empire and the Founding of Rome

The Trojan settlement in Italy looks forward to Rome. In Book 6 the Sibyl foretells the adventures awaiting Aeneas in Italy, and Anchises shows him the line of heroes who will descend from him and his posterity. In Book 7 King Latinus promises his daughter Lavinia, heiress of his crown, to Aeneas. In Book 8 Vulcan makes arms for Aeneas at the request of Venus and draws on the shield the most memorable actions of his posterity.

Exile and Home

The poem is a narrative of displacement. Book 1 opens with the Trojans, after seven years of voyage, still sailing for Italy, and Books 2 and 3 are the account Aeneas gives Dido of the fall of Troy and his wanderings. In Book 2 his wife is separated from the group fleeing Troy, and her ghost afterward tells him of the land designed for him. In Book 3 his father Anchises dies in Sicily. In Book 5 Aeneas builds a city there for those unfit for war or weary of the voyage, and sails on with the rest. In Book 4 the stay at Carthage, and the passion between Dido and Aeneas, ends when he leaves in obedience to the warning from Jupiter and Dido contrives her own death.

The Cost of War

The later books turn from voyage to war. In Book 7 Turnus, aided by Juno and Alecto, breaks the treaty and gathers allies against the Trojans. In Book 10 Turnus kills Pallas, the son of Evander, and Aeneas kills Lausus and Mezentius. In Book 11 Aeneas sends the body of Pallas home with great solemnity and grants a truce for burying the dead, and Camilla is killed in the cavalry engagement. In Book 12 Turnus challenges Aeneas to single combat, the agreed terms are broken by the Rutulians, and the poem concludes with the death of Turnus.