Roman Mythology's Original Texts 1: The Aeneid — From Troy to Rome

Thank you for visiting. This article is the first installment in a series explaining the original texts of Roman mythology.

This time, I take up Rome’s national epic, the “Aeneid,” and look at it in detail, following the flow of its account. It is the core of Roman mythology, depicting how the hero Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy, overcame many hardships to become the ancestor of the Romans.

For an overview map of the original texts of Roman mythology as a whole, please see this summary article.

Roman Mythology's Original Texts: The Aeneid and the Founding Mythen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-roman/

What Kind of Original Text Is the “Aeneid”

The “Aeneid” is an epic in 12 books that the poet Virgil wrote over about 11 years in the age of the Roman Empire’s first emperor, Augustus. It was made with a strong awareness of Homer’s epics. Its structure corresponds to the “Odyssey,” depicting wandering, in the first half (Books 1–6), and the “Iliad,” depicting battle, in the latter half (Books 7–12).

Interestingly, Virgil left this work unfinished and departed the world. He is told to have left a will at the brink of death, “Because it is unfinished, please burn it,” but, by the command of Augustus, who regretted the loss of its value, it escaped burning and came into the world.

Let me show the flow of the “Aeneid” traced in this first installment in a diagram.

An Anatomical Illustrated Guide to the Myths That Make StoriesView on Amazon → Greek and Roman Mythology, Explained in MangaView on Amazon →

The Structure of All 12 Books — a Challenge to Homer

The “Aeneid” opens with a famous phrase: “Of arms and a man, I sing (Arma virumque cano).” By raising “arms (battle)” and “a man (the hero)” at the opening, this poem becomes a declaration that it inherits, in a single work, both of Homer’s two great epics — the “Iliad” of battle and the “Odyssey,” depicting the journey of a single hero.

The story proceeds not in chronological order, but weaving in the future told by a sibyl’s prophecy and the father’s ghost. Let me list the rough structure of all 12 books, following the flow of the original text.

As you see, it is a symmetrical structure of wandering in the first half (Books 1–6) and war in the latter half (Books 7–12). Below, I trace the turning-point scenes of this structure, following the original text.

Troy in Flames — Escaping Carrying His Father

The story’s protagonist “Aeneas” was a Trojan of royal blood, a demigod hero, the child of the goddess of beauty Venus and the human Anchises. He was a brave general on the Trojan side, who appears in the Trojan War (the “Iliad”) of Greek mythology too.

What is told in Book 2 is the famous fall of Troy. The Trojans carried the giant “horse” the Greek army left behind into the city as a war trophy. The priest Laocoön warned, “Beware the Greeks, even bearing gifts,” but was strangled by a great serpent that appeared from the sea, and his voice did not reach them. At night, by the Greek soldiers who slipped out of the horse, Troy was wrapped in flames.

Amid the hopeless battle, Aeneas received an oracle and realized the mission of surviving and building a new country. He, bearing on his back his aged father Anchises, who could not walk, and leading his young son Ascanius by the hand, escaped the burning city. But in the confusion, he lost his wife Creusa. Her ghost told the lamenting Aeneas, “In the western land (Italy), a new kingdom and a consort await you,” and sent him off on his journey.

This figure of “escaping carrying his father” is held to be the symbol of the virtue the Romans valued most, “pietas (piety, faithfulness to duty),” and Aeneas is throughout called “pious Aeneas.” Prioritizing duty to the gods, forefathers, and the state over personal desire — that was the figure of the ideal Roman.

The Tragic Love with the Carthaginian Queen Dido

Aeneas’s party, having fled Troy, met a storm by the obstruction of the goddess Juno (Hera) and drifted to the new city “Carthage” in North Africa. The one who ruled there was the beautiful and clever queen “Dido.”

Aeneas’s mother Venus, to protect her son, commanded the god of love Cupid to breathe into Dido’s heart an intense love for Aeneas. The two were drawn to each other, joined in a cave on a stormy day, and Dido treated Aeneas as a husband and wished him to stay in Carthage.

But that was not his fate. The supreme god Jupiter (Zeus) sent the messenger god Mercury (Hermes) and commanded Aeneas, “Your mission is in Italy. You must not stay here.” Aeneas, who chose duty, set sail secretly, leaving the lamenting Dido.

Betrayed and abandoned, Dido’s despair was deep, and she ended her life on a pyre she herself piled up, by Aeneas’s sword. At the brink of her death, Dido left words of curse: “My people, hate his descendants forever, and repay them with the sword.” This is read as a prophecy that, in later history, Rome and Carthage would wage a deadly struggle in three great wars (the Punic Wars). The myth tells the destiny of real history.

The Descent to the Underworld — Seeing the Future of Rome

Book 6 is the ideological center of the whole “Aeneid.” Aeneas, reaching Italy, was led by the sibyl “the Sibyl of Cumae,” took the “golden bough” in hand, and descended alive into the land of the dead (the underworld).

In the underworld, Aeneas met various souls. He also met again the ghost of Dido, whom he had left in Carthage, but she spoke not a word, turned her back on him, and departed. And he reached his late father Anchises.

Here comes the most important scene in this epic. The father Anchises shows Aeneas the procession of the souls of the great heroes of Rome who are to be born. The founder Romulus, the wise king Numa, and even the figures of Caesar and Augustus, who appear in the far future. Anchises loudly proclaims Rome’s mission.

Roman, do not forget to rule the peoples. Establish the order of peace, be merciful to the submissive, and strike down the haughty.

Leave art and learning to the Greeks. But the Romans’ mission lies in “governing the world rightly.” This very passage was the “heaven’s mandate” that the Romans gave to their own empire.

The Battle in Italy, and the Start of Rome

Aeneas, having known the future and renewed his mission, at last lands in “Latium” in central Italy. The latter half (Books 7–12) is the part depicting the war here, recalling the “Iliad.”

The king of the land, Latinus, following an oracle, tried to wed his daughter “Lavinia” to the foreign-come Aeneas. But Lavinia already had a betrothed, the local young brave general “Turnus.” Because the goddess Juno used the goddess of vengeance to stir up people’s hearts, at last a fierce war began between Aeneas’s forces and the Italian forces led by Turnus.

In the battle, “Pallas,” the young son of the old king Evander who helped Aeneas, was struck down by Turnus. Turnus took Pallas’s sword-belt as a trophy.

The end of the story is the single combat of Aeneas and Turnus. After a fierce fight, Aeneas, having pinned him down, once tried to spare the Turnus who begged for his life. But the moment he saw the sword-belt of his late friend Pallas that Turnus wore, driven by anger, he struck him down. The epic abruptly draws to a close with this death of Turnus (said to be due to its being unfinished, or to be a deliberate ending).

After the story, Aeneas was joined with Lavinia and built the capital “Lavinium.” His son Ascanius (also called Iulus) built the capital “Alba Longa,” and its bloodline in time was inherited by the founder Romulus, told in the next Article 2.

Why Did Rome Need This Epic?

The “Aeneid” was not a mere hero story. It was a “scripture of the founding,” so to speak, compiled with the prestige of the state at stake, in the age of Augustus, when the Roman Empire was coming into being.

This epic played several roles. First, tracing Rome’s origin back to glorious Troy, and showing that Rome too was a people of ancient lineage, against the culturally superior Greek world. Second, showing, through Aeneas’s son Iulus, that the emperor’s family (the Julian house) carried the blood of the goddess Venus, mythically justifying Augustus’s rule. And third, embodying in the hero Aeneas the ideal Roman image of “pietas,” faithful to duty.

The myth bears, whole, the origin, mission, and ideal of a single empire. Here the essence of Roman mythology, which exists together with the state, well appears, different from Greek mythology, which valued storytelling.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman MythologyView on Amazon → An Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Myths and LegendsView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained in detail Rome’s national epic, the “Aeneid,” following the flow of its account. How was it?

Aeneas, who escaped burning Troy carrying his father, shook off the tragic love with Dido, was shown the future of Rome in the underworld, and through the battle with Turnus became the ancestor of the Romans. Through the hero who embodies “pietas (faithfulness to duty),” I think you have felt that it is an original text in which Rome told the mission of its founding.

In the next Article 2, I will explain the founding myth of the city of Rome itself, by the twins Romulus and Remus, the descendants of Aeneas.

Roman Mythology's Original Texts: The Aeneid and the Founding Mythen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-roman/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.