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What is the Aeneid about?
The Aeneid is about the adventures of Aeneas after the Fall of Troy. He was forced to flee with his father and his son, but his wife was lost in the chaos. With them and other… fugitives, he tried to fulfill his prophecy of becoming a great ruler in Italy, but Juno (the goddess) hated him just because he was Trojan, so she got Aeolus (king of the winds) to create a giant storm around all of his ships. Neptune (god of water) stepped in and got rid of the winds and only one of the ships sunk in the storm. However, the storm pushed them all to Libya instead of Italy and they land near Carthage. Queen Dido (of Carthage) welcomes the Trojans with open arms, especially Aeneas. Initially, the Trojans were just going to get some supplies and go, but Dido fell in love with Aeneas and so the Trojans were reluctant to leave. A few years later, Zeus sent Hermes (messenger of the gods) to Aeneas in a dream to remind him of his prophecy and get him to go to Italy. He immediately starts preparing the ships to leave without telling Dido. When she finds out, she is furious at him, but she can't convince him to stay, so she gets her sister to help her build a funeral pyre full of everything Aeneas left in Carthage, intending to burn it all, even their bed. When she sees the Trojan ships leaving off in the distance, she is overcome with sorrow, and she commits suicide by stabbing herself and falling onto the pyre. Eventually, Aeneas is told that he has to visit the underworld for advice from his now dead father before proceeding, and with Sibyl's (an oracle) help, he makes it into the underworld. He sees several lost friends and he sees Dido, who refuses to acknowledge him and merely turns and goes back to her first husband, who was dead before she met Aeneas. His father warns him of the upcoming war and Aeneas goes to Italy. There, he meets King Latinus and his daughter Lavinia. Another prophecy states that Lavinia must marry a foreigner, which is why King Latinus believes he should break his promise to King Turnus, who was supposed to marry Lavinia, and give his daughter to Aeneas instead. Juno's back and she doesn't like that Aeneas is going to be happy, so she sends Allecto (a fury) to Italy to enrage everyone and start a violent war over Lavinia. Aeneas goes to look for allies and he finds King Evander, who gives him troops and his own son, Pallas, to fight against Turnus. Pallas becomes like a second son to Aeneas. Later, Turnus kills Pallas in battle and steals his belt as a war prize. When Aeneas and Turnus finally face off in the end of the book, Aeneas overpowers Turnus and debates whether he should kill him or not. Turnus gives a brave farewell speech at swordpoint and Aeneas considers not killing him, but then he sees Pallas' belt on Turnus and he kills him in a rage. Virgil died before finishing the book, so that's where it ends. I'm a student in AP Latin, so I've had to read this entire poem and this is it's summary. (MORE)
