60 Fun Facts About The Aeneid

In which decade BC did Virgil write the Aeneid?

He composed it between 29 and 19 BC and left it unfinished at his death.

Aeneas fled which fallen city at the start of his journey?

He becomes the legendary ancestor of the Romans.

How many books does the Aeneid contain?

The first six mirror the Odyssey's wanderings; the last six mirror the Iliad's war.

Roughly how many lines long is the Aeneid?

Legend says Virgil wrote only three lines a day.

In which meter is the Aeneid written?

Each line has six feet of dactyls and spondees, as in Homer.

What are the famous opening words of the Aeneid?

'Of arms and the man I sing'; the invocation to the Muse follows seven lines later.

Which goddess's resentment of the Trojans drives the conflict of the poem?

She was snubbed in the judgement of Paris and knows her beloved Carthage will fall to Aeneas's descendants.

Who is Aeneas's divine mother?

His father was the Trojan prince Anchises, a cousin of King Priam.

Which King of the Winds does Juno bribe with a nymph to wreck Aeneas's fleet in Book 1?

Neptune, furious at the intrusion into his domain, calms the sea.

Whom does Cupid impersonate to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas?

Dido cradles the boy at a banquet as he weakens her fidelity to her murdered husband.

Dido, queen of Carthage, had fled which Phoenician city after her brother murdered her husband?

Her brother Pygmalion killed her husband Sychaeus.

Which Trojan priest speared the wooden horse and was then devoured with his sons by sea serpents?

His warning is the source of the line 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes' - I fear Greeks even bearing gifts.

Which Greek was left behind to convince the Trojans the horse was a harmless offering?

He claimed that if the horse were taken inside, the Trojans would conquer Greece.

Whose ghost appears in a dream to tell Aeneas to flee burning Troy with his family?

Aeneas then witnesses Priam murdered by Achilles's son Pyrrhus.

Whom does Aeneas famously carry on his back out of burning Troy?

'Pious Aeneas' occurs 20 times in the poem; his wife Creusa is lost and appears only as a ghost.

What omen strikes Ascanius as the family prepares to flee Troy?

A clap of thunder and a shooting star follow.

Which Harpy prophesies the Trojans will not find home until they eat their tables?

She drives them from the Strophades islands.

At Buthrotum, a replica of Troy, Aeneas meets which grieving Trojan widow?

Priam's son Helenus, a prophet, tells him to seek Italy and the Sibyl at Cumae.

Which one of Ulysses' men, left behind in the Cyclops's cave, do the Trojans rescue?

They narrowly escape Polyphemus soon after.

Where does Anchises die of old age?

A storm then blows Aeneas to Carthage, which is where the poem opened.

Which god does Jupiter send to remind Aeneas of his duty and make him leave Dido?

Rejected suitor Iarbas had complained to Jupiter about the couple.

How does Dido die?

She curses Aeneas's people, a line often read as invoking Hannibal.

On which island does Aeneas hold funeral games for his father in Book 5?

There is a boat race, foot race, boxing match and archery contest.

What do the Trojan women, incited by Juno through Iris, try to burn in Book 5?

Aeneas prays to Jupiter, who sends a rainstorm to put out the fires.

Which helmsman is put to sleep by Somnus and falls overboard as the price of safe passage to Italy?

Jupiter demanded one of Aeneas's men as a sacrifice.

Who guides Aeneas into the underworld in Book 6?

They cross the Acheron with Charon and pass Cerberus before Aeneas sees Rome's future.

How did Aeneas's prophetess-guide at Cumae gain her extraordinarily long life?

She forgot to ask for youth as well.

Whom does Aeneas meet in the underworld who remains irreconcilable and will not speak to him?

He then reaches Elysium and hears his father prophesy Rome's destiny.

Which king of Latium was told by oracles to marry his daughter to a foreigner rather than to Turnus?

His wife Amata, stirred by the fury Alecto, insists on Turnus instead.

Which fury does Juno summon from the underworld to stir up war between the Trojans and the Latins?

She also causes Ascanius to wound a sacred deer during a hunt.

Turnus is the ruler of which Italian people?

He is Aeneas's rival for Lavinia's hand.

On the future site of Rome, Aeneas meets which friendly Greek king from Arcadia?

Evander sends his son Pallas to fight alongside Aeneas.

Which god forges Aeneas's armour at Venus's request?

The shield depicts the future history of Rome, including Augustus's victory at Actium.

Which two Trojan friends die on a midnight raid on Turnus's camp in Book 9?

Turnus breaches the Trojan gates the next day but escapes by jumping into the Tiber.

Which young ally, entrusted to Aeneas by his father, is killed by Turnus in Book 10?

Turnus takes his belt as a trophy, which seals his own fate at the end.

Which warrior maiden devoted to Diana fights bravely in Book 11 before being killed by Aruns?

Diana's sentinel Opis strikes Aruns dead in turn.

Who is Turnus's divine sister, who breaks the truce before the final duel?

Juno instigates her; the queen of Latium later hangs herself in despair.

What makes Aeneas kill his kneeling, pleading rival at the very end of the poem?

Critics debate whether 'pious Aeneas' giving way to furor undercuts the whole poem.

Aeneas's son Ascanius was also called Iulus, making him the legendary ancestor of which Roman family?

The name is pronounced as three syllables, not 'Julus', as the meter shows.

Whose mention in Book 6 reportedly made Augustus's sister Octavia faint when the poet recited it?

Virgil is said to have read Books 2, 4 and 6 to Augustus.

What did the poet ask to be done with the Aeneid's manuscript when he died in 19 BC?

Augustus overruled him and had Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca publish it with minimal changes.

Near which town was the poet of the Aeneid born in 70 BC?

His other two great works are the Eclogues and the Georgics.

The Aeneid's author serves as the guide through Hell and Purgatory in which later masterpiece?

The Aeneid also left its mark on Beowulf, The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost.

Which English composer wrote the 1688 opera Dido and Aeneas, famous for 'Dido's Lament'?

Berlioz later turned the story into the grand opera Les Troyens.

Ursula K. Le Guin's 2008 novel retells the last six books from the viewpoint of which minor character?

Maffeo Vegio had already added a 'Thirteenth Book' in the Renaissance to fill in Aeneas's marriage.

Ezra Pound considered which 1513 Scots version, the Eneados, still the best translation of the Aeneid?

Dryden's 17th-century English version is another landmark; Seamus Heaney translated Book 6.

Which Latin phrase spoken by Aeneas means 'these are the tears of things'?

Many phrases from the poem entered Latin the way Shakespeare's entered English.

Dido tricked the locals into granting her the land for Carthage by cutting what into thin strips?

The strips encircled a whole hill, afterwards named Byrsa, meaning 'hide'.

Books 1-6 of the Aeneid are commonly likened to which Homeric epic?

Books 7-12, covering the war in Latium, mirror the Iliad, reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer on both fronts.

What was the name of Aeneas's first wife, lost during the escape from Troy?

Aeneas re-enters the burning city to look for her after noticing at the gates that she is missing.

Who was Dido's late husband, murdered by her brother Pygmalion in Tyre?

Cupid, posing as Ascanius, weakens the fidelity she had sworn to his soul.

On which island do the Trojans build and then abandon the city of Pergamea after a plague?

They wrongly believed it to be the land of their forefathers that Apollo had told them to seek.

Which prophetic son of Priam does Aeneas meet at Buthrotum, who sends him on to the Sibyl?

In Thrace the Trojans had already found the remains of another Trojan, Polydorus.

Which rejected African king prays angrily to Jupiter after Fama spreads news of Dido and Aeneas?

His complaint prompts Jupiter to send Mercury to remind Aeneas of his destiny.

Which queen of Latium is stirred by Alecto to demand Lavinia marry Turnus?

The fury also has Ascanius wound a revered deer during a hunt, sparking the war.

Which associate of Turnus flees while his son Lausus is killed by Aeneas?

Aeneas later kills Mezentius too in Book 10.

Which two literary executors did Augustus order to publish the Aeneid against Virgil's wishes?

They were told to make as few editorial changes as possible to the unfinished poem.

Which 15th-century Italian poet wrote a 'Thirteenth Book' continuing the Aeneid?

His supplement, covering Aeneas's marriage to Lavinia, was widely printed in the Renaissance.

Which French composer turned the Aeneid into the grand opera Les Troyens?

He composed it between 1856 and 1858.

Which Nobel-winning Irish poet published a translation of Book 6 of the Aeneid?

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, had earlier translated Books 2 and 4.