Summary of the “Aeneid” of Virgil

When on earth the age of heroes began, the gods often went to mortal women, so that they would be born heroes. Another thing – the goddess: they only very rarely went to mortal men to give birth to their sons. So from the goddess Thetis was born the hero of the “Iliad” – Achilles; so from the goddess Aphrodite was born the hero of the “Aeneid” – Aeneas.

The poem begins in the very middle of the path of Aeneas. He sails west, between Sicily and the northern coast of Africa – where just now Phoenician people are building the city of Carthage. Here, then, a terrible storm strikes on him, sent by Juno: at her request, the god Aeol released all the winds that were subject to him. “Clouds of sudden sky and light are being stolen from the view,” The darkness on the waves has been poured, the thunder has burst forth, the lightning is shining, \ The inevitable death from everywhere has appeared to the Trojans. “The ropes

groan, and the sailors are flying screams.” Aeneas chilled, \ “Three times, four times that blessed who under the walls of Troy \ Before the eyes of the fathers in battle met with death! ..”

Aeneas saves Neptune, which disperses the winds, smoothes the waves. The sun clears up, and the last seven ships of Aeneas, from their last strength, rake to an unfamiliar shore.

This is Africa, the young queen of Dido reigns here. Evil brother drove her out of distant Phenicia, and now she and her companions on the run are building a new place in the city of Carthage. “Happy are those for whom strong walls are already standing!” – Aeneas exclaims and marvels at the erected Temple of Juno, painted with pictures of the Trojan War: the rumor about it flew to Africa already. Dido welcomes Aeneas and his companions – the same fugitives as herself. In honor of them the feast is being mastered, and at this feast Aeneas conducts his famous story about the fall of Troy.

The Greeks for ten years could not take Troy force and decided to take it by cunning. With the help of Athena-Minerva

they built a huge wooden horse, in the hollow belly of him they concealed their best heroes, and they left the camp and fled the whole fleet behind the near island. A rumor was launched: the gods ceased to help them, and they sailed to their homeland, placing this horse as a gift to Minerva – a huge one, so that the Trojans did not bring it into the gate, because if they had a horse, they would go to war against Greece and win victory. The Trojans rejoice, break the wall, bring in the horse through the breach. The seer Laocoon conjures them not to do this – “be afraid of enemies, and of gifts bringing!” – but from the sea come up two giant Neptune snakes, attacked Laocoon and his two young sons, strangled with rings, poisoned with poison: after this, no one remains, Horse in the city,

Aeneas was asleep; in a dream he is Hector: “Troy is dead, run, look for a new place beyond the sea!” Aeneas rushes to the roof of the house – the city is blazing from all sides, the flame flies up to the sky and reflects into the sea, shouts and moans from all sides. He calls friends for the last battle: “For the vanquished, there is only one salvation – do not dream of saving!” They fight in the narrow streets, in front of their eyes dragging the prophetic princess Cassandra, before their eyes, the old king Priam is killed – “the head is cut off from the shoulders, and without the name – the body.” He is looking for death, but he is a mother Venus: “Troy is doomed, save your father and son!” Aeneas father – decrepit Anhis, son – boy Askaniy-Yul; with a powerless old man on his shoulders, leading a powerless child by the hand, Aeneas leaves the collapsing city. With the surviving Trojans, he hides on a wooded mountain, in the far bay builds ships and leaves his homeland. Need to swim, but where?

Begin six years of wandering. One shore does not accept them, on the other the plague rages. On the sea crossroads are raging monsters of old myths – Skill with Charybdis, predatory harpies, one-eyed ciclops. On land there are mournful encounters: here is a dripping bush on the grave of the Trojan prince, here is the widow of the great Hector, who was suffering in captivity, here is the best Trojan prophet languishing in a distant land, here is the lagging Odysseus warrior – abandoned by his own, he is beaten to his former enemies. One oracle sends Aeneas to Crete, another to Italy, the third threatens with hunger: “You’ll chew your own tables!” – the fourth orders to descend into the realm of the dead and learn about the future there. At the last stop, in Sicily, the decrepit Anchis dies; further – the storm, the Carthaginian shore, and the story of Aeneas is over.

Behind the affairs of people watching the gods. Juno and Venus do not like each other, but here they give each other hands: Venus does not want a son for further testing, Juno does not want Rome to rise in Rome, threatening her Carthage – let Aeneas stay in Africa! It begins with the love of Dido and Aeneas, the two exiles, the most human in all ancient poetry. They unite in a thunderstorm, during a hunt, in a mountain cave: lightning instead of torches, and moaning of mountain nymphs instead of a marriage song. This is not good, because Aeneu wrote a different fate, and this fate is followed by Jupiter. He sends in a dream to Aeneas Mercury: “Do not you dare delay, Italy is waiting for you, and Rome is waiting for your descendants!” Aeneas is suffering painfully. “The gods command – I do not leave my own you, I will!” He says to Dido, but for a loving woman, these are empty words. She prays: “Stay!”; later: “Slow down!”; then: “Be afraid, if Rome will be Carthage, there will be a terrible war between yours and my descendants!” In vain. She sees from the palace tower the distant sails of the Eneius ships, piles a funeral pyre in the palace and, climbing onto it, rushes to the sword.

For the sake of the unknown future, Aeneas left Troy, left Carthage, but that’s not all. His comrades are tired of wandering; in Sicily, while Aeneas celebrates the funeral games on the grave of Ankhis, their wives light the Eneva ships to stay here and not go anywhere. Four ships die, tired remain, the last three Aeneas reaches Italy.

Here, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, is the entrance to the realm of the dead, here Sinaill’s decrepit prophetess awaits Aeneas. With a magic gold branch, Aeneas descends into the ground: how Odysseus asked the shadow of Tiresias about his future, so Aeneas wants to ask the shadow of her father Ankhis about the future of her descendants. He crosses the Aidov River Styx, because of which people do not return. He sees a reminder of Troy – the shadow of a friend, mutilated by the Greeks. He sees a reminder of Carthage – the shadow of Dido with a wound in his chest; he says: “Against my will, queen, I left the shore! ..” – but she is silent. To the left of it is Tartarus, sinners are tormented there: the God-fighters, patricides, perjurers, traitors. To his right are the fields of the Blessed, where his father Ankhis is waiting. In the middle – the river oblivion Leta, and above it a whirlwind swirling souls, destined to be purified in it and come to light.

Among these souls, Anhis points out to his son the heroes of the future of Rome: Romulus, the founder of the city, and Augustus, his revivalist, and legislators, tyrants and all who will establish Rome’s authority over the whole world. To each people – its own gift and duty: the Greeks – thought and beauty, the Romans – justice and order: “Animate copper let others better than others,” I believe, let the living from the marble of the face, \ Will speak in court more beautiful, the movements of the sky \ Circular will determine, the rising stars will call, \ your Roman, the duty – to rule the peoples! “That’s your art: to prescribe to the world laws, \ Indisposed to spare and overthrow the unruly.”

This is a distant future, but on the way to it – a close future, and it is not easy. “You suffered at sea – you will suffer on land,” says Aeneas Sibilla, “a new war awaits you, a new Achilles and a new marriage – with a stranger, and you, do not give in to the trouble, do not give up and walk more bravely!” The second half of the poem begins, for “Odyssey” – “Iliad”.

In the day of the journey from the Sivillian Aida sites – the middle of the Italian coast, the mouth of the Tiber, the region of Lazius. Here lives the old wise king of Latin with his people – the Latins; next to it – the tribe of Rutul with the young warrior Tournom, a descendant of Greek kings. Here comes Aeneas; After landing, tired travelers eat dinner, laying vegetables on flat cakes. They ate vegetables, ate scones. “There are no tables left!” – jokes Yul, the son of Aeneas. “We have a goal,” exclaims Aeneas, “a prophecy has come true:” you will chew your own tables. “We did not know where we were going, but now we know where we have come.” And he sends ambassadors to King Latin to ask for peace, union and the hands of his daughter Lavinia. Latin is glad: the forest gods have long been telling him that his daughter will marry a stranger and they will conquer the whole world. But the goddess Juno is furious – her enemy, the Trojan,

In Latsii there is a temple; when the world – its doors are locked, when the war is opened; By the push of his own hand, Juno opens the iron doors of the war. On the hunt Trojan hunters mistakenly hunted the tame royal deer, now they are not guests of Latina, but enemies. King Latin in despair resigns power; young Turn, himself wedded to the princess Lavinia, and now rejected, collects a mighty host against the aliens: here is the giant of the Mezentius, and the invulnerable Messap, and the Amazon Camilla. Aeneas also seeks allies: he floats along the Tiber to where the king Evander, the leader of the Greek settlers from Arcadia, lives on the site of the future Rome. In the future forum, cattle are grazing, on the future of the Capitol, a blackthorn grows, in a poor hut the king treats the guest and gives him four hundred fighters led by his son, young Pallant. Meanwhile, Aeneas’ mother, Venus, descends to the forge of her husband Vulcan, that he bound her son’s divinely strong armor, as Achilles once did. The whole world was depicted on the shield of Achilles, the whole of Rome on the shield of Aeneas: the wolf with Romulus and Remus, the abduction of the Sabines, the victory over the Gauls, the criminal Catiline, the gallant Cato, and finally Augustus’s triumph over Antony and Cleopatra, vividly to the readers of Virgil. “Pleased Eney on the shield of the paintings, not knowing the events, and lifts the shoulder and glory, and the fate of the descendants.”

But while Aeneas is far away, Turn with the Italian army approaches his camp: “As the ancient Troy fell, so let the new one fall: for Aeneas his destiny, and for me – my destiny!” Two Trojan friends, brave men and handsome Nis and Evral, go on a night sortie through the enemy camp to get to Aeneas and call for help. In the moonless darkness they make noiseless strikes to themselves among the sleeping enemies and go out on the road – but here at dawn their enemy’s crossing overtakes them. Evral is taken prisoner, Nis – one against three hundred – rushes to his rescue, but dies, the heads of both are puffed up, and the furious Italians are on the attack. Turn ignites the Trojan fortifications, breaks into a gap, destroys the enemy in dozens, Juno breathes in his strength, and only Jupiter’s will puts a limit to his success. The gods are excited,

In the meantime, at last, Aeneas returns with Pallant and his detachment; young Askaniy-Yul, son of Aeneas, rushes out of the camp for a sortie to meet him; the troops unite, the general battle boils, the chest in the chest, the leg to the leg, as once under Troy. The ardent Pallant rushes forward, performs a feat for the feat, converges, finally, with an unbeatable Turn – and falls from his spear. Turn breaks off his belt and sling, and the body in the armor nobly allows fellow fighters to take out of the fight. Aeneas rushes to take revenge, but Juno rescues Thurn from him; Aeneas converges with the cruel Mezentsi, hurts him, the young son of Mezentius Loves blocks his father, – both die, and the dying Mezentius asks them to bury them together. The day ends, two troops bury and mourn their fallen. But the war continues, and the youngest and blooming are still the first to perish: after Nisus and Evrala, after Pallant and Loves comes the turn of the Amazon Camille. Growing up in the woods, dedicating herself to hunter Diana, with a bow and a pole she beats against the advancing Trojans and dies, slain by a dart.

Seeing the death of their fighters, hearing the mournful sobbing of the old Latina and the young Lavinia, feeling the advancing rock, Turn sends a messenger to Aeneas: “Take the troops, and we will decide our dispute by dueling.” If Thorne wins, the Trojans go looking for a new land, if Aeneas – the Trojans base their city here and live in union with the Latins. The altars are set, sacrifices are made, oaths are uttered, two forces are standing on two sides of the field. And again, as in the Iliad, suddenly the ceasefire ends. In the sky is a sign: the eagle strikes a swan flock, snatches the prey from it, but the white flock falls on all sides to the eagle, forcing it to throw the swan and turns to flight. “This is our victory over the newcomer!” – screams the Latin fortuneteller and swords his spear into the Trojan system. The troops rush at each other, a general battle begins,

And from the sky looking at them, suffering, Juno, also feeling the upcoming rock. She turns to Jupiter with the last request:

“Be that it will be by the will of fate and yours, but do not let the Trojans impose their name, language and disposition on Italy, let Lazius remain Latius and Latin latins!” Troy perished – let the name of Troy perish! ” And Jupiter replies to her: “So be it.” Of the Trojans and Latins, the Rutul, the Etruscans and the Evander Arkadians there will be a new nation and spread its glory all over the world.

Aeneas and Thurn found each other: “they collided, a shield with a shield, and the ether is filled with thunder.” Jupiter stands in the sky and holds the scales with the dice of two heroes on two bowls. Turn hits the sword – the sword breaks against the shield forged by Vulcan. Aeneas strikes with a spear – the spear pierces Turna and the shield and shell, he falls, wounded in the thigh. Raising his hand, he says: “You conquered, the princess is yours, I do not ask for mercy for myself, but if there is a heart in you, pity me for my father: and you had Anhis!” Aeneas stops with a raised sword – but then his gaze falls on the belt and the Turn’s bandage, which he took from the murdered Pallant, Aeneuu’s short-lived friend. “No, you will not escape! Pallant avenges you!” exclaims Aeneas and pierces the heart of the enemy; “and embraced by the cold of death \ The body has left life and with a groan to the shadows flies.”