Editing Virgil (section)

===''Aeneid''===
{{Main article|Aeneid}}
[[File:Terracotta Aeneas MAN Naples 110338.jpg|thumb|left|A 1st-century terracotta expressing the ''[[pietas]]'' of Aeneas, who carries his aged father and leads his young son]]

The ''[[Aeneid]]'' is widely considered Virgil's finest work, and is regarded as one of the most important poems in the history of Western literature ([[T. S. Eliot]] referred to it as 'the classic of all Europe').<ref>[[T. S. Eliot|Eliot, T. S.]] 1944. [http://bracchiumforte.com/PDFs/tseliot.pdf ''What Is a Classic?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115123753/http://bracchiumforte.com/PDFs/tseliot.pdf |date=15 November 2019 }}. London: [[Faber & Faber]].</ref> The work (modelled after [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'') chronicles a refugee of the [[Trojan War]], named [[Aeneas]], as he struggles to fulfill his destiny. His intentions are to reach Italy, where his descendants [[Romulus and Remus]] are to found the city of Rome.

The epic poem consists of 12 books in [[dactylic hexameter]] verse which describe the journey of [[Aeneas]], a warrior fleeing the sack of Troy, to Italy, his battle with the Italian prince Turnus, and the foundation of a city from which Rome would emerge. The ''Aeneid''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s first six books describe the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Rome. Virgil made use of several models in the composition of his epic;<ref name="Fowler, pg.1603" />{{Rp|1603}} Homer, the pre-eminent author of classical epic, is everywhere present, but Virgil also makes special use of the Latin poet [[Ennius]] and the Hellenistic poet [[Apollonius of Rhodes]] among the various other writers to whom he alludes. Although the ''Aeneid'' casts itself firmly into the epic mode, it often seeks to expand the genre by including elements of other genres, such as tragedy and aetiological poetry. Ancient commentators noted that Virgil seems to divide the ''Aeneid'' into two sections based on the poetry of Homer; the first six books were viewed as employing the ''[[Odyssey]]'' as a model while the last six were connected to the ''[[Iliad]]''.<ref>Jenkyns, p. 53</ref>

Book 1<ref group="lower-roman">For a succinct summary, see [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/aeneid.htm Globalnet.co.uk] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218115544/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/aeneid.htm |date=18 December 2009 }}</ref> (at the head of the Odyssean section) opens with a storm which [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], Aeneas's enemy throughout the poem, stirs up against the fleet. The storm drives the hero to the coast of [[Carthage]], which historically was Rome's deadliest foe. The queen, [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Dido]], welcomes the ancestor of the Romans, and under the influence of the gods falls deeply in love with him. At a banquet in Book 2, Aeneas tells the story of the sack of [[Troy]], the death of his wife, and his escape, to the enthralled Carthaginians, while in Book 3 he recounts to them his wanderings over the Mediterranean in search of a suitable new home. [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]] in Book 4 recalls the lingering Aeneas to his duty to found a new city, and he slips away from Carthage, leaving Dido to commit suicide, cursing Aeneas and calling down revenge in symbolic anticipation of the fierce wars between Carthage and Rome. In Book 5, funeral games are celebrated for Aeneas's father [[Anchises]], who had died a year before. On reaching [[Cumae]], in Italy in Book 6, Aeneas consults the [[Cumaean Sibyl]], who conducts him through the [[Underworld]] where Aeneas meets the dead Anchises who reveals Rome's destiny to his son.

Book 7 (beginning the Iliadic half) opens with an address to the muse and recounts Aeneas's arrival in Italy and betrothal to [[Lavinia]], daughter of King [[Latinus]]. Lavinia had already been promised to [[Turnus]], the king of the [[Rutuli]]ans, who is roused to war by the [[Erinyes|Fury]] [[Allecto]] and [[Amata]], Lavinia's mother. In Book 8, Aeneas allies with [[Evander of Pallene|King Evander]], who occupies the future site of Rome, and is given new armor and a shield depicting Roman history. Book 9 records an assault by [[Nisus and Euryalus]] on the Rutulians; Book 10, the death of Evander's young son [[Pallas (son of Evander)|Pallas]]; and 11 the death of the Volscian warrior princess [[Camilla (mythology)|Camilla]] and the decision to settle the war with a duel between Aeneas and Turnus. The ''Aeneid'' ends in Book 12 with the taking of Latinus's city, the death of Amata, and Aeneas's defeat and killing of Turnus, whose pleas for mercy are spurned. The final book ends with the image of Turnus's soul lamenting as it flees to the underworld.