Editing Aeneid (section)

====Book 5: Sicily====
Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees the smoke of Dido's funeral pyre, and although he does not understand the exact reason behind it, he understands it as a bad omen, considering the angry madness of her love.
[[File:Mosaic boxers Getty Villa 71.AH.106.jpg|thumb|Boxing scene from the ''Aeneid'' (book 5), mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa in [[Villelaure]] (France), c.&nbsp;175 AD, [[Getty Villa]] (71.AH.106)]]

Hindered by bad weather from reaching Italy, the Trojans return to where they started at the beginning of book 1. Book 5 then takes place on [[Sicily]] and centres on the [[funeral games (antiquity)|funeral games]] that Aeneas organises for the anniversary of his father's death. Aeneas organises celebratory games for the men—a boat race, a foot race, a boxing match, and an archery contest. In all those contests, Aeneas is careful to reward winners and losers, showing his leadership qualities by not allowing antagonism even after foul play. Each of these contests comments on past events or prefigures future events: the boxing match, for instance, is "a preview of the final encounter of Aeneas and Turnus", and the dove, the target during the archery contest, is connected to the deaths of [[Polites (Prince of Troy)|Polites]] and King Priam in Book 2 and that of Camilla in Book 11.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Glazewski|first=Johanna|year=1972|title=The Function of Vergil's Funeral Games|journal=The Classical World|volume=66|issue=2|pages=85–96|jstor=4347751|doi=10.2307/4347751}}</ref> Afterwards, Ascanius leads the boys in a military parade and mock battle, the [[Lusus Troiae]]—a tradition he will teach the Latins while building the walls of Alba Longa.

During these events, Juno, via her messenger Iris, who disguises herself as an old woman, incites the Trojan women to burn the fleet and prevent the Trojans from ever reaching Italy, but her plan is thwarted when Ascanius and Aeneas intervene. Aeneas prays to Jupiter to quench the fires, which the god does with a torrential rainstorm. An anxious Aeneas is comforted by a vision of his father, who tells him to go to the underworld to receive a vision of his and Rome's future. In return for safe passage to Italy, the gods, by order of Jupiter, will receive one of Aeneas' men as a sacrifice: [[Palinurus]], who steers Aeneas' ship by night, is put to sleep by [[Somnus]] and falls overboard.