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The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans.
Roman mythology
1 Form and Tradition
The Aeneid is an epic poem of twelve books, in conscious imitation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It makes use of the dactylic hexameter meter of Homer, a meter better suited to Greek but which Virgil raised to the height of its Latin form.
The hero Aeneas was already a subject of Roman legend and myth; Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous piety, and fashioned this into a compelling nationalist epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, glorified traditional Roman virtues, and legitimated the Julio-Claudian dynastyThe Julio-Claudian dynasty was the series of the first five Roman Emperors. They ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to AD 68, when the last of the line, Nero, committed suicide. The dynasty is so named from the nomina or family names of its first two emper as descendants of the founders, heroes, and indeed the gods of Rome and Troy.
2 Influence
The Aeneid is one of a small group of writings from Latin Literature that has traditionally been required for students of Latin. Traditionally students, after reading the works of Julius CaesarAlternative meanings: Julius Caesar (disambiguation). Gaius Julius Caesar ( Latin: C·IVLIVS·C·F·C·N·CAESAR) ( July 13, 100 BC March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader whose conquest of Gallia Comata extended the Roman world all the way t, CiceroFor other uses see Cicero (disambiguation Marcus Tullius Cicero ( January 3, 106 BC December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist. Biography Cicero was born in Arpinum and caug, OvidFor other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. Ovid wrote in elegiac couplets, with and CatullusGaius Valerius Catullus (c. was one of the most influential Roman poets of the first century B. Of Catullus' life little is known for sure. He was born on the Palatine hill of Rome. He was an offspring of a leading family from Verona, but lived in Rome mo would then read the Aeneid. As a result, many phrases from this poem entered the Latin language much as passages from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope have entered the English language. One example is from Aeneas' reaction to the painting of the Sack of Troy, sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt—"the actions of mankind move us to tears and touch our heart" (Aeneid I, 462).
