Story of Aeneas

by Michael Clarke

SPELLING OF THE POET'S NAME.

The spelling of the poet's name adopted in this book is now believed to be preferable to the form V_i_rgil which has for a long time been in common use. Many of the best Latin scholars are of opinion that the proper spelling is V_e_rgil from the Latin V_e_rgilius, as the poet himself wrote it. "As to the fact," says Professor Frieze, "that the poet called himself Vergilius, scholars are now universally agreed. It is the form found in all the earliest manuscripts and inscriptions. In England and America the corrected Latin form is used by all the best authorities."

II. THE GODS AND GODDESSES.

It is said that Vergil wrote the AEneid at the request of the Emperor Augustus, whose family—the Ju'li-i—claimed the honor of being descended from AEneas, through his son I-u'lus or Ju'lus. All the Romans, indeed, were fond of claiming descent from the heroes whom tradition told of as having landed in Italy with AEneas after escaping from the ruins of Troy. The city of Troy, or Il'i-um, so celebrated in ancient song and story, was situated on the coast of Asia Minor, not far from the entrance to what is now the Sea of Mar'mo-ra. It was besieged for ten years by a vast army of the Greeks (natives of Greece or Hel'las) under one of their kings called Ag-a-mem'non. Homer, the greatest of the ancient poets, tells about this siege in his famous poem, the Il'i-ad. We shall see later on how the siege was brought to an end by the capture and destruction of the city, as well as how AEneas escaped, and what afterwards happened to him and his companions.

Meanwhile we must learn something about the gods and goddesses who play so important a part in the story. At almost every stage of the adventures of AEneas, as of the adventures of all ancient heroes, we find a god or a goddess controlling or directing affairs, or in some way mixed up with the course of events.

According to the religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans there were a great many gods. They believed that all parts of the universe—the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the seas and rivers, and storms—were ruled by different gods. Those beings it was supposed, were in some respects like men and women. They needed food and drink and sleep; they married and had children; and like poor mortals they often had quarrels among themselves. Their food was am-bro'si-a, which gave them immortality and perpetual youth, and their drink was a delicious wine called nectar.

The gods often visited men and even accepted their hospitality. Sometimes they married human beings, and the sons of such marriages were the demigods or heroes of antiquity. AEneas was one of those heroes, his mother being the goddess Ve'nus, of whom we shall hear much in the course of our Story.

Though the gods never died, being immortal, they might be wounded and suffer bodily pain like men. They often took part in the quarrels and wars of people on earth, and they had weapons and armor, after the manner of earthly warriors. But they were vastly superior to men in strength and power. They could travel through the skies, or upon land or ocean, with the speed of lightning, and they could change themselves into any form, or make themselves visible or invisible at pleasure.

The usual residence of the principal gods was on the top of Mount O-lym'pus, in Greece. Here they had golden palaces and a chamber where they held grand banquets at which celestial music was rendered by A-pol'lo, the god of minstrelsy, and the Muses, who were the divinities of poetry and song.

Splendid temples were erected to the gods in all the chief cities, where they were worshiped with many ceremonies. Valuable gifts in gold and silver were presented at their shrines, and at their altars animals were killed and portions of the flesh burned as sacrifices. Such offerings were thought to be very pleasing to the gods.

The head or king of the gods was Ju'pi-ter, also called Jove or Zeus.
He was the great Thunderer, at whose word the heavens trembled.

He, whose all conscious eyes the world behold,
The eternal Thunderer sat enthroned in gold.
High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes,
And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes.
HOMER, Iliad, BOOK VIII.

The wife of Jupiter, and the queen of heaven, was Ju'no, who, as we shall see, persecuted the hero AEneas with "unrelenting hate." Nep'tune, represented as bearing in his hand a trident, or three- pronged fork, was the god of the sea.

Neptune, the mighty marine god,
Earth's mover, and the fruitless ocean's king.
HOMER

Mars was the god of war, and Plu'to, often called Dis or Ha'des, was the god of the lower or "infernal" regions, and hence also the god of the dead. One of the most glorious and beautiful of the gods was Apollo, god of the sun, of medicine, music, poetry, and all fine arts.

Bright-hair'd Apollo!—thou who ever art
A blessing to the world—whose mighty heart
Forever pours out love, and light, and life;
Thou, at whose glance, all things of earth are rife
With happiness.
PIKE.

[Illustration: A ROMAN AUGUR.]

Another of the famous divinities of the ancients was Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. According to some of the myths she was the daughter of Jupiter. Others say that she sprang from the foam of the sea.

These and countless other imaginary beings were believed in as deities under the religious system of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and every unusual or striking event was thought to be caused by some god or goddess.

The will of the gods, it was supposed, was made known to men in different ways—by dreams, by the flight of birds, or by a direct message from Olympus. Very often it was learned by consulting seers, augurs or soothsayers. These were persons believed to have the power of prophecy. There was a famous temple of Apollo at Delphi, in Greece, where a priestess called Pyth'i-a gave answers, or oracles, to those who came to consult her. The name oracle was also applied to the place where such answers were received. There were a great many oracles in ancient times, but that at Delphi was the most celebrated.

STORY OF AENEAS.

I. THE WOODEN HORSE,

The gods, of course, had much to do with the siege and fall of Troy, as well as with the sufferings of Aeneas, which Vergil describes in the AEneid. There were gods and goddesses on both sides in the great conflict. Some were for the Tro'jans, others for the Greeks, and some had their favorites among the heroes and warriors who fought on one side or the other. Two very powerful goddesses, Juno and Mi-ner'va (the goddess of wisdom, also called Pallas), hated the Trojans because of the famous "judgment of Pa'ris," which came about in this way—.

A king of Athens named Pe'leus married a beautiful sea-nymph named The'tis. All the gods and goddesses were present at the wedding feast except E'ris, the goddess of discord. She was not invited, and being angry on that account, she resolved to cause dissension among the guests. With this object she threw into the midst of the assembly a golden apple bearing the inscription, "For the most beautiful." Immediately a dispute arose as to which of the goddesses was entitled to the prize, but at last all gave up their claim except Juno, Venus, and Minerva, and they agreed to leave the settlement of the question to Paris, son of Pri'am, King of Troy, a young prince who was noted for the wisdom of his judgments upon several occasions.

The three goddesses soon afterwards appeared before Paris, and each endeavored by the offer of tempting bribes, to induce him to decide in her favor. Juno promised him great power and wealth.

She to Paris made
Proffer of royal power, ample rule
Unquestion'd.
TENNYSON.

Minerva offered military glory, and Venus promised that she would give him the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife. After hearing their claims and promises, Paris gave the apple to Venus. This award or judgment brought upon him and his family, and all the Trojans, the hatred of the two other goddesses, particularly of Juno, who, being the queen of heaven, had expected that the preference, as a matter of course would be given to her.

But besides the judgment of Paris, there was another cause of Juno's anger against Troy. She had heard of a decree of the Fates that a race descended from the Trojans was one day to destroy Carthage, a city in which she was worshipped with much honor, and which she regarded with great affection. She therefore hated Aeneas, through whom, as the ancestor of the founders of Rome, the destruction of her beloved city was to be brought about.

On account of this hatred of the Trojans, Juno persuaded her royal husband, Jupiter, to consent to the downfall of Troy, and so the valor of all its heroic defenders, of whom Aeneas was one, could not save it from its fate, decreed by the king of the gods. Many famous warriors fell during the long siege. Hec'tor, son of Priam, the greatest of the Trojan champions, was slain by A-chil'les, the most valiant of the Greeks, and Achilles was himself slain by Paris. After losing their bravest leader the Greeks despaired of being able to take the city by force, and so they resorted to stratagem. By the advice of Minerva they erected a huge horse of wood on the plain in front of the walls, and within its body they placed a chosen band of their boldest warriors. Then pretending that they had given up the struggle, they withdrew to their ships, and set sail, as if with the purpose of returning to Greece. But they went no further than Ten'e-dos, an island opposite Troy, a few miles from the coast.

"There was their fleet concealed. We thought for Greece
Their sails were hoisted, and our fears release.
The Trojans, cooped within their walls so long,
Unbar their gates and issue in a throng
Like swarming bees, and with delight survey
The camp deserted, where the Grecians lay:
The quarters of the several chiefs they showed:
Here Phoe'nix, here Achilles, made abode;
Here joined the battles; there the navy rode.
Part on the pile their wandering eyes employ—
The pile by Pallas raised to ruin Troy."
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.

The Trojans when they saw the big horse, could not think what it meant, or what should be done with it. Various opinions were given. Some thought it was a peace offering, and one chief proposed that it should be dragged within the walls and placed in the citadel. Others advised that it should be cast into the sea, or set on fire, or at least that they ought to burst it open to find whether anything were concealed within. While they were thus discussing the matter, some urging one course, some another, the priest La-oc'o-on rushed out from the city followed by a great crowd and he exclaimed in a loud voice: "Unhappy fellow-countrymen, what madness is this? Are you so foolish as to suppose that the enemy are gone, or that any offering of theirs can be free from deception? Either Greeks are hidden in this horse, or it is an engine designed for some evil to our city. Put no faith in it, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they tender gifts." Thus speaking, Laocoon hurled his spear into the horse's side.

His mighty spear he cast:
Quivering it stood: the sharp rebound
Shook the huge monster: and a sound
Through all its caverns passed.
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

But at this point the attention of the multitude was attracted by the appearance of a group of Trojan shepherds dragging along a prisoner with his hands bound behind his back, who, they said, had delivered himself up to them of his own accord. Being taken before King Priam, and questioned as to who he was and whence he came, the stranger told an artful story. He was a Greek, he said, and his name was Si'non. His countrymen had long been weary of the war, and had often resolved to return home, but were hindered by storms from making the attempt. And when the wooden horse was built, the tempests raged and the thunder rolled more than ever.

"Chiefly when completed stood
This horse, compact of maple wood,
Fierce thunders, pealing in our ears,
Proclaimed the turmoil of the spheres."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

Then the Greeks sent a messenger to the shrine of Apollo to inquire how they might obtain a safe passage to their country. The answer was that the life of a Greek must be sacrificed on the altar of the god. All were horror-stricken by this announcement, for each feared that the doom might fall upon himself.

"Through every heart a shudder ran,
'Apollo's victim—who the man?'"
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

The selection of the person to be the victim was left to Cal'chas, the soothsayer, who fixed upon Sinon, and preparations were accordingly made to sacrifice him on the altar of Apollo, but he contrived to escape and conceal himself until the Grecian fleet had sailed.

"I fled, I own it, from the knife,
I broke my bands and ran for life,
And in a marsh lay that night
While they should sail, if sail they might."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

This was Sinon's story. The Trojans believed it and King Priam ordered the prisoner to be released, and promised to give him protection in Troy. "But tell me," said the king, "why did they make this horse? Was it for a religious purpose or as an engine of war?" The treacherous Sinon answered that the horse was intended as a peace offering to the gods; that it had been built on the advice of Calchas, who had directed that it should be made of immense size so that the Trojans should not be able to drag it within their walls, "for," said he, "if the men of Troy do any injury to the gift, evil will come upon the kingdom of Priam, but if they bring it into their city, all Asia will make war against Greece, arid on our children will come the destruction which we would have brought upon Troy."

The Trojans believed this story also, and their belief was strengthened by the terrible fate which just then befell Laocoon, who a little before had pierced the side of the horse with his spear. While the priest and his two sons were offering a sacrifice to Neptune on the shore, two enormous serpents suddenly issued from the sea and seized and crushed them to death in sight of the people. The Trojans were filled with fear and astonishment at this spectacle, and they regarded the event as a punishment from the gods upon Laocoon.

Who dared to harm with impious steel
Those planks of consecrated deal.
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

Then a cry arose that the "peace offering" should be conveyed into the city, and accordingly a great breach was made in the walls that for ten years had resisted all the assaults of the Greeks, and by means of rollers attached to its feet, and ropes tied around its limbs, the horse was dragged into the citadel, the young men and maidens singing songs of triumph. But in the midst of the rejoicing there were portents of the approaching evil. Four times the huge figure halted on the threshold of the gate, and four times it gave forth a sound from within, as if of the clash of arms.

"Four times 'twas on the threshold stayed:
Four times the armor clashed and brayed.
Yet on we press with passion blind,
All forethought blotted from our mind,
Till the dread monster we install
Within the temple's tower-built wall."
CONINGTON. AEneid, BOOK II.

The prophetess Cas-san'dra, too, the daughter of King Priam, had warned her countrymen of the doom that was certain to fall upon the city if the horse were admitted. Her warning was, however, disregarded. The fateful gift of the Greeks was placed in the citadel, and the Trojans, thinking that their troubles were now over, and that the enemy had departed to return no more, spent the rest of the day in feasting and rejoicing.

But in the dead of the night, when they were all sunk in sleep, the Greek fleet sailed back from Tenedos, and on King Agamemnon's ship a bright light was shown, which was the signal to the false Sinon to complete his work of treachery. Quickly he "unlocked the horse" and forth from their hiding place came the armed Greek warriors. Among them were the famous U-lys'ses, and Ne-op-tol'e-mus, son of the brave Achilles, and Men-e-la'us, husband of the celebrated Hel'en whom Paris, son of Priam, had carried off from Greece, which was the cause of the war. Ulysses and his companions then rushed to the walls, and after slaying the sentinels, threw open the gates of the city to the main body of the Greeks who had by this time landed from their ships. Thus Troy was taken.

And the long baffled legions, bursting in
Through gate and bastion, blunted sword and spear
With unresisted slaughter.
LEWIS MORRIS.

Meanwhile AEneas, sleeping in the house of his father, An-chi'ses, had a dream in which the ghost of Hector appeared to him, shedding abundant tears, and disfigured with wounds as when he had been dragged around the walls of Troy behind the chariot of the victorious Achilles. In a mournful voice, AEneas, seeming to forget that Hector was dead, inquired why he had been so long absent from the defense of his native city, and from what distant shores he had now returned. But the spirit answered only by a solemn warning to AEneas, the "goddess- born" (being the son of Venus) to save himself by immediate flight.

"O goddess-born! escape by timely flight,
The flames and horrors of this fatal night.
The foes already have possessed the wall;
Troy nods from high, and totters to her fall.
Enough is paid to Priam's royal name,
More than enough to duty and to fame.
If by a mortal hand my father's throne
Could be defended, 'twas by mine alone.
Now Troy to thee commends her future state,
And gives her gods companions of thy fate;
From their assistance, happier walls expect,
Which, wand'ring long, at last thou shalt erect."
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK I.

Awaking from his sleep, AEneas was startled by the clash of arms and by cries of battle, which he now heard on all sides. Rushing to the roof of the house and gazing around, he saw the palaces of many of the Trojan princes in flames, and he heard the shouts of the victorious Greeks, and the blaring of their trumpets. Notwithstanding the warning of Hector, he ran for his weapons.

Resolved on death, resolved to die in arms,
But first to gather friends, with them to oppose
(If fortune favored) and repel the foes.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.

At the door, as he was going forth to join the combat, he met the Trojan Pan'thus, a priest of Apollo, who had just escaped by flight from the swords of the Greeks. In reply to the questions of AEneas, the priest told him, in words of grief and despair, that Troy's last day had come.

"'Tis come, our fated day of death.
We have been Trojans; Troy has been;
She sat, but sits no more, a queen;
Stern Jove an Argive rule proclaims;
Greece holds a city wrapt in flames.
There in the bosom of the town
The tall horse rains invasion down,
And Sinon, with a conqueror's pride,
Deals fiery havoc far and wide.
Some keep the gates, as vast a host
As ever left Myce'nae's coast;
Some block the narrows of the street,
With weapons threatening all they meet;
The stark sword stretches o'er the way,
Quick-glancing, ready drawn to slay,
While scarce our sentinels resist,
And battle in the flickering mist."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.

As Panthus ceased speaking, several Trojan chiefs came up, and eagerly joined AEneas in resolving to make a last desperate attempt to save their native city. Together they rushed into the thick of the fight. Some were slain, and some with Aeneas succeeded in forcing their way to the palace of King Priam, where a fierce struggle was then raging. Entering by a secret door, AEneas climbed to the roof, from which he and the other brave defenders of the palace hurled stones and beams of wood upon the enemy below. But all their heroic efforts were in vain. In front of the principal gate, battering upon it with his huge battle-axe, stood Neoptolemus (also called Pyr'rhus) the son of Achilles. Soon its posts, though plated with bronze, gave way before his mighty strokes, and a great breach was made, through which the Greeks poured into the stately halls of the Trojan king. Then there was a scene of wild confusion and terror.

The house is filled with loud laments and cries
And shrieks of women rend the vaulted skies.
DRYDEN, AEneid BOOK II.

The aged king when he saw that the enemy was beneath his roof, put on his armor "long disused," and was about to rush forth to meet the foe, but Hec'u-ba, his queen, persuaded him to take refuge with her in a court of the palace in which were placed the altars of their gods. Here he was shortly afterwards cruelly slain by Pyrrhus.

Thus Priam fell, and shared one common fate
With Troy in ashes, and his ruined state;
He, who the scepter of all Asia swayed,
Whom monarchs like domestic slaves obeyed.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.

There being now no hope to save the city, the thoughts of AEneas turned to his own home where he had left his father Anchises, his wife Cre-u'sa (daughter of King Priam) and his son Iulus (also named As-ca'ni-us). Making his way thither with the purpose of providing for their safety, he espied Helen, the "common scourge of Greece and Troy," sitting in the porch of the temple of the goddess Ves'ta. Enraged at the sight of the woman who had been the cause of so many woes to his country, AEneas was about to slay her on the spot, but at that moment his mother Venus appeared to him in the midst of a bright light.

Great in her charms, as when on gods above
She looks, and breathes herself into their love.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.

Taking the hero by the hand as he was in the act of raising his sword to strike Helen, the goddess thus rebuked him: "What is it that excites your anger now, my son? Where is your regard for me? Have you forgotten your father Anchises and your wife and little son? They would have been killed by the Greeks if I had not cared for them and saved them. It is not Helen or Paris that has laid low this great city of Troy, but the wrath of the gods. See now, for I will take away the mist that covers your mortal eyes; see how Neptune with his trident is overthrowing the walls and rooting up the city from its foundations; and how Juno stands with spear and shield in the Scae'an Gate, and calls fresh hosts from the ships; and how Pallas sits on the height with the storm-cloud about her; and how Father Jupiter himself stirs up the enemy against Troy. Fly, therefore, my son. I myself will guard you till you stand before your father's door."

The goddess then disappeared and AEneas quickly proceeded to obey her command. Hastening home he resolved to take his aged father to a place of safety in the hills beyond the city, but the old man refused to go. "You, who are young and strong," said he, "may go, but I shall remain here, for if it had been the will of the gods that I should live, they would have preserved my home."

"Now leave me: be your farewell said
To this my corpse, and count me dead."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II

Nor could all the entreaties of his son and wife move him from his resolution. Then AEneas, in grief and despair, was about to rush back to the battle, which still raged in the city, preferring to die rather than to go and leave his father behind. But at this moment a bright flame as if of fire was seen to play around the head of the boy Iulus, and send forth beams of light. Alarmed as well as surprised at the spectacle, AEneas was about to extinguish the flames by water, when Anchises cried out that it was a sign from heaven that he should accompany his family in their flight from the city.

This pretty story, it is said, was meant by Vergil as a compliment to Augustus, the idea intended to be conveyed being that the seal of sovereign power was thus early set upon the founder of the great house of Julius.

[Illustration: AEneas carrying his father out of Troy. (Drawn by
Varian.)]

The gods seeming thus to ordain the immediate departure of the hero and his family, they all speedily set forth, AEneas carrying his father on his shoulders, while Iulus walked by his side, and Creusa followed at some distance. They had arranged to meet at a ruined temple outside the city, where they were to be joined by their servants, but when they reached the place, it was discovered that Creusa had disappeared. Great was the grief of Aeneas. In agony he hastened back to the city in search of his wife. Coming to his father's palace, he found it already in flames. Then he hurried on through the streets, in his distress calling aloud the name of Creusa. Suddenly her figure started up before him, larger than when in life, for it was her spirit he saw. Appalled at the sight, Aeneas stood in silence gazing at the apparition while it thus spoke:

"Beloved husband, why do you give way to grief? What has happened is by the decree of heaven. It was not the will of the gods that I should accompany you. You have a long journey to make, and a wide extent of sea to cross, before you reach the shores of Hes-pe'ri-a, where the Ti'ber flows in gentle course through the rich fields of a warlike race. There prosperity awaits you, and you shall take to yourself a wife of a royal line. Weep not for me. The mother of the gods keeps me in this land to serve her. And now farewell, and fail not to love and watch over our son."

Then the form of Creusa melted into air, and the sorrowing husband returned to the place where his father and son awaited him. There he found a number of his fellow-citizens prepared to follow him into exile. They first took refuge in the forests of Mount I'da, not far from the ruined city. In this place they spent the winter, and they built a fleet of ships at An-tan'dros, a coast town at the foot of the mountain.

"Near old Antandros, and at Ida's foot,
The timber of the sacred groves we cut,
And build our fleet-uncertain yet to find
What place the gods for our repose assigned."
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.

It is remarkable that Vergil does not tell how Creusa came by her death. Apparently we are left to infer that she was killed by the Greeks.