Thoughts on Book II of Vergil’s Aeneid – the Trojan Horse, the Sack of Troy and the Flight of Aeneas and His Family
Fresco depicting the Flight of Aeneas from Troy by Girolamo Genga, painted between 1507 and 1510, at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena.
In this Latin prose composition piece, I talk about my doctoral thesis writing, starting to read Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian and, most importantly, my response to Book II of Vergil’s Aeneid.
In this Book, Aeneas narrates to a captivated audience of queen Dido and the Carthaginians the events leading up to the sack of Troy, which he had witnessed himself. He speaks about the theft of the Palladium, a monumental statue of Athena/Minerva by the Greeks, a statue that had stood on the city’s citadel, protecting Troy from ever being taken by force, and which was followed by some unsettling portents. The hero recalls the wiles of a Greek soldier who was left as bait for the Trojans after most of the Greek army had withdrawn and who convinced them to drag the great wooden horse inside their walls. Then there is the death of Laocoon by two enormous serpents, the vision of Hector, which Aeneas receives, bidding him to flee, and his witnessing of the fall of his city and the killing of its king, Priam. Finally, Aeneas recalls how he fled the burning city with his father Anchises and the statuettes of the household gods on his back, his son Ascanius by his side and his wife Creusa following behind.
Aeneidos Liber II
Praeteritis septimanis longam partem disputationis meum scripsi, qui sectionem de adaptationis Anubis in religio Graeca aetiabus Hellenismi et Romani imperii est. Etiam multos amicos novos obvenivi et artificiosa colloquia habebam. Saepe de novae taeniolae famosam et delectam mei Odusseam accomodens sententias rogor. Legere cunctas carmines paene perfeci Odusseae et commentarios Hadriani imperatori initium facebam – fabulam auctoris Gallicae, Margarita Yourcenar, est, non veritas memorias imperatori sed bene investigationem narrationem vitae sui recento tempo scribitus est. Alium rem, quo facebam, secundum librem Aeneidae Vergili legere est.
Poema haec verisimiliter paullulum narrationi Odussea, ubi heros Phaeacis experentias itere eo narrat, cum Aeneas historiam periculosum et lucidam de eversis Troiae et fugae sui et suorum Didoni et collectioni Poenarum palatio dicit.
Initium ab tempo fecit, ubi ingentem et peregrinum equum ligneum Troiani aspicunt et campum, ubi tentoria militarum Graecorum olim stetiverunt, desertum esse. Complures vigiles solitarium militem Graecum cepiverunt, quem elaboratam fabulam Priamo et aliis Troianibus narravit, quomodo bello cum cognato suo Palamedo adveniverat et alios Graecos displicuit postquam Palamedes per Graecos damnatus est contra eo Ulixe eloqua. Miles etiam de Palladi rapta per Ulixem et dubis auspicis, qui tum cucurriverunt, includens aspectos terribilos Minervae, dicit. Ita ingeniose dicit, ut Troiani eum miserentur et putant, ut per Graecos sacrificatus esset deam propitiare, si non abscondaverat. Eum poscunt quid equum ligneum est et respondit ut donum deae est et si id destrant Troiam cadet sed si super arce id ponunt imperium Asiae Europam attinget.
Sacerdos Laocoon, quis Troianos contra dona Graecorum monebat sed non creditur sicut Cassandram, ubi modum sacrificium Neptuni facebat, per duo serpentes horribiles super arce consumuntur.
Ergo, sicut Aenean narrat, ligneus equus cum intra se milites in Troia trahitur, iuvenes et puellas laete cantens. Media hac nocte, Aeneas somnium lucidum Hectore cum multos cicatricis et sanguinolente apparea habebat idem tempo, ubi Graecos auxilio rudenis saliunt ab equo. Vergilius hoc loco historiam iucundum offerat, propter rem ut sacuum Troiae ab conspecto Troianorum referatur. Socius Aeneae ad ianuam eius cum nepotem suem parvum et manibus sacram auffugit, de eventis certiorem ei faciens, Aenean irruere viis armatum excitans.
Animosus heros et alii Troiani pro patria sui sic vehementer pugnabant, ut unum Graecum milem quidem congrediunt, postquam comprehendit ut hostes et non amici sunt, ab se fugit et plures inimicos equo ligno regrediuntur. Tamen Aeneas palatium Priami oppugnari vidit, quomodo defensores super obsessoribus tegulas et etiam partes tecti iactant, dum oppugnatores limen et portas diffindere probant, donec intra id ruunt. Dum primo dolum et timiditam Graecorum arguit Vergilius, nunc crudelitam sese accusat. Id conspicuus est ut comprehensionem Troiae per sententias victorum dicit. Noster heros arbitrem rationis per quis Priamum, qui primo armaturam induit, tam se super ara ponere uxore persuadetur sed ubi cum Pyrrho, filio Achillis, de occido nati congredit ferro cadit fit.
Solum postquam amicos eius interfecti sunt et per incendia et clamores sacci matrem eius, pulchram Venerem, ei manifesta monere fiebat, Aeneas de vulnerabilite patris Anchisis, uxoris Creusae et parvi nati Iuli vel Ascani meminit. Militem esse, mortem bello quam capturam vivam per hostes praeferit et probabiliter sciet, ut familiam sui per inimicos non bene tractabuntur sed alterum parte esse cum suos periculo horribilo debet. Posterus interpolatio in haec verba scriptoris est, qui memoriam revocans etiamsi ab origine non in haec verba est, ubi heros Helenam vidit, dum in aede Vestae se occultat, Graecorumque Troianorumque iram timens, et cogitat caederene linquere eam an, post ad ruinam urbem et populum duxit.
Cum domo Aenean redit, Anchises fugere non vult, quando aetate provectus est et iterem longum duritissimum sit, dum etiam patriae amator esse, qui cum maiestate regia et fortuna urbi contigue vitam sui contexuit. Inter lamentatia pro familia et sese servorum, Creusa maritum sui non relinquere eos petit. Subito, lux divina super caputem Iuli videtur, viam ad solidum cupressum et antiquum templum Cereri ostendens. A hoc portendo persuadentur, Aeneas tergum sui ascendere, statuas Penatibus, deorum domi, tendens, permittit et palmam delecti filii prehendit, dum Creusam sequitur. Tragice cara uxor ab Graecis casum occurrit et maritum sui per Troiam postero miserite vagatur, quoad umbram dominae ei manifestam fit, Hesperiam (Italiam) et futuram nati sui conere eum hortat.
See also my other written pieces in Latin and Ancient Greek here:
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