Aeneas and Aeneid

Aeneas is a Trojan hero whom Roman tradition made an ancestor of the future Romans. In Virgil's Aeneid his journey from ruined Troy to Italy turns the Greek Trojan myth into a Roman story of origins.

Myth and Augustan politics

The Aeneid connects the hero's personal fate with the fate of Rome, the Julian family, wars in Italy and the idea of destiny. It is therefore not only an epic of travel, but also a text about the cost of founding a state.

Additional sources and visual checks

Aeneas and the Aeneid matter as a bridge between the Trojan cycle, Roman historical memory and Augustan ideology. The article now separates Greek mythic material from Virgil's Roman literary programme more clearly.

For source checks: - Perseus Digital Library - LIMC online - Arachne database, German Archaeological Institute

Related topics

• Trojan War
• Iliad
• Roman Gods
• Ancient Rome

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