This selection introduces us to beasts and monsters, starting gently with the wolf that Horace met one day. He was clearly frightened, but with the benefit of nature documentaries we know that the wolf was probably more afraid of him.
A wise Trojan priest pays a terrible price for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse.
Troy is doomed to fall at the fateful moment when the horse enters the city.
On their wanderings, Aeneas and his band encounter a flock of foul flying creatures.
On his journey to the underworld Aeneas sees Tisiphone, tormenter of the damned in Tartarus.
The underworld again: this time the poet is Horace, and the visitor the God Bacchus. Fortunatey he is good with dogs, as he must pass the kennel of the fearsome three-headed guardian, Cerberus.
In the illustration, the sea-nymph Thetis is using her shape-changing gift to try to escape the hero Peleus: they became the parents of Achilles.
See the index to Latin selections on PantheonPoets.com here.
