Horace usually avoids the great traditional themes and stories of epic poetry, but here he uses the new lyric style that he has developed from Greek predecessors to create an innovative poem about the Trojan war.
In a fresco from Pompeii, Helen boards a ship for Troy.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Roman boxers fought with gloves designed to inflict the maximum damage on one another: the cestus, heavy leather strapping studded with lead around knuckles and forearms. In the games that Aeneas holds in Book 5 of the Aeneid in memory of his father, Anchises, Entellus, a great athlete but now old and slow, takes on Dares, the fast and nimble young champion.
The illustration shows the aftermath of the bout in a Roman mosaic. Learn the significance of the bull, and hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English, here.
Aeneas has spotted Helen of Troy, whose elopement with Paris caused the war and the destruction of Troy, lying low in the burning ruins. He has an angry impulse to kill her, but now his divine mother, Venus, intervenes to tell him that the city has fallen by the will of the Gods and that he must go home and save his family.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
As Troy falls about her, and in fear for her life from both Greeks and Trojans, Helen takes refuge at the altars, where she is seen by Aeneas, newly come from the lost battle for King Priam’s palace.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
Fighting his way to the heart of the palace, Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, finds King Priam and his wife and daughters defenceless. Hear the denouement in Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
In Virgil’s Aeneid, the Greek invaders fight their way to the very threshold of Priam’s palace, as Aeneas joins the defenders in an attempt to stem the tide. The Greek assault is led by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.
Hear Virgil’s original Latin and follow in English here.
Aeneas and his men have disguised themselves in Greek armour, but now the trick backfires disastrously as they come under fire from their own side and are prevented from rescuing the prophetess Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, from the enemy. In the illustration, a Roman wall-painting, Cassandra is torn from Minerva’s shrine while, in the background, Helen of Troy is harshly reunited with her husband Menelaus.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
Fighting back against the Greeks who have penetrated the city with the help of the Trojan horse, Aeneas and his men have initial success, but take a decision that will cost them dearly.
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With the Greeks in the city, Aeneas gathers a desperate band of defenders as the final battle for Troy begins to unfold.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.