The plan for a duel between Aeneas and Turnus has been foiled yet again – worse, Aeneas has been wounded by a stray arrow, and, as he leaves the field, Turnus goes on yet another rampage, breaking the oaths that King Latinus has sworn. Hear Virgil’s vivid Latin and follow in English here.
As the long-delayed duel between Aeneas and Turnus seems to be about to take place, Aeneas swears to comply with the result if he loses and to behave generously and justly if he wins. Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
As the Aeneid slowly approaches its climax, a new combatant enters the strife between Aeneas’s Trojans and the Latins, led by Turnus. She is Camilla, a powerful huntress and warrior beloved of Diana, the Goddess of the chase: sadly, she is foredoomed to die in the battle. Today’s extract tells of the strange circumstances under which her father dedicated her to the Goddess as a baby. Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
As the body of Prince Pallas is returned to his father, Aeneas performs the due rites for his soldiers who have fallen in the battle against Turnus and the Latins. Hear the story in Virgil’s original Latin and follow in John Dryden’s classic English translation here.
As Book 11 of the Aeneid begins, Aeneas makes preparations to bury the dead and mourn the fallen Prince Pallas, son of his ally, King Evander. Hear Virgil’s original Latin and follow in John Dryden’s classic English translation here.
Hear Pantheon Poets’ selection of six “carpe diem” poems, mainly by Horace, in Latin and follow them in English here.
Horace’s beautiful poem advises Dellius to make the best of life while it lasts.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The Etruscan Lausus has died at Aeneas’s hands rescuing his wounded father, Mezentius, who rides back into the fray on his horse, Rhaebus, to join his son in death.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
Turnus follows a phantom Aeneas away from danger, while the real Aeneas, roused by the death of his friend Pallas, is seeking him on the battlefield.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
In the illustration by Franςois Boucher, Venus spirits Paris away in a mist to save him from Helen’s husband, King Menelaus.