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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Odysseus (seen here on a later visit to the underworld) and his companions are released from the wooden horse within the walls of Troy and the scene is set for the fall of the city. Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
After Dido’s banquet in the royal palace of Carthage, Aeneas has agreed to her request to tell the story of the fall of Troy and the years of his wanderings with his Trojan comrades-in-arms. He has just embarked on the episode of the Trojan horse, and is recalling how King Priam, and the Trojans were ticked into bringing it into the city by Sinon, who claims to hate the Greeks and narrowly to have escaped death at their hands as a human sacrifice. In fact, he is a Greek agent, and a very skilful one.
The illustration is a first-century CE wall painting from Pompeii, showing the Trojans bringing the horse into their city.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.