In his dreams Aeneas, troubled at the prospect of war now that his enemy, Juno, has intervened to turn an initially peaceful relationship with the Latins sour, is visited and advised by Father Tiber. We have heard the river’s prophecy of the white sow before here in Book 3 of the Aeneid from Helenus, the Trojan prince who has won himself a new kingdom among Greeks.
The river says that Aeneas is bringing Troy and its gods “back” to Italy because in Virgil’s mythology Dardanus, the founder of Troy, was originally an Italian.
See the illustrated blog post here.
To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.
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