In today’s post Aeneas comes to Tartarus, the penitentiary of Hades, where sinners and blasphemers receive their deserts. See the illustrated blog post here; hear the passage in Latin and follow in English here.
Leaving Tartarus behind in his underworld journey, Aeneas arrives at the home of the blessed, the Elysian Fields. He will see many illustrious warriors there: the ones in the illustration are King Leonidas and the Spartans before the battle of Thermopylae, as imagined by Jacques-Louis David.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Aeneas succeeds in rescuing his son and father, but cannot save his wife, Creusa. Hear the story in Latin and follow in English here.
Having persuaded Charon the ferryman to take him across the river Styx, Aeneas is distressed to find the spirit of his former lover Dido, the Queen of Carthage, in the Fields of Mourning, the home of those who in life have suffered unhappy love. Hear the Latin and follow in English 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.
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.