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It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics.Īlso in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res (into the middle of things), with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. He then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme ( Arma virumque cano ., "Of arms and the man I sing .") and an invocation to the Muse, falling some seven lines after the poem's inception ( Musa, mihi causas memora ., "O Muse, recount to me the causes ."). Journey to Italy (books 1–6) Edit Theme Edit This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. These two-halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odyssey 's wandering theme and the Iliad 's warfare themes. The Aeneid can be divided into halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy) and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium). See also: Characters in the Aeneid and Parallels between the Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey 1.2.6 Book 12: Final battle and duel of Aeneas and Turnus.
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1.2.5 Book 11: Armistice and battle with Camilla.1.2.3 Book 9: Turnus' siege of Trojan camp.1.2.2 Book 8: Visit to Pallanteum, site of future Rome.1.2.1 Book 7: Arrival in Latium and outbreak of war.1.1.3 Book 2: Trojan Horse and sack of Troy.This is just a little bit of what was lost-the depth of everything, every placement and choice of every word, which is totally lost in English. There must be some significance to this other than the fact that he had to fit it in the meter I'm not sure what it is but it's certainly there. For example, Vergil uses two different words for "shore:" oris and littora. There are also differences in translation. The placement of venit (came) is also interesting and has some depth to it. For example, the Troiae in line 1 is usually translated as "came from the shores of Troy" could, because of the word's placement between clauses, mean "the man of Troy"-Aeneas. Obviously this order would not work in English, but there are reasons (other than fitting into the meter) why Vergil chose that order. To Italy, by fate exiled, and Lavinian came shores Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit / littora I'll give you a quick example by glossing the first couple lines:Īrma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab orisĪrms and man I sing, of Troy who first from shores For example, while in English you could only say "he had a large basket of apples," in Latin you could say " large he had of apples basket." This could emphasize not only the immense size of the basket (the space between large and basket) but also the fact that the apples are inside the basket. In addition, many poetic figures of speech in Latin are made possible by fluid word order, which is not available in English. Even translating it into an English meter is very hard, as well as stupid. This isn't even a thing in English, so a translation in meter is impossible. Firstly, meter in Latin is not based on stress but on long and short syllables. They both have multiple layers of depth and meaning, but in very different ways. As I said in my comment above, Latin and English poetry are very different.