Virgil · 19 BCE · sea

Virgil's Latin epic, composed around 19 BC. As Troy falls, the hero Aeneas escapes with his father, his son, and the household gods, and is driven across the Mediterranean in search of the promised land where he is fated to found the Roman race, harried by the wrath of Juno, detained by love at Carthage, and led down at last into the underworld itself.

1. 1
   Troy

   As Troy burns, Aeneas escapes with his father Anchises, his young son, and the gods of his ruined city.

2. 2
   Antandros

   Under Mount Ida, where the survivors cut timber from the sacred groves and build a fleet through the winter - uncertain, Aeneas says, where the fates are carrying them or where they will be allowed to rest.

3. 3
   Ainos

   Thrace, and the first city he founds - Aeneadae, named for himself, on the curving bay. Then he pulls at a myrtle to dress an altar and it bleeds, and the voice of murdered Polydorus tells him to leave this shore.

4. 4
   Delos

   At the oracle of Apollo on Delos, he is told to seek out the ancient mother of his people.

5. 5
   Crete

   A false start on Crete, where plague and dark omens drive the exiles onward.

6. 6
   Buthrotum

   In Epirus he finds fellow Trojan exiles, and Helenus foretells the long road still ahead.

7. 7
   Drepanum

   Rounding Sicily, where his old father Anchises dies and is buried.

8. 8
   Carthage

   A storm casts them onto the shores of Carthage, where Queen Dido falls in love with Aeneas; when duty forces him to sail on, she takes her own life.

9. 9
   Cumae

   At Cumae the Sibyl leads him down into the underworld, to meet his father's shade and glimpse the glory of Rome to come.

10. 10
    The Tiber

    At last he reaches Latium, at the mouth of the Tiber, where the Roman race will be born.