Wordsworth Classics: The Aeneid

This is a basic text element.

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.

Hailed by T.S. Eliot as the classic of all Europe, Virgil's Aeneid has enjoyed a unique and enduring influence on European literature, art and politics for the past two thousand years. The Aeneid is Virgil's Masterpiece. His epic poem recounts the story of Rome's legendary origins from the ashes of Troy and proclaims her destiny of world dominion. This optimistic vision is accompanied by an undertow of sadness at the price that must be paid in human suffering to secure Rome's future greatness. The tension between the public voice of celebration and the tragic private voice is given full expression both in the doomed love of Dido and Aeneas, and in the fateful clash between the Trojan leader and the Italian hero, Turnus. Hailed by T.S. Eliot as the classic of all Europe, Virgil's Aeneid has enjoyed a unique and enduring influence on European literature, art and politics for the past two thousand years.

This is a basic text element.