The Aeneid Notes | Objects/Places

Carthage: Juno's favorite city. Located on the tip of North Africa in modern Tunisia. the Trojans are swept here by a storm. This is also the city with which Rome struggled in three wars.

Trojans: Also called Dardanians or Teucrians, these are the people who inhabited Troy before it fell.

Sicily: An island off the cost of southern Italy. The Trojans stop here twice in their journey: once to bury Anchises; and then again to have games in honor of the anniversary of his death. Sicily was also the sight of the beginning of struggles between Rome and Carthage in the Punic wars.

Troy: City in Asia Minor besieged and sacked by Greek armies for the stealing of Helen. Aeneas flees from his home city.

Caesars: The rulers of Imperial Rome. In this epic there are many implied as well as explicit references to these future rulers.

Tenedos: An island located south of Troy. This is where the Greek fleet hides when the Trojan horse is left outside the gates of Troy. This is also where the twin snakes come from that eat Laocoon.

gods (household) penates: Little figurines or statues depicting patron gods of the families and ancestors. Each Roman family had a set. Aeneas is commanded to carry these with him to Italy. On Crete they come to life and tell Aeneas to leave.

Italy: Aeneas' fated destination.

Thrace: A portion of land on the southeast edge of Europe near Asia Minor.

Crete: An island at the south end of the Aegean. Aeneas came here with his people and tried to found a city. This is also mythical home of King Minos and is the actual site of what is called the Minoan civilization.

Harpies: Flying women beasts who take the Trojans food and are slain. This action prompts the prophesy of their leader.

Buthrotum: City over which Trojan Helenus rules, which was once part of Pyrrhus' dominion. The Trojans stop here and receive a lengthy prophecy.

Scylla: Six-headed beast positioned in a cave near the straits of Sicily

Charybdis: Whirlpool opposite Scylla.

Cumae: Volcanic caves near modern day Naples where Aeneas finds the Sibyl and descends to the underworld.

Cyclops: One-eyed beasts who inhabit the island of Etna.

Rome: City founded ten miles upriver on the Tiber. This city is fated to be founded by descendants of Aeneas Romulus. It grows and becomes an enormous empire. In a way, this epic is a testament to the greatness of this city.

Rumor: A personified beast with many mouths and eyes that goes around spreading news false and real.

Elysian Fields: The Roman's closest version of heaven. The Elysian Fields were a place in the underworld were virtuous people could live out eternity in happiness.