For centuries the Aeneid was an enormously popular source of ideas for other writers and artists. The first medieval romance was an adaptation of the Aeneid. Hundreds or thousands of paintings have been based on scenes and episodes from the poem. The Aeneid was the basis for many operas; the two most famous being Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Berlioz's Les Troyens.

The Aeneid provides a story outline and a collection of characters and incidents that have become an integral part of popular culture. We see the dilemma of Aeneas and Dido recreated over and over in novels, movies, and on television. In novels and movies of the American westward expansion and in such "revenge" films as Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and the "Deathwish" series starring Charles Bronson, audiences see a quiet hero roused to action when someone young and vulnerable is killed, much as Aeneas is...