The Aeneid of Virgil

The poem traces a Trojan hero’s flight from a ruined city through Mediterranean voyages and supernatural encounters toward a destined settlement in Italy. It recounts the city's sack, the hero's love and loss in a foreign queen's court, a descent into the underworld to learn his people's future, and final battles on Italian soil that secure a new homeland. Throughout, gods and omens shape events while the protagonist negotiates personal desire and public obligation, and the verse alternates narrative action, speeches, and vivid set-pieces to explore duty, destiny, piety, and the costs of founding a civilization.