Aeneid

Virgil opens with a traditional invocation to the Muse to help him tell his story, which will center on warfare and a certain unnamed hero. This man, a refugee from the city of Troy, will make a long voyage over sea and land to Italy, where he will found the Roman nation (1-7).

His journey will not be easy. Juno, the queen of the gods, is already predisposed to dislike any Trojan; she had taken the side of their opponents in the Trojan War, the Greeks, due to Trojan slights against her (e.g., the rape of Ganymede, the Judgment of Paris). Worst of all, Juno has now heard that the descendants of these Trojan refugees, the Romans, will eventually bring down her favorite city Carthage (12-22). She knows this fate is inevitable, but until then, she will do her best to frustrate the Trojans. Her first salvo is to go to the island of Aeolia, where she convinces the storm god Aeolus to release the winds against the Trojan fleet (39-91).

When the storm hits the Trojans, we meet the hero of the story, Aeneas. As the winds destroy his ships, he wishes he could have died in the war with great Trojan heroes like his cousin Hector (94-101).