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AP® Latin passage guide · Vergil, Aeneid 1.88–107, 496–512
Vergil, Aeneid 1.88–107 and 496–512: The Storm and Dido
What happens
Juno has bribed Aeolus to release the winds. Clouds snatch the daylight, the sky thunders, and Aeneas' limbs go slack with cold. He groans and wishes he had died at Troy, beneath its walls, like those three and four times blessed men who fell before their fathers' eyes. The north wind strikes the sail, the oars break, a mountain of water crashes down, and ships are spun round or left stranded on sandbanks.
In the second section, Aeneas, safe in Carthage, has been gazing at the scenes of the Trojan War on Juno's temple. Queen Dido arrives, compared to Diana leading her dancers on the banks of the Eurotas or the ridges of Cynthus. She takes her seat to give laws and justice. Suddenly Aeneas sees his lost companions Antheus, Sergestus and Cloanthus approaching with a crowd of Trojans.
Grammar to look for
- Present participles: Tālia iactantī strīdēns Aquilōne procella, “as he cries out such words, a squall shrieking from the north”
- Perfect participles: saepta armīs soliōque altē subnixa resēdit, “surrounded by arms and raised high on her throne, she took her seat”
- Future participle: rēgnīsque futūrīs, “and her future kingdom”
- Relative clause with the subjunctive of a wish fulfilled: quīs ante ōra patrum Troiae sub moenibus altīs contigit oppetere, “who had the luck to die before their fathers' eyes beneath the high walls of Troy”
Style
- Apostrophe and makarismos: Ō terque quaterque beātī. Aeneas' first words: a wish to have died at Troy.
- Simile: Quālis in Eurōtae rīpās aut per iuga Cynthī exercet Dīāna chorōs. Dido as Diana: beautiful, commanding, surrounded by her people.
- Hyperbole: īnsequitur cumulō praeruptus aquae mōns. A sheer mountain of water.
- Alliteration and sound effects: strīdēns Aquilōne procella. The harsh sounds of the storm.
Themes to think about
- Aeneas' despair and humanity at his first appearance
- Nature and the gods: the storm as Juno's weapon
- Dido as ruler before she is lover
- Similes and what they foreshadow
Practise this passage
The Storm and the Queen is a self-grading escape room built from this passage's own vocabulary, with a grammar lock on present, perfect and future participles. It takes about one lesson.
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More passage guides
- Vergil, Aeneid 1.1–33: The Proem and Juno's Anger
- Vergil, Aeneid 2.40–56 and 201–249: Laocoön and the Wooden Horse
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.74–89 and 165–197: Dido's Love, the Cave and Fama
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.305–361: Dido and Aeneas Quarrel
- Vergil, Aeneid 6.450–476, 788–800 and 847–853: Dido's Shade and Rome's Mission
- Vergil, Aeneid 7.45–58 and 783–817: Latinus, Turnus and Camilla
- Vergil, Aeneid 11.532–594: Diana's Story of Camilla
- Vergil, Aeneid 12.791–828 and 919–952: Juno's Reconciliation and the Death of Turnus
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