Teaching Virgil's Aeneid in translation

Virgil's Aeneid tells how Aeneas, a survivor of Troy, carried his people and his gods to Italy, where Rome would one day rise. Written under Augustus, it answers Homer, looks forward to Rome's history and leaves its readers with hard questions about duty and its cost. This guide sets out a way to teach it in English translation.

Why read the Aeneid

The Aeneid is the great poem of Rome and one of the poems most read by later writers. Dante chose Virgil as his guide through hell; Milton and many others learned from him. For students who have read Homer, it shows a poet taking the Iliad and the Odyssey and turning them to new purposes. For students learning Latin, it is where the language reaches one of its heights.

Two halves

The poem has twelve books, and they fall into two halves. Books 1–6 are Odyssean: wandering, storms, a city that welcomes the exiles, a love that ends badly, and a journey to the underworld. Books 7–12 are Iliadic: war in Italy between the Trojans and the Latins and their allies. Pointing this out early gives students a map of the whole.

A plan in six sections

The Aeneid rooms cover two books each:

Books 1–2: the storm, the welcome at Carthage and Aeneas' story of the fall of Troy.
Books 3–4: the years of wandering, and Dido.
Books 5–6: the funeral games for Anchises and the journey to the underworld.
Books 7–8: Juno stirs up war in Italy; Aeneas visits Evander and receives his shield.
Books 9–10: the siege of the Trojan camp, Nisus and Euryalus, and the death of Pallas.
Books 11–12: Camilla, and the final duel between Aeneas and Turnus.

Two books is a comfortable week or fortnight of reading, and each section's escape room gives a check before moving on.

Choosing a translation

John Dryden's translation is out of copyright and magnificent, but its couplets are hard going for most students today. Modern versions by Robert Fitzgerald, Robert Fagles, Sarah Ruden and Shadi Bartsch are widely taught; Ruden and Bartsch keep close to Virgil's line count. Choose one your class can read aloud comfortably. The rooms ask about people, places and events, not a translator's wording, so they work with any translation.

Virgil and Homer side by side

Students who have read Homer will enjoy noticing what Virgil borrows and how he changes it. Aeneas tells the story of his wanderings at a banquet, as Odysseus does among the Phaeacians; he visits the underworld; he receives a shield made by a god, as Achilles does. But Virgil's hero is moving towards a future he will not live to see, rather than home to a past he has lost. Ask students to compare one pair of scenes closely, such as the two shields or the two visits to the dead, and say what the differences show about each poem.

Teaching Book 4

The story of Dido is the part of the Aeneid most students remember, and it repays a careful lesson of its own. Ask students who is responsible for what happens: Aeneas, Dido, the gods who bring them together, or the destiny that calls Aeneas to Italy. Let them argue from the text, and then show them how Dido returns in Book 6. The episode raises the poem's central question in its sharpest form: what does Aeneas' mission cost, and who pays for it?

Themes to return to

Aeneas is defined by pietas, duty to the gods, to his family and to his people's future, and the poem asks again and again what that duty costs him and others: Dido, Turnus, the young men who die in the war. The ending, sudden and violent, is still argued over. Ask students to judge Aeneas' last act, and to say whether the poem celebrates Rome, mourns for it, or does both.

Virgil or Vergil, and reading in Latin

Both spellings are used; the translation rooms on this site say Virgil, and the AP® Latin course says Vergil. Students reading the poem in Latin will find AP® Latin escape rooms on each episode of the required readings, built from the passages' own vocabulary. Younger students can meet Aeneas first in the legends of early Rome, and the guide to teaching Homer covers the poems Virgil was answering. Every room has free taster locks that anyone can try with a class, with no sign-up. Members get all seven locks of every room and a private class link to share.

Rooms to try

The Burning City: escape room on The Aeneid, Books 1–2

The Aeneid · Books 1–2The Burning CityFree taster

Love and Exile: escape room on The Aeneid, Books 3–4

The Aeneid · Books 3–4Love and ExileFree taster

Games and Ghosts: escape room on The Aeneid, Books 5–6

The Aeneid · Books 5–6Games and GhostsFree taster

The Last Duel: escape room on The Aeneid, Books 11–12

The Aeneid · Books 11–12The Last DuelFree taster

The Exiles of Troy: escape room on Legends of Early Rome, Aeneas Comes to Italy

Legends of Early Rome · Aeneas Comes to ItalyThe Exiles of TroyFree taster

Questions

What age should students read the Aeneid?

In translation, from about grade 7 or 8 for confident readers, though it is most often read in high school, ideally after the Odyssey and the Iliad.

Which translation of the Aeneid is best for students?

Any that your class reads comfortably. Fitzgerald, Fagles, Ruden and Bartsch are widely taught; Dryden's is free to read but harder going. The escape rooms work with all of them.

Is there anything for students reading the Aeneid in Latin?

Yes. The AP® Latin rooms cover each episode of the required Aeneid readings, built from each passage's own vocabulary.

More guides

AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks owned by the College Board, which is not affiliated with Locked Lessons and does not endorse it or its escape rooms.

Translators and editions are named only to show that the rooms work with any of them; Locked Lessons is not affiliated with them or their publishers.