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Reading schedule · Grades 7–12

The Aeneid in 6 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A six-week plan for reading Virgil's Aeneid in translation, two books a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 7–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

Two books a week gives time to read slowly, to talk and to write, with the escape room at the end of each week. Older students who want a faster pace can take two sections a week and finish the poem in three weeks.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on The Aeneid

Week 1: Books 1–2

Read: Books 1–2

Juno, hating the Trojans, raises a storm that drives Aeneas' ships to Africa, where Queen Dido welcomes them to her new city of Carthage. At her banquet Aeneas tells the story of the wooden horse and the last night of Troy, and of how he escaped with his father and his son.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Juno hate the Trojans so much?
2. What does Aeneas' account of Troy's fall show about his sense of duty?
3. How is Dido presented when we first meet her?

Escape room: The Burning City (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-1-2/)

Week 2: Books 3–4

Read: Books 3–4

Aeneas goes on with the story of his wanderings: the Harpies, the meeting with Andromache, the Cyclops and the death of his father Anchises. Dido falls in love with Aeneas, but the gods remind him of his destiny in Italy; he leaves Carthage, and Dido takes her own life.

Discussion questions

1. Why do the Trojans keep stopping in the wrong places?
2. Is Aeneas right to leave Dido?
3. How does Virgil make us sympathise with Dido?

Escape room: Love and Exile (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-3-4/)

Week 3: Books 5–6

Read: Books 5–6

In Sicily the Trojans hold funeral games for Anchises, and some of the women, stirred up by Juno, set fire to the ships. The helmsman Palinurus is lost overboard, and in Italy Aeneas goes down with the Sibyl into the underworld, where he meets his father and sees the future heroes of Rome.

Discussion questions

1. What do the funeral games show about Aeneas as a leader?
2. Whom does Aeneas meet in the underworld, and what do these meetings mean to him?
3. How does the vision of future Rome change Aeneas' mission?

Escape room: Games and Ghosts (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-5-6/)

Week 4: Books 7–8

Read: Books 7–8

The Trojans land in Latium, and King Latinus offers his daughter Lavinia to Aeneas. Juno sends the Fury Allecto to stir up Queen Amata and the warrior Turnus, and war breaks out; Aeneas seeks help from King Evander on the site of future Rome, and Vulcan makes him armour and a shield showing Rome's history.

Discussion questions

1. How does Allecto turn peace into war?
2. What does Evander's simple settlement show about Rome's beginnings?
3. What do the scenes on the shield tell the reader that Aeneas himself cannot know?

Escape room: The Fury Wakes (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-7-8/)

Week 5: Books 9–10

Read: Books 9–10

While Aeneas is away, Turnus attacks the Trojan camp; the friends Nisus and Euryalus make a night raid and are killed, and Turnus, trapped inside the walls, escapes. The gods hold a council, Aeneas returns, Turnus kills Evander's son Pallas, and Aeneas kills Mezentius and his son Lausus.

Discussion questions

1. What does the story of Nisus and Euryalus say about courage and friendship?
2. How does Turnus treat Pallas after killing him, and why does it matter?
3. How does Aeneas behave in battle after Pallas dies?

Escape room: The Camp Besieged (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-9-10/)

Week 6: Books 11–12

Read: Books 11–12

Aeneas sends Pallas's body home to Evander, and the Latins argue in council, where Drances attacks Turnus. The warrior Camilla is killed, a treaty to settle the war by single combat is broken, Turnus's sister Juturna tries to save him, and Aeneas and Turnus fight the final duel.

Discussion questions

1. How should we judge Aeneas' final act?
2. What part does Camilla play in the war?
3. Why do you think the poem ends so suddenly?

Escape room: The Last Duel (lockedlessons.com/rooms/aeneid-books-11-12/)

Nothing in this schedule is quoted from any translation, so it can sit beside whichever one your class reads.