The voyage of Aeneas, the Trojan prince and hero of The Aeneid, belongs to Rome’s foundational myth-making rather than historical record. Composed by Virgil between 29–19 BCE, during the reign of Augustus (reign 27 BCE–14 CE), the epic reimagines events traditionally placed after the fall of Troy (c. 12th century BCE). Through Aeneas, the poem forges a mythic bridge between the heroic age of Greece and the political present of Rome, presenting Roman origins as divinely sanctioned, inevitable, and rooted in endurance after catastrophe.
Aeneas’s Mediterranean wanderings, from the eastern Aegean through Sicily and North Africa to Italy, echo Homeric models while serving distinctly Roman aims. His abandonment of Dido of Carthage provides a mythic prehistory for later Roman–Carthaginian rivalry, while his descent into the Underworld and final wars in Latium emphasize pietas: duty to gods, family, and destiny above personal desire. The marriage to Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, establishes the ancestral line that would eventually lead to Rome itself. In Augustan Rome, Aeneas’s journey functioned as cultural memory and political allegory, framing imperial rule, sacrifice, and expansion as the fulfillment of a fate long foretold.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2022, June 21). Map of the Voyage of Aeneas and the Mythic Origins of Rome: Legend, Memory, and Imperial Identity from Troy to Italy. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16056/map-of-the-voyage-of-aeneas-and-the-mythic-origins/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Voyage of Aeneas and the Mythic Origins of Rome: Legend, Memory, and Imperial Identity from Troy to Italy." World History Encyclopedia, June 21, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16056/map-of-the-voyage-of-aeneas-and-the-mythic-origins/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Voyage of Aeneas and the Mythic Origins of Rome: Legend, Memory, and Imperial Identity from Troy to Italy." World History Encyclopedia, 21 Jun 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16056/map-of-the-voyage-of-aeneas-and-the-mythic-origins/.
