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Summarizing Virgil's Aeneid- Book 2


 Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off. Aeneas succumbs to peer pressure and tells Dido and her many minions the story of what happened in Troy. Well educated Romans would have read Homer, and knew about the Trojan War from the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad and Odyssey tell the story of the fall of Troy from the perspective of the Greeks, while the Aeneid tells the story from the perspective of the Trojans. 

Aeneas begins the story on the day they discover the giant wooden horse outside the walls of Troy. The Greeks had left it there and sailed to a nearby island to hide. The Trojans try to figure out why the Greeks had built a horse and left it there on the shore. Some think it’s an offering to the gods, others think it is a war machine. They are really uncertain. Laocoon comes and immediately condemns the horse. He throws a spear which embeds in the horse’s side. Just as the Trojans are beginning to agree with Laocoon, a group arrives with a Greek man they had captured.

What the Trojans don’t know is that the Greek man, Sinon, allowed himself to be captured. He was left behind to ensure the horse made it inside the walls of Troy. The Trojans are confused and ask him why he is there. He is very melodramatic, and tells a story punctuated with fake tears and exaggerated lamentations. However, the Trojans are very trusting people and believe his story. He tells them the Greeks were going to sacrifice him to appease the gods and to secure safe travel, but he escaped and hid from the Greeks. Then, the Greeks all departed, leaving him behind. The Trojans feel bad for him and Priam himself frees Sinon.

Priam then asks Sinon what the purpose of the horse is. Sinon the liar tells him it was built as an offering to Minerva. The Trojans believe him, of course. Meanwhile, Laocoon is busy acting as Neptune’s priest and sacrificing a bull. He looks out over the water and sees a pair of serpents heading for the shore. The serpents attack Laocoon’s sons. He fights back, but the serpents kill him and go off to the temple of Minerva. The Trojans believe this happened because Laocoon had thrown his spear into the horse, which is an offering to Minerva. Since the serpents had gone to Minerva’s temple, the Trojans decide they should appease Minerva by taking the horse there as well. 

The Trojans deposit the horse by the temple and everyone just goes home and goes to sleep for the night. Once it is dark, Sinon opens the latch on the horse and the Greeks emerge. They slit the throats of any guards they find and open the gates. The Greeks had now all sailed back from the island and come inside. They begin slaughtering Trojans and burning the city to the ground. 

Aeneas is sleeping in his bed, but Hector visits him in his dream. Hector warns Aeneas, and tells him he needs to flee. Aeneas is awakened by the growing sounds of battle and is disoriented. He goes to his roof and looks around. Once he realizes what is happening, he gathers any Trojans he can find and fights any Greeks they happen to run into. During these fights, they begin collecting the Greek weapons and armor to use as disguises while they go around the city trying to subdue the invaders. Eventually, they make their way to Priam’s palace.

This is where going around in disguise backfires a little. They enter the palace and begin to fight the Greeks. Unfortunately for them, there are still Trojans fighting in the palace, and they attack Aeneas and his band of men because they look like Greeks.

Priam and his family are all cornered around an altar. Priam is desperate and, despite his advanced age, dons his armor and tries to fight. He is weakened and is near the altar with his family. One of his sons comes running in, only to be slaughtered by Pyrrhus. Priam is distraught after watching his son fall. However, he is too frail to really fight back and Pyrrhus ends Priam as well.

 Aeneas is distraught. He looks over and sees Helen hiding by the altars. This fills him with rage. He blames her for the fall of Troy and decides to avenge Troy by destroying Helen. He is stopped by his mother, Venus. She appears in front of him and reminds him that Troy fell because the gods are petty. She reminds him of his father, wife, and son, and urges him to save them from the Greeks who are approaching his house. Aeneas leaves Helen and goes to his family.

His father, old and frail, begs Aeneas to take the others and to leave him behind to die. Aeneas refuses to leave him behind. They argue back and forth, each trying to convince the other that they are right. Aeneas gives up and begins to leave to join in fighting the Greeks again. He is stopped by his wife, Creusa, who begs him to take her and their son, Ascanius, with him. As she pleads with him, a flame appears on Ascanius’ head. They put it out, but it spurs his father, Anchises, into action. Anchises asks for an omen to confirm this omen, and with a crash of thunder, a star falls from the sky. Now, Anchises is ready to leave.

Aeneas carries Anchises on his back, and holds Ascanius’ hand. Creusa follows behind them. When they are almost out of the city gate, Anchises spots some Greeks nearby. Aeneas panics and runs as fast as he can. He forgets to check for Creusa until they are safely out of the city. She is not there. Aeneas is full of grief. He leaves Anchises and Ascanius with some other Trojans who have escaped and he returns to the city to search for her. He can’t find her anywhere. Then, suddenly, her ghost appears and tells him to leave, and he will come to a better place, happy times, and a royal wife. 

Aeneas is full of grief. He tries three times to hug Creusa, but she slips through his hands because she is only a ghost. Full of sorrow, he departs the city again and rejoins his people who had escaped. More people escaped than he thought. They decide to prepare for a journey across the sea. They gather together and head for the mountains.

Book 2 ends here, the morning after the fall of Troy. The tragic story is enough to touch on some emotion in anyone who reads it. It is a tale of deceit, loss, and the hope of a new beginning in a new land. Feel free to share in the comments if you felt anything in particular, or if the story touched you in some way.


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