The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
“Who knows?
Better times may come to those in pain.”
Forsan miseros meliora sequentur.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Line 153 (tr. Fagles)
“I have lived
and journeyed through the course assigned by fortune.
And now my Shade will pass, illustrious,
beneath the earth.”
Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum Fortuna, peregi;
Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 653–654 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
“Fortune favors the bold.”
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Variant translations:
Fortune favors the brave.
Fortune helps the daring.
Fortune sides with him who dares.
Compare:
Fortibus est fortuna viris data.
Fortune is given to brave men.
Ennius, Annales, 257
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book X, Line 284
“I shall die unavenged, but I shall die,"
she says. "Thus, thus, I gladly go below
to shadows.”
‘Moriemur inultae,
Sed moriamur’ ait. ‘sic, sic juvat ire sub umbras.’
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 659–660 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
“Do the gods light this fire in our hearts
or does each man's mad desire become his god?”
Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt,
Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Lines 184–185 (tr. Fagles)
“Even here, merit will have its true reward…
even here, the world is a world of tears
and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.”
Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi,
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Lines 461–462 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“Each of us bears his own Hell.”
Quisque suos patimur manis.
Variant: Each one his own hope.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 743
“Euryalus
In death went reeling down,
And blood streamed on his handsome length, his neck
Collapsing let his head fall on his shoulder—
As a bright flower cut by a passing plow
Will droop and wither slowly, or a poppy
Bow its head upon its tired stalk
When overborne by a passing rain.”
Volvitur Euryalus leto, pulchrosque per artus
It cruor inque umeros cervix conlapsa recumbit:
Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro
Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo
Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.
Compare:
Μήκων δ' ὡς ἑτέρωσε κάρη βάλεν, ἥ τ' ἐνὶ κήπῳ
καρπῷ βριθομένη νοτίῃσί τε εἰαρινῇσιν,
ὣς ἑτέρωσ' ἤμυσε κάρη πήληκι βαρυνθέν.
He bent drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy
bends beneath the weight of its yield and the rains of springtime;
so his head bent slack to one side beneath the helm's weight.
Homer, Iliad, VIII, 306–308 (tr. R. Lattimore)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Lines 433–437 (tr. Fitzgerald)
“Unconscionable Love,
To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!”
Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!
Compare:
Σχέτλι᾽ Ἔρως, μέγα πῆμα, μέγα στύγος ἀνθρώποισιν,
ἐκ σέθεν οὐλόμεναί τ᾽ ἔριδες στοναχαί τε γόοι τε,
ἄλγεά τ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῖσιν ἀπείρονα τετρήχασιν.
Unconscionable Love, bane and tormentor of mankind, parent of strife, fountain of tears, source of a thousand ills.
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, IV, 445–447 (tr. E. V. Rieu)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 412 (tr. Fitzgerald)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 100 (tr. Fairclough)
“It is come—the last day and inevitable hour for Troy.”
Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus
Dardaniae.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Lines 324–325 (tr. Fairclough)
“Every man's last day is fixed.
Lifetimes are brief and not to be regained,
For all mankind. But by their deeds to make
Their fame last: that is labor for the brave.”
Stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus
Omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis,
Hoc virtutis opus.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book X, Lines 467–469 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Obscure they went through dreary shades, that led
Along the waste dominions of the dead.”
Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,
Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Lines 268–269 (tr. John Dryden)
Variant translations:
Trust one who has gone through it.
Believe one who has had experience.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XI, Line 283; cf. "experto crede".
“Can such resentment hold the minds of gods?”
Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 11 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
