The Aeneid, an epic poem by Virgil, follows the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who was claimed as an ancestor by Julius Caesar and Augustus. Aeneas exemplified the ideal Roman values expressed by the Latin term pietas, the act of being dutiful to one’s gods, family and fatherland. In the aftermath of the Trojan War, Aeneas fled Troy and undertook an epic voyage to Italy at the command of the gods.
To prove his worth, Aeneas was constantly tested: he suffered the loss of his father Anchises, was forced to abandon his distraught lover Dido and overcame the murderous Rutulian king Turnus, all under the wrathful eye of the goddess Juno.
This edition of the Aeneid is a 1610 translation from Latin into Scottish verse by Bishop Gawain Douglas. The text is a liberal rendition, not a literal translation, and primarily a celebration of Scottish dialect. Douglas believed that the heroic themes of the Aeneid might benefit Scottish morale at a time when Scotland was in great turmoil.
