Vergil's Aeneid: Books 4 and 6: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
39 flashcard terms for AP Latin Unit 3, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 21-question quiz — free, no account needed.
Book 4 opens with Dido 'long since wounded by heavy care,' feeding the wound with her blood; the metaphor of love as a wound and fire governs the whole book.
Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae
'I recognize the traces of the old flame': Dido confesses to Anna that Aeneas has stirred feelings she has felt only for Sychaeus.
Anna
Dido's sister and confidante who urges her to yield to love, arguing that a marriage with the Trojans would strengthen Carthage against Iarbas and Pygmalion.
Vow to Sychaeus
Dido had sworn never to remarry after her husband's death; her broken vow becomes a source of guilt (culpa) and drives the tragedy.
Wounded Deer Simile
Dido wanders through the city like a doe struck by a shepherd's arrow, unaware of the shaft that will kill her: 'haeret lateri letalis harundo.'
Juno and Venus' Bargain
Juno proposes a marriage to keep Aeneas in Carthage; Venus agrees, knowing Jupiter's fate will not allow it. Both goddesses manipulate Dido for their own ends.
The Cave (Speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem)
During the hunt a storm drives Dido and Aeneas into a cave; Juno and Earth give the signal, nymphs howl, and Dido calls it marriage (coniugium vocat), 'hoc praetexit nomine culpam.'
Fama
Rumor personified as a monster with many eyes, tongues, and ears, growing as she goes (viresque adquirit eundo), spreading the news of the affair to Iarbas.
Iarbas
African king and son of Jupiter Ammon, rejected suitor of Dido, whose prayer of complaint prompts Jupiter to send Mercury to Aeneas.
Mercury's First Visit
Mercury finds Aeneas building Carthage in a Tyrian cloak and rebukes him: he owes it to Ascanius, to whom Italy and Rome are due, to sail (Ascanium surgentem et spes heredis Iuli respice).
Aeneas' Dilemma
Aeneas burns to leave but hesitates over how to tell Dido: 'heu quid agat?' He orders the fleet secretly readied while he waits for the right moment (mollissima fandi tempora).
Dissimulare etiam sperasti
Dido's first speech confronts Aeneas' deception, appeals to their union, her lost reputation, and her lack of even a 'parvulus Aeneas' to remind her of him.
Italiam non sponte sequor
Aeneas' reply: he never called it marriage, and he does not seek Italy of his own will; the gods command him and Anchises' ghost warns him nightly.
Oak Simile
Aeneas withstands Dido's pleas like an oak battered by Alpine winds, its roots reaching to Tartarus as high as its crown reaches heaven; his tears fall in vain (lacrimae volvuntur inanes).
Ant Simile
The Trojans loading their ships are compared to ants plundering a heap of grain, seen from Dido's tower — the reader shares her perspective on their bustling departure.
Dido's Curse
Dido prays that Aeneas be harried by war, torn from Iulus, see his friends die, die early and lie unburied, and calls for an avenger (exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor) — Hannibal — and eternal enmity between the peoples.
Litora litoribus contraria
'Shores opposed to shores, waves to waves, arms to arms': the curse's forecast of the Punic Wars, an aetiology within the epic.
Mercury's Second Visit
Mercury appears in a dream warning Aeneas to sail at once because Dido may attack: 'varium et mutabile semper femina.'
Dido pretends to seek magic rites to cure her love, builds a pyre with Aeneas' sword, clothes, and effigy, and deceives Anna about her intent.
Dido's Death
Dido falls on Aeneas' Trojan sword atop the pyre; her final speech says she lived and completed the course fortune gave her (vixi et quem dederat cursum Fortuna peregi) and dies 'ante diem.'
Iris and the Lock of Hair
Because Dido dies before her fated day, Proserpina has not taken her lock; Juno sends Iris to cut it and release her struggling soul.
Book 6: Cumae and the Sibyl
Aeneas lands at Cumae, visits Apollo's temple with Daedalus' doors, and consults the Sibyl (Deiphobe), who prophesies wars in Latium and a new Achilles (Turnus).
Bella, horrida bella
The Sibyl's prophecy of 'wars, horrible wars' and the Tiber foaming with blood; a foreign bride will again cause trouble for the Trojans.
Facilis descensus Averno
'The descent to Avernus is easy... but to recall one's step and escape to the upper air, this is the task, this the labor' (hoc opus, hic labor est).
The Golden Bough
Aeneas must find and pluck a golden bough sacred to Proserpina; it comes only to those fate allows, and Venus' doves guide him to it (it hesitates: cunctantem).
Misenus
Trumpeter who challenged Triton and drowned; his burial is required before the descent, and Cape Misenum takes his name.
Vestibule of Hades
Personified evils dwell at the entrance: Grief, Cares, Diseases, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Poverty, Death, Sleep, War, the Furies, Discord; also the elm of false dreams.
Charon
Grim ferryman with fiery eyes and unkempt beard who takes across only the buried; the unburied wander a hundred years — compared to falling leaves and migrating birds.
Palinurus
Aeneas' helmsman who fell overboard, unburied and begging passage; the Sibyl promises his bones will be honored and the place named Palinurus.
Cerberus
Three-headed dog drugged by the Sibyl with a honey-cake; Aeneas passes infants, the wrongly condemned, suicides, and the Fields of Mourning.
Lugentes Campi and Dido
In the Fields of Mourning Aeneas sees Dido, weeps, and swears he left unwillingly (invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi); she turns away in silence to Sychaeus, like hard flint or Marpesian rock.
Deiphobus
Priam's son, mutilated by Menelaus and Ulysses through Helen's treachery on Troy's last night; he tells Aeneas his story before the Sibyl hurries them on.
Tartarus
Rhadamanthus judges sinners; Tisiphone guards; punishments for the Titans, Salmoneus, Tityos, and those who betrayed family, country, or clients are described from outside.
Elysium
Land of the blessed with its own sun; Orpheus, Musaeus, and heroes; Aeneas finds Anchises reviewing the souls of his descendants.
Anchises' Cosmology
A spirit (spiritus intus alit) animates the world; souls are purified by wind, water, and fire for a thousand years, then drink from Lethe and are reborn.
Parade of Heroes
Anchises shows future Romans: Silvius, the Alban kings, Romulus, Augustus (who will restore a golden age), Numa, Tullus, the Tarquins, Brutus, Camillus, Caesar and Pompey (civil war), and Marcellus.
Anchises' definition of Rome's mission: others may excel in bronze, marble, oratory, and astronomy, but Rome's arts are to rule, impose peace, spare the humbled, and war down the proud (parcere subiectis et debellare superbos).
Marcellus
Augustus' nephew and heir who died in 23 BCE; Anchises' lament (tu Marcellus eris) reportedly made Octavia faint when Vergil recited it.
Gates of Sleep
Aeneas leaves through the ivory gate of false dreams rather than the horn gate of true shades, an ending scholars debate endlessly.