Virgil often interjects in his story. Sometimes he addresses characters directly, other times he asks rhetorical questions or comments on the action. In this way, he acts as a character too—this is "Virgil as storyteller," becoming a part of his narrative like the ancient storytellers of the oral tradition, such as Homer.
Virgil Quotes in The Aeneid
The The Aeneid quotes below are all either spoken by Virgil or refer to Virgil. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1
Quotes
Wars and a man I sing.
Related Characters:
Virgil (speaker)
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4
Quotes
Rumor, swiftest of all the evils in the world. She thrives on speed, stronger for every stride, slight with fear at first, soon soaring into the air she treads the ground and hides her head in the clouds.
Related Characters:
Virgil (speaker)
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Explanation and Analysis:
Book 8
Quotes
He fills with wonder—he knows nothing of these events but takes delight in their likeness, lifting onto his shoulders no the fame and fates of all his children's children.
Related Characters:
Virgil (speaker)
Related Symbols:
Aeneas's Shield
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Explanation and Analysis:
Book 9
Quotes
Yet first the handsome Iulus—beyond his years, filled with a man's courage, a man's concerns as well—gives them many messages to carry to his father. But the winds scatter them all, all useless, fling them into the clouds.
Related Characters:
Virgil (speaker)
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Explanation and Analysis:
Book 11
Quotes
Camilla, keen to fix some Trojan arms on a temple wall or sport some golden plunder out on the hunt, she tracked him now, one man in the moil of war, she stalked him wildly, reckless through the ranks, afire with a woman's lust for loot and plunder…
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Book 12
Quotes
Now what god can unfold for me so many terrors? Who can make a song of slaughter in all its forms—the deaths of captains down the entire field, dealt now by Turnus, now by Aeneas, kill for kill? Did it please you, great Jove, to see the world at war, the peoples clash that would later live in everlasting peace?
Related Characters:
Virgil (speaker)
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Turnus's limbs went limp in the chill of death. His life breath fled with a groan of outrage down to the shades below.
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Get the entire The Aeneid LitChart as a printable PDF.
Virgil Character Timeline in The Aeneid
The timeline below shows where the character Virgil appears in The Aeneid. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1
Virgil begins with "Wars and a man I sing…" and says that he will tell the...
(full context)
Book 4
Virgil doesn't mention if the couple physically consummates the marriage, but he hints that they do,...
(full context)
Book 7
Virgil explains the history of Latium, home of the Latins (and future location of Rome). King...
(full context)
Book 10
...Turnus says that he'll get a proper tomb. Turnus takes Pallas's belt as a prize. Virgil foreshadows that in the future Turnus will wish he'd never touched Pallas.
(full context)
Lausus cries out for his injured father, and Virgil praises Lausus's bravery as deserving lasting recognition. Lausus jumps in to protect Mezentius. Aeneas tells...
(full context)
Book 12
...and throws himself fully into the battle. He kills so many people so ferociously that Virgil wonders what god can even help him sing about all the slaughter. Virgil wonders if...
(full context)
