Book I. The escape from Troy; AEneas and his son, driven by a tempest on the shores of Carthage, are hospitably entertained by queen Dido.

II.  AEneas tells Dido the tale of the wooden horse, the burning of Troy, and his flight with his father, wife, and son.  The wife was lost and died.

III.  The narrative continued.  The perils he met with on the way, and the death of his father.

IV.  Dido falls in love with AEneas; but he steals away from Carthage, and Dido, on a funeral pyre, puts an end to her life.

V. AEneas reaches Sicily, and celebrates there the games in honor of Anchises.  This book corresponds to the Iliad, xxiii.

VI.  AEneas visits the infernal regions.  This book corresponds to Odyssey, xi.

VII.  Latinus king of Italy entertains AEneas, and promises to him Lavinia (his daughter) in marriage, but prince Turnus had been already betrothed to her by the mother, and raises an army to resist AEneas.

VIII.  Preparations on both sides for a general war.

IX.  Turnus, during the absence of AEneas, fires the ships and assaults the camp.  The episode of Nisus and Eury’alus.

X. The war between Turnus and AEneas.  Episode of Mezentius and Lausus.

XI.  The battle continued.

XII.  Turnus challenges AEneas to single combat, and is killed.

N.B.—­1.  The story of Sinon and taking of Troy is borrowed from
Pisander, as Macrobius informs us.

2.  The loves of Dido and AEneas are copied from those of Medea and Jason, in Apollonius.

3.  The story of the wooden horse and the burning of Troy are from Arcti’nus of Miletus.

AE’OLUS, god of the winds, which he keeps imprisoned in a cave in the AEolian Islands, and lets free as he wishes or as the over-gods command.

  Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea,
  And twice by awkward wind from England’s bank
  Drove back again unto my native clime?... 
  Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer,
  But left that hateful office unto thee.

  Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act v, sc. 2 (1591).

AESCULA’PIUS, in Greek, ASKLE’PIOS, the god of healing.

  What says my AEsculapius? my Galen?... 
  Ha! is he dead?

  Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii.
  sc. 3 (1601).

AE’SON, the father of Jason.  He was restored to youth by Medea, who infused into his veins the juice of certain herbs.

In such a night, Medea gather’d the enchanted herbs That did renew old Aeson.  Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act v. sc.  I (before 1598).

AESOP, the fabulist, said to be humpbacked; hence, “an AEsop” means a humpbacked man.  The young son of Henry VI. calls his uncle Richard of Gloster “AEsop.”—­3 Henry VI. act v. sc. 5.

Aesop of Arabia, Lokman; and Nasser (fifth century).