DEPARTURE

The iconic image par excellence of the Virgilian poem is undoubtedly the depiction of Aeneas leaving his burning city, with his father Anchises on his shoulders and holding his son Ascanius by the hand.

The destruction of Troy by Greek warriors (the Achaeans) and the painful decision to leave their own land and origins in search of a place to call home, as the gods had indicated, mark the beginning of the long and troubled journey across the Mediterranean that Aeneas and his companions will make to reach the coast of Latium, passing through five countries: Turkey, Greece, Albania, Italy, and Tunisia.

It is Aeneas himself who recalls the succession of events of the lost war and the flight to a new homeland, at the request of Dido, the queen of Carthage, who welcomes the Trojans who had landed on the African coast after a shipwreck:

“Arms, men, arms! This is the last day of the vanquished. Let me see the battle again, leave me to the Greeks. Not today, we shall not all die undefended! So I gird my sword once more, and on my left arm I bind my shield, setting out to leave the house.

But, now on the threshold, Creusa throws herself at my feet and holding out little Iulus [Ascanius’ middle name] to me, she embraces me: ‘If you are going to die, take us with you to that fate. But if you still think you have hope in arms, defend your home first. To whom do you want to abandon little Iulus, your father, and myself, who was your wife’?

Her voice fills the whole house with moans, when suddenly a prodigy appears, incredible to say the least: in our arms, under our sorrowful eyes, on Iulus’ head, a thin tongue of fire seems to shine with light and harmlessly laps his soft hair with flame, burning around his temples.

We, terrified, trembling with fear, shake our burning hair, trying to extinguish the sacred fire with water, but instead Anchises, the father, lifts his eyes to the stars and with a cry of joy stretches out his hands to the sky: ‘Almighty Jupiter, if a prayer moves you, turn your gaze on us and if pity makes us worthy, Father, then help us and confirm this omen’.

As soon as he had spoken, thunder suddenly crashes from the left and tracing a bright furrow, falling from the sky, a star runs through the darkness, touching the top of the roof. We see it disappear with a glow into the forest of Mount Ida, showing us a way.

Aeneas thus becomes animated and takes command of those who, having escaped the massacre, now rely on him with such confidence that he feels the weight of such a great responsibility.

They set out and reach the slopes of Mount Ida, where they set up camp and immediately began to cut down sturdy logs to prepare a small fleet on which to face the vicissitudes that now await them at sea. They manage to fit out twenty ships and set sail, leaving their land forever with tears in their eyes when they see the ports, shores, and fields where Troy was built disappear on the horizon, with the bitter awareness that they are nothing more than exiles at the mercy of a mysterious destiny, accepted only in obedience to the decisions of Fate.