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60 free The Aeneid trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Aeneid trivia quiz covers Virgil's national epic of Rome book by book, from 'Arma virumque cano' to the last spear-thrust that kills Turnus. The easy questions are the ones any student of the classics should manage: who wrote it, which hero it follows, which queen he abandons in Carthage, and which famous wooden animal ends the Trojan War. From there it goes deeper: the number of lines and books, the meter, the goddess whose grudge drives the plot, the two Greeks the poem models itself on, the priest eaten by sea serpents, the ghost who tells Aeneas to sail for Hesperia, the Harpy's prophecy about eating tables, the funeral games in Sicily, the helmsman lost overboard, the Sibyl and the underworld, the shield that shows Actium, Nisus and Euryalus, Camilla, Pallas's belt, the poet's dying wish to burn the manuscript, and the operas and novels it inspired. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the Aeneid, Virgil, Aeneas, Dido and related figures before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Roman mythology, Ancient Rome and Greek mythology quizzes next.
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Q 01In which decade BC did Virgil write the Aeneid?
The 20s BC
He composed it between 29 and 19 BC and left it unfinished at his death.
Q 02Aeneas fled which fallen city at the start of his journey?
Troy
He becomes the legendary ancestor of the Romans.
Q 03How many books does the Aeneid contain?
Twelve
The first six mirror the Odyssey's wanderings; the last six mirror the Iliad's war.
Q 04Roughly how many lines long is the Aeneid?
About 9,900
Legend says Virgil wrote only three lines a day.
Q 05In which meter is the Aeneid written?
Dactylic hexameter
Each line has six feet of dactyls and spondees, as in Homer.
Q 06What are the famous opening words of the Aeneid?
Arma virumque cano
'Of arms and the man I sing'; the invocation to the Muse follows seven lines later.
Q 07Which goddess's resentment of the Trojans drives the conflict of the poem?
Juno
She was snubbed in the judgement of Paris and knows her beloved Carthage will fall to Aeneas's descendants.
Q 08Who is Aeneas's divine mother?
Venus
His father was the Trojan prince Anchises, a cousin of King Priam.
Q 09Which King of the Winds does Juno bribe with a nymph to wreck Aeneas's fleet in Book 1?
Aeolus
Neptune, furious at the intrusion into his domain, calms the sea.
Q 10Whom does Cupid impersonate to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas?
Ascanius, the hero's son
Dido cradles the boy at a banquet as he weakens her fidelity to her murdered husband.
Q 11Dido, queen of Carthage, had fled which Phoenician city after her brother murdered her husband?
Tyre
Her brother Pygmalion killed her husband Sychaeus.
Q 12Which Trojan priest speared the wooden horse and was then devoured with his sons by sea serpents?
Laocoön
His warning is the source of the line 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes' - I fear Greeks even bearing gifts.
Q 13Which Greek was left behind to convince the Trojans the horse was a harmless offering?
Sinon
He claimed that if the horse were taken inside, the Trojans would conquer Greece.
Whose ghost appears in a dream to tell Aeneas to flee burning Troy with his family?
Q 21Which god does Jupiter send to remind Aeneas of his duty and make him leave Dido?
Mercury
Rejected suitor Iarbas had complained to Jupiter about the couple.
Q 22How does Dido die?
She stabs herself on a pyre with Aeneas's sword
She curses Aeneas's people, a line often read as invoking Hannibal.
Q 23On which island does Aeneas hold funeral games for his father in Book 5?
Sicily
There is a boat race, foot race, boxing match and archery contest.
What do the Trojan women, incited by Juno through Iris, try to burn in Book 5?
Hector's
Aeneas then witnesses Priam murdered by Achilles's son Pyrrhus.
Q 15Whom does Aeneas famously carry on his back out of burning Troy?
His father Anchises
'Pious Aeneas' occurs 20 times in the poem; his wife Creusa is lost and appears only as a ghost.
Q 16What omen strikes Ascanius as the family prepares to flee Troy?
His head catches fire without harming him
A clap of thunder and a shooting star follow.
Q 17Which Harpy prophesies the Trojans will not find home until they eat their tables?
Celaeno
She drives them from the Strophades islands.
Q 18At Buthrotum, a replica of Troy, Aeneas meets which grieving Trojan widow?
Andromache
Priam's son Helenus, a prophet, tells him to seek Italy and the Sibyl at Cumae.
Q 19Which one of Ulysses' men, left behind in the Cyclops's cave, do the Trojans rescue?
Achaemenides
They narrowly escape Polyphemus soon after.
Q 20Where does Anchises die of old age?
Drepanum in Sicily
A storm then blows Aeneas to Carthage, which is where the poem opened.
The fleet
Aeneas prays to Jupiter, who sends a rainstorm to put out the fires.
Q 25Which helmsman is put to sleep by Somnus and falls overboard as the price of safe passage to Italy?
Palinurus
Jupiter demanded one of Aeneas's men as a sacrifice.
Q 26Who guides Aeneas into the underworld in Book 6?
The Cumaean Sibyl
They cross the Acheron with Charon and pass Cerberus before Aeneas sees Rome's future.
Q 27How did Aeneas's prophetess-guide at Cumae gain her extraordinarily long life?
She asked Apollo for as many years as grains of sand in her hand
She forgot to ask for youth as well.
Q 28Whom does Aeneas meet in the underworld who remains irreconcilable and will not speak to him?
The shade of Dido
He then reaches Elysium and hears his father prophesy Rome's destiny.
Q 29Which king of Latium was told by oracles to marry his daughter to a foreigner rather than to Turnus?
Latinus
His wife Amata, stirred by the fury Alecto, insists on Turnus instead.
Q 30Which fury does Juno summon from the underworld to stir up war between the Trojans and the Latins?
Alecto
She also causes Ascanius to wound a sacred deer during a hunt.