Aeneas' Landfalls in Hesperia

Abstract

Gaudet cognomine terra. Virgil's stories of Palinurus, Misenus, and Caieta, the helmsman, the trumpeter, and the nurse of Aeneas, are aetiological: they are poetic fictions designed to account for the names of the promontories and towns which are landmarks on the periplus or navigation route along the west coast of Italy, between Lucania and Latium, or, more specifically, between Velia and Ostia. The object here is to examine the topography and archaeology of the three sites to determine whether any features of the terrain assisted Virgil to his three aetiological fictions, and to see whether recent archaeological finds may offer any additional insight into the three episodes.

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