Through this verse translation of Vergil's Book VI of the Aeneid we journey with Aeneas through the Underworld to meet his father. Accompanied by Sibyl, the prophetess, who instructs him first to pluck the Golden Bough that will ensure his safe passage, Aeneas descends into the Underworld where he passes crowds of the dead waiting to be ferried across the river Styx before being carried across himself by Charon the Ferryman. We encounter monsters of legend like Cerberus the three headed dog who guards the gates of the Underworld, and dead souls in the Field of Mourning who are resigned with regret to their fate. We are moved by the plight of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas’ lover who took her own life when he abandoned her. It’s a tale full of terror, sadness and longing but also of courage and resolve – rich in vivid poetic imagery to fire the imagination.
