Aeneid, Book 5

Book 5 of the Aeneid, Vergil's epic of Rome's Trojan origins (written 29–19 BC), stands between the tragedy of Dido in Book 4 and the descent to the underworld in Book 6. Driven by a storm back to Sicily, Aeneas arrives a year after his father Anchises' death and holds funeral games in his honour, as Achilles did for Patroclus in the twenty-third book of the Iliad.

Four ships race round a rock: Gyas throws his slow helmsman overboard, Sergestus runs aground, and Cloanthus wins with the help of the sea-gods just ahead of Mnestheus. In the foot race Nisus slips in the blood of a sacrifice and trips Salius so that his friend Euryalus can win. The young boxer Dares is beaten by the old Sicilian Entellus, and in the archery contest Acestes' arrow catches fire in flight. Ascanius then leads the boys on horseback in the Game of Troy. Meanwhile Juno sends Iris to stir the weary Trojan women to burn the ships; a rainstorm saves most of them, and on the advice of Nautes and a vision of Anchises, Aeneas leaves the weakest of his people to found a city with Acestes. Venus wins safe passage from Neptune, but at a price: the helmsman Palinurus is overcome by Sleep and falls into the sea.

The games give the book a lighter tone than its neighbours, with humour and fast narrative, and the Latin is vivid and accessible. The loss of Palinurus is one of the poem's most haunting endings.