Meanwhile, Aeneas's mother, the goddess Venus, reminds Jupiter of his promise that the Trojans will reach Italy and become the forebears of the Roman people. Neptune, the god of the sea, angry because Aeolus has infringed on his own territory, calms the water, and the seven remaining ships of Aeneas's fleet find a safe harbor on the North African coast of Libya, site of the city of Carthage. Many of the ships appear to be lost at sea. Seeing the Trojans set sail for Italy, Juno commands Aeolus, the god of the winds, to raise a storm that will capsize their ships and drown them all. Finally, Juno is angry because Jupiter made Ganymede, a Trojan prince, the gods's cupbearer. She also hates the Trojans because one of their ancestors was Dardanus, the son of Jupiter - Juno's husband and king of the gods - and Electra, a daughter of Atlas and Juno's rival for Jupiter's affection.

Why, Virgil asks, appealing to the muse of epic poetry, does Juno, the queen of the gods, harass such a good man? He mentions two explicit reasons for Juno's hostility: her love for Carthage and corresponding hatred for the future Rome, which is destined to overthrow her favorite city and her lingering resentment because Paris, a Trojan, did not award her the golden apple, the prize given to the most beautiful woman in the world. Virgil begins his epic poem with a succinct statement of its theme: He will sing of war and the man - Aeneas - who, driven by fate, sailed from Troy's shores to Italy, where he founded a city called Lavinium, the precursor of Rome.

The eneid