In 2015 I published a blog post titled Aeneas in Palestine: How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Makes Sense of Virgil’s Aeneid. For the 2025 meeting of the Ohio Classical Conference I decided to revisit and update the article. The charts below replicate the handout I referred to. Feel free to reproduce them as needed. (Scroll all the way down for a PDF version.)
Key figures, places, events and themes from the Aeneid and their analogues in the modern Palestine–Israel conflict
1. Characters & Peoples
| Aeneid Element | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Greeks | Nazis | Genocidal persecutors |
| Trojans | Jews of Europe, 1. after the Holocaust 2. before the Holocaust | 1. Displaced Persons (urbanized, unwilling emigrants) 2. Religious/ethnic ideologues (urbanized, militarized, persecuted, mostly unmarried young men) |
| Lavinia & Latium | Palestine | Homeland, the Promised Land (allegedly empty[1]) |
| Italians (Latins) | Palestinians (Arabs) | Indigenous population (simple, peasant, tribal, feudal; only one big city; “easily fanaticized,” “noble savages”) |
| Latinus | The ruling British in Palestine | Weak imperial rule, accommodating to the newcomers |
| Turnus | Hamas | Asymmetric native armed resistance |
| Arcadians | Yishuv | Native minority reluctantly pulled into war as allies of the newcomers (not a perfect analogy) |
| Etruscans | Lebanese Phalange militia | Allied militias just over the border of the disputed land |
| Diomedes | Escaped German SS | Former persecutors |
2. Places & Territories
| Aeneid Element | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Troy | Jewish communities in Europe | Destroyed homeland, site of genocide |
| Buthrotum, Agesta | Uganda, Madagascar | Alternative new homelands considered and rejected |
| Latium & Lavinia | Palestine (the land, the Promised land) | Ancestral Homeland, the Promised Land |
| Dardanus | Moses | Legendary/historical national ancestor (oecist) |
| Corythus | Biblical Kingdom of Israel | Legendary/historical homeland (?) |
| Laurentum | Gaza; Jerusalem | Seaside strip of land; main native city |
| Trojan camp | Zionist settlement(s) | Newcomer enclave(s) |
| Tiber River | Jordan River | “The river” (border) |
| Mediterranean | Mediterranean | “The sea” (border) |
3. Events & Wartime Parallels
| Aeneid Event | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Destruction of Troy | The Holocaust | Systematic national destruction |
| War in books 7-12 | The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, AKA Israel’s War of Independence; every other war since then | War for statehood (newcomer)/colonial war of independence (native) |
| Trojan army | Israeli Haganah (Jewish conventional army, precursor to the IDF) | Conventional armed forces |
| Italian army (catalogued in book 7) | Arab forces (Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Arab Liberation Army) | Conventional armed forces, a coalition assembled from surrounding lands |
| Deer incident in book 7 | Battle of Tel Hai 1920; Hebron 1929 massacre | Flash‑point killings; trigger events |
| Nisus & Euryalus night raid in book 9 | Irgun & Stern Gang night raid on Deir Yassin (4:30 a.m. April 9, 1948) | Nighttime terrorist massacre by paramilitary units of the newcomer army |
4. Ideological & Divine Forces
| Aeneid Element | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Juno | Anti‑Semitism in Europe | Enduring racial animus |
| Dido & Carthage | Jewish immigration to USA, USSR, and elsewhere | The lure of assimilation (cultural dissolution)[2] |
| Allecto | Anti‑Zionist agitators in Palestine | Radicalizing force |
| Jupiter | United Nations | International law, nominally impartial |
| The Olympian gods (e.g. Venus vs. Juno) | Divided world opinion (pro‑ vs. anti‑Israel) | Divided world opinion |
| Ilioneus | Zionist diplomacy | Newcomer diplomacy |
| His speech in book 7 | Israeli Declaration of Independence | Newcomer declaration of intent to stay |
| Venulus | Arab diplomatic missions seeking Nazi support | Native diplomacy |
| Penates | Judaism, Torah, Talmud | Newcomer religion |
| Saturn | Allah | Native god |
| Jupiter | Yahweh as supreme God | Newcomer god |
| Apollo | Yahweh as divine revelator | God who promises the Land |
| Vulcan’s armor | Zionist weaponry (foreign‑supplied) | Superior newcomer weaponry[3] |
| Juturna | Hamas sympathizers among Palestinian civilians | Ideology |
5. Possible Solutions/Resolutions
| Aeneid Element | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Latinus’ solution | Balfour Declaration | Reserve a small area of settlement for newcomers within the natives’ land |
| Jupiter’s solution | One‑state solution (“Israstine”) | A single, binational state |
| Aeneas’ 1st solution: Burn Laurentum | 2023- War on Hamas-ruled Gaza | Genocide (?) |
| Aeneas’ 2nd solution: kill Turnus without mercy, claim Lavinia | Defeat of Hamas, annexation of Gaza | Conquest of the land by the newcomers |
A bonus (unrelated) aside: “La conquista la hicieron los indios…”
| Aeneid Element | Modern Analogue | Commonality |
| Aeneas leading a massive Etruscan army against Laurentum | Cortés leading a massive (200k) Tlaxcala army against (Aztec) Tenochtitlan in 1521 | A “conquistador” and his tiny band exploits regional antagonisms to take command of one indigenous force and overthrow another indigenous empire |
This fact—that “the (Etruscan) natives did the conquest”—is so little appreciated by readers of the Aeneid that it often goes right over their heads. Aeneas and his Trojan band are trivially tiny; it’s the Etruscan auxiliaries that do most of the fighting. Interestingly, Virgil himself gives their contribution minimal emphasis—in fact, their entire mobilization is explained only in a brief flashback (10.148-56)! Maybe that’s a perpetual feature of the colonizer’s perspective…
[1] Surrounded by Trojans and Carthaginians, Aeneas tells Dido (not necessarily entirely truthfully) (3.3-7), “All Neptune’s Troy lay razed to the ground: ashes smoking. Forced to pursue, by what we divined of the gods’ will (auguriis agimur divum), our different, far-off places of exile, deserted (desertas) lands, we constructed…ships, though we’d no idea where fate would take us or where we’d settle.”
[2] In front of her courtiers, Dido makes the newly arrived Trojans a tempting offer (1.572-4): “Or, you can stay here with me upon equal terms in this kingdom, should you so wish. For the city I’m founding is yours. Beach your vessels. Trojan and Tyrian: both shall be one and the same in my judgments.”
[3] When Turnus is accused of turning Latium into a meatgrinder by refusing a fair fight, he angrily replies (11.438-9), “I’ll face [Aeneas] bravely, though he may be playing the great role, Achilles, armed with equipment that’s equally fine, handcrafted by Vulcan.”
Michael Fontaine 