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DOI 10.5817/GLB2016-1-4

Vimque deum infernam: Virgil’s God

of the Underworld
Lee Fratantuono

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Abstract
The god Hades is referenced several times in the Virgilian corpus, in passages of high emo-
tional import (the drama of Orpheus and Eurydice; the death of Dido; Aeneas’ voyage to the
underworld). Careful study of these allusions to the underworld lord reveal a Virgilian preoc-
cupation with the problem of the stability of the Olympian order, and the looming question of
the fate of the individual human soul after death. Hades and the infernal powers of his realm
figure as key players in the ultimate resolution of the war in Latium, and the coming into being
of the new order of Trojan rebirth.

Key words
Allecto; Dira; Dis; Furies; Hades; Jupiter; Pluto; Virgil

The underworld lord Hades figures infrequently but significantly in the Virgilian cor-
pus.1 We shall examine closely all of the references to the god in the poet’s works, with
the aim of illustrating how Virgil uses Hades as an important figure in the theology and
eschatology of the Aeneid, in particular as a divine image in relation to the supreme god
Jupiter.2 We shall see that the Virgilian Hades (under the names Dis and Pluto) plays an
important role in the poet’s reflections on the fate of the human soul, and the possibility
of rebirth and new life after the grave.3 Close analysis of the Virgilian allusions to Hades
will reveal the poet’s concern with the problem of the lasting stability of the Olympian,
Jovian order, as well as the problem of the fate of the individual human soul post mortem

1 “In Virgil Dis is for the most part a pallid figure, a mere synonym, almost geographical, for the lower wor-
ld.” (Bailey 1935: p. 250). Cf. S. Fasce, “Dite,” in Enciclopedia Virgiliana (1985: Vol. II, p. 101); “Plutone,”
in Enciclopedia Virgiliana (1988: Vol. IV, p. 151; with illustration). I am grateful to the suggestions and
corrections of the anonymous referees; all errors that remain are my own.
2 Virgil refers to Hades throughout his works as “Dis,” with the exception of one reference to “Pluton”.
3 On the many names of the god see Gantz (1993: pp. 72‒73): “In Homer, he is Aides or Aidoneus but, on
one occasion, Zeus Katachthonios … Thus it appears that at times Zeus and Hades represented simply
different facets of a single extended divine power … The name ‘Plouton’ for the god may appear in a list
of gods on an inscription of the early fifth century.”

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(especially in light of Virgil’s reception of Lucretian eschatology). Hades and his under-
world apparatus of infernal powers will be shown to function as significant players in the
Virgilian presentation of the coming into being of the new order of Trojan rebirth, and
of the sacrifices necessary to achieve the reality of the Roman future.
Dis appears first in Virgil at the dramatic scene of Orpheus’ descent into the under-
world in the climactic story of the fourth georgic:4

Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,

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et caligantem nigra formidine lucum

ingressus, Manisque adiit regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda. (IV, 467‒470)5

The setting is dark and pitiless; the king of the underworld inspires fear and trembling.6
Dis refers both to the god and the place, which shade into one; the name evokes images
of wealth (dives), and the adjective alta conveys a sense both of seemingly bottomless
depths, and of the immense stores of wealth in both mineral resources and souls that
can be found in the deeply excavated lower regions.7 Orpheus approaches the Manes
and their lord; the hearts that do not become soft due to human entreaty and prayer are
either the hearts of the ghosts (if they had them), or, likelier, the heart of the god (and,
perhaps implicitly, his infernal bride’s).8 Orpheus will succeed in one sense where all others
failed; the terrifying king will be moved – though in the end the victory will be fruitless.
Hades in a sense frames the Orpheus and Eurydice story; once the poet and singer
has lost his wife for an irrevocable second time, he wanders abroad alone, lamenting the
loss of the bride and boon of the god:

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solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem
arvaque Riphaeis numquam viduata pruinis
lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen atque inrita Ditis
dona querens. (IV, 517‒520)

The hendiadys carefully details the notion of snatching – Eurydice has been seized
again, as it were – and also the lack of fulfillment of the gift of the god; Orpheus is bereft
of the warmth of both place and spouse as he bemoans his lot and wanders frigid and
icy locales.9 Dis had bestowed a boon on the singer that has not been realized; in a sense,

4 On the tradition of Orpheus’ imploring the infernal immortals for the release of his wife (with citations
from Euripides and Plato), see West (1983: p. 4).
5 All passages from Virgil are taken from Mynors (1969; corrected reprint 1972).
6 For caves as traditional entrance to the underworld, see Nelis (2001: p. 244).
7 “Ditis Antonomasie für das Totenreich insgesamt…” (Erren, 2003: ad loc.).
8 For the Manes see especially Negri (1984: pp. 85‒119). On the question of the emotions of the Manes,
cf. the fragment of Lucan’s Orpheus (Servius’ note on Georgics IV, 492): gaudent a luce relictam / Eurydicen
iterum sperantes Orphea Manes.
9 On the “frozen landscape” to which Orpheus retreats, see Thomas (1989: ad loc.).

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the musical hero failed to exercise sufficient caution in the face of the rule that had been
prescribed by the infernal gods.10
Dis is featured at the opening and close, then, of the Orpheus and Eurydice epyllion,
but it is Proserpina (his abducted bride) who is principally credited with the fateful order
that Orpheus must not look back at his wife until they have safely reached the upper
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world (IV, 487 … namque hanc dederat Proserpina legem).11 To be precise, Virgil notes that
the “law” or lex given by Proserpina was that Eurydice should follow behind her husband
(pone sequens); apparently implicit in this requirement is the notion that Orpheus should
not look at her.12 For when Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, she is lost; Virgil notes that

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at that point, all the effort that had been expended was for naught, and the agreement
of the harsh tyrant (i.e., of Dis) was ruptured (IV, 492‒493 effusus labor atque immitis
rupta tyranni / foedera).13 The sequence of details occasions question; it was Proserpina,
it seems, who gave the specific instruction about the shade walking behind the living
body – and the foedera that had been struck with Dis that were shattered by Orpheus’
backward gaze.14 Certainly Dis and Proserpina are in apparent unity on the conditions
for Eurydice’s return; we are left to conclude that Proserpina was the one who made
the special requirement.15 The decision about one married couple was made by another;
ultimately, all four parties will be found in the underworld.16
The narrative of Orpheus and Eurydice in the fourth georgic is as overlaid as that
of Aeneas’ underworld adventure in Aeneid VI with the problems of “Orphism” and
the Virgilian appropriation of texts both extant and lost.17 In the context of the fourth

10 Crucial to the scene is IV, 488 … dementia cepit amantem (of Orpheus’ madness); apparently Orpheus’ love
for Eurydice was so reckless that he could not resist looking at her. He forgot the instructions of the gods
(IV, 491 immemor) and was “conquered with respect to his intention” (victusque animi) – the victory of
eroticism over rational thought and reason. Dis, of course, had been similarly affected by Cupid’s arrow
in his mad desire to Proserpina – with rather more successful outcome. On the importance of self-control
in the narrative, see Wilkinson (1969: p. 120).
11 Proserpina is introduced rather casually to the narrative.
12 Cf. Aeneid II, 725 pone subit coniunx, where Creüsa follows behind the triad of Aeneas, Anchises, and
Ascanius, in accord with the instruction of Aeneas … et longe servet vestigia coniunx (II, 711; with subit
coniunx cf. II, 562 … subiit deserta Creusa). Aeneas thus replaces Proserpina as the decide of the rubric for
the departure from the doomed city of Troy; unlike Orpheus, he does not look back in search of his wife
until he reaches the prearranged meeting site of the temple of Ceres (II, 741 nec prius amissam respexi…).
When Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, he is described as “forgetful” (Georgics IV, 491 immemor). Aeneas
looks back at Tartarus at VI, 548 respicit Aeneas subito.
13 We shall return to the title tyrannus below; for the image of Dis’ kingship (especially with respect to Jupi-
ter’s), see especially Cairns (1989: p. 27).
14 And on the veiled Eurydice, whose covering Orpheus apparently draws back, see Mynors (1990: ad loc.).
15 There is a possible reference here to the tradition of the requirements for her own release from the un-
derworld in the wake of her abduction; Proserpina is a fitting figure to offer rubrics for transit from hell.
16 Orpheus is something of a victim of the madness of extreme passion, so too Dido. For the former and the
death he suffers after he abjures erotic madness, see Putnam (1979: p. 313).
17 The field is replete with what Nicholas Horsfall has rightly called “injudicious speculation,” a problem
not helped by the poet’s “disorder or inconsistency in … localisation of certain figures” and “a certain
disregard … for precise harmonisation of detail and elimination of inconsistencies” (from the editor’s
introduction to his edition of Aeneid VI).

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georgic – the Virgilian book of the bees – the Orpheus and Eurydice epyllion serves as
prelude to the narrative of the bugonia; Aristaeus’ bees will be reborn only after propitia-
tory offerings to the shades of Orpheus and Eurydice.18 There is rebirth, then, but only
after loss and atonement. The Trojans of Virgil’s narrative epic will likewise be afforded a
chance at new life, but only after the loss of Aeneas’ wife.19 Creüsa is an image of Trojan
maternity and continuity; her loss is a necessary prolegomenon to the union of Aeneas
and Lavinia in Italy.
The first named appearance of the god of the underworld in the Aeneid comes in a
scene that offers something of a reversal of the Georgics passage, a scene in which a lover
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of Aeneas figures (and not a legal spouse). Proserpina had not yet cut a lock of Dido’s
blonde hair, and so Carthage’s queen is unable to die: Eurydice was destined not to
leave Avernus, while Dido finds it difficult to enter.20 On the order of Juno, the rainbow
goddess Iris descends to earth to procure the lock as an offering to Dis:

… hunc ego Diti

sacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore solvo (IV, 702‒703)21

The fourth book of Virgil’s national epic closes with a sequence that recalls the pas-
sage from the fourth georgic; in both cases, Dis is associated with the loss of a young
woman.22 In the georgic, Proserpina gave the order about Orpheus’ not indulging in a
backward glance at his wife; in the death scene of Dido, the goddess is apparently the
one who would normally come to cut a bit of hair as an offering to her infernal spouse.23
The lock of hair will be sacred to the god; it will be a gift that permits the separation of
soul from body.24 The language about the separation of Dido (te) from her body is richly
evocative, even as it frustrates precise theological explication; we might equate the per-

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sonal pronoun te with Dido’s anima or “soul/spirit,” but Virgil does not permit any de-
finitive eschatological exegesis. Further, the sequence of Dido’s suicide and the difficulty
with which her soul escapes to the lower world follows on the queen’s own mention to
her nurse Barce that she intended to complete the sacred rites for “Stygian Jove,” that is,
for Dis (IV, 638‒640 sacra Iovi Stygio, quae rite incepta paravi, / perficere est animus finemque
imponere curis / Dardaniique rogum capitis permittere flammae).
The appearance of Dis at the end of Aeneid 4 deliberately recalls that of the god near
the end of Georgics 4; we are thrust into the same world of tragic loss as in the Orphic
underworld scene. In the matter of Trojan progression to Hesperia, the relatively brief

18 See further here R. Thomas, “Bugonia,” in The Virgil Encyclopedia (hereafter VE; 2014: Vol. I, pp. 211‒212),
with reference to optimistic and pessimistic readings of the end of the fourth georgic.
19 On the knowledge that must be acquired before new life is possible, see Miles (1980: p. 291).
20 For an especially sensitive reading of this passage, see Johnson (1976: pp. 66‒75).
21 On the place of this passage in the larger context of Book IV, see Kühn (1971: p. 76).
22 For Dido as a youthful girl (contra the image of a middle-aged woman), see Clausen (2002: pp. 211‒212).
23 Cf. the similar situation with respect to the Golden Bough (VI, 142‒143 hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proser-
pina munus / instituit); VI, 637 … perfecto munere deae.
24 On the possible onomastic tricks (“Sidonia Dido”/Dis as wealthy, etc.), see Paschalis (1997: pp. 174‒175).

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union with Dido is as doomed as the marriage to Creüsa; Aeneas will not remain in
Carthage, and the relationship with Dido will end in sword and flame.25
We should also note that Virgil mentions the mysterious deity Orcus in his description
of the episode of Dido’s lock (IV, 698‒699 nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem
/ abstulerat Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco). Orcus is a shadowy figure, a veritable per-
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sonification of death; there may be associations with the notion of oath taking and the
consequences of broken oaths (cf. below on the oaths of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid
XII).26 Orcus is not Dis; perhaps it would not be too inaccurate to say that as “Dis” can
refer both to god and place, so “Orcus” can identify both god and death. Orcus may have

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a particularly appropriate place in the Dido death scene, given the question of devotion
and loyalty that is associated with the making of oaths and promises of fidelity.27
Aeneas was left unsure of the exact circumstances of Creüsa’s death; he is also igno-
rant of the details of Dido’s. In the former case, death was apparently easy, and colloquy
was possible (however fleeting) with the shade of the dead woman; in the latter instance,
death was prolonged and difficult, and there would be silence when the two were briefly
reunited in the underworld.
The second reference to the god in the epic comes at V, 731 ff., where the shade of
Anchises instructs Aeneas on how he should visit the lower regions and seek counsel
with his father before the war that must be fought in Latium:

… Ditis tamen ante

infernas accede domos et Averna per alta
congressus, pete, nate, meos. (V, 731‒733)28

The passage does not come at the end of Book V (which is reserved for the drama of the
loss of Aeneas’ helmsman Palinurus), but it does come as part of a balanced set of refer-
ences to 1) Anchises, who dies at the end of Book III, and who visits Aeneas in dream
apparition in the later movements of Book V; and 2) Creüsa and Dido, whose deaths
come at the end of Books II and IV. In the case of Creüsa and Anchises, both offer post
mortem comments to Aeneas on his destiny. Once again god and place merge into one;
in infernas … domos there is a reference to underworld domesticity that evokes memory
of the god’s abduction of Proserpina, and of the Trojan search for a new home in the
aftermath of the destruction of Troy and the loss of so many who were close to Aeneas.
Not surprisingly, Book VI of the Aeneid has the most references to Dis. Aeneas refers
to the god as the “infernal king” at VI, 106‒107 … hic inferni ianua regis / dicitur, as he
25 And, too, with deadly consequences for the future Romans vis-à-vis their Carthaginian neighbors.
26 At Georgics I, 277, Orcus is linked with the Eumenides (a shared birthday); Charon is the portitor Orci at
Georgics IV, 502. More generally, “Orcus” = Death; so at Aeneid II, 398; VI, 273; IX, 527; IX, 785 (and cf. IX,
197, with a possibly personified Mors). On the association of Orcus with Aurora, note Bevilacqua (2009;
on the discovery of a curse tablet). More generally on Aurora (including some of the her darker aspects),
note Fratantuono (2013).
27 See further B. Gladhill, “Oaths,” in VE (2014: Vol. II, p. 923; with reference to Dido’s oath about her
chaste life at IV, 24‒27, and Aeneas’ to Dido at IV, 458‒460).
28 See here especially Steiner (1952: pp. 55‒58).

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addresses the Sibyl as part of his discussion about visiting the lower realms.29 At VI, 127
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis, the Sibyl explains how the descent to Avernus is easy;
the door is open night and day.30 The locus of the underworld is dark; the chromatic refe-
rence to blackness (atri) highlights the grim gloom of the lower region.31 Fittingly enough,
before his visit to the underworld commences, Aeneas makes sacrificial offerings both
to Proserpina and to the “Stygian king” (VI, 252 tum Stygio regi nocturnas incohat aras).32
The picture of the god’s domain expands at VI, 269 perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania
regna, where the emphasis is on the insubstantial nature of a kingdom of souls – an im-
perium animarum, as the poet notes when he invokes the di whose realm is one of shades
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(VI, 264).33 In a sense the domain of the underworld is both crowded and empty; Dis is
king over many and none.
Dis’ ferryman Charon complains to the Sibyl and Aeneas about his experience with
living travelers at the Styx; Hercules came to the lower world to fulfill the labor of cap-
turing the hellhound Cerberus, while Theseus and his friend Pirithous conceived the
crazed plan to effect a reverse abduction of Proserpina:

Tartareum ille manu custodem in vincla petivit

ipsius a solio regis traxitque trementem;
hi dominam Ditis thalamo deducere adorti. (VI, 395‒397)

The oblique, periphrastic reference to Dis as the king of the lower world bears compari-
son with the label of the god as tyrannus from the Georgics; Proserpina here, too, is identi-
fied as a domina or mistress of the lower world, with implied power over underlings. The
trembling and fear now are of Hades’ watchdog; both Hercules and the friends Theseus
and Pirithous attempt something akin to what Orpheus sought – escape from the under-

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world with that which should remain in the lower regions. The allusion to the story of
the Athenian hero and his friend also introduces the theme of abduction and potential
impropriety that is central to Troy lore (i.e., Paris’ absconding with Helen), and to the
rebirth of res Troianae in Italy (Turnus’ accusation that Aeneas seeks to abduct Lavinia).34
Aeneas ventures into the same harrowing locale as his heroic predecessors. At the very
crossroads of the underworld, the Sibyl notes that one path leads under the walls of Dis,
on the way to Elysium – and the other to dread Tartarus:

29 And cf. VI, 119‒120, where Aeneas reminds the Sibyl that Orpheus was permitted to make a journey to
Avernus.
30 The journey to the underworld was not easy, of course, for Dido.
31 For the color see Edgeworth (1992: pp. 74‒86). Edgeworth notes that ater is the first color adjective in the
Aeneid (I, 60, of Aeolus’ dark caves).
32 Book VI contains several of these oblique references to the god; the purpose is to underscore the notion
that one might do better not to use the god’s name and thus perhaps attract his attention. On the pietas
of the Trojan hero in making his offerings, see Mackie (1988: p. 120).
33 And at VI, 154 … regna invia, the poet refers to the trackless ways of the god’s kingdom. An additional
mention of the regna of the underworld comes at VI, 417, in the description of Cerberus and his barking.
34 Throughout the epic, Virgil carefully juxtaposes the notion of personal rebirth and the problem of the
renewal of a city; on the Virgilian theme of the pathos of the loss of home, cf. Farron (1993: pp. 63‒64).

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hic locus est, partis ubi se via findit in ambas:

dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit,
hac iter Elysium nobis; at laeva malorum
exercet poenas et ad impia Tartara mittit. (VI, 540‒543)
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The great god Dis is here associated with the blissful peace of Elysium, with a world de-
void of punishment and impiety, a realm removed from the fates of the wicked and the
abode of the eternal suffering merited by their deeds.35 The passage offers an interesting
comparison with V, 731‒733, where Aeneas was urged by the shade of his father to ap-

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proach the infernas domos and seek congress with his ancestor in Elysium; the emphasis
in both places is to the division between Tartarus and the blissful region that will be as-
sociated with notions of rebirth and reincarnation.
The god is nowhere in Elysium, however; nor is his dwelling with the souls of impia
Tartara.36 The Golden Bough is a talismanic offering to Proserpina; Aeneas will encoun-
ter neither the king nor the queen of Avernus. Tartarus is impius because of the crimes
of its inhabitants; of course one could also note that in the estimation of Ceres, at least,
her older brother Hades was exceedingly impius in his kidnapping of her daughter. Ha-
des is king over all the dead – the blessed and the accursed – and so fittingly enough his
throne and solium are not precisely located in either Elysium or Tartarus proper, even
as the poet rather deferentially notes that the way to the former proceeds long the foot
of the god’s walls.
Book VII – the first of the Iliadic Aeneid – offers two references to the underworld
god, with the first being the one and only reference to “Pluto” in the epic.37 Both passa-
ges concern Allecto, the furious instigator of the war in Latium (again, at the behest of
Juno). Allecto, we learn, is hated both by her father and her sisters:

odit et ipse pater Pluton, odere sorores

Tartareae monstrum… (VII, 327‒328)

The passage demands close examination, not least for its unique appellation of the
god.38 All the emphasis is on hate (odit … odere); Allecto may have familial ties to Pluto

35 For the “fortress” of the god, see Horsfall (2013: ad loc.). Horsfall also considers the question of the two
paths/ways in the lower world, and the connection of such imagery to the tenets of certain philosophical
and eschatological schools of thought.
36 The geography of the Virgilian underworld does not permit precise delineation of all locales and venues;
we might be tempted to wonder, for example, at where exactly Orpheus’ Eurydice fits into the carto-
graphy (either before or after her “second” death). For a start to a difficult problem, see Casagrande-Kim
(2012). “It is as if a series of set scenes were passing before Aeneas’ eyes rather than that he were making
a journey in a region with a defined geography.” (Williams, 1983: p. 53).
37 “Virgil uses the Greek Pluton only here: elsewhere his name for the god is the Italic Dis.” (Fordyce, 1977:
ad loc.).
38 See Horsfall (2000: ad loc.) for the Orphic genealogy of the Pluto and Persephone as the parents of the
Furies. The unique use of Pluto serves in part to draw special attention to the dramatic intervention of
the forces of the underworld on the side of Juno.

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and her sisters, but there is discord in the underworld realm (an image of civil war).
When Allecto has finished her work, she returns to the saevi spiracula Ditis, the “exhala-
tions of savage Dis” – the only occurrence of spiraculum in the Virgilian corpus, and
with a decidedly violent description of the Fury’s parent in the immediate aftermath of
the start of the war in Latium to add to the picture.39 Allecto is the daughter of Night;40
Pluto, however, is none other than Dis or “Dis pater” – and pater here with Pluto both
recalls the name/title of the god, and invests Pluto with de facto paternal responsibility
for the denizens of his underground realm, as the Zeus of the lower regions.41
The previous references to the underworld god are largely concerned with the questi-
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on of death and rebirth, indeed of what in vague, general terms could be referred to as
problem of reincarnation and rebirth, renewal and the chance for a sort of resurrection.
Pluto’s “daughter” Allecto marks the entrance of the infernal powers into the upper air,
the invasion, as it were, of earth by hell. These underworld powers serve at the behest of
Juno in Aeneid VII; in Book XII, they will be appropriated by Jupiter in his use of the Dira.
The use of the two names of the underworld god to frame the Allecto sequence
highlights something of a disjunction in the relationship of the immortal to his furious
quasi-daughter; Pluto hates Allecto (as do the other Furies), but when the infernal spirit
is done with her work on behalf of Juno (cf. the work of Iris at the end of Book IV in
the matter of Dido’s death), she returns to the abode of Dis – and he is saevus.42 The
reference to the savagery of the god refers, we might think, not so much to his feelings
toward the Fury as to the general associations of the underworld with gloom and vio-
lence; the hated Fury buries herself in its Stygian depths:

… quis condita Erinys,

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invisum numen, terras caelumque levabat. (VI, 570‒571)

Invisum harks back to the opening description of the hatred of parent and siblings for
Allecto.43 The participle condita may occasion remembrance of the significance of the
verb to the opening of the epic; it foreshadows, too, the recurrence of the same word
at the end.44 Allecto was the Junonian agent for the setting into motion of the deadly
conflict in central Italy, and she originates from the abode of the god of the underworld,
her surrogate father’s haunt.
The Furies make something of a return in the next reference to the god, this time in
the great description of the Shield of Aeneas. Vulcan had depicted the Romulean she-

39 For the possible recollection of Ennius, Annales fr. 222 (Skutsch, 1985), see Goldschmidt (2013: pp.
135‒136).
40 VII, 331; cf. XII, 845‒847 of the Dirae.
41 The mention of the sororial Furies emphasizes or at least highlights, however, the familial import of pater.
42 We shall return to his key adjective below.
43 With, too, the attendant notion that she is now unseen (except, of course, by her fellow underworld
denizens). Invisum is used early in the epic of the Trojan genus (I, 28); cf. (among other uses) II, 574 (of
Sparta’s queen, in the Helenaszene).
44 Cf. I, 5 and XII, 950, the latter instance in an act of violence that Allecto would appreciate.

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wolf, and not far from her, the city of Rome (VIII, 635 nec procul hinc Roma); far off, in
contrast, there was a representation of the underworld and the diverse fates of Tartarean
Catiline and Elysian Cato (VIII, 666‒670). Here the alta ostia Ditis are an integral part
of the artwork of the shield; indeed, the underworld of Catiline and Cato is mentioned
just before the great description of the god’s presentation of Actium.45 It is an Aeneid VI
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in miniature, with two Roman historical personages for underworld population. We are
reminded of the two paths in the lower realm, of the road to Tartarus and that to Ely-
sium.46 The shield of Aeneas depicts the future events of Roman history, including the
dark reality of civil war and internecine strife – an image that was central to the poet’s

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emphasis on how even in the underworld, we find familial hatreds and division (i.e., the
relationship between Pluto and the sorority of Furies). The divisions in the underworld
are reminiscent of those on Olympus, where Jupiter and Juno are in opposition with
respect to the question of the Trojan future.
The threads of reference to the underworld god in the last book of the epic provide
solutions to the mysterious involvement of Dis in the Virgilian corpus. First we find Aver-
nus prominently featured in the oath sworn by Latinus as part of the would-be peace
settlement between Trojans and Latins:

haec eadem, Aenea, terram, mare, sidera, iuro

Latonaeque genus duplex Ianumque bifrontem,
vimque deum infernam et duri sacraria Ditis;
audiat haec genitor qui foedera fulmine sancit. (XII, 197‒200)47

The passage has occasioned difficulties, particularly as to the exact referent of haec
eadem, and the relationship between the deities invoked by Latinus and those named
by Aeneas at XII, 175 ff.48 Apollo and Diana represent the sun and the moon, but also
constitute an important immortal pair in the Augustan religious program; Janus is a suit-
able deity for oversight of the potential union of Latins and Trojans.49 Dis is described as
durus, that is, hard and unbending, stubborn and unyielding; the adjective may refer to
the finality of death, and to the seemingly harsh demands of the grave.50 The audience

45 The alta ostia recall the same image at Georgics IV, 467, the first reference to the god/his abode in Virgil.
46 With implicit commentary on Roman republican history: Catiline is relegated to the place of eternal
punishment, and Cato to unending bliss.
47 On this passage see especially Tarrant (2012: ad loc.).
48 For the psychology and function of Latinus in the Latin war, note Balk (1968: pp. 74‒95). With this prayer
of Latinus cf. Aeneas’ invocations at VII, 135 ff., where the “double parents” (duplicis … parentis) in heaven
and Erebus (i.e., Venus and Anchises).
49 Apollo and Diana – while siblings – are also in something of a state of opposition in the drama of Aeneid
XI, where the sister supports Camilla and the brother the Volscian heroine’s killer Arruns. This is the first
reference to the divine twins after the long Camilla sequence, and it comes with a reminder of the conflict
between them.
50 As for the god’s sacraria, the word is quite rare (cf. Lyne, 1978: ad 154); Tarrant suggests “abode” as tran-
slation. The noun probably implies a notion of sacred offerings and solemnity befitting the god; we may
recall sacrum of the lock of Dido’s hair at IV, 703.

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may also recall the poet’s highlighting of the god in the Allecto sequence that opened
the war in Latium. Any closure to the horrors of the Latin war must make some mention
of the great underworld god who is closely identified with the Fury.51 Latinus’ prayer,
however, ends with Jupiter – and the supreme god is identified with the lightning bolt
that is his proper weapon. In an important sense, the allusion points forward not only
to the resolution of the war, but also to the death of Turnus.52
Finally, at XII, 849‒850 hae Iovis ad solium saevique in limine regis / apparent, Virgil
describes the locus of the Dira that will be sent to terrify Turnus and his sister Juturna.53
Here the language and allusions recall imagery associated with Dis, even if the actual
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god in question is Jupiter; it could be argued that the two brothers become almost as
if one.54 The action of the Fury Allecto in Book VII was associated with Juno and (by
fault of parentage and provenance if not affection) Dis. In Book XII, Jupiter employs the
hellish Dirae to see to the fulfillment of the destinies of Turnus and Juturna.55 Pluto and
the Furies hated Allecto; Turnus and his sister Juturna remain on good enough terms,
but the Dira’s action enacts a separation of the siblings: the divine Juturna is compelled
to abandon the support of her all too mortal brother.
This passage comes soon after the two divine brothers Jupiter and Dis were closely
associated in Latinus’ prayer, where the power of the infernal gods was mentioned just
before an oblique reference to Jupiter as the one who sanctions treaties with the power
of his thunderbolt. In Virgil, there is no clear indication that the two brothers are in
opposition, though such conflict might well be implicit in Book VII.56 Pluto/Dis was in-
strumental in orchestrating the war in Latium, and now his younger brother Jupiter will
employ hellish powers as part of the resolution of the military conflict. Said resolution
will reach its climax with the death of Turnus; the Fury Allecto visited the Rutulian hero
in Book VII, and now the Dira will visit him soon before his death. In the important

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sense, the prayer of Latinus has been ratified by divine action – and said intervention of
the gods includes the employment of the forces of the lower world.
Saevus is a key adjective in the Aeneid.57 Jupiter is described as “savage” because his will,
it would seem, demands nothing less than the death of Turnus; the Rutulian’s fate is to
die, and the supreme god merely yields to the dictates of fate and refuses to counteract
the hero’s destiny. The savagery of the underworld lord is now associated with that of

51 And, too, the god is durus because his actions are always firm and unyielding with respect to the target
of wrath and fury; the action of the Dira is not dissimilar to that of Allecto, even if the context and con-
sequences are different.
52 Cf. the image of Turnus as rebellious giant (Hardie, 1986: pp. 147‒156).
53 On this passage see especially Reed (2007: p. 52).
54 On the connection of the Dira with the dei ira and the question of Jupiter’s anger, see O’Hara (1996:
p. 240).
55 For a convenient consideration of the larger issue of Jupiter’s exercise of justice here, see Henry (1989:
pp. 117‒178). Cf. too the sensitive reading of the scene by Di Cesare (1974: pp. 227‒231).
56 On the very different situation in Statius’ Thebaid, where Dis is in explicit rebellion from his brother
(another image of fraternal strife), see Ganiban (2007: pp. 118‒123).
57 There are some seventy-five occurrences in the poet. Note here C. Craca in Enciclopedia Virgiliana (1988:
Vol. IV, pp. 643‒645); also de Grummond (1968). The Fury Allecto has tam saevae facies at VII, 329.

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his younger (yet superior) brother. Once again, the poet emphasizes the notion of sac-
rifice and loss that precedes the achievement of the destined settlement and resolution
of the Trojan problem. Virgil’s Jupiter is described as a sender of sickness and war (XII,
851‒852); interestingly, the wars of Jupiter are sent to cities that are identified as deser-
ving of the punishment (meritas … urbes). The implication is that the Junonian-inspired
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fury and war of Book VII was not merited (certainly not by the Latins); the forces of hell
have been restrained, as it were, by the rational power of Jupiter – the power that now
uses infernal weapons in a controlled, “just” manner. The anger of the gods has not been
quelled – rather, it has been entrusted to Jupiter and rendered “moderate,” at least by

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Jovian standards.
We have noted that the Virgilian Allecto is allusively and even implicitly identified as
the offspring of Hades and Persephone, an ascription that can be paralleled in Orphic
family trees.58 Looming over the infernal, underworld imagery of the Aeneid is the es-
chatological question of the possibility of rebirth and renewal, the chance at a second
incarnation and new life for lost souls. At XII, 845‒852, however, the Dirae summoned
by Jupiter are identified as daughters of Nox or Night, sisters of the fury Megaera, just
as in Book VII Juno had addressed Allecto as the virgo sata Nocte.59 The Dirae have been
identified by some as none other than Allecto and Tisiphone (so that the one Dira sent
to earth could indeed be Allecto); this association is not, however, without its difficul-
ties – not least the question of VII, 327, where Pluto is in some sense the father of the
Furies.60
The sole Virgilian occurrence of Pluto as the name of Hades comes as part of an
implicit recollection of the Orphic genealogical ascription of the Furies to Pluto and
Persephone. The Virgilian Night is the mother of the Dirae; she is associated with both
death in general and, more specifically, the death of Turnus.61 In his careful arrangement
of references to paternity in Aeneid VII, Virgil first signals the Orphic tradition of the
fatherhood of Pluto, before having Juno in effect correct the family tree by associating
Allecto with Nox. When the furious Dirae are summoned by Jove in Book XII, they are
closely associated with their mother Nox – and with Jupiter now, not Pluto or Dis.62 The
reconciliation of Juno to the decrees of fate and destiny – and to her brother and hus-
band Jupiter – is in part signaled by the Jovian use of the furious power his sister and
queen had employed at the start of the war.63

58 See Horsfall (2000: ad VII, 327‒328) for the citations from Orphic and other literature (e.g., Hymni Or-
phici 29.6; 68.8).
59 VII, 331.
60 See especially here Tarrant ad loc. Virgil does not make it entirely explicit whence the Dirae are summo-
ned (i.e., whether or not they are always at the door of Jupiter’s abode, or fetched from some subterrane-
an haunt).
61 Cf. L. Fratantuono & R. Thomas, “Night,” in VE (2014: Vol. II, pp. 904‒905).
62 XII, 846‒847; XII, 860.
63 The Dira evokes the deum ira; the Dira is a portent of the death of Turnus with which the epic ends.
Somewhere in these final dark movements of the epic there is a reflection on if not an answer to the
rhetorical question of I, 11 … tantaene animis caelestibus irae, where the caelestes are in the end both Juno
and the “savage” Jupiter.

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The reference to pater Pluton comes as the first mention of Hades in the Iliadic Aeneid,
and it serves as a transition from the Orphic emphases of the first half of the epic to
the veritable perpetual night of the second, the dark world of a war engendered by the
actions of the arch Fury, even as it closes with the Jovian takeover of the potent forces
of the underworld. On finding a reference to Pluton pater, one might have guessed that
the Virgilian Allecto is a child of Pluto after Orphic fashion; soon enough Juno dispels
the notion of such a lineage in her vocative sata Nocte, and her ascription of nocturnal
parentage is echoed in the emphasis on Night’s maternal connection to the Dirae in
Book XII.64 The children of Night thus appear in the first and last movements of the
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Virgilian books of war (Books VII and XII); the “daughters of Night” serves as a framing
device for the maius opus of the second half of the poem.65 In the hellish results of their
furious achievements, the Orphic dream of rebirth and renewal is forgotten, as the war
in Italy proceeds inexorably to the indignant flights of both Camilla and Turnus to the
shadows.66

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Prof. Lee Fratantuono, Ph.D. / lmfratan@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan University
Slocum Hall 332
OH 43015, Delaware, USA
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