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Book 14: The Apotheosis of Aeneas
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Metamorphoses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Metamorphosis
Humanity vs. Nature
Love and Destruction
Gods and Humans
Time, Fate, and Poetry
Summary
Analysis
After Aeneas becomes a god, his son Iulus rules the new lands. Iulus is succeeded by his son, who is succeeded by his son; after six natural successions, Tibernus rules briefly, then drowns in a stream, leaving behind two sons, Remulus and Acrota. Remulus is struck by lightning, and Acrota hands the kingdom over to Aventinus.
This passage lists Aeneas’s lineage and therefore points out the moment when Aeneas’s kingdom leaves the hands of his descendants and falls into the hands of others. This passage shows how lineage as well as natural disasters affects the course of history.
Themes
