Aeneid Book 3 Summary

       Book 3 of the Aeneid is the continuation of Aeneas' retelling of the fall of Troy. Aeneas and his comrades escape Troy and sail to Antander. Upon landing, Aeneas tries to gather wood for a sacrifice, but the tree he cuts turns out to be the spirit of Polydorus who was Priam's son. They have a burial for him, and sail to Delos. While on Delos, Apollo talks to Aeneas and tells him to sail to Crete. They begin to sail to Crete, but a disease grabs the crew, and they go back to Delos. They realize that they misinterpreted the vision from Apollo, and that they were supposed to go to Italy. They set sail again, but a 3-day storm hits, and they land at the Strophades which is a cluster of islands that harbors savage beasts called harpies. The crew departs from here to go to Leucata where Aeneas meets Andromache who tells him about her and Helenus' time in captivity, and then she tells how to get to Italy and avoid troublesome waters. They make it to the southern coast of Italy where they see a man who tells them about a cyclops. The cyclops then appears, and they make a hasty escape off the coast.