Section 9 · lines 234–245

The present tense makes the Trojans' fatal act happen before our eyes.

The first word shows the Trojans themselves tearing open the walls that the Greeks had failed to break in ten years.

The verb sits between "walls" and "of the city", so the word order itself opens up the walls, as the Trojans do.

Another present tense keeps the scene vivid and fast.

The present tense shows the eager work going on now.

Opening with the verb stresses how keen the Trojans are to begin their own destruction.

Everyone joins in: the whole city shares the blame, which deepens the tragedy.

The present tense makes the practical details vivid, as if we were watching the work.

The present tense keeps the action moving towards the moment the horse enters.

The verb is pushed to the start of the line, so the effort of hauling the horse is felt.

The horse climbs the walls in the present tense, like an enemy soldier scaling them.

The verb comes first, so the horse is pictured scaling the walls like an attacker in a siege.

The walls, Troy's defences, end the sentence: the horse now crosses them.

feta means "pregnant": the horse carries armed men like a mother carrying young, a grim image of what it will soon release.

The horse's deadly contents are held over to the next line and placed first, so the reader is jolted by the truth the Trojans cannot see.

The present tense makes the children's singing vivid, which makes the scene even more tragic.

Ending on "they rejoice" shows the innocent joy of the children as they pull their own city's doom.

The children are happy to touch the rope, but the reader knows they are helping to destroy Troy.

The words for "middle" and "city" frame the threatening horse as it glides into the heart of Troy.

The present tense and the gliding verb echo the snakes, so the horse seems to slither into the city just as they did.

Aeneas breaks off his story to cry out to Troy itself, which shows how painful the memory still is for him.

Three addresses build to a climax of grief, as Aeneas calls out to his city again and again.

The repeated cry addresses the city by its ancient name and calls it the home of the gods, which makes its fall all the more terrible.

The adjective and noun are split across the line, stressing the walls' past glory just as they are betrayed.

The vowels run together, which speeds the line as the horse reaches the gate.

The verb comes at the start of the line, after the pause of the line end, so the horse seems to stop dead on the threshold.

After the run of present tenses, the perfect substitit marks a sudden halt, a moment that should have warned the Trojans.

The repeated s and t sounds imitate the clank of the armour inside the horse.

uterus means "womb", continuing the image of the pregnant horse about to give birth to soldiers.

quater is repeated, so the reader counts the warnings the Trojans ignore.

arma comes late in the sentence, so the truth about what is inside arrives at the end, when it is almost too late.

The first word shows the Trojans pushing ahead even after the warnings.

The present tense brings the reader back into the action and the mistake.

furor (madness) is a key idea in the Aeneid: the Trojans are blinded and cannot see what is plain in front of them.

The ill-omened monster is placed right next to the holy citadel, which makes the contrast stark.

The repeated s sounds give the line a hissing sound that echoes the snakes.

The present tense makes the final mistake vivid: the Trojans themselves place their doom in the heart of the city.

The holy citadel surrounds the verb, so the monster is set right in the middle of Troy's holiest place.

The horse was too large to pass through the gates of Troy

Choirs of boys and unmarried girls sang hymns at Roman religious festivals. The Trojans treat the arrival of the horse as a holy procession.

Another name for Troy, from Ilus, one of its early kings. Aeneas calls it the home of the gods because gods were said to have helped build its walls: Apollo and Neptune built them for King Laomedon.

The Dardanidae are the descendants of Dardanus, son of Jupiter and founder of the Trojan royal family, from whom Aeneas himself was descended.

To stumble on the threshold was always held as a bad omen