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TheGolden Bough is one of the episodes of theAeneid, anepic poem by the Roman poetVirgil (70–19 BC), which narrates the adventures of the Trojan heroAeneas after theTrojan War.[1][2] The episode of the golden bough is found in the sixth book of theAeneid and concerns Aeneas'sjourney into the underworld.
WhileTroy was being destroyed in its last battle against the Greeks, Aeneas leaves the city and leads a quest to find a new homeland in the western Mediterranean.[3] In this mission, guided by the prophetHelenus, Aeneas arrives in Italy where he intends to found a city for his people. Once there,Deiphobe, theSibyl ofCumae, then an old woman over seven hundred years old, at the Temple ofApollo, consents to escort him on a journey into the underworld to comply with his wish to see theshade of his deceased father.[1][4]
Before entering theunderworld, Deiphobe tells Aeneas he must first bury the musicianMisenus, and also obtain the bough of gold which grows nearby in the woods around her cave, which must be given as a gift toProserpina, the queen ofPluto, king of the underworld. In the woods, Aeneas's mother, the goddessVenus, sends two doves to aid him in this difficult task, and these help him to find the tree. When Aeneas tears off the bough, a second golden bough springs up in its place, as the sibyl had told him it would.[5]
The Trojans, led byCorynaeus, carry out the funerary rites for Misenus, allowing Aeneas to start his descent into the Underworld. The Sibyl shows the golden bough toCharon, who only then allows them to enter his boat and cross theRiver Styx.[6] On the other side, she casts a drugged cake to the three-headed watchdogCerberus, who swallows it and falls asleep.[7] Once in the Underworld, Aeneas tries talking to some shades, and listens to the Sibyl speak of places, likeTartarus, where he sees a large prison, fenced by a triple wall, with wicked men being punished, and bordered by the fiery riverPhlegethon. At Pluto's palace, Aeneas puts the golden bough on the arched door, and goes through to theElysian Fields, the abode of those who led just and useful lives.[1][8]
Anchises, the father of Aeneas, is finally located in the green and sunny Elysium, where the beautiful riverEridanus flows. Aeneas attempts three times to hug his father, but has no success as his father's shade is like thin air, or empty dreams.
In spite of this, they have a happy encounter and Anchises tells his son about the nearby riverLethe, the river of forgetfulness, on the other side of which were a multitude of spirits waiting to be born on Earth. Over there were those who would be the descendants of Aeneas, and those who would live in the futureRoman Empire, such asRomulus,Camillus,Marcellus, and theCaesars. Anchises gives advice to Aeneas, and then leads him to the ivory gate, one of the gates of "Sleep", by which they return to Earth.[1][9]
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