Destiny’s Exile is an abridged and annotated version of Vergil’s epic poem, written as a sub-textual narrative thread for Soul of the West. This work spans four volumes.

Volume 1: Sons of Arуas, will be knitted together by 23 entries from Vergil, extracted from Book 1 of his work.

Volume 2: Shades of Arуas, will be woven with 18 entries extracted from Book 2 of The Aeneid.

Volume 3: Hounds of Arуas, shall be illuminated by Books 3-7.

Volume 4: Daughters of Arуas, will be examined in the light of Books 8-12 of The Aeneid.

I am working from two translations and will duplicate the first verse of each below:

“Of arms I sing and the hero, destiny’s exile,

Who came from the beach of Troy and was the first

To make Lavinian landfall, Italy;

Who in the grips of immortal powers was pounded

By land and sea to sate the implacable hatred of Juno

-Patric Dickenson, 1961

“ARMS, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,

And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,

Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore.

Long labours, both by sea and land, he bore,

And in the doubtful war, before he won”

- JOHN DRYDEN, 1965

The structure of these two translations is more drastically different than the wording. I like Dryden’s structure and Dickenson’s wording. Hence I will use Dickenson’s phraseology for segment titles and use Dryden’s structure, correcting his terminology where—like Dickenson’s and all English-Anglo authors, he strives to depict the human condition of antiquity in fantastically benign hues, particularly where slavery is concerned. Unique among dominant cultures, English literature concerning myth, faith and history paid a singular devotion to the depiction of slavery in the modern world as an unmatched evil and to slavery in the ancient world as ridiculously benign. This course of modern Christian apologetics will not be countenanced here, for this book is the treatment of a pre-Christian subject from a post-Christian vantage.

James, LaFond, 7/30/19