<p>A. K. Michels thinks the Gates of Sleep explain Aeneas' forgetfulness in the sub-sequent books of what he saw and heard in the underworld ("THE INSOMNIUM OF AENEAS", Cl. Qu. 31 (i), 1981, 140-6). Her observation that Aeneas forgets all of his catabatic experience (including the Show of the Roman Heroes) is contrary to the popular view but seems to me to be right. This paper aims at supporting her interpretation of the Gates of Sleep by trying to show that Rome meant next to nothing to Aeneas not only in the last half of but all through the Aeneid and that it was Troy instead that held him to the end. There is in the Aeneid what might be called 'the tale of Aeneas', which begins on the last day of Troy and ends with his killing of Turnus. This tale covers no more than seven or eight years and its setting is still the Homeric world. Rome is in the distant future and, one might say, outside 'the tale of Aeneas'. As the Aeneid shows, Virgil's purpose was not to narrate 'the tale of Aeneas' alone as it was but rather to make use of it for the glorification of Rome. He not only tells 'the tale of Aeneas' as the origin of Roman history but even tries to make us feel as if all the labores of Aeneas in 'the tale' had been done for and successfully resulted in, for example, Rome's birth itself, or Augustus' world dominion itself, although these things were in the far distant future for Aeneas. These and other various devices allowed Virgil to attain his purpose, but at the same time they led to a misunderstanding. Those devices were devised, as it were, outside 'the tale of Aeneas', meant for Roman readers, and had nothing to do with Aeneas himself who was in 'the tale'. But many readers came to think as if Aeneas himself had known something about Rome and even striven for its realization in the distant future. This is a misunderstanding because he did not have any clear knowledge of Rome and because he had his own purpose and 'mission' to perform which bore no direct relation to Rome. His 'mission' was, in brief, the revival of Troy, his own patria. The popular and ruling view holds that Aeneas abandons Troy (the past) and turns his eyes to Rome (the future) with his catabasis, esp. his seeing the Show of the Roman Heroes there as a turning-point. But if my investigation is correct, nowhere in the A eneid does Aeneas abandon his fatherland. The following passages will show what he and the other Trojans had in mind to the end; 1. 5-6, 1. 68, 1. 205-6, 2. 293-5, 2. 703, 3. 86-7, 3. 462, 3. 504-5, 5. 631-8, 6. 66-8, 7. 120-2, 7. 228-30, 8. 9-13, 8. 36-7, 9. 644, 10. 27, 10. 58, 12. 819-28. As these passages indicate, there is no difference between what they aimed at before and after the catabasis. It did not have any effect upon them. And there are some points that strongly suggest Aeneas' forgetfulness of his experience in the underworld. For example, he never mentions any of the experience. And he never makes any use of his father's advice (6. 890-2). And the advice seems inconsistent with Jupiter's speech (9. 96-7). Rome is, as remarked above, in the distant future for Aeneas, outside 'the tale of Aeneas', and so is basically beyond his grasp. But there are two occasions on which future Rome wedges into 'the tale' or 'the world of Aeneas' and makes direct contact with him. (2. 679-704, 3. 97-8, 3. 158-9, 4. 275, etc. are negligible as far as Aeneas is concerned, cf. a lot cf passages collected above, 6. 716-8, 9. 644.) One is that of the Show of the Roman Heroes in question and the other the Shield of Aeneas Vulcan made and Venus brings to him (8. 626-728). And in the latter case Virgil added at the end of the scene an explanatory note to the effect that Aeneas did not know or understand the great events of the Roman</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>