Aeneid

“Aeneid” is a Ukrainian burlesque travesty poem written by author Ivan Kotliarevsky, based on the plot of the classical epic of the same name by the Roman poet Virgil. Unlike Virgil’s twelve books, Kotliarevsky’s version consists of six parts and is written in iambic tetrameter.

The poem was composed during the rise of Romanticism and nationalism in Europe, against the backdrop of nostalgia felt by parts of the Ukrainian elite for the Cossack state, which had been dismantled by the Russian Empire between 1775 and 1786. Aeneid is the first major work of Ukrainian literature written in the vernacular Ukrainian language. It marked the beginning of modern Ukrainian literature.