Creusa Pleads with Aeneas as He Leaves for War

Moreau’s Creusa Pleads with Aeneas depicts the moment in the Trojan War when Aeneas must decide whether to continue to defend Troy or save his family from certain death. This was a final preparatory drawing for an engraving, which would appear in the book of a French translation of Virgil’s Aeneid published in 1804. The inscription’s Latin text is spoken by Aeneas’s wife, Creusa: “If you are going out to die, take us to face it with you.”