Aeneas, guided by the Sybil, journeys down to the world of the dead.

Virgil's hexameter has a remarkable structure. We could, at first sight, think that the word order is somehow contrived. After all, it would have been more natural to "move alone" and "in a dark night." But let's try to recreate that image. Think about Aeneas and the Sybil -wrapped in the shadows of a forest where the night steals the color from all things- and you will see that both versions are equally close to our mental image. And Virgil's choice is stronger, aided no doubt, by the fact that in Latin the word "lonely" comes before "beneath."

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