The Aeneid Essays

The Aeneid

'I sing of arms and of the man, fated to be an exile', begins Virgil, and it is on precisely the issue of this man of arms that critical debate in recent years has tended to centre. Scholars continue to disagree on whether or not Aeneas is...

The Aeneid

As a modern reader approaching the epics, one inevitably brings certain expectations and standards formed throughout the course of our experiences; one's literary appetite is accustomed to a certain kind of satisfaction, and one of the most...

The Aeneid

Duty is a recurring theme throughout Virgils The Aeneid. It plays a crucial role as a key character trait for the individuals that we encounter. If one takes the protagonist Aeneas aside and analyzes his persistent adherence to his own destiny,...

The Aeneid

Mythological accounts constantly transform themselves in crossing cultures and enduring time, but two versions of the story of Dido and Aeneas, one by a shy, serious, government-sponsored poet; the other by an often lighthearted author, a future...

The Aeneid

The Aeneid clearly reflects the influence which Homer's Odyssey had on Virgil's writing. Among the several common aspects shared by these two epic poems, each author's depiction of the Underworld provides an interesting basis for comparison....

The Aeneid

An important recurring image throughout Virgil's Aeneid is that of the serpent, which appears both realistically and metaphorically. The serpent icon is a harbinger of death and a symbol of deception. These two elements represented by the snake...

The Aeneid

In The Aeneid, Virgil introduces the post-Homeric epic, an epic that immortalizes both a hero's glory and the foundation of a people. The scope of the Aeneid can be paralleled to the scope of the Oresteia of Aeschylus, which explores the origins...

The Aeneid

Virgil's Aeneid details the trials and tribulations of Aeneas and the Trojan people en route to Italy from Troy. The journey parallels the epic adventures of the Homeric hero Odysseus. Virgil borrows Homer's narrative style and frames a story that...

The Aeneid

In both Virgil's The Aeneid and books Genesis and Exodus of the Old Testament, dreams, visions, signs, wonders and divinations serve as powerful testaments to the universal knowledge and might of the pagan Roman gods and the Jewish god. Revealing...

The Aeneid

In Book IV of Virgil's epic The Aeneid, the gods' messenger Mercury advises the hero Aeneas that "An ever uncertain and inconstant thing is woman" (IV.768-7). As Aeneas makes his journey from the ruins of Troy to the potential glory of Latium, he...

The Aeneid

Elizabeth Smith

Professor Colin Dickey

Eng 640

22 October, 2006

Surrey's Innovations and Achievements in His Aeneid

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is credited as the inventor of English blank verse. In addition to this, he translated books II and IV of...

The Aeneid

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” This popular saying, paraphrased from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride, was written nearly 1600 years after Vergil's Aeneid. Even so, the quote speaks to the Aeneid's exploration of the relationship...

The Aeneid

Repetition in the Aeneid

Ancient Rome was highly dependent on repetition; a repetition of Greek Architecture, repetition of the Olympian Gods, and even a repetition of Greek Literature. This is not to say that Roman culture was a cheap knock-off of...

The Aeneid

How can art and warfare be reconciled? It would appear that art would have no place on the battlefield, where men are too concerned with survival and personal glory to indulge in aesthetic appreciation. The combination of art and Aeneas’ shield in...

The Aeneid

Admirable qualities of men in Virgil’s The Aeneid include bravery, honor, and courage, but a woman’s value is based less on their power, wit and brains and more on their beauty, or lack of beauty. There are many instances within The Aeneid where...

College

The Aeneid

Sympathy arises from an instinctive desire to identify with the emotions of others. It can lead people to strive to maintain good relations with their fellow human beings and provide the basis both for specific benevolent acts and for the general...