Virgil - Aeneid, The - 6

[StefanY]

Aeneid, The


The Aeneid is basically a sequel to the Iliad by Homer but told with a slant to Roman ideology and history. What Virgil has done with the Aeneid is to take Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and combine them into one work that takes the best out of the two originals and makes them valid and relevant to Roman sensibilities. (Just as Homer himself took the old legends and mythology of the Greeks and used them to create his two epic poems.)

Virgil does a wonderful job of keeping the reader engaged through the first half of his story. (Which is modeled after the Odyssey.) There is a real sense of adventure and finding love throughout this section of the book and the pacing moves it along rather quickly. Towards the end of this portion however, the book takes a turn in my opinion when Aeneas has to travel into the Underworld to visit the spirits of the dead. Things in this portion got a bit drawn out and dull to me and the climax of this scene was nothing more than a direct homage to the Roman rulers and their fine lineage. Basically, it was just a bunch of brown-nosing for the benefit of the ruling Caesar.

The second half of the book is the war section (the Iliad part of the book.) The pace once again picks up and we are rewarded for our persistence with an epic battle between the two grand heroes.

All in all, I found the Aeneid to be an entertaining read. Virgil does a nice job filling in missing events from the Iliad and Odyssey while also creating a continuation of the tale itself which leads to the founding of the Roman Empire.

If you're into the classics of literature, this is a must read.

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[Mary Russell]

Hmmm. Well, I cannot say the Aeneid is one of my favourites. I liked the fact that a lot of missing details were filled in, but it was still...how shall I put this? Boring? No, not quite boring. Tedious. That's the word! It took forever to get through some of those descriptions! It probably doesn't help that I had to read it in two nights for a class, so I didn't have time to appreciate all the subtle points of beauty in the story... Dido was great though!