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English 240: Ancient Literature Study Questions on Virgil's Aeneid Al Drake. Office: Classroom, M 6:00-7:00 | 714-434-1612 Book 1 1. How does Virgil’s invocation from lines 1-18 compare to Homer’s invocation in The Odyssey? What is similar? What is different? 2. From lines 24-116, we get our first look at Virgil’s gods. What is Juno’s (i.e. Hera’s) interest in withholding favor from Aeneas? How does she compare with Homer’s Hera? What is her relationship with Aeolus? 3. From 131-76 and 221-311, we first see Aeneas. What kind of hero does this first look lead you to expect? What heroic qualities does he show? 4. From 312-417, when Venus (Aphrodite, Aeneas’ mother) demands help from Jupiter (Zeus), what promises does he console her with? How might we suppose these promises differentiate Virgil’s purpose in the Aeneid from that of Homer in The Odyssey? 5. From 418-525, what place does Dido have in Jupiter’s plans for Aeneas? How does Venus’ story about Dido’s history complicate your view of those plans? 6. From 526-624, Venus, in disguise, offers her son Aeneas advice. How does this interaction between a goddess and her mortal son compare with Odysseus’ conversations with Athena? 7. From 625-687, what is the significance of this passage in which Aeneas beholds images of the Trojan war? Why is it appropriate that Virgil include such an episode at this point? 8. From 698-897, what affinities between Dido’s kingdom and Aeneas’ Trojan remnant emerge? 9. From 918-1053, why does Venus (Cytherea is another name for Venus or Aphrodite) want to ensnare Dido? Book 2 10. We spent some time on the purposes served by Odysseus’ recounting of his exploits in Books 9-12 of The Odyssey. What purposes does Aeneas’ retelling of his final days in Troy serve? 11. A major Roman characteristic is pietas, or piety towards one’s family and ancestors. How does this book rely upon that characteristic? Book 3 12. From 1-95, Aeneas and his followers build a city in Thrace. But what lesson does Aeneas learn from Polydorus that makes him want to leave the new city Aeneadae behind? 13. Next they sail to Delos, and lines 96-253 are taken up with Anchises’s interpretation of Apollo’s omens, and with the consequences of that interpretation. What mistake does Anchises make, and as a result what do the followers of Aeneas learn? 14. From lines 254-346, the Trojan remnant of Aeneas land on the Strophades, where they encounter the Harpies. What do they learn from the Harpies, and what is to be understood from the manner in which Aeneas and his people have learned something more about their destiny? 15. From 347-606, Aeneas sails around various Greek islands, and, a year having passed, goes to Buthrotum where he encounters Andromache, the fallen Trojan hero Hector’s wife. What is her story, and what are the main features of the prophecy given them by her new husband Helenus? 16. From 628-59, what exchange takes place between Aeneas and Andromache? How do the two of them reflect on the history and future of the Trojans? 17. From 660-739, the Trojan remnant fulfill some of Helenus’ prophecies, and then at 740-873 they land on the Island of the Cyclops, where they meet Achaemenides and, later, the Cyclops. How does the Trojans’ confrontation with the Cyclops differentiate them from Ulysses (Odysseus) and his men? 18. At the end of the third book, Aeneas’ father Anchises dies. How do you interpret this event in light of what has happened so far, and what must happen in the near future? Book 4 19. How does Virgil explore the "heroism" of Aeneas in this book? What limitations are placed upon Aeneas in his love affair with Dido? To what extent, if any, does he seem to resist those limitations? 20. Dido is clearly the center of this book, and her situation contains much pathos. Does Virgil's narrator treat her with entire sympathy, or does he try to distance his audience from her? If so, by what means does he do that? 21. How are the gods involved in the action of the fourth book? Mainly, what goes on between Juno and Venus? Edition: Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. New York: Bantam, 1981. ISBN: 0553210416.
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