Aeneid Scholarship Views

Question 1

Galinsky in Turnus

Answer 1

Turnus is dominated by fury and madness which takes on the aspects of wickedness

Question 2

Goldberg on Turnus and Aeneas

Answer 2

Turnus is an expression of the Old Homeric codes of honour which Aeneas must overcome in order to establish Roman values

Question 3

Cairns on Aeneas

Answer 3

Aeneas is not a woodenly perfect hero but has humanising faults throughout

Question 4

Reilly on women

Answer 4

Women who step out of line are doomed to fail

Question 5

Quinn on Augustus

Answer 5

Augustus wanted an epic with himself as the hero

Question 6

Jenkyns on Dido

Answer 6

The gods caused her (Dido) to love but she chose to act upon it

Question 7

Edwards on Dido

Answer 7

Dido is certainly a paralleled to Cleopatra

Question 8

Grandsen on Aeneas

Answer 8

Aeneas is no more than a puppet

Question 9

Grandsen on fate

Answer 9

Fate dominates the Aeneid

Question 10

Morgan on the Gods

Answer 10

The gods are entertaining

Question 11

Grebe on the purpose of Aeneid

Answer 11

The Aeneid was certainly used as propaganda

Question 12

Ross on fate

Answer 12

Fate seems to always be in control

Question 13

Markus on destiny

Answer 13

Destiny is dependent on human will and effort

Question 14

Toll on the purpose of the Aeneid

Answer 14

The Aeneid is a poem of national identity

Question 15

Toll on Virgils beliefs

Answer 15

Virgil’s ideas about the Romans… were much more important to his poem than his ideas about Augustus

Question 16

Sowerby on father-son relationships

Answer 16

The relationship between father and son is the closest bond in the poem

Question 17

Williams on father-son relationships

Answer 17

The honour in which Anchises is held effects the importance of father-son relationships in Roman life