The Aeneid - Useful illuminations

Question 1

How is the interpretation of the Trojan war moved towards reconciliation?

Answer 1

Blamed on ‘the cruelty of the gods’ rather than on either side - moving towards reconciliation

Question 2

Unity in the Underworld

Answer 2

Around the river Lethe, ‘numberless races and tribes of men’ are collected together

Question 3

How is the importance of both strength and government illustrated?

Answer 3

Anchises’ parade of the Romans to come:
‘What warriors they are! Long at the strength of them! Look at the oak wreaths, the Civic Crowns, that shade their foreheads!’

Question 4

Loom comparative, like in Odyssey

Answer 4

Jupiter: ‘as each man has set up his loom, so he will endure the labour and the fortune of it”

Question 5

Jupiter - equality

Answer 5

“Jupiter is the same king to all men”

Question 6

Priam - commentary on Achilles

Answer 6

[Priam, of Pyrrhus] ‘you pretend that Achilles was your father, but this is not how Achilles treated his enemy Priam. He had respect for my rights as a supplicant and for the trust I placed in him’
Illustrating how the Iliad was received as a model of the development of civilisation through Achilles?