This was one of the three main texts for Ancient Civs in first year uni (1998), but I didn't actually finish any of them (the other two were The Odyssey and The Iliad, of course). This one I got farther with, but at uni you really have to juggle your extensive reading lists and with so many books to cover for English, History, Philosophy and Ancient Civs (that's my entire first year, right there), it was more prudent to stick with the short plays of Euripides, for instance, than these big epics. But I do remember enjoying what I read of this one, and dropping it in the bath. That, and Aeneas' love affair with Dido are the only things I remembered about this book. So I started reading this for the Classics book club pretty much from scratch.To give you some context, Virgil was Italy, or Rome's, Homer, and The Aeneid is basically, on one level anyway, his version of Homer's Iliad. But in fact this story is much more than that, and since I haven't read The Iliad I can't compare them (but if you have, it would give you an interesting context for reading this one). Here is a basic summary, which gives you most of the salient points of the story (personally I find spoilers don't apply to texts as old as this, but if you do you can skip the summary).It begins after the Battle of Troy, with the survivors of that doomed and destroyed city are in their ships, looking for a new home. But nothing happens without the gods meddling, and Juno seeks to prevent the Trojans from establishing a new Troy, as she has foreseen that it would eclipse her own favourite city, Cathage (in Tunisia), which she intended to one day rule the world. And so she sets the weather against the Trojans, aiming to destroy them for good, but Neptune intervenes and brings them safely to - wait for it - Carthage. Here reigns Queen Dido (the Greek name for Queen Elissa, the founder of Carthage), and thanks to Aeneas's immortal mother, Venus, Cupid makes her fall in love with Aeneas, the captain and leader of the surviving Trojans (I never really understood why). Aeneas tells Dido the story of the fall of Troy from the Trojan perspective, and what their plans are - but after he and Dido get busy in a cave one day, he seems to abandon the goal of establishing a new Troy.Enter Jove - or Jupiter or Zeus, king of the gods and both husband and brother to Juno - who sends a messenger to Aeneas to remind him of his mission, a god-ordained mission. Dido freaks out when Aeneas tells her he is leaving her, and both kills herself and destroys her city. Aeneas blithely sails on and eventually finds his way to Italy, where he arrives peacefully in Latium and is offered the king's daughter in marriage - but a rival for fair Lavinia, Turnus, incites war to oust the invaders, in which the gods - despite Jupiter's injunction to stop meddling - continue to play a hand in.There's a lot going on in this deceptively straight-forward epic, but I feel a bit Vergil'd out and lacking the motivation to really go into it all. Also, it's been about three weeks since I finished it. Let me start with a bit about this particular edition/translation.Robert Fagles is well known for his translations of the Greek and Roman epics, as a translator who makes these works accessible (readable) for modern audiences. At uni we were always told we had to read the Richard Latimore translations, as they're more "academic", but I was recently bitten by the "academic" translation of The Tale of Genji so I was determined to get Fagles this time, knowing I probably wouldn't be able to finish it in time for the book club meeting otherwise. And it certainly is readable. I think a comparison would be in order, though, because I want to say that there're some really beautiful lines in this book but I don't know if that's Vergil or Fagles, especially since in his Translator's Postscript Fagles talks about his own voice, and his work, which took me by surprise. He's not being completely presumptuous - in fact he sounds quite humbled by Virgil, as you read on - but there is as always this looming question of whether you're getting a true sense of the original. (I know, you'd have to read the original to get that, but what I mean is that every translator has their own style, and every translator makes decisions on how to translate a line, a word, a phrase, so that they become inseparable.)I didn't end up reading much of the Introduction. I usually like to read it before the actual text, for these kinds of books, because they can help you understand what you're reading. But in this case I didn't find the Intro to be terribly useful. It does provide some good historical context, though. More useful is the map, which shows Aeneas' voyage and all the places he made landfall, and the extensive glossary at the back - particularly as several characters have more than one name.Going back to the language, it really is quite lovely at times.On they went, those dim travelers under the lonely night,through gloom and the empty halls of Death's ghostly realm,like those who walk through woods by a grudging moon'sdeceptive light when Jove has plunged the sky in darkand the black night drains all color from the world.[...]There in the midst, a giant shadowy elm tree spreadsher ancient branching arms, home, they say, to swarmsof false dreams, one clinging tight under each leaf. [p.191]While I never really did get comfortable with the cadence of the lines - the punctuation and broken-up sentences - I still found it very poetic and quite lovely. Yet, you'd be surprised at the violence in the novel, the blood and gore and brutality. Well, I was surprised, not so much that there was violence as the stark quality to it, the lack of mercy - the big war that takes up the second half of the story sees many farmers pitted against soldiers, and when anyone surrenders they're brutally killed.But while he begged the sword goes plunging clean through Euryalus' ribs,cleaving open his white chest. He writhes in deathas blood flows over his shapely limbs, his neck droops,sinking over a shoulder, limp as a crimson flowercut off by a passing plow, that droops as it diesor frail as poppies, their necks wearing, bendingtheir heads when a sudden shower weighs them down. [p.280](Euryalus was a Trojan and in love with another soldier, Nisus - they are both killed when they go out on a secret mission at night against the entrenched enemy.)There is a great deal of gruesome killing on both sides, and I usually had no idea which army the characters were from.But Halaesus hot for combatcharges against them now, compressing all his forcebehind his weapons. Ladon he butchers, Pheres, Demodocus -a flash of his sword and he slices off Strymonius' handjust as it clutched his throat. He smashes Thoas fullin the face with a rock and crushes out his skullin a spray of brains and blood. [p.307]Virgil was clearly fond of metaphors and similes, and often goes into poetic tangents where he describes things in terms of animals or flowers - like the poppy metaphor above. Alongside the mythology that runs throughout the story (the gods, the seers, the cyclops', the trip down to hell), the consistent references and anchoring of characters and events to the natural world presents a culture that is so different from our own, and yet, in many ways, the foundation of our culture. I couldn't help but admire their close connection with so many earthly and otherworldly elements.I did have a moment of clarity while reading this, that I hadn't had at any other time of reading or studying ancient Greece or Rome. For the Greeks and Romans, with their many gods who live out a soap opera-like life, many heroes - historical or otherwise - were born of the gods. Aeneas' mother is Venus, or Aphrodite. Lots of characters have an immortal parent, and some - like Turnus' sister - were changed into immortals (often after being seduced by a god). In the context of this melding between the gods and mortals, it really isn't odd to think that a group of men sat at conference, deciding Jesus' level of immortality: he joins Odysseus and Hercules and many, many more. (Yes it's different, but I'm referring to the context - you would never get people today, outside of the Vatican, having a meeting to decide that your neighbour, say, was practically a god. We're in a different mental headspace.)What I mean to say is, that it was quite easy and not at all unusual to take extraordinary people and decide, posthumously, that they were the offspring of gods. I'm sure someone somewhere's done a study or two on that. The other thing I always notice when I read ancient texts like these, or the bible, is how they're essentially Fantasy fiction. Or let me turn that around: our love of these kinds of stories, of magic and gods and foretelling, one-eyed giants, magic, witches etc, of heroic quests and tragic love stories, has never died. I would say even that Fantasy is the oldest genre - it's the modern version of mythology, after all. When you read a novel by Tolkien, Shinn, Holdstock, Sanderson et al, they're not writing stories that were invented relatively recently. So going back to writers like Homer and Virgil isn't far out of our comfort zone, and it's one reason why they continue to be read and loved today. The story surprised me in several ways, and wasn't entirely predictable: I didn't anticipate that about half the story would be a war, for instance. But it is truly fascinating, even if all the names start to run together and I sometimes struggled to tell Anchises, Ascanius and Acestes apart (their names are too similar for me!). As I mentioned, I haven't read the Iliad, but apparently they have similar plot points, though many scholars and other readers consider Virgil's version to be better than Homer's. They are different stories written for different purposes. The Aeneid was written as a history of Italy and to show how the Roman Emperors were direct descendants of Aeneas, who was descended of the gods and Troy. Since the emperors were claimed to be the sons of gods (or they claimed to be), this was an important piece of propaganda. I was talking to a friend who also studied ancient civilisations at uni, and she mentioned that many academics debate whether Virgil was 100% patriotic, or if he had subliminal messages in the Aeneid. Whether he was a simple brown-nose or was not entirely approving of the Roman emperors. It's fun to keep that in mind while reading it, because you can read into it quite a bit.Virgil never finished his epic to his satisfaction (which would also explain the oddly abrupt ending) and wanted it destroyed when he died, but the Emperor Augustus refused. Clearly he found it to be favourable propaganda. I found it to be an interesting story, sometimes gripping, sometimes infuriating, sometimes a bit slow, but as with most classics, the more education you have about a certain period, the more you'll get out of it. Mine is pretty hazy now and two years isn't great, but it gave me a bit of a leg-up. Still, there's clearly a lot going on here that I don't have the background to fully understand. Regardless, it's worth reading.
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo!"If I cannot sway the heavens, I will wake the powers of hell"(Before I actually start reviewing The Aeneid, I'd like to thank Mr. Bernard Knox not only for his very helpful introductions in the Penguin Deluxe Editions of the three big classic epics, but for sharing his heartfelt story as an U.S. Army captain and his encounter with the Sortes Virgilianae of The Aeneid in the last weeks of World War II in Italy.)Imperator Caesar Divi FiliusThe Aeneid, written by the Italian poet Virgil in the 1st century BC, is the first, and perhaps the only, truly successful fan fiction ever written. It follows the story of Aeneas, a Dardanian prince, offspring of Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite/Venus, and his wanderings to find Italy and plant the seeds that would one day spring into the greatest empire of the ancient world. He carries his father and son out of the burning wreckage of Troy, and tries to find a new home for the homeless surviving sons of Troy.This book has one of the most interesting and luckiest stories a book can have. In one thing Virgil was brilliant at, and that was at feeling the temperature of the crowd.The Roman Republic has fallen, Gaius Julius Caesar has seen to that. His adopted son, Octavian, has just secured what many think will be a dynasty that will rule the world. What better time to sing of the legitimacy of Roman supremacy? On them I set no limits, space or timeI have granted them power, empire without end. - Jupiter on Aeneas' sons.Most rulers, in particular in earlier History, have had to deal with the awful task of legitimacy. Kings and emperors rule not because of force (well, it is definitely because of force, but that's not what we want the people to think), but because it is their divine right. When one power falls and another rises, was it due to the will of the gods or to the greed of man against the gods' champion? (For more on this question, read Richard II).As such, a new rule, a new dynasty, will always have to justify if and how their rule is divine will and not an abomination against the gods. What better time for Augustus, the head of the Gens Julia, to recall his adopted father's claim on divinity? He has added "Divi Filius" to his name, "son of a god", because Julius Caesar had already been deified, and both men claim descent from Aeneas, and therefore from Venus.Virgil not only sings of Aeneas and Venus in order to greaten their descendant, Augustus, he sings directly of Augustus as if the entirety of the Trojan escapades had been simply to put him on Earth. I can see the young emperor puffing up at every mention of how the gods want the Trojan/Italian hybrid race to rule the world, and that Vulcan himself carved the Battle of Actium into Aeneas' shield, the son of a goddess carrying his descendant's most glorious victory. Truly wonderful propaganda.Here is Caesar and all the line of Iulussoon to venture under the sky's great arch.Here is the man, he's here! Time and againyou've heard his coming promised - Caesar Augustus!Son of a god, he will bring back the Age of Gold (...)expand his empire past the Garamants and the Indiansto a land beyond the stars, beyond the wheel of the year,the course of the sun itself (...)" - Anchises' ghost to Aeneas, as they see Caesar Augustus in the UnderworldHomer's Successor, Paris' SuccessorI get it, Virgil, I really do. The Iliad's epic battles are adrenaline injections to the reader, and Odysseus' misadventures in the The Odyssey have that Classical tragedy "everything going down hill" charisma to them. Trying to do both at the same time is daring, and you did a wonderful job, except you tried to do so much it feels too little. The battles between the Italians and the Trojan exiles sound *vaguely* like the Trojan War, only in a smaller, slightly less exciting scale. Aeneas' attempts to focus on his destiny and destination, his shaking off the lusts and perils thrown at him along the way... it felt like an Odysseus searching for a Penelope he never knew, a destiny that he carries because he has to, not one driven by his own free will and determination.Dido is Aeneas' Circe and Calypso, diluted down to a mortal spurned woman. She is by far the character I felt the most for: she is a widow, robbed of her love and her homeland, trying to rebuild her life in Carthage, and then some guy shows up yelling "look at me, I saw Polyphemus, my mother is a goddess, I am a Trojan hero, did I mention my mother is Venus, the goddess of beauty - by the way, I don't take after my father!" Dido has her memory of her former husband wiped out by Venus (I don't really the profit for her party, but okay) and is compelled to end up with Aeneas in some cave shagging, which to some constitutes marriage, but not to the State of Carthage. Dido's tragic end is entirely Venus and Aeneas' fault, who took to a grieving widow knowing that his destiny was elsewhere, and then is surprised to find her in Hades after her attention-seeking suicide - a curse and a prophecy of the coming of Hannibal, Rome's scourge."And you, my Tyrians,harry with hatred all his line, his race to come (...)No love between our peoples, ever, no pacts of peace!Come rising up from my bones, you avenger still unknown"Of Gods and Men: Part IIIIf you read my reviews of The Iliad and The Odyssey, you may have seen me obsessively analysing the God/Man relationships in Homer's epics, because it is the facet of his work I find the most fascinating.Virgil's gods are a bit too complacent. Homer's Hera and Virgil's Juno are the best kept persona, her intensity and obsession are all still there, but the rest of the gods just can't be bothered. Venus is always saving her son, as she does against Diomedes in The Iliad, but only halfway through the book does she remember "oh maybe I should have helped your Trojans during the fall of Troy instead of making you run away like a coward". Jupiter doesn't do a single relevant thing in the entire book except saying "no more meddling", which is thoroughly disobeyed by both parties. Vulcan's role is to do the exact same thing he did in The Iliad as Hephaestus - to forge a shield for the protagonist. It felt like the conflict of the gods among themselves, to be expected in basically any decision they ever make, polytheistic gods being unilateral by definition, was lacking. Artemis/Diana, supporter of Troy during the war, simply switches sides to the warrior princess Camilla; Ares/Mars just can't be bothered; Athena is either asleep or too busy trying to bring Odysseus a GPS on some goddamn world's end.The entire conflict of the forces of nature we see in The Iliad seems diluted in the wars in Italy...The King and the UsurperI feel like I've been focusing on the negatives of The Aeneid, and I want to make clear that I loved this book. Those four stars up there are actually a 4.5, which is not only a 5 because I, in my own aspirations for this epic, I found some of them lacking. This does not mean it isn't one of the most powerful pieces of literature that have survived from ancient times, and a recommended read. It felt more lyrical than Homer, and it had some truly great writing (Fagles' translation is as great as ever).The entirety of this work is set and bound in finding Aeneas in Italy, to claim a new home for his Trojans, to build a second Troy, to honour the memory of the fallen in the East.The best part of this epic is Aeneas' moral ambiguity. He's like a second Odysseus or Achilles, in that his actions are driven by his knowledge of his fate - which is repeated a little too often throughout the book - and since he is guided by the gods and the will of the universe, he does not have to think about the other side to his actions.He has to conquer Hesperia. He has to found Troy II. He is duty bound to fight the Italians - which, in all fairness, he avoids at all costs - because the gods say so.But the truth is that Aeneas and his Trojans are invaders. They arrive in peace, and they try to form ties of friendship with the natives, but they still have as a plan to settle as an independent city, a city commanded by the heavens to conquer, plunder and force its culture down the world's throat. Alba Longa, and its great daughter, Rome, might have been built in peace, but in their national consciousness the command was always war.In this view, Aeneas is the rightful ruler of Latium, and his descendants the rightful rulers of all. But from a Latin point of view, Aeneas is a refugee that has arrived on their land, somehow contrived to get the hand of a princess and a kingdom, a city that - unbeknownst to them - has war in its mind. Turnus, the antagonist, is nothing more than a man spurned by a king, robbed of his bride by a foreigner, and he tries to fight for what he believes is just. To the very last, when his sister Juturna fakes a signal from Jupiter to inspire the Italians to think they will win, Turnus believes he is on the side of justice. He calls himself "a second Achilles", and the entire war for a woman is very Homeric - Lavinia is the new Helen, Aeneas is his brother-in-law Paris, and Turnus is more Menelaus than Achilles. So what we see, really, is a miniature Trojan War. And like the genuine deal, we can be rooting for one side or another: we can sing of just Achaeans and spurred Menelaus, Turnus and his attempts at defending his rights and the freedom of his people - or we can root for fallen Troy and the romance of Paris and Helen, for Aeneas' destined love and rule of Italy. Personally, I couldn't relate to Aeneas' cause as much as I'd like, even though Virgil throws in a forced "the people ache for Aeneas" justification for his conquering.In Carthage, Aeneas didn't need to war. He could rule besides Dido, and from her bones, instead of the horrible wars between her city and his, would rise an empire as powerful as Rome. Yet he is too stuck in the past, in the future he sees only the past reflected, a second Troy, a second War. If the Fates had left me free to live my life,to arrange my own affairs of my own free will,Troy is the city, first of all, that I'd safeguard,Troy and all that's left of my people whom I cherish. - Aeneas to Dido.But Fate, a tale three deities wrote, history that not even the gods are willing to confront or try to change, has decided blood and iron would build this empire, blood and iron would rule it. Gods are not gods if they themselves are ruled, and men are not men if they cannot try and build their own fate, like Turnus did. do the gods light this fire in our hearts, or does each man's mad desire become his god? - NisusThe justice and law of the Roman Empire, that vicious civilisation, which by force brought great advancements to the Mediterranean world, has never been more accurately depicted than in Aeneas' actions: veni, "vidi", vici
What do You think about The Aeneid (1990)?
The Aeneid continues the story of what happened after the Greeks had taken Troy; it tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero who had lost all hope after witnessing his city and his king devastated by what we know as The Trojan Horse, very well crafted by Ulysses and his people — which reminds me of this part in The Odyssey in which a nymph (I think) tells Ulysses how skilful he is when it comes to deceiving; it tells the story of an exile who after a divine promise of a new nation regains his strength, takes his family with him and goes after wherever the gods may guide him. At this point it's pretty much as if Homer had written the epic, but then new characters are introduced, characters that might be as influential as any former, such as Dido, queen of Carthage, who aids the wandering Trojans in their misfortune. "Not ignorant of ill I learn to aid distress."But then she falls in love with Aeneas and he falls in love with her — but actually, I think he just liked her because he thought Carthage was the land promised by the gods, for the one who really was in love was her, to the point that she commits suicide (in a very poetical way, I must say), after the Trojan hero flees from the queen's land when he's advised to hurry and find Italy, where he must found a new nation. This is told in Book IV, one of my favourites (the other being Book VI and XII), and the only thing I didn't like about it is that it is really short: it sings so briefly how all this romance happens, though it's always like this in the whole poem, for one minute Iulus is just a little kid who can barely catch up on his father's steps while fleeing from Troy, and then he's an all fighting adolescent in the last war. But I think the few lines Virgil wrote concerning Dido and Aeneas are beautiful enough to captivate the reader making clear that quality means more than quantity; and then one understands why it took the author so long to publish his work and why he was very hard to please when it came to what shall be brought not only to Augustus but to the entire world. O relics once dear, while God and Fate allowed, take my spirit, and release me from my woes! My life is done and I have finished the course that Fortune gave; and now in majesty my shade shall pass beneath the earth.Like I already said, Book VI was also one of my favourites and it is considered the center of the poem, not only mathematically (the poem consists of twelve books), but also because I'd say it has been one of the most influential in the history of literature. The book tells Aeneas descent into the Avernus ushered by the Cumaean Sybil all the way to the Elysian Fields where the soul of his father rests; and while they travel along the underworld, the Sybil tells Aeneas how that world is constituted judging by each soul's deeds. Does this sound familiar? Say for example a book in which an exile is guided through the underworld in search of his beloved? Bingo! It's The Divine Comedy. Reading this definitely blew my mind because I could see why Dante chose Virgil as his guide in his well-known masterpiece; but also because I realised much of the greco-latin myths I knew have the weight they have because of Virgil's creation, like The Trojan Horse, or even the underworld itself and those who rule there.The Aeneid really made me connect some dots, like a very particular part when Aeneas is trying to convince his father to flee with him, but the latter tells him he's too old already and death might suit him better. But then something happens: Anchises receives a divine sign that tells him that it's time to overcome his sorrows and accompany his son into a new start. It's something that is amazingly similar to the Pentecost versicles in The Bible. Take a look:"From above the head of Iulus a light tongue of flame was seen to shed a gleam and, harmless in its touch, lick his soft locks and pasture round his temples. […] with sudden crash there was thunder on the left and a star shot from heaven, gliding through the darkness, and drawing a fiery trail amid a flood of light […] At this, indeed, my father was overcome and, rising to his feet, salutes the gods, and worships the holy star."— Virgil. The Aeneid."And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."— Acts 2:2-4 (KJV)Strange yet fantastic, isn't it? Somehow I feel that Virgil's work was the guideline for a whole new era, not only in the Western Canon (in which Homer is also included), but also in Christianity. We can read how Aeneas surrendered his fate to Divinity after he had lost everything but a little bit of hope, which is one of the things that Christians would preach about later on. I don't mean to say though that Aeneas is the establisher of this doctrine, but it's something great to reflect upon when one thinks about the origins of Christianity and its merging points with earlier cultures. There's also the fact that Aeneas was welcomed with war in the land where he was supposed to build a new empire (augured in Vulcan's shield), and there's a vesicle in Luke 4:24 that says "And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country."Generally speaking, reading such a work of art has been a very… cultivating experience, and it is definitely a must-read. Just ignore what people say about this being a fanfic. It's not. Or maybe technically it is, but personally, when I think of one of those things I think of vampires' stories written by teenagers; while this is a masterpiece written by a very meticulous poet who would later influence many magnificent writers such as Milton. I also disagree with some of the things I've read about Virgil plagiarising Homer's work. C'mon! Of course he had to mention the latter's characters and even try to keep his style as accurate as possible since he was writing a tribute for the Roman roots along with Homer's epics, for whom the author of The Aeneid was very respectful. Each author had their own personal print (while Homer's cyclops were more terrifying, Virgil described them with a compassionate pinch as lonely sorrowful creatures because of what Ulysses did to one of them). Besides, Virgil made his own contribution to greco-roman culture and mythology, and to literature as a whole — and I don't see fanfics achieving this, do you? There is a great difference between plagiarism and influence.
—Poncho
This is a hidden gem. Certainly not my favorite of the ancient epics -- I much prefer The Odyssey (how original of me!) But please, oh please, if you're going to read The Aeneid, I heartily recommend Sarah Ruden's translation. I'm generally a fan of Robert Fagles' work, but comparing the two side by side, I was quickly won over by Ruden's lovely, lyrical poetry. To her credit, it reads quickly, clearly, and at times beautifully, even amidst the name-dropping, chest-beating gore. I never thought I'd be so caught up in anticipation of learning the outcome of battle after battle, but Ruden had me pretty much enthralled -- well, as enthralled as you can be in the crush of dozens of unimportant, soon-to-be-dead-meat names. (OK, I exaggerate; it's not all gory battle scenes, but still...) I can't imagine finding this much enjoyment in anyone else's translation; they would surely pale in comparison.
—Erin
"Arms, my comrades, bring me arms! The last light calls the defeated. Send me back to the Greeks, let me go back to fight new battles. Not all of us here will die today without revenge." The Aeneid is the third member of the Holy Trinity of ancient western epic, following Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Virgil's poem tells the story of Aeneas, a hero in the Trojan War who leads the remainder of his people west after Troy's defeat to build a new life in Italy, ultimately founding the Roman race. I want to say right off the bat, after I read the Aeneid start to finish I was hugely impressed and in awe of Virgil's poetic chops (hence the 5 stars). If the review below comes across as a bit negative, it is because I'm measuring Virgil's epic against those of Homer's. I am a huge fan of both the Iliad and Odyssey, so I was excited to tackle the Aeneid after enjoying Virgil's other major works (the Eclogues and Georgics). The Aeneid was both inspired by and heavily influenced by Homer's epics. The first six books of Virgil's poem correspond to the Odyssey, while the last six mirror the Iliad (although this is an oversimplification; the first six books have much in common with the Iliad and vice versa). Virgil never had the chance to edit the Aeneid to his satisfaction; the poem wasn't formally "published" before his death in 19 b.c., and Virgil supposedly ordered the manuscripts burnt on his deathbed. I thought that lack of finality was noticeable through the first eight books. There are moments of absolute brilliance over that span, particularly books II and IV (book II, which describes the last hours of Troy, was my favorite of the entire poem). But the Aeneid is hamstrung to a degree by its protagonist. Aeneas is simply not as compelling a character as either Achilles or Ulysses. Both of those characters were interesting because they felt human, for better or worse. Each were flawed in some capacity, capable of both greatness or great pettiness, depending on the occasion. In contrast, Aeneas is not particularly multi-dimensional. He is pious (to the point of sainthood), dutiful, and determined. From the start of the poem, Aeneas' destiny is made clear, and for the first eight books our hero trudges inexorably towards it. The one time in the poem that Aeneas behaves in less than virtuous fashion, (view spoiler)[when our hero ditches Dido in order to start a new life in Italy (hide spoiler)]
—Evan Leach
