"'Come, rather,' then she said, 'dear guest and tell us

From the beginning the Greek stratagems

The ruin of your town and your sea-faring

As now the seventh summer brings you here,

From wandering all the lands and all the sea.'."

-- Dido to Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid

SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

What is the Aeneid?  What is it about?  Does it have a core theme?

What surprised you about the Aeneid?

What is Virgil doing in this poem?  How does Virgil connect the world of Aeneas to the world that still rests in Aeneas' future?

How would you describe Aeneas as a hero?  What character traits define him?  How would you compare and contrast him with other heroes of the classical tradition?

How would you begin to compare and contrast the Aeneid with both the Odyssey and the Iliad?  To what extent does Virgil write in the shadow of each?  How would you compare and contrast Aeneas with Odysseus and Achilles?   

What is the significance of Carthage in this story?  How would you begin to characterize Dido and what role does she play in the epic?  How would you compare and contrast the origins of the Carthaginians and the origins of the Romans?  Their fates?  Their relationship with the gods?  How would you compare and contrast the Carthaginians in the Aeneid with the Phaecians in the Odyssey?

How is the Underworld portrayed in the Aeneid?  What is most interesting about this portrait?

How would you characterize the Aeneid's depiction of Greece and the Greeks?

How would you describe the gods of the Aeneid?  What is the nature of the relationship between the gods and humans?  How would you compare and contrast the gods of the Aeneid with those of the Iliad and the Odyssey?  How would you compare and contrast the role of Juno in the Aeneid with that of Poseidon in the Odyssey?  How would you compare and contrast the relationship of Venus and Aeneas in the Aeneid with that of Odysseus and Athena in the Odyssey or Achilles and Thetis in the Iliad?

Who is the Sibyl and how does she fit into the story?

Are there some particularly interesting passages in the first six books that you might highlight and dissect?

SOME EXTRA SOURCES