Book I

1. Compare and contrast the openings to Homer’s and Virgil’s epics. What does Virgil owe to Homer, and how is his subject different?

2. In Virgil’s description of the cave of King Aeolus, God of winds, (ll.75-103), what is surprising about his choice of words?

3. What does the simile used to describe Neptune’s intervention to calm the seas tell you about Virgil’s politics (209-220)?

4. From Virgil’s description of Carthage (598-618), what do we learn about the nature of "the good life?"

Summary, I: Along with his father, Anchises, and his son, Ascanius (Iulus), Aeneas has escaped from the burning Troy and become a fugitive, now in his 7th year of exile, but destined eventually to reach Italy (the Lavinian shores, Latium, Hesperia) and found a new nation ("bring a city into being"). First, though, he has many miles to sail and hardships to endure, the first being a hurricane at sea dreamed up by Juno (Hera), who is unhappy that he and his 20 ships of comrades have survived the destruction of Troy. Neptune (Poseidon) calms the storm, the Trojans land, and Jove (Zeus) assures Venus (Aphrodite) that her son, Aeneas, will live to found the Roman Empire (388-390). But first he must take advantage of the hospitality of Dido, queen of newly founded Carthage, where he has landed.

Book II

1. How does Virgil manage to present Aeneas as valiant, even in the act of fleeing Troy?

2. Do any elements of his story seem like attempts to ingratiate himself with Dido?

3. What does Virgil learn from Homer about the art of the simile? (fire and flood, 414-422)

4. What has Virgil learned from Homer about the presentation of death? (737-739)

5. Why does Aphrodite (Venus, mom) prevent Aeneas from killing Helen? p. 49

6. How is Creusa’s plea to Aeneas different from Andromache’s to Hektor in the Iliad? (913-917)

Book IV

1. How does Virgil let us know how we should judge Dido’s love for Aeneas? (ll. 86-104), p. 83

(l. 113), p. 84. Why does Jupiter object to it? (ll. 298-318), pp. 88-89.

2. Is Aeneas right or wrong to abandon Dido? (ll. 446-492), pp. 92-93; (ll. 584-604), pp. 95-96. In what sense is his decision "pious?"

3. Does Dido do the right thing? (ll. 738-768), pp. 99-100. (ll. 834-868), pp. 101-102.

Book V

1. In Sicily Aeneas pauses to celebrate funeral games for his father, Anchises. Why do the women burn the Trojan ships? (ll. 795-860), pp. 124-125. Does Aeneas handle this well? (ll.988-1003), p. 129.

2. What makes Virgil’s description of the death of Palinurus so effective? (ll. 1100-1152), pp. 131-132.

Book VI

1. Why do you think Virgil has Aeneas go to the underworld?

2. What is life after death like, according to Virgil?

Outside Underworld

a) the unburied: ll. 402-411 (p. 143)

First Region

b) the innocent: ll. 562-575 (p. 147)

c) those consumed by love: Dido: ll. 593-619 (p. 147-8)

d) those renowned in war: Deiphobus, Helen’s second Trojan husband, after death of Paris, betrayed by Helen to the Greeks: l. 652 (p. 149)

Tartarus: "No innocent can cross these cursed thresholds," l. 744 (p. 151)

e) What crimes can land you in Tartarus? ll. 740-832 (pp. 151-153)

Elysium

f) Is life in Elysium pain free? ll. 844-907 (153-155)

g) What is Anchises doing when Aeneas finds him? ll. 898-901 (p. 155)

3. How is this vision like Homer’s vision of Hades? How is it different?

4. Do you see any "Christian" elements? What do you think Dante will take from this vision?