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Critics Quotes - Aeneid
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Classical Civilisation class of 2019The Aeneid Critics- Books and Themes
BOOK 1
- It is a foundation myth of a great and proud empire, but doubts seep out of it like water -
from a sieve. Aeneas is a tricky hero.Charlotte Higgins-Roman propaganda
- “the Aeneid presents his hero’s mission as both inevitable and necessary”- Sharon L
James-Roman propaganda
- Unlike Odysseus Aeneas has no emotional attachment to the kingdom and wife that
await him; in a figurative sense, his home travels with him in his father, son and gods.
Lorina N Quartatone- Character of AENEAS
- ‘Throughout ancient myth and literature, the Trojan women are associated with death
and with their ruined city; their primary activities are to weep, lament and perform funeral
rituals’. Sharon L James-Women/Trojan women
- No female dominates either of the Homeric epics as Dido does the Aeneid – Pierre
Grimal- Dido-character critic
- the sympathy which Virgil arouses for Dido is so strong as to leave the reader
profoundly unhappy that the Roman mission should have caused this tragedy- R.D
Williams-Dido
- "These winds are not just winds. they represent the forces of chaos and disorder"-
Cowan
-
BOOK 2
- “Priam’s death is the last individual death in the sack of troy and the fact that it is the
nastiest death in book 2 gives it an element of finality”- Philip R. Hardie
- “Sinon’s speech is at once an expose of the decadence of contemporary Greeks in
Roman eyes and a satire on the corruption of ancient rhetoric” - David West
BOOK 4 Dido and Aeneas’ ‘Liaisons seem marked by poor communication’ - Parkes
- No female dominates either of the Homerixc epics as Dido does the Aeneid – Pierre
Grimal- Dido-character critic
- "Many of Aeneas failings are, in fact, shared by Dido"- Parkes
- Dido is “obviously vulnerable to love… the gods play on emotions already present; they
work with susceptible humans to produce, or try to produce, the ends they desire” - Lyne
BOOK 6
- Book 6 is a “religious expression of hope, indicating that virtue will ultimately be
rewarded” - R. D. Williams
-
BOOK 7
, Classical Civilisation class of 2019
BOOK 8
- Evander leaving Pallas has “echoes of the scene between Hector, Andromache and
Astynax” - J.E.M. Geach
BOOK 9
BOOK 10
‘Book 10 is an exploration of whether Aeneas and Mezentius are good fathers or bad fathers’ -
Bob Cowan,
-”As Lausus dies, Aeneas realises that he and the young man have something in common i.e
pietas and this moves Aeneas deeply. Aeneas has effectively killed his doppelganger” - Tim
Stover
BOOK 11
Gransden calls Drances ‘characteristically ambiguous’ - an example of how Virgil manipulates
our reaction to the characters and never gives us an easy answer
BOOK 12
- ‘the Aeneas of book 12 points clearly to Augustus; and the portrait is hardly a flattering
one’: Quinn
- “The last dying groan of the poem recalls to the reader's mind the suffering of others like
Dido, Lausus and Camilla, all caused directly or indirectly by Aeneas”- Carl Springer
- “Unsettling conclusion”- Mary Beard
- Jasper Griffin - ‘The effect, haunting, complex and in harmony with the rest of the poem,
is deliberate’
-
WOMEN
- Juno is a “soap opera bitch” - Stephen Harrison
- “Lavinia represents the ideal Roman woman” - Llewellyn Morgan
- “Women only have a right to be in the poem when they act like men” - argues Llewellyn
Morgan
- “By having women like Camilla and Dido occupying roles normally reserved for men,
Virgil compliments the exceptionality of their gender” - Juan Franco
- “Influence of female characters acts as a guiding force in Aeneas’ journey” - Juan Franco
- “The story of Dido and Aeneas is a tragedy of incomprehension” - Richard Jenkyns
- “Virgil intentionally portrays characters in a way that serves simultaneously as a threat to
traditional gender roles in Roman society while also providing an example of ideal
Roman values.” Colleen Reilly
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