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Summary Aeneid Modern Scholarship
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All the modern/secondary scholarship needed for Virgil's Aeneid. It is organised by theme and character
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Aeneid Modern ScholarshipAeneas
Quinn: To Aeneas, Virgil ‘ascribes the urge to kill in its ugliest form (…) Aeneas has
surrendered to an impulse that disgraces his humanity.’ VS Pattie: ‘Aeneas does in warfare
what has to be done, but he is generally deeply unhappy about it.’
Sowerby: He argues that Aeneas doesn't change after Book 6 as ‘although he is firmer in
purpose (…) Aeneas does not emerge as a man who acts from controlled strength derived
from special interior knowledge.’
Williams: Aeneas is ‘no superhuman figure (…) he is very much an ordinary mortal.’
Gransden: ‘Aeneas is a complex character, pious but also a great soldier, perhaps Troy's
greatest after Hector.’
Iulus/Ascanius
Ryder: Ascanius is second only in importance to the father. He is the impelling and
compelling personality working throughout the poem and inspiring the father to do and to
dare for the sake of his dear son and for the future greatness of Rome.
Feldman: Ascanius develops across the book to give the audience a sense of time despite the
fact that most other characters remain static.
Feldman: Ascanius is part of Virgil's focus for the future whereas Homer was solely
concerned with the past.
Feldman: Ascanius, Euryalus, Lausus and Pallas should be seen in comparison to one another
as Virgil deals with the central issue of the moral and physical health of contemporary Rome
following decades of civil war.
Anchises
Hulme: ‘After the death of Anchises in Sicily, Aeneas is sole commander of the Trojans and
he grows in Heroic stature as a result.’
Hardie: ‘the speech of Anchises provides a cosmic setting for the narrower historical theme’
(his speech in Book 6 about the origins of the universe makes a link between the divine order
of the natural world and the divine inevitability of Roman imperialism)
Creusa
Jenkyns: ‘Creusa's main concern is not to heighten emotions; rather she tries to dampen it
down.’
, Jenkyns: Dido and Aeneas' story is a tragedy of incomprehension, in contrast to Creusa who
trusts and understands Aeneas.
Grillo: She is the ideal wife.
Dido
Desmond: ‘Dido's change from a good to a bad queen occurs because her activities as a lover
explicitly compromise her status as a good king.’
Marshall: The story of Dido and Aeneas maps onto Aristotle’s idea of tragedy in Poetics
really neatly with Dido as the tragic hero.
Marshall: She ‘falls victim to the imperial machine’ and her story causes us to ‘linger
uncomfortably on the cost of empire.’
Jenkyns: Dido is not only a proud queen but also an ordinary woman with ordinary hopes and
desires.
Benario: The queens of Dido and Cleopatra are two quite distinct characters. They are
women whose noble characteristics make them worthy enemies of Rome and whose deaths
mark personal victories more than public defeats.
Amata
Burke: ‘Amata shares with Turnus the guilt of the war and by her death, removes it from the
Latin people.’
Burke: 'Amata has a curious obsession with Turnus, that she fulfils none of her roles as
mother, wife and queen.'
Latinus
Lavinia
Morgan: Lavinia is the most important women but she is a non-existent character.
Oliensis: Questions whether Lavinia's blush in Book 12 is a reflection of her modesty, her
love for Turnus, or her love for Aeneas
Turnus
Sowerby: ‘Turnus becomes the Trojans' principal antagonist, and his death constitutes the
climax of the poem.’
Sowerby: ‘he is a kind of foil to Aeneas, representing an older individual heroism’ which is
more Homeric.
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