Scholarship for the Aeneid

The Pageant of Heroes is “the most patriotic passage in the whole poem”

Aeneas’s visit to the Underworld is “the centre and turning point of the Aeneid” "it rounds off the description of Aeneas’ journey and it leads in to the warfare and other events in Italy”

After the Pageant of Heroes - “from being a very hesitant and frail hero Aeneas is now in love with his destiny”

“Aeneas displays virtues that are quintessentially Roman and his character is consistent with the ideals which Augustus was keen to promote”
(Book 6)

Euryalus’ tragic death fits a “wider network of anthems for doomed youth within the Aeneid”

Camilla’s death displays “no elegance, only tragic pathos”
Camilla’s gender “sets her apart”, as she “eschews proper roles for mortal women: wife and mother” - she has “an untraditional role”

There are “diametrically opposed interpretations” of the ending of book 12 - Aeneas’ killing of Turnus is an act either of “frenzy or duty”

Turnus is either “a noble heroic figure” “used as a helpless pawn by Juno” or “a savage villain”

Can’t read book 6 as a straightforward celebration of empire → “Virgil ends with the greatest tragedy that might have been “ (Marcellus)

Argues that, since Aeneas leaves through the gate of Ivory (gate of false dreams), this could be interpreted as Virgil undermining Augustus by saying that the empire and future greatness that Anchises lays out in the Pageant of Heroes is actually a deception and a false hope, and so it won’t actually happen

Argues that Aeneas embraces his future and destiny in the Underworld (book 6)

“It is clear that the figure of Aeneas is intended at times to evoke Octavian”

“Aeneas’ general concern to facilitate fate is the cornerstone of his pietas”
(so then leaving Dido is an act of piety)

“Father-son relationships (and suffering) are central to the plot”

Dido is a sympathetic figure

“Most of the plot of the Aeneid is generated by Juno”

“The relationship between father and son is the closest in the poem