Aeneid, Books I-II:
When Virgil wrote the Aeneid, he clearly built upon the stories told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  But unlike Homer, he chose to focus on a Trojan hero (Aeneas), who survives the defeat of Troy that Homer described.  That choice in and of itself shows that Virgil is going to be doing something substantially different from what Homer did.  Homer wrote about the Greek victors and their trials and tribulations during and after the war.  Virgil chooses to create a myth about a Trojan loser who escapes from the war to found a colony in Italy that will eventually become Rome.  By choosing a Trojan as his hero, Virgil in essence says that Homer was on the wrong side when he favored the Greeks.  Homer's error in taking the wrong side in the war implies that Homer may have been very wrong about other things as well.

So, look for ways in which Virgil is different from Homer.  He uses much of the same material and myths, but he gives them a very different spin.  Look for the ways in which Virgil is correcting Homer's "errors" (including Homer's error of favoring the Greeks).  How do the first 19 lines of the Aeneid compare to the first 15 lines of the Odyssey, for example?  How does Virgil's description of the fall of Troy in Book II make you feel about Homer's praise for the honor and courage of the Greek heroes who destroyed the city?  Were the Greeks really the heroes that Homer described?

Keep in mind also that Virgil is writing at the court of Augustus, adopted son of Julius Caesar and the first Roman Emperor.  Augustus won the last in a series of civil wars in Rome that destroyed its republican government (presided over by the Roman Senate) and created a dictatorship that would last for centuries.  But in Virgil's day, they couldn't know that the civil wars were really over or that Augustus and his successors would in fact lead Rome to ever greater conquest and glory.  They could only know that things seemed to have stabilized temporarily under Augustus, and the new Emperor wanted to keep things that way (by whatever means necessary -- fair or foul).  When Virgil writes about the future glory of Rome, he's writing about what he hopes will happen; he's writing in praise of what Augustus had accomplished so far in terms of bringing stability to Rome as Emperor; and he's writing in favor of continuing to put Rome's fate in the hands of Augustus.  In essence, he's writing Augustan propaganda.

As a result, when we read the Aeneid, we can rely on Virgil to show us what Augustus and his court valued.  Since Virgil is writing Augustan propaganda, his poem will give us a glimpse of how the Augustan imperial court justified itself -- what rationale it offered for its continued existence.  That rationale will tell us what the Augustan court valued and thought good.  We'll learn what Augustus and his court considered valuable in the world -- what they considered so important as to be worth perpetuating the Emperor's dictatorial rule.

So, what does Virgil seem to value most of all?  What motivates his hero's actions?  When Aeneas escapes from Troy, what does he give up?  Why does he give it up?  What is important enough to make him give it up?  What does he not give up?  What is important enough to keep?

1. How do humans and the gods interact?  Are the gods like the gods in the Odyssey?  What do the gods value in the Aeneid (as opposed to in the Odyssey)?  What motivates them (especially in their transactions with mortals)?  How do the mortals respond to the gods and their motives?  How do the gods' decrees affect mortals?
2. What do you think of Aeneas?  Is he a tragic figure, forced against his will by the gods to be great?  Is he a cad, who abandons Dido without cause or decency?  Is he a glory-monger who dumps Dido out of a self-seeking sense of the glory of Rome and the state?  Is he a good leader, who puts aside his personal needs for the sake of his people (even people as yet unborn)?  What does Aeneas teach us about Virgil's Roman values?

Then, when you get to Book VI, another famous part, consider the following:
 
Compare and contrast Aeneas' descent into the underworld with Odysseus' experience in Book XI of the Odyssey.  What does Odysseus learn from the dead?  What does he talk about with the dead?  What does Aeneas learn from the dead?  What does he talk about with the dead?  What do we learn about Virgil's values based on the similarities and differences between his poem and the Odyssey?  (And keep all of this in mind for when we get to Dante later in the course, who also takes a trip through the underworld and learns from the dead.)