LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg
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 write about 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 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).
Keep in mind also that Virgil is writing at the court of Augustus, adopted son of Julius Caesar and the first real Roman Emperor. Augustus (originally known as Octavian and declared "Augustus" in 27 B.C.) won the battle of Actium, which ended a series of civil wars in the Roman Republic that destroyed its republican government (presided over by the Roman Senate) and resulted in 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 has 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.
As a result, when we read the Aeneid, we can rely on Virgil to show us what Augustus and his court valued. Virgil's 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 that it was worth perpetuating the Emperor's dictatorial rule in order to attain it.
Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper: