Aeneid Scholarly quotes

Williams about Dido’s love for Aeneas

In Book 4 Dido’s love turns to a ‘terrifying personification of hatred, fury and vengeance’

Duckworth on Turnus

‘He is a tragic character in every sense of the word’

Williams on Turnus

Turnus ‘is essentially a hero of the Homeric kind’

Parry on Aeneas

‘He is always the victim of forces greater than himself, and one lesson he must learn is, not to resist them’

Morwood on Anchises

Anchises does ‘his utmost to instil in Aeneas a gung-ho vision of his Roman future’

Mackie on the role of Aeneas in Rome’s imperial destiny

‘Aeneas’ general concern to facilitate fate is the cornerstone of his pietas’

Williams on Virgil’s portrayal of war

‘So powerful was Virgil’s sympathy for the defeated that it often seems to conflict with the triumph of Rome’s achievement’

Williams on Furor

‘furor, the irrational element in a man which causes him to act on impulse rather than in accordance with reason’

Williams on the killing of Turnus

The killing of Turnus is justified as he ‘represents a barbaric and antique way of life which can have no part in the new civilisation’

Ross on the importance of fate and destiny

‘Fate and the gods are everywhere throughout the poem, seeming to be always in control’

West on Juno and Venus

‘the two goddesses engineer Dido’s destruction for their own ends’