aeneid scholars

Hardie (On Aeneas' characterisation and motivations)

'Aeneas' character is colourless', 'rather than being strongly driven by an internal desire or ambition, he is forced into a mission by circumstances beyond his control'

Lyne (On Aeneas' relationships)

'it is Aeneas' relationships that Virgil appears to neglect', ' Virgil seems curiously disinclined to show Aeneas responding or relating to others'

Jenkyns (On Aeneas' character)

'Aeneas is a robust red-blooded Homeric figure'

Gransden (On Aeneas' agency)

'[Aeneas is] no more than a puppet without a character of his own'

Camps (On Aeneas' motivations)

'he has no personal motive', 'ostentatiously selfless'

Williams (On the climax of the Aeneid)

'it is Aeneas who loses in the end'

Anderson (On Aeneas' piety)

'Aeneas' piety can lead to both creative and destructive acts'

Nortwick (On the impact of Achilles)

'Achilles serves as a model for both Aeneas and Turnus right up to the end of the Aeneid'

Nortwick (On Aeneas in Book 12)

'[Aeneas] has at last succumbed to the violence against which he has struggled so long'

Williams (On Aeneas)

'[Aeneas is] no superhuman figure; he is very much an ordinary mortal'

Fox (On Aeneas)

'[Aeneas is] always either insipid or odious'

Williams (On Aeneas in Book 8)

'[in Book 8 Aeneas is] most truly himself'

Jenkyns (On audiences' reception of Aeneas)

'the contradiction in Aeneas' actions make him difficult to like, but certainly make him human'

Hall (On Aeneas)

'Aeneas is a pious hero'

Hall (On Aeneas' status)

'Aeneas is semi-divine'

Marshall (On Aeneas' agancy)

'Aeneas plays a passive role in the poem'

Williams (On Aeneas' heroism)

'Homeric heroes are great individualists but Aeneas has to be the social man'

Nellis (On Dido's role)

'Dido is the active cause of tragic strife'

Harrison (On Dido's modern reception)

'[Dido] is highly sympathetic to modern readers'

Jenkyns (On Dido's blame)

Jenkyns

Jenkyns (On Dido's agency)

'the gods caused Dido's love, she then chose to act upon it'

Burke (On Amata)

'[Amata] fulfils none of her roles as mother, wife and queen'

Cowan (On the Euryalus' death)

'Perhaps the most beautiful moment of all is the death of Euryalus'

Sowerby (On the comparison between Aeneas and Turnus)

'Turnus is a kind of foil to Aeneas, representing an older individual heroism'

Williams (On Turnus' role)

'an obstacle to the divine which must be overcome… but when he is overcome… sympathy and a feeling of injustice'

Burke (On Turnus' character)

'Turnus … is both the noble man of action (Hector) and the selfish lover (Paris)'

Rutherford (On Turnus)

'Turnus is hopeless due to the manipulation of the gods'

Williams (On Turnus' character)

'He is impetuous, energetic, ruthless, violent; he represents personal prowess, irresponsible individuality'

Cowan (On Mezentius)

'[Mezentius] is the symbol of everything pious Aeneas detests and must get rid of if Rome/good is to succeed'

Williams (On Camilla)

'[Camillia is] a strange mixture of the beauty of an idyllic pastoral world and the heroic world of violence and cruelty'

Gildenhard and Henderson (On Camilla's impact)

'Camilla is a striking dressed bellatrix who destabilises the roles of men and women in military-political rituals'

Gildenhard and Henderson (On what Camilla represents)

'[Camilla] is a visual representation of the defeated peoples and nations through femal personification'

Gransden (on Juno's impact)

'Most of the plot of the Aeneid is generated by Juno'

Williams (On the results of human nature)

'the tragedies and disasters in the poem are very largely due to the violent and unreasoning element in human nature'

Markus (On Fate)

'Destiny is dependent on human will and effort'

Williams (On the effects of Aeneas' fate on others)

'Dido and Turnus are trampled on by the fate of Aeneas and Rome'

Gransden (On the importance of fate)

'the concept of fate… dominates the Aeneid'

Ross (On the importance of fate and the gods)

'Fate and the gods are… seeming to be always in control'

Williams (On Aeneas' motivation to fight)

'Aeneas fights because he must in the bitter fulfilment of duty'

Williams (On Vergil's focus on free will)

'Virgil's position gives more emphasis to free-will'

Morgan (On reception of the gods)

'the gods in the Aeneid are entertaining'

Camps (On the motivations of the gods)

'the gods in the Aeneid are only concerned with their own private agendas'

Morgan (On the interaction between fate and the gods)

'[the gods] cannot alter fate - although they are seemingly allowed to try'

Rutherford (On the control of the gods)

'Women, and everyone else, are powerless under the forces of the gods'

Coleman (On the reason for gods' intervention)

'the Gods' intervention is used to justify out of character behaviour)

Williams (On the difference between Homeric and Virgilian gods)

'Virgil has modified the Homeric conception of the gods so as to give them added dignity'

Anderson (On the outcomes of Aeneas' piety)

'Aeneas' piety can lead to both creative and destructive acts'

Buckley (On the influence of the state)

'the distinction between individual and state are always elusive'

Quinn (On the reception of heroism)

'There are situations where we are meant to feel that the heroic is not necessarily the nobler ideal'

Hall (On piety)

'Pietas… is one of the Stoic virtues appropriated by Augustsus'

Quinn (On the limits of the heroic code)

'The episodes are designed to stress the inadequacy of the heroic code'

Cox (On Aeneas and Homeric values)

'Aeneas leaving Troy symbolises a departure from Homeric values'

Semple (On Vergil's view of war)

'Vergil in truth hated war'

Clover (On Vergil's view of war)

'Virgil's whole nature was on the side of peace'

Cowan (On Aeneas and Augustus)

'[Aeneas is] a model for the emperor Augustus, a template for what a good Roman is expected to be'

Williams (On the Aeneid and Romans)

'The Aeneid is a nation poem… to explore what Romans were like'

Williams (On Roman character)

'Virgil has to create his hero as a prototype of the Roman character'

Eisaman-Maus (On Aeneas' focus)

'the perfect Roman is born not for himself but for his country'

Gransden (On the central theme of the Iliad)

'The real theme of the Aeneid… was the founding of Rome and its subsequent rise under Augustus to its greatest glory'

Gransden (On Aeneas and Augustus)

'Aeneas could be seen as a prefiguration of Augustus himself'

Sowerby (On relationships)

'the relationship between father and son is the closest bond in the poem'

Cowan (On relationships)

'Father-son relationships and suffering are central to the plot)

Morgan (On Dido and Camilla)

'[Dido and Camilla] have a license to perform in the epic for as long as they operate like men'

Oliensis (On the agency of women)

'Women tend to be repeaters [continuing past events] of the past and blind or blindly resistant to the future'

Oliensis (On women's actions)

'Where women tend to cling to origins, men are orientated towards ends'

Morgan (On the role of women)

'Women help generate the plot'

Oliensis (On Vergil's view of women)

'Vergil associates the feminine with unruly passion, the masculine with reasoned mastery'

Sowerby (On the interactions between men and women)

'Women are regularly sacrificed to the greater mission which is the fulfilment of men's desires'

Gransden (On the last 4 books)

'furor dominates the last 4 books'

Williams (On book 6)

'[book 6] is the crucial book in the development of Aeneas' character and resolution'

Williams (On Turnus and the Homeric Hero)

'The similarity of Turnus to the Homeric hero serves to point the contrast with Aeneas'

Williams (On the contrast between Homeric and Roman heroism)

'We see the heroic bravery, the rash impulses of the Homeric warrior set against the specially Roman qualities qualities of family life, social virtues, deep religious piety'

MacGorain (On Vergil and Homer)

'The intention of Virgil is to imitate Homer'

MacGorain (On the contrast between Homer and Vergil)

'Homer is not political in the same way as Virgil'

Ogilvie (On Vergil and Homer's view of character development)

'Only Vergil admits of the possibility that a character can change, grow and develop'

Mackie (on Aeneas' piety)

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