World of the hero- scholars

In the middle of the epic Odysseus tells his own story in retrospect

Goldhill

Odysseus can be divided into two "the trickster" and "a hero of epic song"

Jenkyns

Odysseus symbolises and represents archaic Greek men, sailing and Metis

Hall

The abuse that Odysseus endures in disguise shows his humanity

Clarke

Penelope's decision to stay faithful greatly contrasts Helen and Clytemnestra

Felson and Slatkin

The poem celebrates Penelope's metis in service of the oikos

Felson and Slatkin

Penelope and Odysseus are equal partners

Murray

Penelope's fidelity is crucial

Griffin

Penelope is Feckless, lacrosses and rather tiresome

Fenik

Man is defined by where he lives, his home is the definition of who he is

Taplin

The Odyssey is an epic with a thoroughly domestic base

Knox

Odysseus' nostos is linked to his kleos

Nagy

Home is where the wife and child are

Bragg

There is conflict in Odysseus and the Odyssey between novelty and exploration and the comfort of home

Ruebens and Taplin

The actions in the odyssey are motivated by restoring the household and order

Kahane

The actions of a character as host show their morality

Higgins

To harm your guest was to harm Zeus himself and face the consequences

Knights

Calypso bungles the formal counterspies of Xenia showing her state of mind

Jones

Even a god cannot alter destiny (odyssey)

Jones

The suitors own stupidity destroyed them

Jones

Odysseus understands the effects of heroism on people

Hall

Homer made his gods men and his men gods

Longinus

Upon arriving in Ithaca Odysseus' actions are not that of a typical hero

Bragg

Fame is surrogate immortality

Clarke

Sinners in the underworld get punished for going against the gods

Mirto

In disguise Odysseus tests everyone, finds then guilty and punishes them

Goldhill

Recognition is the life blood of the plot

Hauser

Acts of recognition in the odyssey become a type of homecoming

Hall

Disguise is a divine attribute

Hardie

Penelope disguises her feelings rather than her appearance

Hardie

Telemachus grows into manhood while Odysseus looks back on his life as a man

Goldhill

Odysseus goes through Ithaca rebuilding his relationships

Goldhill

Despite offer of immortality Odysseus longs to return to his aging human wife

Bragg

The household is the centre of the odyssey

Jones

Odysseus' promiscuity does not affect the household unlike that of Agamemnon

Felson and Slatkin

Eumaeus is the antithesis of the suitors

Clarke

The poem suggests the eumaeus and eurycleaia are more like family than slaves

Murnaghn

If Athene were to marry anyone it would be Odysseus

Hall

The gods are there to comment on and contrast humanity

Kearns

The god's desire to be present elevates humanity

Jones

The gods take on the role of moral agents

Kelly

Empowered women are explored through he divine

Wilson

Nausicca is not a monster nor goddess but still poses a threat to Odysseus's return

Kelly

Arete's control is benign but complete

Griffiths

The gods form a united front on odysseus's right to justice

Kearns

The punishment of the suitors is an enactment of timeless justice

Clarke

Virgil desired to be the roman Homer

Williams

The poem ends on an note of confusion and uncertainty

Williams

Aeneas is not driven by an internal desire but rather forced by his circumstance

Hardie

Aeneas is put in a position where he has to overcome emotion and pursue duty

Edwards

Aeneas' personal sacrifice is his lack of love, he is abandoned of the abandonee

Hall

Aeneas is a complex character, pious but also a great soldier

Grandsen

Jupiter is an agent of destiny

Williams

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

Ross

While events are predetermined there is flexibility for human free will

Grandsen

[furor] Aeneas has surrendered to an impulse that disgraces his humanity

Quinn

Aeneas in the grip of Furor is wild and vicious

Knights

Turnus is essentially a violent warrior whose qualities are unacceptable in a more developed society

Williams

Aeneas' life was ruled by a sense of duty to the gods, his people and his family

West

Aeneas enters the underworld immersed in the past and leaves sure of his mission

Otis

He's very very pious

Hall

the heroic is not necessarily the nobler ideal

Quinn

The idea of honour died at Troy with the heroes that upheld it

Haney

Aeneas is not a roman nor a stoic hero

Jenkins

Hero's in Virgils Roman epic suffer loss again and again

O'Ross

Turnus is a homeric hero while Aeneas is a proto-roman

Rutherford

Venus, as the mother of Aeneas, os the protective deity of the roman mission

Williams

One aspect of Dido's curse is to set up the future conflict between Rome and Carthage

Hall

Rome must rise as inevitably as planets revolve around the sun

Hall

War, particularly civil war, brings suffering to families

Knights

The futility of war and suffering dominates book 10

Williams

Aeneas does in warfare what has to be done but he is generally deeply unhappy about it

Pattie

Virgil hated war

Semple

Dido is in some respects Cleopatra, but she is also Circe and Calypso

Hardie

Virgil uses different nations and cultures to decipher what is really roman to the roman reader

Syed

Lavinia as the 'proper' Latin woman can be contrasted with the foreign, 'wilder and chaotic' Dido

Syed

Aeneas is driven across the Mediterranean by the anger of juno

West

The gods have much to offer yet give so little

Morgan

Jupiter is a surrogate narrator of a predetermined history

Kennedy

Juno is a soap opera bitch

Harrison

Venus and Juno engineer Dido's destruction for their own ends

West

Deities are vivid and terrifying

Williams

Aeneas failed Creusa; he has much more care for his father and son

Perkell

We are emphatically told multiple times the Aeneas really truly does love Dido

Hall

Virgil associates the feminine with unruly passion, the masculine with reasoned (self-) mastery

Oliensis

Anna acts with the best intentions but almost everything she says or does harms her sister

Knights

Women are constantly the empty vessels into which the gods inject nasty bad furor and passion and sexual feelings which are destructive

Hall

Lavinia is part of the plot rather than a character in her own right

Williams

Amata is an unstable character of violent emotion

Williams

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

Sowerby

Mezentius looks far less like a monster and more like a grief-stricken old man who is resigned to death but will go down fighting

Williams

Aeneas shows Anchises the respect and deference typical of roman ideal

Williams

Lausus loved his father to such a degree that he threw himself into battle despite the danger

West

Augustus' rule was an entirely illegal career that brought peace to Rome

Griffin

The Aeneid was motivated by a desire to regain Rome's identity

Williams