Aeneid Critics

“Frenzy, or furor, is the most persuasive and destructive force in the Aeneid”

Bob Cowan

Aeneas is “a hero who excels both Odysseus and Achilles”

Thomas Kerns

“Virgil’s political intent of Augustinian predestination”

Thomas Kerns

Dido is “over-emotional, neglects her public duties in her distraction over Aeneas”

J.L. Moles

Before, she was “a dutiful ruler” and is “conceived as a tragedy”

J.L. Moles

“A visit to the Underworld is customary for great heroes”

Sim Swaing

“To the Romans he was a symbol of much inspiring morality”

C.M. Bowra

“In these angry scenes Virgil must have had Augustus himself in mind”

C.M. Bowra

“Aeneas is likened to a natural disaster”

William R. Nethercut

“Aeneas is far from being a weak character or a puppet in the hands of fate”

George Duckworth

“Divine machinery was a necessary part of the epic”

George Duckworth

“No mention is made of Aeneas’ love for Dido”

Steven Farron

“Virgil neither states nor implies that Aeneas felt any regret over the loss of Dido”

Steven Farron

“Aeneas gives in to anger” and “his actions at the end cannot escape moral scrutiny”

Peter Burnel

“Aeneas becomes a second Pyrrhus, his men are transformed into Greeks”

William Nethercut

“Juno is the instigator and prime mover”

Banks J. Wildman

“It seems significant that some die in the bloom of youth and others in old age”

E.N. Genovese

“Most of the deaths of the Aeneid are directly caused by furor”

E.N. Genovese

Dido is in the Aeneid “principally to emphasise Aeneas pietas”

Kenneth McLeish