Minor characters:

Lyne: “all become minor players in Book 12”

Aeneas:

Mackie: Aeneas’ concern to facilitate fate is the cornerstone of his pietas

Gransden: Aeneas is a complex character

Parry: Aeneas is always the victim of forces greater than himself

Sowerby: Little more than a symbol

Page: Compared to Achilles, he is a “shadow of a man”

Fate and Freewill:

Gransden: events have to occur but the exact timing and conditions of it are flexible

Ross: The Aeneid is not a poem about religion but fate and the gods are always in control

Women:

Oliensis: Femininity is associated with passion, and masculinity with reason

Reilly: Characters simultaneously threaten gender roles and provide examples of Roman values

War:

Glover: Virgil’s “whole nature was on the side of peace”

Adler: Aeneas brings peace to Italy

Gransden: The hero wants peace rather than war

Fathers and sons:

Sowerby: Father-son relationships are the closest bond in the poem

Gransden: Fathers and father figures are central

Optimistic or pessimistic:

Sowerby: The Aeneid is a “fatalistic poem”

Furor:

Sowerby: Independent emotions cause misery

Gransden: Furor dominates the last four books

Pietas:

Gransden: Killing Turnus could be viewed as piety

The gods:

Williams: They are people in their own right

Williams: The actions of the gods represent human emotions

Gransden: Jupiter is more dignified than Zeus

Lyne: Juturna a “minor deity” is directly in the action of the final books, “immortality is a curse not a blessing”

Juno:

Gransden: She embodies the spirit of civil strife, She generates most of the plot

Harrison: Juno is a “soap opera bitch”

Construction of the Epic:

Quinn: Virgil keeps Homer’s “divine machinery” but limits it

Quinn: Virgil is influence by Athenian tragedy

Gransden: A counterpart of both of Homer’s Epics

Glover: Virgil is more deeply connected to Euripides than any other writer

Augustus and Rome:

Quinn: Augustus wanted an Epic with himself as the hero

Williams: A major intention of Virgil’s was to glorify his own country

Dido:

Sowerby: Dido is an innocent victim of Rome’s destiny

Gildenhard: Issues raised in Dido’s story continue to resonate with modern audiences

Gransden: Aeneas and Dido have a pseudo-marriage

Turnus:

Sowerby: Turnus is a foil to Aeneas and represents “older individual heroism”

Fate:

Gransden: Fate dominates

Knights: Jupiter embodies fate, execution