This weekend marks the start of our reading of the Aeneid! In university, I did a year’s worth of study on the Roman Empire, so I’m extra excited about reading this text.

Our schedule for this reading is roughly two ‘books’ aka chapters a week, for the next six weeks. We will be posting discussion posts every weekend, to talk about that week's reading.

The full schedule is:

• Books 1 & 2 - 16/09/23
• Books 3 & 4 - 23/09/23
• Books 5 & 6 - 30/09/23
• Books 7 & 8 - 07/10/23
• Books 9 & 10 - 14/10/23
• Books 11 & 12 - 21/10/23

I’ve never read the Aeneid before, so please keep that in mind here. I’ll try to provide as much context as I can, but unlike with the Iliad, I am unable to go in-depth about the characters we are about to meet. I will provide a list of the Greek gods names in their Latin form because I think it’s fair to say that that can be a bit confusing, at the bottom of this post.

About the Writer:

Publius Vergilius Maro aka Virgil lived during the late years of the Roman Republic (think SPQR, Cicero, and Julius Caesar) and during the early years of the Roman Empire, known as the Principate. Virgil was born in Gaul, so he was a bit of an outsider, but he was educated in Rome. He was on good terms with Octavian, the adopted heir to Julius Caesar (and later the first official emperor known as Augustus). Virgil was a well known writer during his time. Besides the Aeneid, we know of two other texts that he wrote: 'Eclogues' and 'Georgics'. His works are seen as some of the best remaining texts from this period. Additionally, even though the Aeneid was published posthumously, it was a popular hit from the moment it came out.

Historical Context:

The Romans had conquered what we refer to as Ancient Greece a couple of centuries before this, around 146 BCE. Two things are of note here. Firstly, the Romans were obsessed with Greek mythology and culture, but at the same time they usually wanted to show Roman culture as even greater than it. In the Aeneid, Rome is usually shown as the culmination of both the Ancient Greek and Italian world, with Roman culture being the absolute pinnacle on the evolutionary scale.

Secondly, Virgil wrote the Aeneid at time when Rome was settling into a new era. The Aeneid works as a way for the Romans of his day to tie themselves back to the former greatness of Troy. By the time of the early Principate, the Romans had a firm foundation myth in place that mythologized their place in the world – the story of Romulus and Remus, abandoned twins who were raised by wolves who then founded the city of Rome itself. In the Aeneid, Virgil ties this into his story – Aeneas becomes an ancestor to the twins (alongside some native Italian bloodlines). Aeneas himself was a prince of Troy and the son of the goddess Aphrodite (here known as Venus). During Virgil’s day, the Caesar dynasty (Julius and later Octavian/Augustus) claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas, and thus the gods themselves.

Not to go too deep into politics, but it can be argued that in the Aeneid, Virgil shows where he stands on the political situation of his own day, in support of the Caesar line and the Roman empire. Even though the text is set back in the age of the legendary Greeks and Trojans, contemporary Roman politics from Virgil’s time does find its way into the text. This takes many forms - such as the names of some minor characters sharing a resemblance to the names Augustus' political allies during Virgil's day.

Influences:

Virgil was heavily inspired by actual Greek stories, from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Apollonius’ Argonautica and Euripides' Medea (which we, by happy coincidence, read earlier this year). Certain storylines within the Aeneid, such as Dido's tale, show this influence well. I don't want to spoil you guys (or myself) so I'll leave this thread of thought here for now, but I think it's cool that we might be able to see some of these influences within the work as we read it.

As mentioned earlier, the Aeneid was a hit from the moment it came out. It remained extremely popular throughout the centuries. It's influence on later literature is immense.

Extra Tea:

There is a rumor that Virgil didn’t want to let the Aeneid be published posthumously. Tragically, Virgil died before he finished the work and made this request – possibly to burn the book – on his deathbed. Augustus, however, chose to ignore him and had the book published. We don’t know if the book burning request was true or not, but we do know that the last fifty or so lines of the text were unfinished at the time of his death. Did Augustus do Virgil dirty? We'll never know, but it will be interesting to see if there is a marked difference between the last few lines and the rest of the poem.

The Gods:

Greek : Roman

• Aphrodite : Venus
• Ares : Mars
• Apollo : Apollo
• Athena : Minerva
• Artemis : Diana
• Demeter : Ceres
• Dionysus : Bacchus
• Hades : Pluto
• Hephaestus : Vulcan
• Hera : Juno
• Hermes : Mercury
• Hestia : Vesta
• Kronos : Saturn
• Persephone : Proserpina
• Poseidon : Neptune
• Zeus : Jupiter