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Similarities in the underworld in Aeneid and Odyssey
Critical analysis of the odyssey
Critical analysis of the odyssey
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On the subject on self-serving bias, the poet Virgil was slightly biased towards the Greeks. The website hope.edu gave more background upon Virgil than Belleville West’s literature textbooks. Virgil desired to create a war epic, and because he had such an immense capacity for storytelling, it granted a poet “to do for Rome what Homer had done for Greece.” It appears as if Virgil set out to write The Aeneid to bring a sense of victory to Rome, to bring a sense of righteousness to Rome’s citizens. The epic displays the Greeks easily as awful, brutal people, whilst the Trojans are showcased as the victims.
In both The Myth of Er and the Aeneid there are similarities in the reincarnation process. One of these similarities is that to be eligible for reincarnation one must have paid 1000 year in Hades. It is also similar that to be able to return to the world all memories must be erased from the soul. The last similarity is that to know what life that one will receive in the next life one must cast lots, but there is a difference in what the casting lots means in each myth. In the Myth of Er, after casting lots the one “to whom the first lot falls [will] choose first a life to which he will be bound of necessity” (Harris & Platzner 835).
After Troy fell Aeneas fled and was planing on making a new troy. However he encounters many trials like Odysseys did. Most of these however were caused by Juno to to deter him from his fate. Eventually Juno relented and Aeneas landed in Carthage, were he had a love affair with Dido. But fate called him again and he left Dido and finally made it to Italy were he founded Rome.
The images presented in the Odyssey’s vision of Hell are far bleaker than those in the Aeneid. Although the Aeneid contains its fair share of gory, unpleasant regions in the underworld, what sets that vision of Hell apart from that of the Odyssey is its happier regions, such as the “Blessed Grove”, where “wider expanses of high air endow each vista with a wealth of light. Souls here possess their own familiar sun and stars.
In the Aeneid written by Virgil the audience gets a history of the Greeks battling the Trojans. The Greeks reached their peak in the Mediterranean world in 6th-5th centuries BC. Greek religion was important to both men and women alike. The ancient Greeks were very religious people. They believed in many Gods, which is seen through the Aeneid.
Homers complex writing is devoted to the extend he gives on the perspective into the Greek underworld, stories in which were prevailing in the Greek society. The numerous conditions of the reality of the afterlife are deeply described rather than the setting of the underworld. The underworld is described as the House of Hades which is where your death and inevitable fate lies. It is signified in The Odyssey Book XI, concretely in the scenes of Odysseus mother’s death in the Cimmerians, the Greek culture expresses a depressing but inevitable view of death as a complete dichotomy of the fate but shows the indication of more than just one afterlife.
When the poet Virgil wrote the national epic The Aeneid between 29 and 19 BC, all written works and conduits for creative expression were monitored by Roman ruler Augustus Caesar – a real-life contention between passion and control. Throughout the excerpt on pages 139 and 140 of Fagle’s translation (which covers themes such as fate, the gods, and divine intervention, and piety), Virgil explores the underlying theme of conflict between desire and duty, emotion, and reason. Exploring irony, the comparison of Dido and Aeneas’ traits, and pietas being a decision, Virgil shows Aeneas to be a flawed, enigmatic epic Roman hero who personifies the human conflict – passion versus control – of the Aeneid and the Roman empire itself. To begin with, it’s
This lack of individuality in the Underworld of Virgil is of course what lends to it its nightmarish, frightening qualities, which on the whole are not shared by Homer 's version. In the Odyssey, although certain tortures are described in detail, there is little sense of true misery, and even less a sense of fright on the part of Death 's inhabitants. Indeed, these creatures are living out their punishments purely for themselves; although seen by Odysseus, they are never "on display" in the way that Virgil 's figures are. In the Virgilian Hades, by contrast, the tortured souls become even more pitiful by virtue of their exposure to the public eye: the purpose of their punishment seems to be not only a personal tribulation, but a warning and
Zac Yandell Mr. Wampach Humanities March 22, 2023 Our Heroes’ Descent In the Odyssey, Odysseus must enter the underworld while the Invisible Man must dive into the underground of Harlem to succeed in their journeys. In the Odyssey, Odysseus must descend by entering the land of the dead to complete his journey. In book 11, Odysseus travels to the underworld to speak with a prophet, and upon his arrival he gives offers and sees Elpenor, who says, “Don’t abandon me, unburied, unlamented.” Odysseus has now spoken to the first of the shades and appointed a dire warning. If he hadn’t spoken to Elpenor, he wouldn’t have known about the warning and gotten punished on his return trip.
Odysseus’ encounter with heroes of the underworld causes him to change him values. When Odysseus remarks on Achilles’ greatness in death, Achilles is bitter and says, “I’d rather be a hired hand back up on earth slaving away for some poor dirt farmer, than lord it over all these withered dead” (11.11-513). Achilles has obtained a god-like status, for he is lord of the dead, but he is not pleased with his situation because the dead are “withered” and are not able to interact with him. In this way, he is distanced from society and cannot experience human contact the way he desires.
In the Bible and Virgil’s The Aeneid, the pursuit of honor and glory is complex, and it does not come without serious consequences and hardships. However, while Jesus and Aeneas both strive to achieve a certain goal due to divine intervention and both overcome certain adversities, their underlying motives and their ultimate outcomes are starkly different. Although it would appear that neither Jesus nor Aeneas would be motivated by personal fame or glory—as they were sent on godly missions, this is not the case in The Aeneid. Jesus acts completely selflessly as he teaches others about the Kingdom of God and how to live their lives, whereas Aeneas is working to win greatness for his ancestors as he was sent by the gods to settle and create an
Odysseus and Aeneas visit the Underworld at crucial points in each story. They both seek answers and knowledge not available in the mortal world. Odysseus’s and Aeneas’s experiences had many differences, and some similarities as well. Odysseus visits the Underworld after his grueling experience at Troy, and is confronted by his past. Odysseus sees Elpenor, and is hit with the guilt of her body being unburied.
In the epic poem, The Aeneid, by Virgil, the use of fate and destiny are often brought up to describe different events that prosper. When looking at each different mention of the word fate or destiny, the readers are able to grasp a better concept of what this all entails. Specially looking at book number one, titled, “A Fateful Haven” we are already given an insight that fate will play a key role in this book. The very first lines states, “I sing of warfare and a man at war.
The Aeneid, one of the major epic poems written by Virgil a story about Aeneas’s quest, which is one of the major themes. This also happens to resemble quite closely to the iliad which is another epic poem. The story starts with aeneas and his crew on his way to italy where he gets of course and ends up in the city of carthage. This is where he meets his lover who goes by he name dido. They have an instant connection with their stories and end up falling in love with each other.
The dramatically different ways in which Homer and Virgil depict defining moments within their epics, perfectly sheds light upon the different intentions of between their epics. Even in spite of Homer’s work serving as a clear influence to Vergil’s work, the varying intent of the two epics lead to a completely different story. In essence, the purpose for Homer’s epic is primarily to entertain the audience, while the other is to serve as a piece of political propaganda and affirm the greatness of Rome. Furthermore, the different depictions of the underworld, along with the imagery adorned on the shields also communicate another key difference,which is the author’s perspective on the purpose of life. Overall, regardless of Homer’s influence
