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Underworld In The Odyssey

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Augustus was the first emperor that led the Roman Empire and restored the Republic after the death of Julius Caesar. Believing in many ancient traditional values, Augustus thus introduced many moral, political and social reforms in order to improve Roman society and implement a new Roman government. In addition to focusing on political reforms, Augustus also devoted resources to Roman literature. Thus came the birth of Virgil’s The Aeneid, which was commissioned by Augustus about the founding of Rome.

In The Aeneid, Virgil introduces new concepts to his audience, while integrating real-world institutions at the same time. The appearance of the Underworld in The Odyssey and The Aeneid are similar to each other as they both occur almost in the …show more content…

In Book VI, Virgil demonstrates this by having his underworld reflects the new constitutional system implemented by Augustus, specifically the Roman judiciary system. With his interpretation of the underworld, Virgil highlights Rome’s efficiency along with its new constitutional order -- how the Romans are more organized and people get justice for what they have done -- unlike the Homeric interpretation of the Underworld, where once you go to the Underworld, everyone receives the same punishment no matter the severity of your crime (with a few exceptions). In The Odyssey, Homer shows the Underworld more as a vast space, in which everyone who has died wants to live again. On the other hand, Virgil’s Underworld is very structured and has a grand architectural scheme, which is described in detail, and divided into multiple sections, each with a certain purpose: the Fields of Mourning (for those who had unrequited love when they died), Rhadamanthus & Tartarus (the fortress where the most evil of sinners and tortures are carried out), and the Blessed Groves (where souls may reside in peace). Even in the afterlife, the soul, associated with the actions its body had committed during its mortal life, continues to be judged in after death; “therefore they undergo the discipline of punishments and pay in penance for old sins...We suffer each our own shade” (VI. 186. 994-999). Through the architecture of the underworld, Virgil shows how despite living amongst the good and the bad, everyone will eventually be justly punished or rewarded in life and death. However, Virgil also calls for fair justice in the Roman courts, and in Roman society, in a very subtle way. In the Virgilian underworld, it is Minos who governs over a silent court,

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