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Virgil Calls Upon The Muse In The Odyssey's

213 Words1 Pages
In this passage, Virgil calls upon the muse to explain Juno’s motives. The calling upon of a muse is the traditional opening line to a Homeric epic (ie. The Odyssey, The Iliad). Virgil, interestingly enough, waits eight lines before he calls upon the muse. This distinct opening may have been Virgil’s way of incorporating medias res, and differentiating his work from Homer’s. Virgil’s decision to begin the story this way allows the events surrounding the fall of Troy and the adventures that ensue to be narrated afterwards by Aeneas himself. Once at line 13, Virgil asks the muse to explain the causes of Juno’s rage. Virgil’s question brings up the ancients’ relationship to the gods. The Greeks and Romans attributed many of the natural events
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