After the destruction of Troy, Aeneas leads a number of people out on the sea. He is the son of the goddess Venus, and has a fixed destiny to go to Italy and become the founder of Rome. Juno, queen of the gods, holds a grudge against the Trojans and does as much as she can to delay this inevitable fate of Aeneas and cause people much pain and destruction in this spirit. There is much death and war, and also much performance of sacred rituals and sacrifices in this book. Aeneas is driven by his destiny, and will not even let the love of the Carthaginian queen Dido stop him. The main events of the plot are controlled by the will of the gods, but in the end Aeneas's destiny can not be changed.

Some of the mythology was interesting, and there were a few especially nice passages. Also it was cool to see things that happen now happened so long before. Reading it feels like a time travel experience where something someone said so long ago is heard hunderds of years in the future.

The description of war was sometimes tiresome. It seemed like the author had an obligation to describe every individual death. There were too many names that didn't seem to have people behind them.

I wanted to write a story in the tradition of mythology.

I felt more connected to the past.

Virgil wanted the manuscript for this book burned because he was not able to finish editing it, but it was published anyway. Keep in mind that it was translated by Robert Fitzgerald.

You can learn a lot about mythology in it.

Every now and then it would seem repetative.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the book:



"...Princely Aeneas

Stood and shone in the bright light, head and shoulders

Noble as a god's. For she who bore him

Breathed upon him beauty of hair and bloom

Of youth and kindled brilliance in his eyes,

As an artist's hand gives style to ivory,

Or sets pure silver, or white stone of Paros,

In framing yellow gold..."



"So long as brooks flow seaward, and the shadows

Play over mountain slopes, and highest heaven

Feeds the stars, your name and your distinction

Go with me, whatever lands may call me."



"...To what extremes

Will you no drive the hearts of men, accurst

Hunger for gold!"



"Alas, what darkened minds have soothsayers!

What good are shrines and vows to maddened lovers?

The inward fire eats the soft marrow away,

And the internal wound bleeds on in silence."



"...Rumor goes-

Nimble as quicksilver among evils. Rumor

Thrives on motion, stronger for the running,

Lowly at first through fear, then rearing high,

She treads the land and hides her head in cloud,

...

Monstrous, deformed, titanic. Pinioned, with

An eye beneath for every body feather,

And, strange to say, as many tongues and buzzing

Mouths as eyes, as many pricked-up ears,

By night she flies between the earth and heaven

Shrieking through darkness, and she never turns

Her eye-lids down to sleep."



"In the courtyard a shadowy giant elm

Spreads ancient boughs, her ancient arms where dreams,

False dreams, the old tale goes, beneath each leaf

Cling and are numberless."



"Just as in our dreams when the night-swoon of sleep

Weighs on our eyes, it seems we try with all our might,

But in the midst of effort faint and fail;

Our tongue is powerless, familiar strength

Will not hold up out body, not a sound

Or word will come..."



That last one is especially awesome to me, because I feel like I know exactly what he's talking about. Where in a dream all the sudden you are really weak and can't move. I've had that exact feeling in a dream, so it's really weird to think that I've shared a similar condition to someone who lived so long ago. That's where the connection comes in.

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Created Jan 17, 2003 at 6:53pm • Submit your own review...