Modern Scholarship

• [Rutherford] Women and everyone else are powerless under the gods
• [Williams] Virgil's sympathy for the defeated conflicts with the triumph of Rome's achievements
• [Briggs] We can admire Nisus and Euryalus without agreeing with their actions
• [Marshall]  The Aeneid connects Rome to its mythical history and establishes divine ordination to rule
• [Marshall]  Book 6 is a turning point where Aeneid goes from a furour, Greek hero to a pias Roman Hero
• [Marshall] The reverse order of shades Aeneas encounters shows the human sacrifice to found Rome
• [Boyle]  Aeneas learns nothing from the underworld and is destined to recreate the horrors of Troy
• [Camps] Aeneas is meant to be a reflection of Augustus "king by nature but with the ability to be cruel"
• [Otis] Aeneas represents how Augustus needs to look forward to future peace whilst acknowledging the bloody past
• [Boyle] The idea of Empire that Anchises outlines is a false hope (Ivory gates of flase hope)
• [Parry] The Aeneid had two voices, the public voice of celebration and the private voice of lamentation
• [Marshall] Aeneid 6 is both a celebration and a lamentation of the Roman Empire
• [Williams] Aeneas does not seek personal satisfaction
• [Williams] Virgil has created something new with the character of Aeneas and we must not judge him poorly because we think he should be more like Achilles
• [Hardie] Unlike the Iliad, the Aeneid is not driven by personal ambition but by fate and Aeneas is a tool to achieve Rome's destiny, this accounts for Aeneas' colourless character
• [Lyne] Aeneas' interactions and responses to other people are minimal, and Virgil neglects Aeneas' relationships with other people
• [Williams] Camilla is a strange mix of the beauty of an idyllic pastoral world and the heroic world of violence