Virgil and Homer -- World Literature The Trojan Legacy: Textual Similarities in the Epics Iliad by Homer and Aeneid by Virgil In the study of world literature, it is essential that one must know about the earliest forms of literature, especially th Continue Reading...
afterlife in two philosophers' representations. Specifically, it will explain and compare conceptions and representations of the afterlife in Homer and Virgil. Homer and Virgil Homer and Virgil both described Hades and their versions of the afterl Continue Reading...
Even if one accepts that Homer's age was more barbaric than our own, the description conveys nothing of a balanced match between equals, only blood and death. This is not to say that the "Iliad" is lacking in tales of great warriors, but that the au Continue Reading...
Nevertheless, both heroes are very similar in their characterizations: they are both human and are subject to the whims of the gods. Odysseus confides his most troubling mistake: "From the start my companions spoke to men and begged me to take some Continue Reading...
Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" is often described as the poet's response to Homer's epics "The Iliad," and "The Odyssey" in that it details the Trojan War and its aftermath from the Roman perspective. It is a Roman claim to great and far-reaching or Continue Reading...
S. Eliot to Robert Frost. According to Theodore Ziolkowski,"Virgil has permeated modern culture and society in ways that would be unimaginable in the case of most other icons of Western civilization" (ix). In the Aeneid, Virgil through out the story Continue Reading...
Finally, Virgil's presence throughout the Divine Comedy is there for a philosophical reason, as well; he is meant to represent the clarity of reason in a spiritually chaotic universe. Homer, author of the great epic the Odyssey, also appears in Dan Continue Reading...
Dante's Inferno And The Heroic Quest Like Homer's "The Odyssey," and "The Iliad," Dante's "The Inferno" begins with a kind of god's eye view of the world. However, rather than the gods looking down and squabbling about the morality of humans they se Continue Reading...
Eumaeus heard the discussion and said: "Don't listen to this girl, she has gone mad after having lost her father, the queen is not ready to pick a suitor yet!" I couldn't tell Eumaeus about my arrangement as he could have ruined it all. After all t Continue Reading...
Juno does everything in her power to destroy Aeneas; yet he survives. The Homeric heroes had the luxury of divine help to complete their heroic missions. Another important factor is Aeneas' family. Aeneas' first loyalty was to his family. Despite a Continue Reading...
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Homer in Hollywood: The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film Continue Reading...
Thematic Comparison: Divine Intervention in Homer & Virgil Both works decently portray the horrors of warfare, and (albeit it in a reverent fashion) place the blame for this horror soundly at the feet of the gods. However while in Homer this int Continue Reading...
Adaptations Mythology - Adaptations When watching the Coen Brothers' film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, it becomes immediately apparent that the film is meant to be a creative adaptation of The Odyssey by Homer. Rather than a straightforward mimicki Continue Reading...
Ancient History Comparison and Contrast of the Aeneid and the Iliad In The Aeneid and The Iliad, both Virgil and Homer show that their characters are tragic. They often do things that they don't want to do, while lamenting the reasons for their act Continue Reading...
Pope asserts that faulty criticism is a vice, one that is potentially dangerous because of its powerful influence on the general public. Good taste is as rare as true genius. Most people are born with some degree of good taste. Education can corr Continue Reading...
Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes and the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence It has been said that authors such as Aristotle, Locke and Hobbes greatly influenced the "Founding Fathers" of the United States Constitutio Continue Reading...
Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost compares the similarities and the differences between the character of Samson in Samson Agonistes and Adam in Paradise Lost based on pride, blindness, love, maturity and worldly understanding. The paper also highli Continue Reading...
perceived superiority of modern Western civilization is unfounded. There is little evidence to suggest that our cultures are any more advanced than the ancient cultures of the Fertile Crescent, Greece, or Rome. The argument for a linear progression Continue Reading...
From this point-of-view, Aeneas can be viewed as having failed also from the role of hero because he did not succeed in averting the danger. Even so, it is important to note the fact that Berlioz portrayed him still as a chosen individual. The fact Continue Reading...
He becomes a greater hero because he is only human and yet he accomplishes many things. From going to and through the underworld to mustering up great courage to fight and carry on, Aeneas is a revered hero because he is human and, to this, we can r Continue Reading...
Divine Comedy vs. The Odyssey Both Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy and Homer's The Odyssey begin in media res, or in the middle of the protagonists' respective stories. Dante, the narrator, has reached middle age and is confronted with the spec Continue Reading...
Twelve-Step Program to Escaping Dante's Hell Dante's The Inferno paints an incredibly vivid picture of what Hell is like. The journey Dante undertakes in order to progress past his 'lost' stage and escape Hell can be likened to the 12-Step Program a Continue Reading...
The Aeneid Taking a character from The Iliad and setting him on his own journey, the Roman Virgil's epic The Aeneid necessarily contains certain parallels with the earlier Greek text. The overall story of this lengthy poem in and of itself reflect Continue Reading...
Penelope: The Crafty Ideal of Greek Womanhood One might think of Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, as the Greek masculine ideal. He triumphs over his enemies in an open agonistic contest because he is a greater warrior than they. He shows the virtue Continue Reading...
classic story A&P, John Updike pays tribute to two Greek motifs, the heroic epiphany leading to the emergence of the classical hero and the power of beauty. In this work, Sammy is the hero, trapped in the work-a-day world, who because of beauty' Continue Reading...
" (I.16.23) Despite his guilty attitude towards loving the excitement of Latin pagan literature, Augustine is a man who is converted through reading. He struggles with the intellectual side of pagan life that attracts him, as opposed to what he rega Continue Reading...
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man It can be said that throughout his entire novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce does not believe that a lot of his revelations actually came from the spiritual realm, or at Continue Reading...
Gods in the Aeneid? Viewed from Virgil's Aeneid perspective, gods are central to human existence and fate. They determine the fate of all mortals; Aeneid is included in the category of mortals; and is particularly interesting because his mother is Continue Reading...
Either as mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, mistresses, lovers or supernatural creatures, women populate the world of the Odyssey and bring thus an important source of information when it comes to finding parallels between their representations in Continue Reading...
Dante and Beatrice An Analysis of the Relationship of Beatrice to Dante Dante describes his meeting with Beatrice at an early age and in La Vita Nuova (The New Life) discusses and poeticizes the love he instantly held for her. Beatrice becomes for Continue Reading...
In her different stages of love and grief, Virgil uses direct parallels from the female characters in the Odyssey -- Calypso, Circe, Nausicaa, and Arete especially -- to make Dido the most well-rounded and fully realized woman of classical literatur Continue Reading...
Many have seen her as Aeneas's counterpart, as she herself has led her people from Tyre to Carthage in an attempt to escape environmental vicissitudes. Like Aeneas, she is a true leader, a strong willed character and independent woman. Juno and Venu Continue Reading...
What Makes an Empire?Empires throughout human history have been diverse and unique, but some common elements make them recognizably imperial. The Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires all exercised hegemony over vast areas for long periods of time, relyi Continue Reading...
Here Aeneas sees a bit of the future when he acknowledges the battles that he must "still wage . . . And how he is to flee or face each trial" (VI. 1189-90). Aeneas would not h ave become the man he did had he not ventured into the uderworld. He wou Continue Reading...
Aeneid - the Duty-Bound Aeneas Aeneas was a Trojan prince who fled from the ruins of Troy to look for Italy as his new fatherland. In his voyage, Aeneas shatters the heart of Dido - the Carthaginian queen, pays a visit to the Underworld, and finds L Continue Reading...
Roman Empire and the Athenian Empire were alike in many ways. Both developed a culture based on the same mythology in order to unite their people in belief (the Romans Latinized the Greek gods and goddesses but the narratives remained largely the sam Continue Reading...
Heroic Ideal Greece, Rome An Analysis of the Heroic Ideal from Ancient Greece to Roman Empire The mythopoetic tradition in Greece begins with Homer's Iliad, which balances the heroic figures of Achilles and Hector, two opposing warriors and men of Continue Reading...
However, people have had a choice, and, while they could have continued to grow their crops peacefully, they preferred to fight endlessly instead, having despair constantly present in the world. It is not certain whether or not people could have act Continue Reading...
Unlike Teiresias, she does not use divination or prophecy but only her memory of events on earth. Finally, Odysseus sees the shades of various prominent characters from the Iliad and learns from this the manner of their deaths. Dante is led to the Continue Reading...
