Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Aeneid


                 (according wikipedia)The Aeneid (LatinAeneis [ajˈneːis]—the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgilfrom 29 to 19 BCE, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
         The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad; Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulouspiety, and fashioned this into a compelling founding myth or nationalist epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.

Story
     The Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy) and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium). These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odyssey's wandering theme and the Iliad's warfare themes. This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind.


have a good read :)


28 comments:

  1. I'd never heard of this one... which is weird cause I love greek literature

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  2. I will have to look into this further! Thanks!

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  3. that translates into epic poems? fucking awesome.

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  4. The poe of this story is beauty, really, really beauty

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  5. I love old literature, maybe I should look this one.

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  6. Haven't ready this yet. I'll definitely consider it next time I see it!

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  7. In it's original context, considering that people actually memorized these things, I think the title of Epic poem is appropriate. ;D

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  8. Never heard of this one. Btw i love Stephen King, so books yeah :D

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  9. Read it some years ago. Anyone who is interested in history should read this one!

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  10. I just finished reading this, it is really good!

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  11. This book sounds good. I will have to check it out at some point.

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  12. added to my list. thanks for the suggestion. sounds really good.

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  13. Oh, you're really into classics. What about Plato?

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  14. I love how these are always given the title 'Epic Poem'.

    Honestly, I think the definition of 'Poem' has changed a little since then hahaha

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  15. this was a beautiful piece of work. You must check out aristotle's metaphysics.

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  16. This might be something I will check out.

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  17. Is it kind of like the Odyssey? I remember reading that back in high school.

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  18. Sounds pretty good, will check it out.

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  19. I've heard of "Virgil" somwhere. Nice book.

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  20. interesting, i might pick this up. ive always enjoyed older reads like this such as the Odyssey that i read in high school

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  21. Interesting book, I can never pronounce that name correctly.

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