Aeneid
1-3 Study Questions
Identify: Juno, Latium,
Carthage, Tiber, Libya, Parcae, Ganymede, Teucrians, Pallas, Jove, Jupiter,
Orontes, Achates, Neptune, Ceres, Venus, Antenor, Lavinium, Ascanius (Iulus),
Alba Longa, Ilia, Mars, Romulus, Assaracus, Julius Caesar, Fides, Vesta, Quirinus,
Remus, Maia, Dido, Sychaeus, Pygmalion, Memnon, Penthesilea, Latona, Ilioneus,
Anchises, Iopas, Ulysses, Laocoon, Sinon, Palamedes, Palladium, Minerva, Cassandra,
Deiphobus, Panthus, Pyrrhus, Penates, Creusa, Polydorus, Palinurus, Hermione,
Helenus, Achaemenides,
Book 1
- Does Virgil actually
"sing" his poem? Why does he begin this way? In what meter did
he compose the Aeneid?
- How does the opening
of the Aeneid compare with the openings
of the Iliad and the Odyssey?
How would the reader's recognition of
similarities affect their understanding of the poem?
- Why does Juno persecute
Aeneas?
- How is Aeneas characterized?
What do we know of him from the Iliad?
- What is the quest of
this hero?
- What is the significance
of the simile at lines 201ff?
- Aeneas' first speech
occurs at lines 270ff. What sort of leader is he?
- What Homeric models
does Virgil use for Venus' appeal to Jupiter?
- What future for Aeneas
and his descendents does Jupiter reveal to Venus?
- What is Dido's history
and what does she have in common with Aeneas?
- Why does Aeneas envy
the Carthaginians?
- What does Aeneas see
on the tapestries in the temple of Juno? Compare this with Homeric ecphrasis
and with Odysseus listening to Demodocus.
- To whom is Diod compared
in the simile at lines 678ff?
- Fire imagery is important
in the Aeneid. What does it signify?
Book 2
- Compare Aeneas as storyteller
to Odysseus among the Phaiakians.
- What is the function
of Laocoon's and warning and his subsequent fate?
- How does Sinon make
his story to the Trojans credible and persuasive?
- What instructions does
Hector's ghost give to Aeneas? Does Aeneas obey him?
- Trace the references
to snakes or serpents in this book.
- What importance is
attached to the father-son relationship in the Aeneid?
- How
is Helen characterized here? What saves her life?
- What
prevents Aeneas from pursuing his fated task?
- What
sacrifice is made as they flee from Troy and why?
Book
3
- Explain
the significance of the ghost of Polydorus.
- Where
does Aeneas try to settle next and what happens to prevent him?
- What
prophecy does Celaeno deliver?
- What
is Andromache's history?
- What
does Aeneas learn from Helenus?
- Compare
and contrast Aeneas' voyage with that of Odysseus.
- What
major loss does Aeneas suffer next?