Research
Paper on Virgil's Aeneid Compared
To Homer's Odyssey
Even though the Aeneid have many
characteristics that are common in the Homeric epic, but as an
epic it is different in important ways. The Homeric poems give
evidence of impromptu techniques of composition involving the
utilization of different methods. This type of composition is
suitable to the demands of improvisation before an audience that
does not let the poet have time to originate new ways of
expressing different ideas. So as to keep his performance going
he must cling upon supply phrases. In contrast, Vergil composing
in private spent much time on creating his own personal poetic
language. Consequently in reading the Aeneid, one notices the
lack of the unceasing reiteration of formulas, which are
needless in a literary or secondary epic.
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Vergil, nonetheless, does emulate Homeric language without the
reiterations. For instance, Vergil infrequently translates
individual Homeric methods or even creates new formulas in mime
of Homer such as "pious Aeneas", emulates other Homeric
stylistic devices such as the epic analogy and uses the Homeric
poems as a cause for story patterns. The Aeneid varies from the
Iliad and the Odyssey as it often gives evidence of meaning
beyond the narrative level. Homeric account is somewhat
straightforward. Where as, despite Vergilian narrative can be
read and enjoyed as a story, it is often compact with tacit
symbolic meaning. Repeatedly the tacit reference is to Roman
history, while Homer is narrowly moved by the kinship of the
past to the present. Vergil tells the legend of Aeneas as he
believes it has meaning for Roman history and especially for his
own times. A further important contrariety between the Aeneid
and the Homeric poems is that the bygone has a philosophical
base while the following were composed in an epoch entirely
untainted with philosophy. The Aeneid gives indication of the
influence of Stoicism, a Hellenistic philosophy which had
accrued many suasion in the Greek world and by the first century
B.C. had become the most accepted philosophy of the educated
classes at Rome. Another significant countenance of the
explanation of the Aeneid is Vergil's use of the Homeric poems.
In the Aeneid there are countless repetition of the Iliad and
the Odyssey. Some repetitions are so discriminating that they go
unobserved even by experienced readers of the poem. Maybe the
most significant connections in Aeneid where the knowledge of
the Iliad enables to see how important figures of Vergil's poem
are associated in various ways with heroes of the Iliad. But
once these connections are classified, one can see that these
references to the Iliad provide an interesting and notable
critique on the action of the Aeneid.
Ultimately, there are many recurring images in the Aeneid such
as snakes, wounds, fire, hunting, and storms, and their meaning
for the narrative. One notices in the study of the imagery that
the Vergilian technique of making a real part of the story an
image and vice-versa. Repetitive words have meaningfulness in
the Aeneid uncharacteristic of the Homeric poems, which, because
of the nature of oral poetry, as a matter of consequence engage
constant repetition of formulas. Without a doubt, the reader in
translation is at a drawback in this regard because translators
often do not translate any given Latin word in the same way
every time, however even if there is not enough congruous
translation of a given Latin word, the theories which these
repetitive words carry can be identified in translation.
Twain of the all but significant repetitive words in the Aeneid
are furor, which means 'violent madness', 'frenzy', 'fury',
`passionate desire' etc., and its analogous verb, furere 'to
rage', 'to have a mad passion'. These words have significant
meaning for the characters in the Aeneid to whom they are put to
use and whose behavior must be judged in reference to the Stoic
ethical ideal. Furthermore, these two words adjoin the legendary
world of the Aeneid with Roman politics of the first century
B.C. since they were often put to use in prose of the late
Republic to depict the political disorder of that period of
time.
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