1.

If the first half of the poem is Odyssean, how do events and themes of the second half of the poem relate to Iliadic paradigms? How, for instance, do images associated with the Homeric Achilleus figure in Aeneid 7-12? Remember that to Aeneas in book 6 the sibyl prophesies "another Achilles in Latium." As the second half of the poem begins, the poet states "A greater theme is born to me / I try a greater labor." What about books 7-12 leads the poet to deem them greater and how does this relate to their Iliadic aspirations?

2.

If the Aeneid as epic shares with earlier epics a concern for negotiating the relationship between the past and the present, one important aspect of that is human generations, the relationship between parents and children. Anchises, Aeneas, Ascanius; Mezentius and Lausus; Evander and Pallas; Camilla and her father; Euryalus and his mother; all of these important figures of the second half of the poem are linked by intergenerational ties. What happens to these figures? Why present so many parent-child pairs? What are the Aeneid’s views of the transition from the past to the future through human generations? How in particular do Aeneas’ various roles as son and father, descendent and ancestor figure in the development of the themes of the poem?

3.

A number of different aspects of Virgilian emphasis come together in the description of the shield of Aeneas at the conclusion of Aeneid 8. One is Virgil’s relationship with Homer (not to mention Apollonius and Catullus): this is his version of the shield of Achilles. Another is the poem’s representation of Augustus and resonance with historical events. A third is its distinctive handling of prophecies, of which this is perhaps the most impressive. How do all these forces, the Homeric, the historical, the prophetic, come together? What sort of view of Roman myth and history emerges from the shield? A comparison with other events described in book 8 may be instructive (this is the book in which Aeneas is taken to view the site of the city of Rome). Consider the functions of the shield both as a moment within the text of Virgil’s Aeneid and as an object which has a physical presence within the world of the fiction. How is it viewed by those within the poem? Where does our perspective as readers of Virgil’s poem depart from that of Virgil’s characters? What is important about these differences?

4.

No single moment in the poem is more controversial than its end, when Aeneas kills Turnus. Compare this remarkable ending to those of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Argonautica. Where do the similarities and differences lie? Do any of these other poems raise the kinds of questions that Virgil’s does? The rightness or wrongness of Aeneas’ actions is left profoundly ambivalent. While on the one hand Aeneas has good reasons for eliminating Turnus, the manner in which he dispatches his enemy is profoundly disturbing. Based on the broadest possible view of the Aeneid, make an attempt of your own at an ethical determination about the ending. How would you argue for your view?