Virgil's Aeneid: A Reader's Guide

by David O. Ross Jr.

Written by eminent scholar David O. Ross, this guide helps readers to engage with the poetry, thought, and background of Virgil’s great epic, suggesting both the depth and the beauty of Virgil’s poetic images and the mental images with which the Romans lived.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jose Garmilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for beginners! As a casual reader of The Aeneid, this book was immensely helpful to understand its meaning and signficance. Not only of The Aeneid, but also of Virgil's other two poems Eclogues and Georgics.

Before reading this book The Aeneid just seemed like not much more than a beautifully written tale of an ancient hero. Ross notes how the same pattern repeats throughout the epic as a central theme: the strife for heroic glory leads to out-of-control violence, destruction, tragic loss, and immense human suffering. The Aeneid is not just a panegyric to a great hero, it's also a meditation on the harm the hero brings to others and himself. This is a universal theme as all nations venerate heroes.

The discussion on the difference between the Roman religion and ours was a great aid to understand what seemed like arbitrary divine bickering. The biographical and historical context on Virgil was also very helpful. The parallels the author notes between The Aeneid and Homer are very illuminating, and he goes well beyond the superficial similarities.

[Sean Kingsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing introduction to the Aeneid. In particular the introduction at the very end to Latin hexameter and prosody was incredibly eye-opening; although I would've been interested to hear some discussion of the half-lines.
The only complaint I could mount would be that at time the writing style tended to drag somewhat, and wasn't as precise as it could have been.
But, a genuinely great introduction to the Aeneid.

[Alex Olsen-Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, it focused heavily on poetic techniques and engaged in a formalist approach to the poem, which is not what I was after. I was much more interested in s historical and social guide to the poem.

[graceful · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a very educated piece of writing and is a great insight into the Aeneid from a point of view that is often overlooked or ignored.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started it for a class that now has long ended. Anyway, it really helped me and was quite accessible
I read the last chapter reallyyy fast

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing about the "Aeneid" it's a difficult task. It's a book full of questions and just a few answers and David Ross's introduction is just like that. Nevertheless, it's a good presentation of one of Europe's gratest literary works.

[So Hakim · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I have misgivings about Aeneid, it doesn't detract that I find this book (on the whole) a solid read. David Ross, a Virgil scholar, set himself a task to introduce the epic to the masses.

This is not a book intended for Virgilian scholars, nor on the other hand is it solely for “the general reader,” who, in the area of Latin literature at least, may be as rare as the ivory-billed woodpecker. I have had in mind a fairly wide range of non-specialist readers – someone, for example, who has read Virgil in translation with some serious interest and purpose; or students, undergraduate and graduate both, who have discovered the poetry in Latin; or secondary teachers (and perhaps their students) of advanced placement courses on the Aeneid.

(Preface, p. vii)

The author does good job exploring the subtler things of the work, not least of all, the relation of Aeneid to earlier Greek works. Aeneas was -- to paraphrase -- literally traveling from Greece to Italy, bringing his own culture to the new land. Here was a work with elements from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, with a hero that's part-Achilles part-Odysseus -- but nevertheless has his own original quality (i.e. his pius).

There are also discussions of Virgil's context: how the civil wars he just passed must have effect on him. Most of all, though, the author shines light on the topic I have beef about: that Aeneas, really, wasn't that cardboard caricature he's been accused of. Aeneas too was bleeding inside: this I can accept, but if only Virgil explained it better, like that one time he did with Dido. But oh well.

Basically essential read if you're casual reader wanting to understand more about the epic.