Virgil's Aeneid, a Critical Description

Abstract

Chapter 1: The Heroic Impulse Chapter 2: Genesis - I. What is the Aeneid about? II. The Task and its Problems III. The Problems Solved Chapter 3: Structure - I. General Description II. Structure of the Twelve Books III. The Episodes IV. Projection of the Narrator into his Narrative V. Parallel and Suspended Narrative VI. Tempo of the Narrative: Tenses Chapter 4: The Twelve Books Chapter 5: Form and Technique - Part 1: Form I. Not only Homer II. Difference in attitude between Virgil and Homer III. The Exploitation of Form IV. Impure Poetry Part 2: Technique I. Gods II. Characterization and Motivation III. Parallel Divine and Psychological Motivation IV. Fate Part 3: The Contribution of Tragedy I. Tragic Attitude II. Tragic Suspense III. Tragic Irony and Insight IV. Implicit Comment Chapter 6: Style - I. Words Alone II. Words in Action (i) The Tradition: (a) Ennius and the Old Poets (b) Catullus and the New Poets (c) A Common Style (ii) Innovation - callida iunctura. (a) Latent Metaphor (b) Archaism brought about by Context (c) Etymological Puns (iii) Ambiguity (iv) Syntactical Ambiguity III. The Virgilian Sentence (i) Metre (ii) Theme and Variation (iii) Subordinate Clauses (iv) Imagery