The Aeneid and The Odyssey

1312 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Odysseus and Aeneas comparison

Are there similarities between Homer's The Odyssey and Virgil's The Aeneid? There are many similarities that could be examined indepth. The lovers encountered in both plays can lead to the idea of ancient plagarism. The games held by the greeks and trojans are similar to the Olympic Games. The downfall of characters, cities or monsters can be seen often in many stories. Maybe rewriting history is the effort of a plagarist to cheat true historical events.

The lovers Aeneas and Odysseus encounter in either the Aeneid or Odyssey is vast and large. Aeneas is married to Creusa until they are separate by a sense of chaos. Odysseus is married to Penelope waiting patiently for his return. Both Odysseus and Aeneas could be found as cheating spouse and the women as prostitutes. The same could be said for their signicant lover Circe and Nausicca to Odysseus. While Aeneas is loved fiercely by the queen of Carthage, Dido, Aeneas pursued the relation from the start with Dido upon entering Carthage. When his eyes glanced upon her figure, he started to cheat on his wife. The same happens to Odysseus when he enters the domain of Circe to rescue his crew from remaining as animals. Odysseus would further his denial in adultery by lying with Circe in the same bed each night. Aeneas will lead Dido to cheat on her late husband’s wish of being alone. According to Edward Gutting, Dido’s faithfulness to her late husband would be counted as a loss to her undermining fame. Venus would displace and change her feelings into erotic ones from conjugal orientations. Dido’s passion with Sychaeus would be reignite with the recognition of Aeneas as the new lover. According to Gutting, not only is she feeling the erotic-ness but she is childless. And Cupid man...

... middle of paper ...

...o or more point views.

Works Cited

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. D.C.H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. W.F.J. Knight. New York: Penguin Books,

Bolton, Matthew J. “Literary Contexts in Poetry: Homer’s Odyssey”. Literary Contexts in Poetry: Homer’s Odyssesy. Great Neck Publishing. 2007 Literary Reference Center. Ebscohost. Chipola Lib., Marianna, FL. 2 February, 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/

Bowra, C.M. and Bloom, Harold. “C.M. Bowra on the Monsters in the Odyssey”. Bloom’s Notes: Homer’s Odyssesy. Infobase Publishing. 1988 Literary Reference Center. Ebscohost. Chipola Lib., Marianna, FL. 2 February, 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/

Schleiner, Winfried. “Aeneas’ Flight from Troy.” Comparative Literature 27.2 (1975): 97. Literary Reference Center Plus. Ebscohost. Chipola Lib., Marianna, FL. 23 March, 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/

Show More
Related

  • Gilgamesh and Odysseus: Perfect Heros

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    Homer, The Odyssey, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, ed. Maynard Mack, Expanded Edition, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), pp. 219-503.

    Read More

  • O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Modern Adaptation of Homer's Odyssey

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    Homer. The Odyssey: Fitzgerald Translation. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. Print.

    Read More

  • The Odyssey

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient Greeks have brought upon numerous ideas, inventions, and stories to the world. Greek mythology influences modern day literature and life. The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer, which tells the story of Odysseus's journey home after the Trojan War. Odysseus does not achieve his goal of reaching home so easily; monsters and gods come in his way and hinder him. The Odyssey expresses Greek values of hospitality from the customs of Ithaca, humility from Odysseus’s reform, and loyalty from Odysseus’s family.

    Read More

  • Relationships In The Odyssey

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.

    Read More

  • Parallels between Virgil’s The Aenieid and Homer’s The Odyssey

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Odysseus’ journey is one that features much emotional pain. Pain for being away from his home, wife and son, but in Aeneas’ journey he is a warrior, and he goes through physical pain. Unlike Odysseus, Aeneas begins his journey after the Greeks have burned his home to the ground. He does not have the pleasure of long comfortable “holdups” Odysseus has and he also has to deal with his father dying—the ultimate blow.

    Read More

  • Aeneid vs. Odyssey

    2152 Words  | 5 Pages

    are followed and proper respect given the gods, it is possible for man to live

    Read More

  • What Is The Similarities Between The Odyssey And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Instead, I would suggest that prefiguration is at play. As discussed in the Return of Ulysses by Edith Hall, prefiguration is similar to foreshadowing. According to Hall, “ . . . an element in an ancient text (e.g. Odysseus ' wanderings) can in a mysterious but profound manner prefigure things that happen later (Columbus 's voyages of exploration)” (Hall 6). Although, there may be no empirical evidence of Homer taking ideas from The Epic of Gilgamesh to formulate The Odyssey, the similarities between both epics go without notice. Enkidu and Gilgamesh go through a long and perilous journey, fight for their mortality, contend with the sexual advances of Goddesses, sail across deadly waters, and are offered immortality. Moreover, both Enkidu and Gilgamesh are at peace and become humble men at the end of their

    Read More

  • Homer’s The Odyssey

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    In book eight of Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is on the island of the Phaeacians and is waiting to return home to Ithaca. Meanwhile, Alcinous, the Phaeacian king, has arranged for a feast and celebration of games in honor of Odysseus, who has not yet revealed his true identity. During the feast, a blind bard named Demodocus sings about the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at Troy. The song causes Odysseus to start weeping, so Alcinous ends the feast and orders the games to begin. During dinner after the games, Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing about the Trojan horse and the sack of Troy. This song too causes Odysseus to break down and cry. Homer uses a dramatic simile to describe the pain and sorrow that Odysseus feels as he recalls the story of Troy.

    Read More

  • Achilles Vs Odysseus

    3801 Words  | 8 Pages

    Homer. ?The Odyssey,? World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack ed. Ed. Coptic St.: Prentice, 1995.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Aeneid and the Odyssey

    2715 Words  | 6 Pages

    Both the Odyssey and the Aeneid represent their cultures very well, but they express different ideas on what one should strive for in life.  There are also different forces that pushed both epics to be written.  The Aeneid expresses the Roman idea of pietas which means to show extreme respect for one’s ancestors. We see this in Aeneas when he is pictured caring his father away from burning Troy.  He has pietas because he cared so much for his father that in fleeing from Troy he took up his father over his shoulder to save his from certain death.  This is not the only major idea in the Aeneid.  There is also a very political focus.  The Roman were very interested in politics which comes through in the Aeneid. The Odyssey has the Greek idea of arete trapped somewhere among the many themes.  Arete is a strive for perfection in both mind and body.  It is a much more personal and individual idea than the Roman pietas. In the most basic seance the Aeneid and the Romans have a much more political focus and duty to the state ( republic ) than the Greeks who honor tradition , family , and arete.

    Read More

  • Homer's The Odyssey

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hu•bris /ˈ(h)yo͞obris/ noun: excessive pride or self-confidence. Hubris is believed to be the most serious of all seven deadly sins. Some say it was the original sin that led to all others. A word with such loathsome synonyms like arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, pomposity, and egotism was seen as one of the worst possible sins in Greek culture. They believed that no matter your social status those who exhibited it were destined to fall down into damnation. Yet some Grecian heroes seemed to ooze hubris in the form of confidence or cockiness. There was a fine line between the two that they should never cross. One hero in particular showed this sin on more than one account. Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus, shows the sinful trait of hubris, in the form of cockiness when he talks to Polythemus, his crewmen, his wife, and his son.

    Read More

  • Compare Aeneas And The Odyssey

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although both epics justify a status quo, codify a national mythology, preserve cultural memories, and establish literary tropes, they are united by sensibility and are traditionally poetic. They both almost have the same exact core values such as in the end, but project influence into a number to areas of cultural identity. Once more, after analyzing both texts, it is possible to conclude that Aeneas is the better leader, and The Odyssey is the greater epic. Knowing that this is the proper proposition made, this affects the readers of both well-known stories.

    Read More

  • Hector as the True Hero of Homer’s Iliad

    2380 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Segal, Charles.

    Read More

  • The Iliad and the Odyssey

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    In these two classic, epic poems told by Homer, the roles of the gods are very important to the characters and their journey throughout the books. It is always a positive or negative effect but the gods’ interference on mortals’ lives makes this an epic journey that has been remembered for thousands of years. The Iliad and the Odyssey are very different from each other in that the Iliad has more gods that effect the war and its outcome whereas the Odyssey only has two major gods that effect two characters.

    Read More

  • The Odyssey Literary Analysis

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.

    Read More

More about The Aeneid and The Odyssey

Open Document