Text 2: Vergil’s Aeneid, book 2.279-297
Vergil’s textual source describes Aeneas’ encounter with Hector’s ghost during the siege on Troy who warns him that Troy has fallen and is held by the enemy. Vergil’s Aeneid focuses solely on Aeneas’ travels and then on the war of Troy. Vergil’s work has several poetic features used to create a very detailed scene. In this scene, Vergil uses first-person to show Aeneas’ emotional state during this encounter; allowing the reader to increase their sense of connection with the character. This form of writing refrains the reader from making characterizations. This encounter with a ghostly apparition is similar to the Odyssey, where Odysseus makes a sacrifice to see the dead (Homer). These apparitions of the dead then give Odysseus instructions, just like Hector telling Aeneas to flee and keep Troy’s “sacred possessions” safe (pg. 416, line 15, Vergil). This in-turn may signify a blurred line between the underworld and the world of the living; a common question still asked today. Ghosts only appear in these myths, to ask for favours or to instruct the living; signifying a continual connection to people after they die; Aeneas sees his close friend, Hector. These apparitions can also be seen as guides. Typically gods and goddesses are portrayed as …show more content…
violence (Mar. 21). This image also represents the different ages depicted in the story, Polyphemus is a shepherd, and yet he is also savage and bloodthirsty, a clashing difference between the shepherds of the Golden Age and the brutality of the Silver and Bronze Ages. The image of the wine cup (plying the cyclops with wine) also symbolizes the use of trickery to lull the cyclops to sleep before Odysseus and his men escape; a tool that is often used in myth to bring irony and comic relief to a
Vergil’s textual source describes Aeneas’ encounter with Hector’s ghost during the siege on Troy who warns him that Troy has fallen and is held by the enemy. Vergil’s Aeneid focuses solely on Aeneas’ travels and then on the war of Troy. Vergil’s work has several poetic features used to create a very detailed scene. In this scene, Vergil uses first-person to show Aeneas’ emotional state during this encounter; allowing the reader to increase their sense of connection with the character. This form of writing refrains the reader from making characterizations. This encounter with a ghostly apparition is similar to the Odyssey, where Odysseus makes a sacrifice to see the dead (Homer). These apparitions of the dead then give Odysseus instructions, just like Hector telling Aeneas to flee and keep Troy’s “sacred possessions” safe (pg. 416, line 15, Vergil). This in-turn may signify a blurred line between the underworld and the world of the living; a common question still asked today. Ghosts only appear in these myths, to ask for favours or to instruct the living; signifying a continual connection to people after they die; Aeneas sees his close friend, Hector. These apparitions can also be seen as guides. Typically gods and goddesses are portrayed as …show more content…
violence (Mar. 21). This image also represents the different ages depicted in the story, Polyphemus is a shepherd, and yet he is also savage and bloodthirsty, a clashing difference between the shepherds of the Golden Age and the brutality of the Silver and Bronze Ages. The image of the wine cup (plying the cyclops with wine) also symbolizes the use of trickery to lull the cyclops to sleep before Odysseus and his men escape; a tool that is often used in myth to bring irony and comic relief to a