Science has studied ancient litterateur and poetry for a long time. This paper has chosen to turn its eyes towards Virgil’s Aeneid as its focus. One of the central points and the theory of the paper is to explore the ways in which the time Virgil lived have affected how he wrote the Aeneid as well as the reason for writing. Another theory that has been raised is if Virgil's work was affected by the current political changes during his lifetime, especially since he had a friendly relationship with the emperor Augustus, and if thus the Aeneid was written as a possible use of propaganda. To find an answer to the theories I have looked and presented the similarities and differences in the why the heroes travelled to the underworld, the journey itself and interactions of the two heroes with others during their time going towards the underworld as well as during their time there. The main material were the two authors’ narratives of the underworld, specifically the sixth book of the Aeneid and the eleventh book of the Odyssey, set in relation to modern research on these topics. The texts have been approached by close reading to further understand Virgil’s text and choices, and how the political views have been incorporated into his work. By reading the works and comparing the two narratives following the three analytical points, consistently and multiple times, as well as modern research, it could be concluded that Virgil's rendering of the narrative was a product of his own time, especially visible in the significant number of references to the Roman Empire and its leaders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-477690 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Bergström, Emma |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Antikens kultur och samhällsliv |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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