"Virgil invites us to see in Aeneas a new Odysseus often in similar situations but in vital ways profoundly different" What do you find to justify this comment, in books 1-6?

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"Virgil invites us to see in Aeneas a new Odysseus often in similar situations but in vital ways profoundly different" What do you find to justify this comment, in books 1-6?

Virgil's epic work "The Aeneid" was in part written as a propaganda piece for the emperor of the time Augustus. Which was an attempt to indirectly relate it's hero Aeneas, who in the Aeneid founds Rome and is of divine decent, to Augustus. Therefore to some extent Virgil is creating, in Aeneas, a hero which will please and serve the purpose of propaganda for Augustus. Perhaps Augustus was hoping that Virgil would create a character similar to Odysseus as Odysseus was a mythological character who was greatly admired by the classical world. There is sufficient evidence to say that this statement is correct, Virgil has made Aeneas similar to Odysseus and Aeneas is put into similar situations perhaps to highlight the connection between the two heroes.

From the first paragraphs of both "The Aeneid" and "The Odyssey" we are informed that they have both traveled a lot and the theme of journeying is a predominant in both epics as their largest similarity within the overall plot. In "The Aeneid" Aeneas is referred to as "a man much travailed on sea and land" and it eventually takes him seven years to reach his final destination of Italy. Odysseus is referred to as "resourceful man who was driven to wander far and wide" who after ten years of traveling, and ten years of war, he reaches his home of Ithaca. Their vital difference here is their reasons for traveling. Odysseus is away from home and traveling because he agreed to take part in the Greeks sacking of Troy in the Trojan War and returning victorious, returning to a wife and home. Whereas Aeneas has been forced to flea his home and has to found a new city and home as the Greeks have completely destroyed the city and are still terrorising those who have not left and it was too late for Aeneas wife. Later in the Aeneid there is a brutal description of the Greeks abuse towards the defeated Trojans which invokes sympathy and for the Trojans as they have such spirit, strength determination despite what they have been through, making Aeneas appear a stronger character than Odysseus who has a wife and home waiting for him. Their similarity here is that despite their determination to reach their destinations, this determination wavers at certain points during both plots. Aeneas delays and to some extent forgets his destiny when he and his crew visit Carthage and he falls in love with Dido. Odysseus' gives up any hope of reaching home whilst stranded on Calypsos' island and spends his days crying because he believes that he will never see his home again.
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Both Aeneas and Odysseus have gods pitted against them. Aeneas has Juno against him "By the powers of Juno suffering much in war until he could found a city." Odysseus has Poseidon against him. However these gods are against them for very different reasons. Juno isn't against Aeneas for anything that he has done to her but she has three reasons that are totally unrelated to Aeneas himself. Firstly Juno doesn't like Aeneas because he is a Trojan and the Trojans are at some point destined to topple her favourite town of Carthage. Secondly Paris, a Trojan prince, ...

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