Descent to the Underworld in the Aeneid by Virgil and the...

Descent to the Underworld in the Aeneid and the Odyssey I chose to compare the Odyssey written by the Greek poet Homer and the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. I will focus my interest on Book 11 of the Odyssey and Book 6 of the Aeneid, since that is when both of the main characters make an educational visit to the underworld. The description of the underworld created by Homers wild imagination, inspired Virgil eight centuries later. Virgils masterpiece was planned as an imitation of Homers poems, so one automatically starts comparing the creations of the two authors. They were separated by eight centuries and by the cultural differences of their people. These differences are reflected on the†¦show more content†¦He travels around the world for ten years but still comes back to Ithaca. He goes into the kingdom of the dead and returns safely. It is his death and his resurrection. After a person goes through so much, he finds out everything about his inner self. He knows exactly what his fears are and how much his body can handl e physically and emotionally. Odysseuss self-knowledge becomes greater and greater through out the story. In my opinion Odysseus is simply driven by his curiosity when going to Hades, he wants to know, see and feel everything himself. But there is a formal reason for the descent - to meet the famous Theban prophet Tiresias. A sweet smooth journey home, renowned Odysseus, that is what you seek but a god will make it hard for youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦[2] And even if you escape, youll come home late and come a broken man - all shipmates lost, alone in a strangers shipà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦[3] And at last your own death will steal upon youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a gentle, painless death, far from the sea it comes to take you down, borne down with the years in ripe old ageà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦[4] Everything that Odysseus asked Tiresias about was concerning his personal destiny only - the possibility of his returning home, seeing his beautiful wife and his only son. The prophecy made by Anchises, on the other hand, is of a political character. 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