The Aeneid
by Virgil
Recommendations from our site
“It combines the Iliadic epic of war with the homecoming epic of the Odyssey, but in a weird way. In the Odyssey, the home that Odysseus returns to is the same home that he left twenty years before, whereas in the Aeneid, the home that Aeneas is coming back to is a home that he’s never been to before. It’s a home that has to be invented. Moreover, it’s a home that lies in the future, rather than the sense you get from the Odyssey that going home means coming back to the past.” Read more...
Emily Wilson, Classicist
“We forget that many of the classics of our literary canon, like the Aeneid or the Odyssey, are about people on the move — either refugees or migrants.” Read more...
Patrick Kingsley, Journalist
“To me, it is the greatest founding myth that a nation has ever been blessed with. He was writing at the birth of what really is the Roman Empire: it’s when Augustus comes to power and has just beaten Mark Antony for control.” Read more...
The best books on The Role of Religion
Selina O'Grady, Journalist
