see entire series on Virgil’s Aeneid here

Since my last post on Virgil’s Aeneid, we’ve enjoyed some -30 weather and New Year’s festivities and all that good holiday kind of stuff.  Thinking back on the first part of Book VII, it seems to me that Virgil is telling us how the Golden Age [...]

see entire post series on the Aeneid here

Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,
sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat.

Golden was sown that first age, which,
without coercion and laws,
spontaneously nurtured the good and the true.

Ovid Metamorphoses
I.90

When I first read these lines [...]

(see entire post series on Virgil’s Aeneid here)

Be with me, Muse of all Desire, Erato
While I call up the kings, the early times…
Immortal one, bring all in memory to the singer’s mind
For I must tell of wars to chill the blood…
A greater history opens before my eyes,
A greater [...]

view entire post series on Virgil’s Aeneid here

The geography of the Roman underworld is a rather fascinating, (and I admit, morbid to some) study.  There’s a kind of cool map here by Carlos Parada.  Aeneas is guided by the Sibyl.  This need for a companion and guide to the underworld is something [...]

see entire series on Virgil’s Aeneid here

Before we finally leave Book V, there are a few short but important passages which are key to understanding Roman destiny.  After the funeral games for Anchises, Juno puts it into the minds of the Trojan women to set fire to the ships – as if Fate [...]

At the moment of death, the soul has the same experience as those who are initiated into the great mysteries… These are primarily random wanderings, painful detours, endless disconcerting journeys through the darkness. Then, before the end, the terror reaches its climax: shuddering, trembling, cold sweat, fright. However, at that point a marvelous light dawns [...]