The Underworld Adventure of Aeneas in The Aeneid

Virgil imbues his Hades, as well as his Elysium, with a substantiated and understandable raison detre , and in the process corrects the notions of his predecessor [Homer in the Odyssey]. For Virgil, the Underworld must be categorized and organized as well as justified: thus the grouping of the souls of his Hades by reason or nature of punishment.Interaction and Reaction in Virgil and Homer Underworld Issues Here are some of the unanswered questions about the mythology of the Underworld that are left at the end of the nekuia (Underworld scene) of Book XI of the Odyssey, by Homer: Why was Elpenor upset that he hadnt been buried?Why was it said that Tiresias, of all mortals, was permitted to keep a clear head about mortal matters?Why were the shades of the eternally tortured, Sisyphus, Tityos, and Tantalus, near each other? The view of the Underworld presented in the nekuia is alien from modern views of death. Its hard to understand what went on when one adheres strictly to Judaeo-Christian visions of Hell. On this page and the next are some insights into the Homeric Underworld, based on references to Vergil. The Aeneid, by Vergil (or Virgil), was written many centuries after Homers Odyssey. Despite a few centuries, Vergil is chronologically closer to Homer than we are. Vergil is a good model also because he deliberately patterned his work on Homer and elaborated on it, and he lived in a milieu where Homers writing was still very much a part of the common culture since Homer was at the heart of the routine education of children. Therefore, Vergil tells us something about the Greco-Roman (pagan) Underworld that we should know to understand Homers nekuia. The striking similarities and close contrasts between the Underworlds of the two poets make it painfully obvious that Virgil was strongly affected by the ideas instilled in Homers text. How exactly he reacted to this burden, however, and how he attempted to justify his own work and separate it from that of Homer: these are the difficult yet ever-important questions. In re-creating Homers Hades, and in the process facing up to his predecessor, Virgil exhibits clearly his desire to re-work Homer, to complete and perfect the vision of the earlier poet.Interaction and Reaction in Virgil and Homer Reasons for Going to the Underworld HomerOdysseus goes to the Underworld for help getting home.VergilAeneas goes to pay a duty call on his dead father Anchises. Underworld Guidance HomerThe help Odysseus seeks comes from the prophet, Tiresias, in the Underworld and the sorceress, Circe, among the living.VergilAmong the living, Aeneas seeks the guidance of the Sibyl at Cumae, a priestess of Apollo who speaks inspired prophetic utterances. Among the dead, he seeks the counsel of his father. Warnings HomerCirce calms his fears and instructs Odysseus on how to travel.VergilThe Sibyl tells Aeneas how to proceed but warns him that while the trip to Hades is easy, the return voyage is limited to the select favorites of Jupiter. Aeneas must be divinely chosen if he is to return. This isnt all that terrifying a caveat, however, since he will know in advance whether he will be able to make the trip. In order to start the journey, the Sibyl says he must find a golden bough sacred to Proserpine. Should the gods not want him to proceed, he will fail to find it, but he does find it. In the guise of two doves, Venus, Aeneas mother, guides him. Unburied Dead Like Odysseus, Aeneas has a dead companion to bury, but unlike his predecessor, Aeneas must bury him before proceeding to the Underworld because the death has contaminated Aeneas fleet (totamque incestat funere classem). Aeneas does not initially know which of his companions has died. When he finds Misenus dead, he performs the necessary ceremonies. Misenus lay extended on the shore;Son of the God of Winds: none so renowndThe warrior trumpet in the field to sound;With breathing brass to kindle fierce alarms,And rouse to dare their fate in honorable arms.He servd great Hector, and was ever near,Not with his trumpet only, but his spear.But by Pelides arms when Hector fell,He chose Æneas; and he chose as well.Swoln with applause, and aiming still at more,He now provokes the sea gods from the shore;With envy Triton heard the martial sound,And the bold champion, for his challenge, drownd;Then cast his mangled carcass on the strand:The gazing crowd around the body stand.162-175 Slightly different from Odysseus, Aeneas has 2 men for whom he must provide funeral rites, but he doesnt find the second until the Sibyl has taken him to the shores of the River Styx, past the companions of Death: Famine, Pestilence, Old Age, Poverty, Fear, Sleep, and Disease (Curae, Morbi, Senectus, Metus, Fames, Egestas, Letum, Labos, and Sopor). There, on the shore, Aeneas finds his recently deceased helmsman, Palinurus, who cannot cross over until he is given a proper funeral rites. Proper burial is impossible since he was lost at sea.