Greek and Roman Mythology Virgil\'s

Greek and Roman Mythology

Virgil's Aeniad differed significantly in several ways from the Odyssey; Virgil modified the underworld and the character Calypso from the way they were originally represented in the Greek epic. The ending to his story of Aeneas also differed significantly from that of the ending to another Greek epic the Iliad.

In the Odyssey, the character Calypso was supposed to be a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia; she was the daughter of Atlas. In the Aeniad, instead of being a nymph who lived alone on an island, Dido was a mortal woman who ruled the land of Carthage in Africa. In the Odyssey, Odysseus was cast onto the shores of Calypso's island after escaping alone and unharmed from the gods' punishment inflicted upon his men. Since the nymph lived alone she was delighted to find company with Odysseus. In the Aeniad, Aeneas landed in Carthage with his young son and crew of men. Dido was a widow who had not for a long time had intimate relations with men until Aeneas came along. When she first beheld Aeneas she was immediately smitten by him, especially after Venus had her son Cupid inflame her with the passion of love.

Calypso refused to allow Odysseus to leave and so he had to endure staying on Ogygia for seven years. During that time, he became sad and despondent while longing to return to his home. In the Aeniad, Dido implored Aeneas and his crew to stay in her kingdom as long as possible. Soon she and Aeneas began a passionate affair and it was assumed that Aeneas would stay in Carthage forever. In the Odyssey, Calypso was ordered by Zeus through the messenger Hermes to allow Odysseus to leave her island. She relented and later told Odysseus that she would help him to leave. She helped him build a raft and provided him with food and clothes. Finally she instructed him on how to use the stars for directions.

In the Aeniad Jupiter sent Mercury to Aeneas and commanded him to leave for Italy immediately. When Dido discovered that he was leaving, she began pleading incessantly for him to stay even for a short while. Unlike Calypso, she was never resigned towards his departure and refused to help him prepare for the trip. Also unlike Calypso, she became very spiteful towards her lover and expressed ill will towards him before he left. After his departure, she abruptly killed herself and was soon banished to the underworld.

The description of the underworld differed significantly between the two epic tales. In the Odyssey, Odysseus travels to the underworld alone after being instructed on how to do so by Circe; in the Aeniad, Aeneas travels there with the priestess Sybil. Odysseus is instructed to travel by ship towards the edge of the ocean until he reaches the land of Hades; he is supposed to take along a black heifer and black ram for sacrificing to the dead. In the Aeniad, Aeneas is instructed to retrieve a golden bough from a special tree, which will allow him to travel in the underworld since it would serve as a gift to Proserpine queen of the underworld. Aeneas was also supposed to take with him some cattle for sacrifice, but they were to be sacrificed to the underworld gods.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus is supposed to seek out Teiresias, seer of the dead, who could instruct him on how to find his way home. He was supposed to sacrifice the sheep and make a drink offering to the dead, but was not to allow them to partake of it until Teiresias arrived. In the Aeniad, the purpose of Aeneas' trip to the underworld was to seek out his dead father Anchises and to see what the future held for him and his descendants; it was prophesized that he would be the founder of Rome. While in the underworld Aeneas witnessed many things, among them the Stygian lake across which Charon ferried the dead, Cerberus the three-headed dog, the Mourning Fields in which lost lovers resided, the torture chambers in which the gods punished criminals, and the fields of pleasure in which those whom the gods favored resided. Odysseus did not witness such things; he only met many souls of the dead who arrived to partake of his sacrifice. In the Mourning Fields, Aeneas came across his lost love Dido who only avoided being with him. Odysseus met his mother, who unbeknownst to him had died during his absence and who had arrived to partake of his sacrifice. When Odysseus tried to embrace her three times he realized that he was unable to because she had no body; Aeneas tried to embrace his father three times and came to the same conclusion. Whereas Aeneas witnessed that souls awaited reincarnation by the Lethe Lake no such mention of this was made in the Odyssey. Finally, Teiresias informs Odysseus of the future obstacles that he should avoid in order to finally get home. In contrast to this, Aeneas's father shows him the phantom images of his future descendants who will come to rule the Roman world.