The Aeneid by Vergil is a Roman epic that follows the journey of Aeneas, a Trojan warrior who escapes the destruction of Troy and sets out to find a new homeland in Italy.
Guided by fate and the gods, Aeneas faces numerous trials, including storms at sea, battles, and personal losses. Along the way, he visits the underworld, learns about Rome’s future greatness, and ultimately sacrifices his desires for the greater good of founding a new civilization. The epic blends heroism, duty, and divine will, portraying Aeneas as a model of Roman virtues like loyalty, piety, and perseverance.
This book was truly a magnificent classic and well-written, despite it only being fan fiction of Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey.
It provides a parallel viewpoint of the Trojan War, as Vergil was a Roman while Homer was Greek. The Aeneid in itself has no exact reference to Homer’s epics, but rather, provides a Roman point of view to rebuild the destroyed dignity of the Romans. It provides a variety of accounts as to what happened on both sides of the Trojan War, cancelling out the concept of history being written by the winners. It gave me a sense of wisdom and perception, as I initially perceived the Romans as a weak empire, having been destroyed from the inside and out by the Greeks. However, The Aeneid provided me with the enemy perspective, or the under-heard group, which would be the losers of war.
While this book may be a classic, there are many elements I did not like about this epic. As mentioned, it was essentially fan fiction of Homer’s tales, and there were many parts that Vergil either mocked or mimicked Homer. Vergil barely built on his own ideas, and basically copied all of Homer’s main roots of the stories and applied them to his. From this, some parts were hard to follow with strange references and repetitive elements from other epics. Additionally, the stories felt like propaganda, as he was just trying to persuade readers that the Romans, despite losing the war, were still dignified, strong people through the character Aeneas.
For modern youth, The Aeneid offers powerful lessons about responsibility, resilience, and finding one’s purpose. Like Aeneas, many young people are in the process of discovering who they are and what they are meant to do in life. Aeneas’s journey teaches that personal struggles and sacrifices are often necessary for long-term goals and the benefit of others. His sense of putting duty over personal happiness can inspire teens to think about their own values and the impact of their actions. The epic’s themes of identity, leadership, and destiny continue to resonate as young people navigate their own paths in an ever-changing world.
