Virgil and Homer
While Virgil made definite strides in creating the drama,The Aeneid through his artful use of references to The Odyssey, a well-known epic, his work stops short of defining itself as a superior text. Virgil intentionally draws comparisons as well as contrasts between The Odyssey and its characters in The Aeneid primarily by likening Polyphemus and Dido as roadblocks to the nostros or homecoming of Odysseus and Aeneas, respectively. As Virgil links the tragedies of Aeneas to a similar fate experienced by the Theban hero, Odysseus, he does so in an attempt to surpass the reputation that Homer has as an epic writer. As a means of establishing himself as a notable dramatic artist, he makes continuous comparisons between the characters in The Aeneid with the situations and characters in The Odyssey, in which his portrayals are somehow advanced in contrast to Homer’s simple representations of the same in his epic. Virgil makes an attempt to be authentically greater than the greatest epic writer in the art of literature, yet by relying on references to The Odyssey so much, he instead becomes an author so dependent upon the likenesses between the two texts that he achieves an adverse affect. Basing my argument on the similarities between the way that Virgil conveys the interactions between opposing cultures, I will attest that he borrows heavily from Homer affirming his reliance on his predecessor and his incapability of developing his own themes. Virgil depreciates his authority as an authentic dramatist through his lack of original ideas noted in the preciseness with which he adopts the interpretation of race relations from Homer, demonstrated best in Dido’s speech prophesying Aeneas’ tragedy that awaits him in Latium.