The Underworld Adventure of Aeneas in The Aeneid

Book VI Aeneid

Virgil imbues his Hades, as well as his Elysium, with a substantiated and understandable raison d'etre, and in the process corrects the notions of his predecessor.
Interaction and Reaction in Virgil and Homer

Underworld Issues

• Why was Elpenor upset that he hadn't 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: it's hard to understand what went on gauging events strictly on 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, was written many centuries after Homer's Odyssey, but since Vergil

1. deliberately patterned his work on Homer and elaborated on it,
2. lived in a milieu where Homer's writing was still very much a part of the common culture, and
3. since he lived a couple of millennium closer to the events than we do,

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 Homer's 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 Homer's 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

Aeneas goes to pay a duty call on his dead father Anchises.

Among 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.

the 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 isn't 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.

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 renown'd
The warrior trumpet in the field to sound;
With breathing brass to kindle fierce alarms,
And rouse to dare their fate in honorable arms.
He serv'd 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, drown'd;
Then cast his mangled carcass on the strand:
The gazing crowd around the body stand.
162-175

Next page > Aeneas Descends to Hades' Realm >Page 1, 2

Line numbers refer to the Latin text.

Book VI of The Aeneid by Vergil - Glossary Entries
Aeneas
Anchises
Cerberus
Charon
Deiphobus
Dido
Elysium/Elysian Fields
Furies
Hercules
Jupiter
Lethe
Misenus
Palinurus
Priam
Proserpine
Rhadamanthus
Sibyl
Sisyphus