5. Book 6: The Underworld

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about Aeneas’ trip to the Underworld in Book 6. In particular, we think about the strange descent into the Underworld (marked by one of the most peculiar similes in the whole poem), his encounter with Palinurus, Deiphobus, and Dido, and his famous exit through the ivory gate of false dreams – and why this doesn’t mean the whole thing was just a dream!

Course

In this course, we explore several aspects of Virgil’s Aeneid – looking in particular at the following issues: first, Dido and Aeneas, and who we should blame for what happens; second, Augustus, and his influence on the Aeneid; third, Aeneas, and what kind of hero he is; fourth, the importance of cities in the epic; fifth, what we should make of Aeneas’ trip to the Underworld; and sixth, the presentation of the native Italians in the second half of the poem.

Lecturer

Richard Jenkyns was an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from 1972 to 1981, Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol, 1978-81, and from 1981 to 2010 he was a Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Lady Margaret Hall.

He became Professor of the Classical Tradition in 1999 and the University’s Public Orator in 2004. He was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship 2007-10.