Category Archives: Virgil

Aeneid 1.198-207: Keep yourselves safe for better times

Over the centuries since Virgil wrote these words, they must have been read by countless people who were experiencing a time of crisis. In the Spring of 2020, with people […]

The Golden Age in Pastoral: Eclogues 4.15-45

Virgil’s vision of the Golden Age of peace and prosperity is notable, to me, for its deep emotional resonances as expressed in the earthy imagery of the pastoral genre.  The […]

Aeneid 4: 120-127 and 160-172: Scene – A Cave

Virgil is SO lazy… At Aeneid 4.124 and 165 he even repeats the same line, with just the subtlest variation: the verb that completes the sense in the following line […]

Experiment

  Personal introduction – I think that this is one of the most moving passages in The Aeneid. It focuses on Aeneas trying to save his family which is not […]

Virgil Aeneid 2.708-40 (Contributed by Carla Jennings)

I think that this is one of the most moving passages in The Aeneid. It focuses on Aeneas trying to save his family which is not only something very poignant […]

Poppies in Classical Poetry – Homer, Catullus, Virgil, Dante (contributed by Jane Mason and David Bevan)

Homer’s simile describes the death of a minor character, shot by mistake by Teucer when aiming at Hector. Catullus’ poem begins with a bitter and crude invective against his unfaithful […]

Virgil Aeneid 9.420- 449 (contributed by Jane Mason and GCSE Latin students (aged 15))

This passage shows so well the senseless violence of war and its brutal destruction of life’s fragile beauty. But it also portrays the immortality of self-sacrifice, heroism and above all, […]

Virgil Aeneid 9.314-50 (contributed by Caroline Lawrence)

I’ve been reading book 9 of the Aeneid. Not often studied, it is the book with the most battles in it. Aeneas has gone off to recruit help and left […]

Virgil Georgics 4.67-87 (contributed by Ian Peel)

Mankind has had an affectionate and symbiotic relationship with bees since the beginning of time. Einstein has been credited (alas, probably erroneously) with the suggestion that the final demise of […]

Aeneid 2.40-56, 203-19 Laocoon and the Serpents (contributed by Anne Dicks)

Studying this passage for ‘O’ level many years ago is what made me choose to take ‘A’ Level Latin and begin my career as a Classics teacher. Anne Dicks, Classics […]