Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
If someone gets way ahead, it would be nice to use spoiler tags, but within the parameters of the week to week discussion, please have at it.
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The main emotion I came away with after the first book was sadness, seeing how welcoming the Carthaginians were towards the Trojans, while knowing that they will become mortal enemies before the end of the tale. I smell the work of Juno in that already. Virgil really does make her out to be the ultimate "bitch".
The second book is Aeneas' description of the sack of Troy (I really hope I haven't spoiled anything by saying that for anyone). I found it to be amazingly gripping, and so much like what I imagine war to be like (full of confusion, hot/cold running emotions of defiance/fear/bloodlust/exultation/grief/vengeance/apathy...). It just doesn't feel like fiction, more like what you hear from interviews of survivors after major battles, even today. Characters in other sagas (including The Iliad and The Odyssey) have always felt cartoonish to me, but not in The Aeneid, and that's what floors me most of all.