Book 11/12

Virgil: Aeneid: Book 11

In this course, Professor Llewelyn Morgan (University of Oxford) explores Book 11 of Virgil’s Aeneid. In the first module, we think about Book 11 in relation to its position within the epic as a whole, focusing in particular on its relation to the end of the poem. After that, we consider the ways in which Virgil enriches his description of the war between the Trojans and the Latins with references to other points in Roman mythic history. In third module, we look in more detail at the figure of Camilla, before turning in the fourth module to the importance of speech and action in Book 11.

Book 11/12

In this module, we think about how the character of Book 11 relates to its position within the epic as a whole. In particular, we think of Aeneas’ dedication of the arms of Mezentius as a kind of spolia opima ritual (and what this implies about Mezentius), the idea of Camilla as an (inadequate) substitute for Turnus, and the sense that there are still some important ethical issues to be sorted out before the poem can come to a satisfactory close.