Virgils Aeneid + Homers Iliad epic poems ??

Question:

Help w/ Virgils Aeneid + Homers Iliad epic poems ??

Please someone help me compare and contrast the Illiad and Aeneid. Thanks!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Virgil pulled heavily from the Greek epic tradition illustrated by Homeric poetry. Often, books 7-12 of the Aeneid are seen as corresponding to the Iliad while books 1-6 correspond to the Odyssey. As has already been written, the Aeneid is about the survivors of the fall of Troy who are seeking a new homeland and will fond a city in Italy that mythologically is seen as the beginning of Rome. Aeneas is similar to Achilles when his furor is seen in the battle, especially at the end when he kills the already defeated Turnus. Aeneas is unlike Achilles and more like Odysseus in his desire for a homeland and his filial piety.
There is a nekuia, an underworld journey, in both books. Aeneas physically goes down into the underworld to visit his father and learn what he must do next. The journey of King Priam in the Iliad to the tent of Achilles to retrieve the body of Hektor is also an underworld journey.
Both epics portray the importance of story-teller and poetic performers. Aeneas retells his journey and the fall of Troy at the court of Dido, and in the Iliad you have Achilles and Patroklos performing their own tales in the embassy book.
Also, the Aeneid was unfinished when Virgil died, he even ordered it burned. The Iliad we consider the authorative text was the product of a long tradition of oral epic telling, while the Aeneid is a purely written text, though Virgil is known to have recited pieces of it to Octavian.