The Mythological Accounts of the Founding of Rome

Aeneas is the son of Anchises and Venus, and one of the leaders in the Trojan War and cousin to King Priam of Troy. Aeneas was one of the most respected Trojan heroes. When Troy was being sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas fought until the gods ordered him to flee. As you

On Aeneas’s quest to find Italy he stopped in Chaon and was surprised to find Hectors

Something common in the two epics about their journey is that both Odysseus and Aeneas are distracted from what they are destined for; by the lust and arousal of women obsessed by love. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is first encountered by Circe’s love and then by the over obsession of Calypso. Circe is an immortal goddess and enchantress who is extremely beautiful and sexy. In the Aeneid, Aeneas after reaching Carthage meets Dido who is a mortal woman and queen of Carthage. She is foreign, exotic, mysterious, sexually and politically potent. Talking about Odysseus, we see that Odysseus is approached by Hermes who warns him against Circe. She offers Odysseus to have sex with her and it happens. Odysseus now distracted, lives with her on her island for a year until his comrades remind him of Ithaca. The longest delay in Odysseus’ journey is at the island of Calypso. Calypso lives alone on an exotic and beautiful island. After Odysseus crash lands here, he is rescued by her and held captive for seven years. Calypso loves Odysseus unconditionally and offers him immortality. Calypso could never impress Odysseus like Circe did. But in the Aeneid, we see that Aeneas loses sight of his mission of founding Rome in Italy. Dido makes Aeneas forget about what he is destined for as they fall in love. Both Dido and Circe keep men away from their

The Aeneid is a grand chronicle that charts Aeneas’ obstacles versus his accomplishments. Aeneas’s accomplishments entail escaping Juno’s wrath; leaving and finding love; and losing loved ones in war. Against all odds, Aeneas continued to achieve victory over all his potential downfalls. With some divine assistance, Aeneas continued to achieve victory over all his potential downfalls. With some divine assistance, Aeneas recognizes his need to help midway through his journey and needs to speak with his father, Anchises. In Book VI, he asks the Sibyl to grant him access into the underworld. Aeneas’ journey leads him to many discoveries. He discovers Leucaspis and Orontes are among “all in the nearby

According to the first document that I read, a brief history of Athens, which details Athens existence at around 3000 BC, mentions several buildings made in her honor. Some of these building are the Parthenon and Erechtheion.

See how Mars’s twin plumes stand on his crest, and his father marks him out for the world above with his own emblems? Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men…” (Virgil VI. 778-783) Romulus will become the first king of Rome. Romulus will end up setting the foundation and lineage for the upcoming Roman Republic.

The city was founded by Alexander the Great in the year 331 BC with an objective to link the land of the Pharaohs with the Greek world both materially and culturally. The planning and building

In many cultures there are flood myths that normally pertain to angered Gods who release their anger by flooding the world to cleanse whatever caused the anger in the first place. In the Roman culture, one of the flood myths mentioned states that Jupiter had been angered by the evil that came with humanity and had wanted to burn the Earth. However, Jupiter had feared by doing so Heaven would be set ablaze as well and thus, with Neptune's help, flooded the Earth. The hero Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha had been the only two to survive. Jupiter had recognized their religious lifestyle had let them live and retracted the flood. Deucalion and Pyrrha had then repopulated the world by throwing stones behind them. In the Murato culture, there is a myth in which a man had been fishing in a lagoon of the Pastaza river, a crocodile had swallowed the fisherman’s bait and the man killed the crocodile. The mother of crocodiles had been angered by this and had slashed the water with her tail creating a flood in the area and drowning everybody except for one man who had climbed up a palm tree. After the flood had subsided the man climbed down from the tree, cut off a piece of his flesh, planted it in the soil, and had grown a woman. He had then married the woman and begun to repopulate the world.

Legend says that Rome was created by two brothers named Remus and Romulus, who were

Penelope promises Odysseus that if he was not back by the time their son, Telemachus, grew a beard that she would remarry. Around the time Telemachus is about to turn 18, Penelope starts to look for suitable men to become the new king. The men showed no respect for the hospitality Penelope was giving them. In outrage Telemachus calls the city of Ithaca together and he says“‘...No; these men spend their days around our house killing our beeves and sheep and fatted goats, carousing, soaking up our good dark wine, not caring what they do. They squander everything...”(Fitzgerald book 2, line 59) Antinoos told Telemachus that his mother had planned to marry once she had finished weaving. This

Romulus and Remus were twin boys born to a princess named Rhea Silvia. Their father was the fierce Roman god of war, Mars. The king where the boys lived was scared that someday Romulus and Remus would overthrow him and take his throne. So he had the boys left in a basket on the Tiber River. He figured they would soon die. The boys were found by a she-wolf. The wolf cared for them and protected them from other wild animals. A nice woodpecker helped to find them food. Eventually some shepherds happened across the twins. One shepherd took the boys home and raised them as his own children. As the boys grew older they became natural leaders. One day Remus was captured and taken to the king. He discovered his true identity. Romulus gathered some

I found Alexander’s analysis on the similarities and differences between Aeneas and Dido and Odysseus and Circe very insightful. What especially stood out to me was the section in which he states that the comparison between the two relationships is what lets Virgil highlight the difference between Aeneas and Odysseus. Odysseus’ behavior in how he enters and ends his affair with Circe would have highlighted Aeneas’ capability to empathize with those around him. Just as Alexander had stated, Odysseus willingly decides to have an affair with Circe and stay on her island for an entire year before resuming his journey home. An interesting thing about Odysseus’ attitude in the beginning of his affair that I would like to point out is the fact that

Eventually Aeneas and his people get to the promised land, where they meet Latinus, the king of a neighboring area. Latinus offers Aeneas the hand of his daughter, Lavinia, but she is sought after by Turnus, King of

"The dominant early settlers on the Italian peninsula were a non-Indo-European-speaking people known as the Etruscans" (Coffin & Stacey 168). The Etruscans were among three groups of people from the East that entered Italy as colonists and later as rulers of various segments of the peninsula. The Etruscans came into Italy about 800 B.C.E. following the Adriatic Sea. Although our knowledge of the Etruscans is severely limited by the fact that their language, although written in a Greek alphabet, has not been fully deciphered, traces remain that they left significant evidence of their effect and influence on Rome. The Etruscans left evidence throughout nearly every aspect of Rome including their

The city was founded by Antiochus the second some time before 253 B.C. named after his wife Laodicea (Wiebe). The city was located on a high plateau and was very secure from enemy attack. The one defense problem was the fact of no ready source of water in the city, water had to be piped by aqueducts from the hot springs in Hierapolis. Six miles from the North brought into the city, water was also piped in from Colossae which was located ten miles to the East. The city was famous in its day for three primary reasons. One for its finances it was a center of banking and known throughout Roman Empire for its wealth and power. Fashion was known for its soft black wool produce there. This wool was consider luxury item and was used for clothing. There