READING

Aeneas’ Journey in Contemporary Literature

Virgil is the most admired, studied and imitated classical author, and has been for two millennia. His masterpiece the Aeneid, with its extraordinary depth and multiplicity of voices, continues to speak to us today, prompting us to pause and reflect on our world today.
Through these pages we go back over Aeneas’ route from the literary point of view: one or more passages from 20th century literature and from these first few years of the 21st century are associated with some of the stages along his journey, with a few brief notes to give contextualization, and a few minimal suggestions for further reading, which, within the (endless) bibliography on the reception of the Aeneid, gives pride of place to the most recent titles.
Along the way, on this captivating literary journey, we will discover that in the Aeneid, which has always been known as the poem of grief, and of the losing side, other, new issues have started to be traced in the last few decades, linked in each instance to the present, and to current affairs: from the ruination caused by war to exile, and fleeing one’s country after it has become no longer inhabitable, from the search for an identity, not just a personal identity, that is sometimes irredeemably lost, to an attachment to one’s origins and to one’s family members. Each writer views the myth of Aeneas from the perspective of their own personal experience, their own traumas, and their own failings, and views it in terms of what has mattered most in life, or matters most, or would matter most for each individual person.
Indeed, “Virgil accompanies us”, according to Giuseppe Ungaretti, “as one of the real elements of our lives”. As Giorgio Caproni (who was fond of Virgil’s hero and is present on several occasions in this literary journey) wrote: “I am, we all are, Aeneas”.

Troy

Antandros

Aeneadae

Delos

Crete: Pergamea

Butrint

Etna – Rocks of the Cyclops

Trapani Eryx Segesta

Carthage

Palinuro

Cuma

Gaeta

Lavinium

Rome