Somehow I have never gotten around to reading this. It was surprisingly enjoyable and worked well for reading on the stairmaster.Some thoughts:
1. This work definitely is part of the traditional canon; references to it pop up all over the place. For example, it's been mentioned within the last couple days in the two other books that I have in process.
2. The foreward was helpful in explaining Virgil's purpose - basically he was writing something that put the founding of Rome and its empire-building and law-giving in a heroic aspect. He built directly on, and borrowed from, Homer. He also used the underworld visit as a device to praise the top political figures of his day.
3. Dido was a really strong character.
4. The underworld scenes are fascinating and seem to cover what I know of most religions' key elements of the afterlife. I don't know that much about Dante but he seemed to borrow very heavily from this (I do recall Virgil was even his guide as he passed through the underworld).
5. The battle sequences are full of graphic violence. Now I'm thinking this year's surprise hit movie of ancient warfare ("The 300") - which I avoided because I thought it would be too violent - may have been consistent with Virgil's descriptions.
6. He emphasizes piety and interaction with the gods as the key to Rome's success.
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