The Aeneid: Genre 1 key example

Like The Odyssey and The Iliad, The Aeneid is written in dactylic hexameter. However, while Homer's epics were the result of an oral tradition, Virgil wrote his epic from scratch. Thus, the poem isn't an epic in the sense that it was passed down orally by bards; rather, Virgil presents the poem as a continuation of the oral tradition by imitating Homer's style. This is clear already in the first words of the poem: "Wars and a man I sing." Like Homer's narrator, Virgil's narrator invokes the Muses for help as he "sings" about Aeneas's exile and Juno's rage. However, while the poem isn't the result of an oral tradition, this doesn't mean that it wasn't intended to be performed: Virgil himself supposedly performed Books 2, 4, and 6 to Augustus.

Like most epic poetry, The Aeneid is a long narrative poem which tells the extraordinary story of an extraordinary character. The character Virgil chose as his subject is Aeneas, a Trojan fighter who briefly appears in Homer's Iliad. Son of Venus, Aeneas is favored by several of the gods. At the same time, he's the object of Juno's rage and hatred. The immortals' varied interest in Aeneas's life makes him a compelling subject for an epic; while his mortality imbues the narrative with suspense, he regularly deals with immortal forces and receives superhuman assistance.