Analyzes three of the saddest scenes in Vergil’s poem Aeneid and show how ancient readers might not have viewed these scenes as particularly sad.
It will be argued that the three saddest scenes in the poem are Aeneas’ tale of the death of Priam, the abandonment and suicide of Did and the defeat and death of Turnus. However, it must be acknowledged that this choice is determined by our modern context. As will be shown, within the cultural and political climate that created this work, these scenes may not have all been regarded as sad.