Alex Egg’s Reviews > The Aeneid > Status Update

loved Aeneas and Venus tag teaming against Turnus and Juturna

the action doesn't stop in this book:

* Book VII: you get the super creepy horror vibes Alecto story
* Book VII: you get an epic history of Hercules and an almost FPV into Vulcans forge w/ the Cyclops' forging Aeneas' mega shield thanks to his mom

Opposite, Cnossus’ island rises from the sea;
the cruel passion of the bull, Pasiphaë,
her furtive mating, the hybrid shape of the Minotaur,
her two-formed offspring, monument of monstrous love.

saw a great relief at the royal palace in amsterdam that reminded me of one of the scenes Anchises was describing from future rome: The Tarquinian conspiracy. where Brutus (ancestor of the famous one) condemned for execution his own sons to preserve the republic. The historian Sara Paine once said "the pillars of the Western Civilization: Greek logic, roman law, judeau-christian morals"....

loving this book: Aeneas just returned from his katabasis w/ the Cumaean Sibyl! Michelangelo painted her on the sistine chapel ceiling!

Sibyl's journey w/ Aeneas into the underworld is clear inspiration for Dante... some passages seem word for word...

we were Italians first. We just went east for a while. Now we’re back -- Romans

also a fun visit to Polyphemus' island where they encounter someone from Odysseus's crew that got left behind!

also the Lacoon snake scene which has a sculpture replica in Rijks museum of the original in Vatican

Paris:

* doomed Troy directly (via Helen)
* doomed Troy’s descendants (by getting Juno mad via The Judgement)

and besides shaming himself and his family in the battle of Troy, made himself look like the ancient world’s biggest himbo....