As you read Vergil Book 6, keep in mind that Vergil is modeling his tale on Odyssey 11 and answer the following questions.

1.) Compare and contrast the roles of Circe and the Sibyl.

2.) Compare Aeneas' reason for his journey to that of Odysseus.

3.) What religious rites and ceremonies are associated with the journey of each hero?

4.) Compare the geography of Vergil's Underworld with that of Homer's Land of the Dead.

5.) How do each hero reach the Land of the Dead?

6.) How are the scenes dealing with Elpenor in the Odyssey and Palinurus in the Aeneid similar? How are they different?

7.) What scene in Odyssey 11 is the encounter between Aeneas and Dido based in Aeneid 6? Why are these encounters similar?

8.) What catalogues (categories of people) does Odysseus list in Odyssey 11? How are Aeneas' catalogues different?

9.) List ten people Odysseus meets in the Land of the Dead and identify each.

10.) List ten people Aeneas sees in the Underworld and identify each.

11.) Compare existence in each poet's vision of death. What is it like to be dead?

12.) In Aeneid VI Aeneas sees the ghosts lined up to reenter the land of the living. How do they get to do this? What does this suggest about Vergil's beliefs about the Afterlife?

13.) Why do you think that Vergil has Aeneas leave the Underworld by the Gate of Ivory?