To Hell with Aeneas: looking backwards and forwards in Aeneid 6

The word tandem (‘at last’) near the very beginning of Aeneid 6 carries its full meaning. Finally the Trojans reach Italy, their fated destination, but not before five books’ worth of adventures in Carthage and around the Mediterranean since the capture and destruction of Troy. This arrival marks the transition from the Odyssean wanderings of the first half of the epic to the lliadic war which the Trojans must win in order to found their new city. It is here in Italy, and especially in the underworld, that Aeneas pauses to reflect on his past before he is free to lay the foundations of a Roman future. Here Fiachra Mac Gorain explores some of the ways in which both hero and poet build on the past and look to the future in this pivotal book