It surprised me to find in the Aeneid lots of references to Italian mythology, history , folklore that I would hear my grandmother make. Not that she would get into long speeches, but just occasionally make a reference in conversation to the Caesars or some historical event or mythological personage, or custom or something that was typically Italian. It tells you how ingrained the history and national mythology is in everyone. Those people know who they are. As the writer Severigni said in La Bella Figura: "Italians are psychologically self-sufficient."
I knew, because I read some background, that Virgil (I was surprised to find that he was from northern Italy, again like my family, not very close to Rome, as I would've thought) was writing at the time of the Caesars and his aim was to give a history of Italy up to that point, and in some ways to justify the exploits of the Roman Empire, etc., and to sort of establish a national identity by solidly describing the founding of Rome. He does this by using prophesies to foretell the "future" - where the characters are told of the exploits of their descendants, etc. One chapter includes all these stories engraved in pictures on the shield of Aeneas, which Vulcan supposedly makes for him. This is directly parallel to the "The Shield of Achilles" chapter in the Iliad, where Hephaestus makes a magical shield for Achilles, with moving pictures, kind of like a film. I don't think it foretells any history in the Iliad, it's just a magical, powerful shield. (But that is the most beautiful, and my favorite, chapter in the Iliad!)
Right after I finished The Aeneid, I got into reading some Shakespeare (because I wanted to see The Tempest!), and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I got most of the references to classical mythology - didn't have to read the footnotes!
Between Homer and Virgil, I am now kind of tired of battle scenes. And they do get gory. So, let's see what The Divine Comedy holds!
