The Aeneid, Books III-IV
Study Questions

Book III

1. How is each of these the wrong place for Aeneas?
a. Thrace
b. Crete
c. Buthrotum
(Besides the fact that the gods don't want him to settle in any of these, what's wrong with each of them individually?)

2. What do we learn about the Greeks in this book?
a. about those Aeneas meets
b. about those Aeneas avoids meeting
c. about those he hears about from others

3. Does Aeneas change as he travels from Troy towards Italy? If so, in what ways?

4. How much of a leader is Aeneas? Does he just follow his father's orders, and the oracles and prophecies of the gods (insofar as he understands them), or is there more to it than that?

5. There are some similarities between Sinon (at least as he depicts himself) and Achaemenides: both are let down by Ulysses, both desperate enough to turn themselves over to the Trojans, both in imminent danger of murder (human sacrifice or cannibalism). Are these resemblances intentional? What would be the point? To show that Aeneas has learned nothing from Sinon?

Book IV

1. Does Anna give Dido good advice? Do we have to wait and see how things turn out, or are there indications early on?

2. Are Dido and Aeneas ever married? If so, how can he think they aren't? If not, how can she think they are?

3. Why does Aeneas flee in the middle of the night? Is he right to do so?

4. Why does Dido kill herself? For love? Out of shame? Or what?

5. Who is the more complex character, Aeneas or Dido?

6. When Aeneas travels to the Underworld in Book 6, he meets the shade of Dido. Without looking ahead, what do you think he should or would say to her then, and she to him?

source: http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/roml/faculty/mhendry/aeneid-sq.html