![]() It is in the later part of Book vi that Virgil comes nearest to a solution of the problem of human suffering with which the whole poem is so preoccupied, as he gropes towards a conception of the life after death in which sin is purified away and virtue rewarded. ![]() Glover-to whose warm and sensitive appreciation of the poet Virgilian studies are deeply indebted-‘we find here as elsewhere that Virgil tries to sum up all that is of value in the traditions, the philosophies, and the fancies of the past’. ![]() We shall be concerned firstly with how a memorable picture-or perhaps two memorable pictures-of the world after death is built up from the rich and tangled heritage of poetry, folk-lore, philosophy, and religion. It is of vital importance in the development of the main themes of the Aeneid, and it is on three of these that I want to concentrate as we accompany Aeneas on his journey from the cave at Avernus to the Gates of Ivory. It is not an isolated piece of theology it has its work to do within the design of the poem. The sixth book is the focal point of the Aeneid it completes and concludes what has gone before, and it provides a new impetus for the second half of the poem.
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