1. Book Three (not set): The Wanderings of Aeneas

2. Aeneas and Odysseus
This book most clearly makes the link between The Aeneid and The Odyssey. Aeneas even meets one of the Greeks left behind on Polyphemus’ island by the cruel Greeks.
It is very important that Aeneas is not too closely associated with “the wily Odysseus”. Aeneas is pious, not cunning. To this end, Aeneas saves a Greek that Odysseus forgot about, and most of the dangers that Odysseus faced are obsolete by the time Aeneas gets there. This is also perhaps Virgil making a comment on whose poetry is most up to date out of himself and Homer.

3. Virgil and The Iliad
Virgil revisits several of the characters of The Iliad. Each encounter is full of pathos.
Andromache is now unhappily married to Neoptolemus (Achilles’ son) whom we saw brutally murder Priam in Book II.
Helenus (Hector’s brother, see Iliad VI) has tried to found a little Troy but it is really an example of how not to found a city.
The most brutal reminder of the failures of Troy is the bleeding mound of Polydorus’ grave. This serves as a message; this is not the place to found the second Troy. It is part of a series of prophecies.

4. Book Three and Prophecies
The major theme of Book Three is prophecy. The site of the new city is only revealed very gradually, and it is predominantly revealed in negatives (i.e.where not to found the new city).
Write down the incidents which reveal the site of the new city to Troy:

5. Book Three: Release from Tension
Just like Book Five, Book Three serves as a relief from the high tension of the violent and dramatic fall of Troy in Book Two and the violent and tragic story of Dido in Book Four. It is a book that celebrates the joy and skill of storytelling.