... poem should have been affected by the work of other writers. The most dominant epic influence upon Virgil was Homer, the Greek author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. By Virgil's time Homer was acknowledge as the greatest of all poets. Virgil was obligated to study Homeric works in order to develop ... poem he hoped would become the national poem of the Roman people as Homeric epic were of such special significance for the Greeks. Virgil derived from Homer the use of hexameter verse, the duodecimal division into books, the use of epithets, and other epic conventions including the invocation...

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• Approx Pages: 5
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