Odyssey and Aeneid Underworld

Comparing Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid:
For the final paper, which concerns the two epic poems from which we will have read by the end of the course, you should focus on the question of the narrator’s relationship to his narration, Odysseus and Aeneas’ respective roles as narrators of their own mythology. By focusing on this topic, we shift our attention from the “what” questions to the “how” questions, questions that concern the act in which one composes and creates myth. In this way, a deeper level of understanding of the myths becomes available to the inquirer.
The question that has guided our reading of the Odyssey, whether the reader and the audience can trust in the truth of Odysseus’ words, also places in doubt the credibility of the epic poet, to whom the poet of the Odyssey implicitly compares himself, insofar as they each at different points recite the epic of Odysseus. It is essential to comprehend, with this comparison in mind, that it is not only we the modern readers of ancient epic who find the ancient myths incredible, dubious, and open to skeptical questioning; the ancient Greeks themselves, from the very beginning of their literary tradition, found equal reason to find their myths questionable.
What I would like you to consider as you prepare your final papers is the relationship between two Underworld journeys: Aeneas’ descent to Hades, in order to meet Anchises, and Odysseus’ descent to Hades, in order to meet Tiresias. The topic of your paper is the myth’s narrator’s relationship to that which he narrates, the myth itself. Questions that you should entertain include the following:
Does it matter that Odysseus narrates his own journey to Hades?
Does it matter that the epic poet himself narrates Aeneas’ journey?
Does one or the other narrator make the myth more credible? More dubious?
What about the prophecies? Within the logic of each poem, does it matter that Circe or the Sibyl prophesy what the heroes will experience? That Tiresias or Anchises prophesy what the heroes will endure?