Journal Entry for the week of January 4, 2010

This week marked the transition from reading and working with Daedalus and Icarus to another story, in the form of a paper 2. After a long winter vacation, I didn't come back to school all that prepared and when I came into class I just then remembered there was a test, and I had to quickly re-read the story in Latin and my translation and recall EVERY image, symbol, etc. discussed and try and retain the information as I took the test. I did not know one of the questions that much and had to guess, and I'm pretty sure this test is not my best work, but I am hoping I at least passed.

We've been talking about Virgil and the Aeneid and to be honest I am somewhat confused. It might be because we are starting with book six, but I understand how Aeneas left Troy, but the part about the underworld is what confuses me. I know why he was there but I don't understand much else, like what happened between him arriving in the underworld and him ending up with Lavinia, the Italian princess. I am probably going to bring this up in class because if I am confused, I assume there has to be someone else who is as well, and it might benefit the class to discuss what actually happened in the underworld a bit better. In class we discussed what the underworld was like but not everything about what Aeneas did down there, and how he left.