Both the Odyssey and the Aeneid share some similarities as epics; both describe the trials of a heroic figure who is the ideal representative of a particular culture. There are even individual scenes in the Aeneid are borrowed from the Odyssey. Yet, why are Odysseus and Aeneas so unlike one another? The answer is that the authors lived in two different worlds, whose values and perceptions varied greatly of a fundamental level. Greek culture and …showed first 75 words of 1056 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1056 total…possibility for disaster, and believed that human existence was inherently a tragedy. Even had all the Trojans done nothing wrong, they still would have received the winds sent at Juno's wish. All they had was vulnerable, their lives, their cities, and their civilization; anything could be destroyed by the godless discord. Thus, it is not surprising that the Greek and Roman epics were so different, since what the they perceived were really two different worlds.