Manufacturing Descent: Virgil's Genealogical Engineering

The structural framework of the Aeneid is founded upon the mechanisms of mythical genealogy. In Virgil's representation of history, the series of wars from Troy to Actium can be understood in terms of the mutual enmity between two genealogical lines: the dynasties of Dardanus and Inachus. The narrative, however, also portrays the appropriation and interpretation of those very genealogies as acts that are dependent upon their rhetorical, political context. By dramatizing the deployment and interpretation of validating myths, the Aeneid provides an incisive commentary on the relationship between myth and power in the Roman world.