The voice of Heaven...

   W. F Jackson-Knight was, without a question, one of the most passionate and fascinating interpreters of Virgil (or as Jackson-Knight always insisted, Vergil.) This from the introduction to his translation of "The Aeneid."

"Virgil had no doubt that that the affairs of the earthly are subject to the powers of another world...The belief is vital to the poem.  For Virgil was presenting a true poetic picture of the world, showing how human affairs are controlled by human and superhuman qualities and deeds, and in particular how it happened that Rome grew to greatness after a process which began in weakness and despair. Aeneas  himself is more than once ready to abandon Hope. But every time he is given some assurance. And, whatever his faults, for he had many, he would never disregard the voice of Heaven."

a fiendishly complicated game...

This from Douglas J. Stewart on Virgil's "Aeneid." Pretty true that...

"The essential subject of the Aeneid is the education of a political leader...

Virgil's first insight was...that a politician, normally, is neither a gangster or a hero, but a frequently puzzled player of a fiendishly complicated game most of the rules of which change by the hour."

invention as rediscovery...

This from E.R. Curtius:

"For fundamental to Virgil is the strength and the will to preserve the permanent through all change. Repetition as restoration, invention as rediscovery...This was Virgil's most cherished concern."