Virgil strove to duplicate many of the famous episodes in the Iliad and the Odyssey in order to surpass Homer's literary reputation. Additionally, he wanted to demonstrate that Latin was as well adapted to poetry as Greek.
The first half of the Aeneid resembles the first half of the Odyssey, which, because that poem has twice as many divisions as Virgil's epic, comprises the twelve books that concern the wanderings of Odysseus as he seeks his homeland of Ithaca. The two heroes sail the same seas, and in Book III of the Aeneid, Virgil brings Aeneas and his people into contact with some of the same perils, thus providing strong reminders of the earlier epic.
In addition, the Aeneid's second half, which begins with Book VII, bears a likeness to the Odyssey's second half: Aeneas's struggle to establish the Trojans in Italy recalls how Odysseus forced out his wife Penelope's suitors, who usurped his place in his own household during his absence. Without any doubt, however, the Aeneid's last six books, particularly starting with Book IX, when war finally breaks out, more strongly resemble the Iliad. One example of this similarity is the comparison between Turnus, who fights against the Trojans during Aeneas's absence, and Hector, the Trojan prince who engages the Greeks in the absence of Achilles, who, angry with Agamemnon for having taken the woman Briseis from him, refuses to participate in the war until fairly late in Homer's epic. Achilles eventually returns to battle and slays Hector in order to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus at the hands of the Trojan hero, just as Aeneas slays Turnus in order to avenge Pallas's death at the hands of the Rutulian prince.
