Memory as Burden and Guide in Virgil’s Aeneid as it Relates to "Psychological Health for Beginners"

What follows is a close reading of how Virgil explores memory in the Aeneid, focusing especially on its roles in grief, legacy, identity, and cultural transmission. I’ll then compare those insights with my project Psychological Health for Beginners, particularly around my themes of archival anxiety, father-daughter legacy, and psychological health as it relates to memory and finitude. I’ll also propose at least three alternative titles for my work inspired by the Aeneid, its motifs, and resonances with my themes.

Memory as Burden and Guide in Virgil’s Aeneid and Anders’ Psychological Health for Beginners

Memory in Virgil’s Aeneid

Grief, Trauma, and the Burden of Remembering

Virgil’s Aeneid portrays memory as a source of both immense pain and necessary purpose for its hero, Aeneas. When Queen Dido asks Aeneas to recount the fall of Troy, he famously replies, “Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem” – “Unspeakable, Queen, is the grief you bid me to renew” (Review Essay: The Winter of Rina Ferrarelli - jstor). This line in Book II underscores how traumatic the memory of Troy’s destruction is for Aeneas: recalling it means reliving profound loss and horror. The fall of Troy is not merely a historical event to him but a searing personal tragedy – the death of his people, his king, and the collapse of his home. Aeneas’ narration of these events to Dido is itself an act of memorialization, suggesting that even though remembering is painful, it is a burden he must shoulder to honor the fallen and explain his purpose. Virgil thus presents memory as a double-edged sword: an emotional wound that “may never be pleasant to recall” (Forsan Et Haec Olim Meminisse Iuvabit: Will Remembering Help or Please? | by Dani Bostick | In Medias Res | Medium), yet an unavoidable part of Aeneas’ identity. The Aeneid as a whole “acts as a social and narrative mechanism for integrating a traumatic past with an uncertain future” (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review) – Aeneas cannot simply forget his trauma if he is to fulfill his destiny. His past survival of war and loss continually informs his present resolve.

Throughout Aeneas’ journey, grief-fueled memories surface to haunt him. In Book II, as Troy burns, Aeneas is literally haunted by the ghost of Hector, who appears with bloody wounds in a dream to urge him to flee carrying Troy’s sacred relics (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). This spectral visitation is memory in supernatural form – Hector embodies the tragedy of the past but also guides Aeneas toward the future. Likewise, as Aeneas escapes the city with his family, he realizes too late that his wife Creusa has been lost in the chaos. Her shade (spirit) appears to him, telling him to let go of his despair and continue on to fulfill his heaven-ordained mission of founding a new Troy (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). These poignant encounters show memory functioning as what Virgil makes a physical guide: the loved ones Aeneas has lost return as “shades” to literally direct his next steps. Yet these memories are painful; Aeneas must endure the sorrow of seeing his beloved dead even as he takes strength from their counsel. In this way, memory in the Aeneid is not a passive recollection but an active, at times intrusive, force that shapes the hero’s path. It is both a burden (the weight of loss and guilt he carries) and a guide (a source of divine or spiritual direction), illustrating the complex psychology of trauma – Aeneas both suffers and learns from the past. As one scholar notes, Virgil’s characters constantly experience “tensions between remembering and forgetting” in their effort to move beyond trauma (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). Aeneas himself embodies this tension: he must remember Troy (to give his people a future), but he also must not remain stuck in remembrance that would paralyze him with despair.

Legacy and Identity: Memory Across Generations

(File:Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius by Bernini.jpg - Wikimedia Commons) Aeneas carrying his aged father Anchises (who bears the household gods) and leading his young son Ascanius out of burning Troy, as depicted in Bernini’s sculpture. This iconic scene from Aeneid Book II (also described by Virgil (Aeneas Saving Anchises at the Fall of Troy | Cleveland Museum of Art)) symbolizes how Aeneas literally shoulders the weight of memory and legacy. Anchises represents the old Trojan heritage and holds the Penates (household gods), tangible tokens of cultural memory and identity, while Ascanius (Iulus) represents the future generation. Aeneas’ identity is deeply rooted in his past – he is repeatedly called pius Aeneas, indicating his pious devotion to family and gods. His sense of self is defined by the duty to preserve Trojan culture and to secure a new home for his son and fellow refugees. The memories of Troy’s greatness and the legacy of his ancestors fuel Aeneas’ determination to “incorporate the past into the future, ensuring that memories of Troy never fade” (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). In other words, Aeneas is driven not just by orders from the gods but by an internalized obligation to honor his heritage. He carries his father out of the ashes of Troy, both literally and figuratively carrying Trojan identity forward. This interplay of memory and destiny is so central that even in the poem’s final moments Aeneas thinks of his lineage – for instance, when instructing his son, Ascanius, he emphasizes remembering the Trojan ethos in building their new society (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review).

Virgil highlights that memory is what links the generations together and gives meaning to the Trojans’ suffering. The Aeneid was written during Augustus’ Rome and deliberately connects Aeneas’ trials with the glory of Rome’s foundation; it turns personal and cultural memory into a grand narrative of legacy. As one analysis puts it, Aeneas’ story shows the “importance of remembering the past and the impact it has on shaping the future” (Analyze the significance of memory and legacy in the Aeneid, particularly in relation to Aeneas' journey and destiny. | Genius High Copy). Aeneas himself often recalls the examples of Trojan heroes (such as his father Anchises or King Priam) to steel himself with virtus (courage) and pietas (duty). Even in moments of doubt, these memories remind him who he is. For example, in Book V, after Anchises has died, Aeneas honors his father’s memory with funeral games on the anniversary of his death – a ritual act of remembrance that strengthens the community’s resolve and unity. Thus, memory in the Aeneid functions as a source of identity: Aeneas and his people know who they are because they remember where they came from. This extends to the broader cultural level – Virgil’s Roman audience would see their own ancestral “memory” in Aeneas’ tale. The epic suggests that personal and cultural identity is a tapestry woven from memory and legacy, with each generation honoring the last. Aeneas’ mission to found Rome is explicitly about transmitting Trojan culture (language, religion, values) to a new land, effectively archiving Troy’s spirit in the new city. Indeed, Seider observes that Aeneas constantly balances the “traumatic past” of Troy with the “uncertain future” of Italy, manipulating memory to motivate himself and his people (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review) (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). Remembering is painful but also productive – it gives the Trojans the strength to endure, knowing that their losses will find meaning if transformed into future glory.

The Underworld Journey: Memory and the Vision of the Future

Book VI of the Aeneid brings the theme of memory to a climax as Aeneas ventures into the Underworld to seek his father’s shade. This katabasis (descent to the land of the dead) is both a confrontation with the past and a revelation of the future. In the Underworld, Aeneas is surrounded by memory incarnate: he encounters the ghosts of those he knew – including Dido, the lover he abandoned, whose silent, reproachful presence reminds him of the personal cost of his mission. Most importantly, Aeneas reunites with Anchises in the Elysian Fields, where the old man imparts a sweeping vision of the destiny of their people. Anchises shows him the souls waiting to be reborn into future Romans, a pageant of Roman heroes and leaders to come (Aeneid Book VI | Thinking Faith: The online journal of the Jesuits in Britain). This powerful scene depicts memory operating across time in a unique way. Aeneas essentially witnesses future memory: he learns how posterity will remember him and his descendants. The sight of future Romans – from his own son’s line down to Augustus – is meant to affirm the significance of all the trials Aeneas has endured. Anchises is effectively passing the torch of cultural memory, ensuring Aeneas understands the “legacy he will leave behind for future generations” (Analyze the significance of memory and legacy in the Aeneid, particularly in relation to Aeneas' journey and destiny. | Genius High Copy). The father’s ghost stresses the greatness of Rome to come, tying Aeneas’ personal memories of Troy to the future memories that will be held by Romans about their Trojan progenitor. This scene highlights the transmission of meaning across generations: Anchises’ wisdom bridges past and future, embedding Aeneas’ individual story in a grand historical continuum.

Virgil enriches this encounter with a philosophical reflection on memory and forgetting. In the Underworld, Aeneas sees the River Lethe – the river of forgetfulness – and is puzzled by the multitude of souls drinking from it. Anchises explains that these are souls destined for new life; they drink from Lethe to forget their previous existence before they are reborn in the world above (Summary and Analysis Book VI - Aeneid - CliffsNotes) (The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 6, l. 748ff (6.748-751) [Anchises] (29-19 ...). Paradoxically, forgetting is part of the cosmic cycle – a necessary step for renewal. This detail underscores a tension: Aeneas must remember, but future souls must forget in order to live again. The Aeneid thus recognizes that memory can be a burden too heavy if carried indefinitely. The dead need oblivion to find new purpose, whereas the living hero needs memory to fulfill his purpose. Virgil balances these ideas by implying that while individual memories may fade (souls forget their past lives), cultural memory endures in collective conscience. Aeneas leaves the Underworld carrying the knowledge Anchises gave him – essentially an infusion of memory of things to come. As one commentary puts it, Book VI “contends with the strangeness of origins (memory and tradition)” (Aeneid Book VI | Thinking Faith: The online journal of the Jesuits in Britain), meaning it grapples with how the mythic past and ancestral memory shape the present reality and future destiny. By the time Aeneas exits the Underworld, he is fortified with a clearer sense of his mission: he has communed with the essence of Troy’s past (his father and the heroes of old) and seen that by carrying that memory forward he will be the nexus between Troy and Rome. The underworld journey dramatizes how memory functions as a guide – Anchises’ recollections and prophetic knowledge light the way – and also as a burden Aeneas must consent to carry. As he departs, the Sibyl (his guide to the Underworld) famously urges him to “go onward, and remember” what he has seen, emphasizing that the value of this dark journey lies in Aeneas’s commitment to keep its lessons alive in his mind.

Memory in Psychological Health for Beginners (PHfB)

Fear of Forgetting and the Desire to Preserve the Self

Eric William Anders’ Psychological Health for Beginners (PHfB) is a graphic novel project that, much like the Aeneid, places the theme of memory at the heart of a journey – but in a modern, psychological key. The story centers on Eric, a 60-year-old retired psychoanalyst, who embarks on a surreal dream-journey with his 14-year-old daughter, Lilah, through a landscape inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). This father-daughter odyssey is guided by an AI version of Sigmund Freud, a Virgil-like figure, later revealed to be a cyborgian version of Eric himself (the father). The narrative is deeply driven by Eric’s personal history and anxieties: at the outset, we learn he is grappling with the recent suicides of his own father (a famous astronaut) and of a close colleague, as well as his retirement and resultant creative block (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). These traumatic experiences weigh on Eric much as the fall of Troy weighed on Aeneas – they are emotional wounds that spur a crisis. One of Eric’s unspoken fears is the loss of memory: he is at an age where aging and even dementia loom as frightening possibilities, and he is surrounded by reminders of how quickly a life’s work and relationships can vanish. For instance, in the prologue Eric describes selling off his library of books after retirement, an act that “unsettled [him] significantly” as it symbolized the end of a chapter and the dispersal of knowledge he had accumulated (PH-Prologue.docx). He worries, implicitly, that his own intellectual and spiritual contributions could be forgotten, boxed up or sold off like those books. This fear of forgetting – both in the sense of losing one’s memories and in the sense of being forgotten by others – motivates the fantastical quest that follows.

PHfB uses the dream framework to literalize Eric’s desire to archive his spirit for the next generation. By journeying with Lilah through a mythical psychological realm, Eric is in essence trying to impart to her all the wisdom, stories, and essence of himself that he can. The presence of the AI Freud guide, who eventually is revealed as a “cyborgian” version of Eric, is a key metaphor for this archival impulse. It suggests that Eric has (whether in the dream or in a future reality) digitized a part of his mind or persona – an artificial intelligence constructed from his knowledge and perhaps memories – to serve as a guide for his daughter. The dream Freudian guide claims to be an expert on psychological health, brimming with knowledge from history’s great thinkers, much like a living library of Eric’s intellectual world (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx) (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). This can be seen as Eric’s attempt to achieve a kind of immortality or at least continuity: if he fears his own memory might fail (through aging or even death), then an AI copy or an extensive archive of self could, in theory, continue guiding his daughter and others. In the story, they encounter figures like Plato, Shakespeare, Mozart, and others – effectively downloading the cultural memory of human thought and art into their journey (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). The very title “for Beginners” and the scenario of visiting “For Beginners” books in the bookstore (PH-Prologue.docx) indicate that Eric wants to preserve and pass on knowledge. His deepest personal stake in this, however, is not just academic – it’s emotional and existential. He wants Lilah to know him, to have a lasting piece of her father’s spirit and values, especially after seeing how his own father’s “malignant narcissism” and ultimate suicide severed their connection (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). Unlike Aeneas, whose concern was the cultural legacy of a people, Eric’s concern is the legacy of one life to his child: the memories, love, and wisdom a father leaves behind.

This theme is illustrated by the recurring specter of memory loss in the narrative. The Dantean journey format allows PHfB to explore scenarios of forgetting and remembrance: for example, Eric’s subconscious might present scenes of faded photographs, lost letters, or even fragments of song (since music is central to his and his daughter’s bond). The fear of dementia – losing one’s self and memories – is hinted at by Eric’s urgent need to undertake this journey now, while he still can. By curating an archive of ideas (through dialogues with great thinkers) and of personal meaning (through interactions with Lilah within the dream), Eric is trying to ensure that nothing important “slips through the cracks” of time. In a way, Eric mirrors Aeneas carrying his father and the household gods: Eric carries into the dream the “household gods” of his mind – Freud and other guiding figures of his intellectual life – as if hoping to found a new internal homeland where those memories remain safe. The difference is that Eric’s quest is inward and retrospective (confronting his own psyche’s contents) rather than an external voyage to a new land. Nonetheless, both narratives frame memory as something that must be actively preserved to give the journey meaning. PHfB explicitly poses the question: can the essence of a person (their “spirit”) be archived or passed down, so that a part of them effectively lives on? The presence of the AI Freud/father suggests an attempt to say “yes” – through technology or storytelling, a person’s knowledge and values might transcend the biological limits of memory.

AI, Music, and Human Connection: The Limits of Simulated Memory

While PHfB explores archiving the self via an AI guide, it also pointedly examines the limits of artificial memory and intelligence in capturing human reality. The AI Freud in the story is a repository of facts, theories, and even personality simulation, yet it lacks something essential. As Eric and Lilah progress on their dream odyssey, it becomes clear that the AI cannot experience or understand certain human fundamentals – notably music and love. The AI Freud admits it “cannot enjoy music or experience connection,” and this incapacity “exposes its failure to understand psychological health fully” (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). In other words, an AI, no matter how advanced in knowledge (memory in the data sense), falls short of true human wisdom because it lacks emotional memory and embodied experience. Music in PHfB symbolizes the ineffable, soulful aspect of humanity – Eric and Lilah share a deep bond through music (Lilah is a budding composer and her performance is what triggers Eric’s transformative dream (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx)). Music carries emotional memories; a song like Lilah’s “As Time Goes” (tellingly named) can encapsulate love, time, and personal significance in a way no raw information can. The AI can remember every fact about Freud’s theories or Mozart’s life, but it cannot feel what a melody means or recall the touch of a loved one. This distinction echoes a key divergence between how memory operates in the Aeneid versus PHfB: in the Aeneid, memory is often communal and epic – stored in story and ritual – whereas in PHfB, memory is also neurochemical and personal, living in art and affection, which technology struggles to replicate.

By the end of PHfB’s journey, Eric comes to recognize that while the archive of knowledge is valuable, it is love and relational connection that truly preserve one’s spirit. The resolution of the story emphasizes the “healing power of music” and, above all, that “love takes center stage” (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). Eric’s daughter Lilah acts as a Beatrice-like figure of grace and love (much as Dante’s beloved guides him to Paradise) (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). Her presence, her music, and her genuine affection succeed where AI Freud fails: they reach Eric emotionally, helping him process his grief and find meaning. In practical terms, it is this human connection that brings Eric back to life – after the dream, he is reinvigorated, overcoming his writer’s block, reconnecting with his passions and moving forward in reality (Story Pitch for PHFB.docx). What does this say about memory? It suggests that memory, to be fully healing and guiding, must be more than an assemblage of data; it must be imbued with human warmth. Eric desired to archive his spirit for his daughter, but he learns that his living presence, his love expressed through shared music and openness, is the most powerful “archive” of all – one that no AI can substitute. The project’s philosophical undercurrent acknowledges the limits of memory’s transmission when mediated by technology: an AI can store and even narrate all of Eric’s knowledge (just as a history book or, indeed, a graphic novel can), but it cannot create new meaningful memories with Lilah. Only Eric himself, through authentic interaction, can do that. This realization does not render the concept of an archive moot; rather, it puts it in perspective. Just as Aeneas needed not only to remember Troy but also to live out his destiny in Italy for the memory to matter, so Eric needs to actively engage in love and life for his memories and lessons to truly take root in his daughter.

Notably, PHfB doesn’t reject the use of AI or archives – it is, after all, born-digital and filled with dialogues with the past – but it frames them as tools, not replacements. The “AI Freud” guide accumulates the collective memory of psychological theory and human thought, acting much like the Sibyl in the Aeneid who leads Aeneas through the darkness with her knowledge. However, just as the Sibyl could only lead Aeneas to a point (he ultimately had to confront his father and internalize the meaning himself), the AI guide can only take Eric so far. In PHfB, the final understanding of psychological health and personal legacy comes from a deeply human synthesis of memory, symbolized by a father and daughter embracing in music and mutual understanding. In sum, memory in PHfB is shown as fragile yet transcendent: it can be externalized into books or AIs to great benefit, but its most profound operation is in the shared love between people and the living imprints we make on each other’s hearts. This message resonates with a gentle irony: Eric’s grand quest to safeguard memory concludes by affirming that his presence and love are the greatest safeguards against oblivion – for his daughter will carry those in her own living memory.

Resonances and Divergences in Virgil and Anders

Both Virgil’s epic and Anders’ modern narrative treat memory as a force that shapes the trajectory of a life, but they do so in distinct contexts, finding many points of resonance and some key divergences:

• Guided by the Past: In both works, a protagonist undertakes a journey guided by a figure embodying memory and wisdom. Aeneas has ancestral spirits (and the Sibyl) guiding him, while Eric has the AI Freud (imbued with his own and humanity’s intellectual memory) as well as, ultimately, the vision of his own cyborg-self guiding his daughter. In each case, the guide exists because of memory: Anchises and Hector appear due to Aeneas’ loyalty to his past, and AI Freud exists due to Eric’s accumulation of knowledge and desire to preserve it. Resonance: The journeys are essentially about making meaning from the past; Aeneas and Eric are both pilgrims of memory, needing counsel from those who came before to find their path forward.

• Trauma and Healing: Both narratives begin in trauma. Aeneas survives a genocidal war and carries the psychological scars of Troy’s fall; Eric is reeling from personal tragedies (family and colleague suicides) and the deterioration of his life’s context (retirement, loss of purpose). Memory is initially a source of pain for both – Aeneas is pained by war memories, Eric by memories of his father’s complicated legacy and the recent losses. Yet, both turn to a journey of understanding in which memory becomes a healing agent. Resonance: Each story shows that confronting painful memories (rather than avoiding them) is necessary for growth. Aeneas must tell the story of Troy and visit his father’s ghost to move on; Eric must literally revisit the foundations of psychological thought and his own psyche (in dream) to overcome his block. Divergence: The nature of trauma differs – Aeneas’ is collective/cultural trauma, whereas Eric’s is personal/psychological trauma. Accordingly, Aeneas heals by fulfilling a communal destiny (founding Rome), while Eric heals by personal reconciliation (finding renewed love for life and connection with his daughter).

• Memory as Legacy – Cultural vs. Personal: Virgil’s treatment of memory centers on cultural and familial legacy. Aeneas’ memories are valuable insofar as they ensure cultural continuity – the preservation of Trojan religion, customs, and honor into the new Trojan-Latin people. In PHfB, the legacy in question is more individual: Eric’s concern is to leave a legacy of wisdom and love for Lilah. Resonance: Both depict a parental figure ensuring that a child carries forward important memories. Aeneas carries Anchises on his back and later carries Anchises’ hope into founding a nation, much as Eric (in the dream, as the guide) carries his daughter through an odyssey of knowledge to prepare her for life. The generational transmission – Anchises to Aeneas to Ascanius, or Eric’s father to Eric to Lilah – is a chain held together by memory. Divergence: Virgil casts this in the grand scale of nation-building and myth – Aeneas’ success is Rome’s birth. Anders casts it in intimate terms – Eric’s success is an emotional bequest to one beloved person. Additionally, Aeneas’ story implies that being remembered by future generations (eternal fame) is a high ideal (typical of epic heroes), whereas Eric’s story is less concerned with fame and more with the immediacy of being remembered by those close to us (a much more personal stake).

• Forgetting as Threat vs. Blessing: In the Aeneid, forgetting is often a threat – the oblivion that would come if Aeneas forsakes his mission or if the Trojans give up their past. Yet there is also an acknowledgement (with Lethe) that some forgetting is natural and even merciful. In PHfB, forgetting (through aging or dementia) is uniformly seen as a threat – something Eric desperately wants to stave off or compensate for. Resonance: Both works treat memory as precious and its loss as dangerous. Aeneas fights against the fading of Troy’s story; Eric fights against the fading of his own mind and influence. Divergence: The Aeneid has a divine or fate-driven perspective – even if individual Trojans die or forget, Jupiter has ordained that history will remember Troy through Rome. PHfB, however, operates in a secular, humanistic frame – there is no guarantee anyone will remember anything unless active steps are taken (hence the urgency to make an archive, to talk to Lilah, etc.). Eric does not have a pantheon ensuring his legacy; he only has his efforts and love.

• The Medium of Memory – Epic Song vs. Digital Archive: Virgil presents the Aeneid itself as an act of cultural memory – an epic poem (“I sing of arms and the man…”) meant to immortalize Aeneas’ deeds for all time. The spoken word, song, and ritual are the mediums for memory in antiquity. Anders’ PHfB engages with modern media – a digital graphic novel, and within it, an AI, effectively a high-tech archive. Resonance: Both recognize the need for storytelling to transmit memory. Aeneas telling Dido of Troy, or Virgil telling us of Aeneas, is parallel to Eric telling (or showing) Lilah the story of psychological wisdom and his own life lessons. The act of narration is sacred in both contexts. Divergence: The graphic novel explicitly questions whether technology can replicate the soul of memory. Virgil doesn’t pose such a question – for him, the act of poetic creation (with help of the Muse) is inherently capable of capturing truth and emotion. Anders is more skeptical, drawing a line between information (which technology can store) and emotion/experience (which it cannot). In this way, PHfB adds a layer of modern inquiry into the age-old theme of memory: it’s not only what will be remembered, but how (and by whom – human or machine).

• Love and Memory: An emotionally powerful through-line in both works is the connection between love and memory. Aeneas is continually motivated by love for his family and people; even his ill-fated love for Dido becomes a painful memory that shapes his character (he shows compassion to others suffering loss, carrying the “tears of things” in his heart). In PHfB, love – especially the parent-child love between Eric and Lilah – is the ultimate repository of memory. Resonance: Both suggest that what we love defines what we remember and vice versa. Aeneas carries his father and son because of love and duty; Eric’s whole quest is born from love for his daughter and even love for the intellectual pursuits he shared with friends now gone. And in both stories, the resolution involves an emotional catharsis: Aeneas, after trials, secures a future for his son (an act of love completing his duty), and Eric, after his dream, embraces his daughter, expressing his love more fully. Divergence: Virgil’s depiction of love can be subordinated to duty (Aeneas leaves Dido despite personal love, prioritizing the “bigger” memory of Troy’s legacy), whereas Anders elevates love as the supreme value that overrides other concerns (Eric nearly loses himself in work and theory – forms of memory – but ultimately prioritizes loving presence). In PHfB, if a choice had to be made, one feels Eric would choose to let the intellectual archive burn if it meant saving his relationship with Lilah; Aeneas, in contrast, consistently chooses mission over personal attachment (though not without anguish). This highlights a subtle shift in the conception of memory’s purpose: for Aeneas, memory serves history; for Eric, memory serves human connection.

In summary, both the Aeneid and PHfB portray memory as both burden and guide. They show heroes who are “burdened by personal and collective pasts, yet guided by those pasts toward some form of deliverance or fulfillment” (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review) (Memory in Vergil’s Aeneid: Creating the Past – Bryn Mawr Classical Review). Aeneas and Eric each must carry heavy memories (of war or of personal loss) and learn to transform that weight into wisdom and motivation. The resonances between the ancient epic and the modern graphic novel proposal are striking – each features a journey through a symbolic landscape (one through the Underworld, one through a dreamscape of the mind) where the past is encountered directly and its lessons integrated. Each culminates in a reaffirmation of continuity: Aeneas emerges to forge a new nation that will remember Troy; Eric wakes to re-engage with life, ensuring his daughter will have an enduring memory of who he is and what he values. The divergences primarily stem from context: the Aeneid operates on a cosmic, historical plane with gods and fate, whereas PHfB operates on a psychological, intimate plane with technology and modern existential concerns. Yet, at heart, both works ask timeless questions: How do we live with our grief and memories? How do we honor those who came before us? In what way can our essence live on after us? Both answer, in their own ways, that it is through the power of memory – tempered with love and purpose – that we find our way forward and create meaning that outlasts us.

Aeneid-Inspired Alternative Titles for PHfB

To capture the philosophical and archival goals of Psychological Health for Beginners while evoking Virgil’s Aeneid in tone or imagery, here are three alternative title suggestions:

• “Beyond the River of Forgetting” – An allusion to the mythic River Lethe in Aeneid Book VI (the river of oblivion). This title evokes the fear of lost memory (forgetting) and suggests a journey that goes beyond oblivion, implying the preservation of memory. It carries emotional gravity (confronting the threat of forgetting a life or loved one) and intertextual depth for those who recall Aeneas’ encounter with Lethe’s waters. At the same time, it’s accessible and poetic, inviting any reader to wonder about a journey transcending forgetfulness – much like Eric’s quest to ensure his spirit isn’t lost to time.

• “From the Ashes of Memory” – This title echoes the image of Aeneas carrying his father from the burning ruins of Troy (ashes) and the idea of something new rising from destruction. It encapsulates grief and hope: Eric’s story begins amid the “ashes” of personal tragedy and burnout, and from those ashes he attempts to build an archive of meaning for the future. The phrase hints at rebirth (like a phoenix from ashes) through remembering. It resonates with Virgil’s theme of Troy’s legacy emerging from its literal ashes, and it suits the graphic novel’s tone by balancing sorrow (ashes, memory of what’s lost) with optimism (the act of creation and preservation).

• “Shades of Memory” – In Virgil’s underworld, the spirits of the dead are often called shades. This title plays on that, suggesting that memories are like ghosts that accompany us. It conveys the haunting quality of memory (the “shades” that Eric and Aeneas both meet) but also the guidance those memories provide. “Shades of Memory” has an emotional, even mysterious tone, fitting for a dream-journey narrative, and it subtly nods to both Virgil’s underworld and the psychological “shades” (unresolved memories and influences) that a psychoanalyst and his daughter might grapple with. The title is straightforward enough for a broad audience but layered enough to reward those familiar with the Aeneid.

Each of these titles strives to blend accessibility with gravitas and intertextual richness. They invoke Virgilian imagery – the Lethe, the ashes of Troy, the shades of the dead – which parallels PHfB’s exploration of memory, loss, and legacy. At the same time, they speak to the graphic novel’s modern concerns: overcoming forgetfulness (“Beyond the River of Forgetting”), preserving one’s essence after devastation (“From the Ashes of Memory”), and confronting the ghosts in one’s mind and past (“Shades of Memory”). These titles would signal to readers that the work is both intellectually grounded in classical echoes and deeply invested in human emotional experience, much as Eric’s story is a conversation between past wisdom and present love.