Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.2:
“What about the fact that every work of Vergil was formed as if from some Homeric looking glass? For, there is a storm described with wonderful imitation (anyone who wishes may compare the verses of each author), and Venus was used in place of Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous. Dido herself, however, also recalls the image of the king Alcinous hosting his dinner. Scylla and Charybdis and Circe are appropriately mentioned, and the Strophades are employed in place of the flocks of the Sun. But in place of the consultation of the dead, Vergil has drawn up a descent to them with the accompaniment of a priestess. There, Palinurus corresponds to Elpenor, and Dido’s hostility corresponds to Ajax’s, and the warnings of Anchises correspond to the admonitions of Tiresias. Now, the battles of the Iliad and the description of the wounds not without the perfection of learning, and the double enumeration of the allies and the fabrication of arms and the variety of the games and the pact made and broken between the kings and the spy mission by night and the embassy carrying back a repulse from Diomedes after the example of Achilles, and the lamentation for Pallas as for Patroclus, and the conflict between Drances and Turnus modeled after that of Achilles and Agamemnon (for in both cases one was thinking of his own, the other of the public welfare), the single combat of Aeneas and Turnus as that of Achilles and Hector, and the captives given to the shades of the dead (there for Patroclus, here for Pallas).”
Quid, quod et omne opus Virgilianum velut de quodam Homerici opus speculo formatum est? Nam et tempestas mira imitatione descripta est (versus utriusque qui volet conferat), ut Venus in Nausicaae locum Alcinoi filiae succesit, ipsa autem Dido refert speciem regis Alcinoi convivium celebrantis. Scylla quoque et Charybdis et Circe decenter attingitur, et pro Solis armentis Strophades insulae finguntur. At pro consultatione inferorum descensus ad eos cum comitatu sacerdotis inducitur. Ibi Palinurus Elpenori, sed et infesto Aiaci infesta Dido et Tiresiae consiliis Anchisae monita respondent. Iam praelia Iliadis et vulnerum non sine disciplinae perfectione descriptio et enumeratio auxiliorum duplex et fabricatio armorum et ludicri certaminis varietas ictumque inter reges et ruptum foedus et speculatio nocturna et legatio reportans a Diomede repulsam Achillis exemplo, et super Pallante ut Patroclo lamentatio, et altercatio ut Achillis et Agamemnonis ita Drancis et Turni, utrobique enim alter suum alter publicum commodum cogitabat, pugna singularis Aeneae atque Turni ut Achillis et Hectoris, et captivi inferiis destinati ut illic Patrocli hic Pallantis
