AENEAS AND THE UNDERWORLD

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AENEAS AND THE UNDERWORLD

• BK 6

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ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AS STATEMENTS

1. Who built the temple to Apollo and what scenes
   did he decorate it with? (pg 147)
2. What did the Trojans have to do before consulting
   the Sibyl?
3. What does the sibyl promise to the Trojans? (one
   word) (149)
4. Why is the descent to Avernus easy? What is the
   hard part of the journey Aeneas wants to
   undertake? (151)
5. What does Aeneas have to take to the underworld
   as a gift to Proserpine? (151)
6. Where is the entrance to the underworld? (154)
7. What kind of creatures does Aeneas meet on
   entering the underworld? (155-156)
8. Why does Charon refuse to ferry some souls over
   the Styx? (157)
9. Which friend does Aeneas meet there? Where did
   he die?
10. Where are the Fields of Mourning, and who does
    Aeneas meet there? (160)
11. In the fields of warriors, Aeneas meets
    Deiphobus. What happened to him?
12. What happens to the incurably evil? (164)
13. Where is Anchises? What is he doing? (167)
14. Why are souls crowding at the river Lethe? (168)
15. Why does Anchises point out Augustus immediately
    after Romulus? (170-171)
16. What are to be Romes special skills?
17. Who is the young Marcellus/ Why does night flit
    around his head (173)
18. How does Aeneas leave the underworld?

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Answers to questions

1. Daedalus built the temple and decorated it with
   scenes from the myth of the minotaur of Crete
2. Sacrifice (7 bullocks and 7 sheep) to Apollo
3. War
4. It is easy to get to Avernus by dying but coming
   back is the hard part
5. The golden bough
6. A cave by Lake Avernus
7. Monstous beasts and afflictions such as disease
   and pain
8. If they are not buried they must wait 100 years
9. Palinurus, who died on the voyage from Sicily to
   Italy
10. Across the Styx. Dido
11. He was killed and mutilated by Menelaus, Helens
    first husband.
12. They go to Tartarus
13. Elysium, surveying the shades who would be his
    descendants.
14. They drink the waters of Lethe to forget their
    past life before returning to earth to live again
15. Virgil links Romulus and Augustus to honour
    Augustus
16. Guiding nations (govt) and giving peace
17. Nephew and son-in-law of Augustus, who died young
    (aged 19)
18. By the Gate of Ivory (gate of false dreams)

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DO NOW ACTIVITY

• YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO STUDY THE NEXT SLIDE AND
  REMEMBER AS MANY WORDS AS POSSIBLE
• NO PENS ALLOWED

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VOCAB JUMBLE

• Cumae Italy hades Anchises Augustus
• Deiphobus Sibyl Cerbeus Schyaeus Dido
• Minos Caesar Lethe Baachus
• Cato Livius Drusus

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PREDICTION

• What are we going to be doing this period that
  will include all of those words you studied??

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ACTIVITY

• GO THROUGH THE CLOZE EXERCISE THAT YOU RECEIVED
  YESTERDAY ?

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Answers to the cloze exersice

• The Trojans ships arrive in Italy, near CUMAE.
  While the men prepare camp, Aeneas c limbs to the
  temple of APOLLO to consult Deiphobe. At the
  sanctuary, Aeneas sacrifices BULLS and SHEEP and
  offers PRAYERS to the god. The SYBIL appears to
  him and answers his questions. She also tells
  him o the wars he will fight and the ENEMIES he
  will face. Aeneas asks to be guided into HADES
  and despite the dangers the sybil mentions, he
  perseveres. She agress to take him and tells him
  what he has to do in order to gain admittance
  which he carries out.
• At the start of the underworld Aeneas must pass
  many evil SPIRITS and horrible BEASTS these
  FRIGHTEN him but his courage helps him through
  and eventually the two mortals arrive at the
  river ACHERON. Here, many souls line the banks
  waiting to cross on the FERRY. Among them is the
  soul of PALINURUS (the drowned helmsman) and
  Aeneas promises him a proper BURIAL which cheers
  him up. Initially the feryman, CHARON, refuses
  to take the living beings across the river but
  when Deiphoe shows him the GOLDEN BOUGH he
  consents, taking the two across the Acheron and
  the STYX into Hades proper.

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Answers to the cloze exersice

• On the way to Elysium they must pass through the
  various regions of the underworld. They land at
  the place that is allotted to those that died in
  INFANCY. After this they pass through the area
  reserved for SUICIDES where Aeneas recognises
  DIDO. He tearfully begs her FORGIVENESS but she
  refuses to speak to him. Next is the area set
  aside for great WARRIORS where he meets and talks
  to many heroes from the Trojan War. Next they
  come to a fortress surrounded by high walls and a
  river of FIRE. This place is TARTARUS, where
  sinners are imprisoned and suffer dreadful
  PUNISHMENTS. Finally, the pair readch a pleasant
  area where blessed and righteous souls spend
  their time this is the ELYSIAN Fields.

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Answers to the cloze exersice

• Aeneas meets his FATHER here and they embrace
  with great affection. ANCHISES shows Aeneas a
  large group of people drinking from the river
  LETHE (the river of FORGETFULNESS) so they can
  return to earth to live again. As they walk by
  this group, Anchises points out many of those who
  will later become famous ROMANS. In doing so,
  Anchises is giving Aeneas a short summary of the
  history of ROME. Amony the famous people are
  Silvius (Aeneas as yet unborn SON), ROMULUS
  (founder of Rome), early kings of Rome, many
  heroes and political figures of the Roman
  Republic. The last figures they come to are
  Julius Caesar and his nephew AUGUSTUS who will be
  the greatest leader and ruler in Roman history.

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Answers to the cloze exersice

• As father and son wander through ELYSIUM,
  Anchises tells Aeneas of his future wars and
  victories. All this knowledge of Rome
  and his own destiny in it, fires Aeneas to
  achieve all that has been fated for him. Aeneas
  bids farewell to his father and is taken back to
  earth by the Sibyl. He rejoins the fleet and
  they continue their voyage.

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AENEAS PRAYER

• Phoebus you have always pitied Troy in her
  grievous suffering. It was you who guided the
  hands of Paris when he aimed his Dardan arrow to
  strike Achilles the Aeacid. It was you who led
  me forth to sail over all those seas which thrust
  against eh vast continents and to force a way
  even to nations of the remote Massylians and
  lands screened by the Syrtes. Now at last we
  have gained a foothold in Italys elusive shores.
  From now on, let Troys old ill-fortune pursue
  us no farther. And you too, all Gods and
  Goddesses, who were jealous of Ilium and the too
  brillian grandeur of our Dardan land, may now,
  with no violation of divine justice, spare the
  nation which held the fortress of Troy. And you,
  most holy Prophetess, who foreknow the future,
  since I ask no empire which my destiny cannot
  rightly claim, permit my Trojans, and their
  vagrant deities, the Powers and Patrons of Troy
  tossed with us in strom, to find in Latium a
  home. There I shall inaugurate a temple all of
  marble for Apollo and Trivia with festal days
  called by Apollos name and for you yourself,
  benign Lady, there shall also be in my realm a
  noble shrine where I shall store your oracular
  lots, with the prophetic secrets which you
  communicate to my people and I shall choose and
  consecrate priests for your service. Only, pray,
  do not commit your prophecies to leaves for they
  might fly in disorder as playthings for the
  grasping winds I beg of you to chant in words of
  your own.

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The gate of Ivory and the gate of Horn

• Aeneas leaves and returns to his fleet, but the
  way he left has aroused controversy among critics
  ever since. There are two gates of sleep which
  act as ways out from Hades. One is made of horn
  and allows out true shadows. The other is ivory,
  which sends false dreams to people, and Aeneas
  leaves by this gate. What does this mean?

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• That Aeneas was living and not a true shade?
• That it was all a flase dream?
• That the pursuit of Roman greatness is a vain
  hope?
• That the truth or falseness of Aeneas experience
  will depend o nthe actions of Aeneas and his
  descendants?

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• Symbolism plays a large part in Virgils poetry
  so it is not surprising critics look for hidden
  meanings here, but it is possible that the exit
  by the gate of horn is purely practical. Ancient
  people attached great importance to dreams but
  recognised that not all dreams were signficant.
  Possibly they believed dreams before midnight
  were false while dreams after midnight were true.
  Did Aeneas and the Sibyl have to leave before
  midnight, as a condition allowing them to visit
  the underworld. If so, they had to use the only
  gate open, the gate of ivory.

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IMAGERY OF BK6

• Virgil does not use many similes in book 6 as his
  scenes in the underworld bear little comparisonm
  to real life. Two comparisons however, stand
  out.
• Pg156 the vast numbers of souls waiting to cross
  the river to the underworld are compared to the
  many leaves which die and fall in autumn, or the
  flocks of birds which gather to migrate south in
  winter. Here the falling leaves and departing
  birds echo the melancholy and loss of death.
• Pg 160-61 A. sees Dido dimly through the shadows
  of the underworld, like a man glimpsing the thin
  new moon through clouds. This similie emphasises
  the gloom of the underworld and the lack of
  substance of souls mere shadows of their former
  selves.

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ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS

1. How does Virgil build up an atmosphere of mystery
   and supernatural awe in BK6?
2. Why is it clear A. hazs a divine destiny?
3. How does A. display Pietas in bk6?
4. What messages does he learn in the underworld?
   From whom does he learn them?

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ANSWERS

• Virgil builds up an atmosphere of mystery and
  supernatural awe by
• Description of temple at Cumae
• Behaviour of the Sibyl in giving her prophecies
• Burial of Misenus
• Religious rituals before entering the underworld
• The collection of gloomy spirts at the start
• Sadness of the helpless unburied
• Grimness of eternal punishments
• A. found and plucked the golden bough, his
  passport to the underworld. The Sibyl
  accompanied him, and he was able to return.
• He overcame all obstacles and horrors to meet his
  father
• Messages include
• Look forward not back
• Dead souls are reborn
• Rome has a glorious future of heroes and empire
• Romes mission is to conquer and rule in peace
  with law
• Augustus will bring back a new Golden Age.