Virgil

1
Virgils Aeneid

• Honors 2101, Fall 2006
• Bryan Benham

2
Outline

• Some Background
• Roman national epic
• Like Homer and not like Homer
• Books 1 2
• Junos wrath, Carthage, and the sack of Troy
• Books 4 6
• Didos love and the underworld
• Books 8 12
• Struggle and defeat of Turnus
• Closing Remarks

3
Virgil (70-19 BCE)

• Born near Mantua
• Studied philosophy, medicine, poetry
• Eclogues, Georgics won him fame and favor.
• Aeneid unfinished at death
• Written for Augustus, as national epic

4
Homer Aeneid

• Aeneid
• 2nd, Literary Epic
• Heroic Values Stoic Ideal, fate and duty
• Narrative Meaning Symbolic
• Images hunting, storms, snakes, struggles
• HistoryPropaganda

• Homeric Epics
• Oral, formulaic
• Heroic Values Individual Honor
• Narrative Meaning Transparent
• Images animals, weather, chaos/order
• HistoryEducation

5
History of Rome

• Royal Period (800-509 BCE)
• Founding legends
• Overthrow of Etruscian kings
• Republican Period (509-27 BCE)
• Established res publica (SPQR)
• Expansion and civil unrest
• Julius Caesar rise and death
• Octavian defeats Anthony
• Principate of Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE)
• Augustus as princeps and imperator
• Reconstitution of Republic Pax Romana

• Imperial Age (14-476 CE)
• Death of Augustus
• Split in 284 (Diocletian)
• Reunification by Constantine in 330
• Byzantine Period (565-1453 CE)
• Continuation of Eastern Empire
• Fall of Constantinople to Muslims

6
History of Rome

• Royal Period (800-509 BCE)
• Founding legends
• Overthrow of Etruscian kings
• Republican Period (509-27 BCE)
• Established res publica (SPQR)
• Expansion and civil unrest
• Julius Caesar rise and death
• Octavian defeats Anthony
• Principate of Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE)
• Augustus as princeps and imperator
• Reconstitution of Republic Pax Romana

• Imperial Age (14-476 CE)
• Death of Augustus
• Split in 284 (Diocletian)
• Reunification by Constantine in 330
• Byzantine Period (565-1453 CE)
• Continuation of Eastern Empire
• Fall of Constantinople to Muslims

7
Julius Caesar Pompey
8

• Caesar and Pompey co-council
• Caesars success in Gaul
• Marched on Rome, Pompey withdrawals
• Caesar effectively did away with the crumbling
  Republic, instituting reforms
• Assassinated by Senators (44)

9
Octavian M. Antony
10

• Triumvarate
• Antony marries Octavia, falls for Cleopatra
  (Egypt), and falls out of favor with Romans.
• Octavian defeats Antony in Egypt (31)
• Returns to Rome as Augustus (27)
• Rules as princept and imperator
• Moral Reforms

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
Episodes from Aeneid

• Book I
• Prologue
• Junos Wrath
• At Carthage
• Book II
• Trojan Horse
• Fate of Priam
• Leaving Troy

• Book VIII
• At Pallanteum
• Shield of Aeneas
• Book XII
• Conflict with Turnus
• Death of Turnus

• Book IV
• Passion of Dido
• Aeneas Escape
• Death of Dido
• Book VI
• Travel to Underworld
• Heroes of Rome

14
Book I

• Books 1-6 are Virgils Odyssey
• Prologue
• Wrath of Juno
• Jupiters Prophecy
• In Carthage
• Aeneas and Dido
• Venus intervenes

15
Prologue

• I sing of arms and of a man his fate
• has made him fugitive he was the first
• to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
• as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
• Across the lands and waters he was battered
• beneath the violence of High Ones, for
• the savage Junos unforgetting anger
• and many sufferings were his in war
• until he brought a city into being
• and carried in his gods to Latium
• from this have come the Latin race, the lords
• of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.

16
Prologue

• I sing of arms and of a man his fate
• has made him fugitive he was the first
• to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
• as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
• Across the lands and waters he was battered
• beneath the violence of High Ones, for
• the savage Junos unforgetting anger
• and many sufferings were his in war
• until he brought a city into being
• and carried in his gods to Latium
• from this have come the Latin race, the lords
• of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.

17
Prologue

• I sing of arms and of a man his fate
• has made him fugitive he was the first
• to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
• as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
• Across the lands and waters he was battered
• beneath the violence of High Ones, for
• the savage Junos unforgetting anger
• and many sufferings were his in war
• until he brought a city into being
• and carried in his gods to Latium
• from this have come the Latin race, the lords
• of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.

18
Prologue

• I sing of arms and of a man his fate
• has made him fugitive he was the first
• to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
• as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
• Across the lands and waters he was battered
• beneath the violence of High Ones, for
• the savage Junos unforgetting anger
• and many sufferings were his in war
• until he brought a city into being
• and carried in his gods to Latium
• from this have come the Latin race, the lords
• of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.

19
(No Transcript)
20
Junos Wrath

• Why is Juno so upset at Aeneas?
• What does she do?
• Compare Aeneas and Odysseus

21
What do the different passages tell us about the
respective hero?

• Aeneid (I.133ff.)
• O, three and four times blessed
• Were those who died before their fathers eyes
• Beneath the walls of Try. Strongest of all
• The Danaans, o Diomedes, why
• Did you right hand not spill my lifeblood, why
• Did I not fall upon the Ilian fields,
• There where ferocious Hector lies, pierced by
• Achilles javelin, where the enormous
• Sarpedon now is still, and Simois
• Has seized and sweeps beneath its waves so many
• Helmets and shields and bodies of the brave!

• Odyssey (V.306ff.)
• Three and four times blessed are the Danaans who
  perished
• in broad Troy bringing favor to the sons of
  Atreus.
• How I wish I had died and met my fate
• on that day when innumerable Trojans threw their
  bronze-tipped spears
• at me around the corpse of Peleuss son
• I would have received my funeral honors and the
  Achaeans would remember my glory.
• Now it is my fate to die a pitiful death.

22
Jupiters Prophecy

• Aeneas and crew survive the storm
• What does the storm symbolize?
• Venus questions Jupiter
• What is Jupiters prophecy? (pp. 10-11)

23
At Carthage

• Aeneas meets Venus (disguised)
• Didos story (pp. 13-14)
• View of Carthage (p. 14f.)
• First sight of Dido (p. 18f.)
• Venus stratagem (pp. 23-27)

24
Book II Fall of Troy

• Trojan Horse
• Laocöon and Sinon (pp. 34-35)
• Fate of Laocöon (pp. 35-36)
• Hectors ghost (p. 37f.)
• Priams fate (p. 45)
• Anchise family (p. 49f.)
• Creüsas ghost (p. 53f.)
• Departing Troy (p.54)

25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
Federico Barrocci's Aeneas' Flight from Troy, 1598
28
The fall of Troy by Johann Georg Trautmann
(1713?1769)
29
Next Time

• Books 4 6
• Didos tragic love for Aeneas
• Voyage to the Underworld

30
Book 4 Passion of Dido

• The marriage of Dido and Aeneas
• Mercurys visit to Aeneas
• Dido confronts Aeneas, and his escape
• Death of Dido

31
Book 4 Questions

1. Why has Dido not remarried? Why does she relent
   with Aeneas? What are the consequences for Dido?
2. What is Didos reaction when she realizes Aeneas
   plans to leave? How does Aeneas deal with the
   confrontation?
3. How and why does Aeneas leave Carthage? How does
   this reflect on his character?
4. Why does Dido commit suicide? What is her curse?

32
Book 4 More Qs

• What images are recurrent in Book 4 hunting,
  wounds, passions?
• What stoic ideals are represented by Dido and
  Aeneas?
• Why is Dido a tragic hero? What is her
  character?
• Ultimately who is to blame for the romance and
  subsequent suicide? Who does it benefit?
• How is Aeneas sense of piety and duty revealed
  in Book 4? Compare this to Books 1 and 2.

33
Book 6 Underworld

• Entering the underworld
• Sibyl and golden bough
• Across the rivers
• Dido, Deiphobus, Tartarus and Elysium
• Punishment in the underworld
• Purgation and reincarnation
• Anchises and the future vision of Rome
• Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda

34
Sybils Prophecy

• I see wars, horrid wars, the Tiber foaming
• with much blood. You shall have your Simois,
• your Xanthus, and your Doric camp already
• there is in Latium a new Achilles
• he, too, son of a goddess. Nor will Juno
• fail anywhere to hound the Teucrians
• But when her frenzy is done,
• Her raging lips are hushed, hero Aeneas
• Begins None of the trials you tell of, virgin,
• Is strange or unexpected all of these
• I have foreseen and journeyed in my thought.
• One thing I ask since here is aid to be
• The gateway of the lower king and here
• The marsh of overflowing Acheron,
• May it be granted me to go before
• The face and presence of my dearest father? (p.
  134-35)

35
Book 6 Questions

1. How does Aeneas travel to the underworld? What is
   the significance of the golden bough?
2. What rivers must he cross? How are the souls
   conveyed across the rivers?
3. Who does he meet? (Achilles and Dido) How do the
   meetings turn out?
4. What is the purpose of punishment in the
   underworld? How does this compare with other
   tales of the underworld?
5. What news does Aeneas receive from Anchises? How
   does Aeneas return to the world of the living?

36
(No Transcript)
37

• Golden Bough, p. 136-137, 144.
• Entering the underworld, p. 139ff.
• Jaws of Orcus, Treat of empty dreams, Acheron,
  Charon, Styx, Cerberus, Minos
• Across the river p. 145ff
• Field of Mourning, Dido (145-46 cf. Odyssey
  XI.541-567), Deiphobus (147-48), roads to Elysium
  and Tartarus, punishments of iron tower (149f
  cf. Myth of Er)
• Groves of Blessedness p. 151ff
• Anchises (153ff), Lethe (154-55), future of Rome
  (155ff)

38
Future of Rome

• Silvius (by Lavinia)
• Romulus
• Caesar (line of Iulius Augustus)
• but yours will be the rulership of nations,
• remember, Roman, these will be your arts
• to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer
• to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud.
  (158-59)
• Marcellus
• Gates of Sleep (Horn and Ivory)

39
Books 8 12

• Books 6-12 are Virgils Iliad Sybils prophecy
• Turnus and Aeneas vie for the hand of Lavinia,
  daughter of Latinus, king of Latium. Latinus
  offers Lavinia to Aeneas because of prophecy.
  Turnus is enraged, by Juno. War ensues.
• Truce is imposed so that Turnus and Aeneas can
  decide the issue in single combat, but Junos
  meddlings incite war again. Aeneas is injured,
  but cured my his mother, Venus. Jupiter and Juno
  agree on a pact (325-27).
• Aeneas disarms Turnus, intends to spare his
  life, but is overcome by rage upon seeing the
  belt of Pallas (Evanders son) and kills Turnus
  (329-31) a portent of Romes future?

40

• What is your impression of the Aeneid?
• Favorite parts?
• Why consider this a national epic of Rome? Was
  it propaganda?
• What kind of hero is Aeneas?

41
Some Paper Topics

• In Book I of the Aeneid, the hero Aeneas is
  presented as a new kind of hero, one motivated by
  duty. Compare Aeneas to either Achilles,
  Odysseus, or Gilgamesh, who do what they please
  and often get the gods to aid them. Why are the
  such different sorts of heroes? How does Aeneas
  compare with Hector or Moses? Use specific
  examples from the texts to support your ideas.
• Compare Calypso and Circe in the Odyssey (Books V
  and X) to Dido in the Aeneid (Books I and IV).
  Concentrate on how they delay the heros journey.
  What are the similarities and differences?
  Explain and support your ideas using specific
  examples form the texts.
• Compare Aeneas journey to the underworld with
  that of either Gilgamesh or Odysseus. In what
  ways are they similar or different? Using
  specific examples from the text make an
  interesting point about this comparison.
• In Book IV of the Aeneid Dido falls in love with
  and is then abandoned by Aeneas. As a result she
  commits suicide. Using a careful analysis of the
  text, who would you say is responsible for these
  events? Is Aeneas? Venus? Juno? Or even Dido
  herself? In the course of your analysis,
  determine how sympathetic the reader is supposed
  to be toward Dido? Or Aeneas?
• Fate is a crucial concept in the Aeneid. Look for
  places in the text were it is mentioned and
  discuss what you think Virgil meant by fate. Do
  you think his concept of fate is like other uses
  of fate in our readings? Is this a uniquely Stoic
  idea? Why do you think Virgil uses fate as a
  prominent theme? Use specific passages from the
  text(s) to support your ideas.
• Compare the ideas of how to be a good person that
  you find in the Aeneid with those from some of
  the philosophers we have discussed (Plato,
  Aristotle, and the Epicureans). If you are
  especially motivated, compare the ideals in the
  Aeneid with the ideals espoused in Jesus Sermon
  on the Mount. Use specific textual references to
  support your ideas.
• Violence and rage play a prominent role in the
  Aeneid. Explore the importance (both good and
  bad) of violence or rage as it has been used in
  this and other texts we have discussed. For
  example, the Oresteia discusses the necessity and
  horror of violence when carrying out justice how
  does this compare with violence in the Aeneid?
  How does the ancient treatment of violence
  compare with contemporary views?