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Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4

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Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 The divine intervention of Mercury in Vergil’s Aeneid, however brief, challenges the naturalistic reading of Dido’s ill-fated love and stands as so unwieldy a narrative nuisance that “generations of readers and scholars have come up with more or less ingenious techniques for writing the disruptive Mercury out of the story.”1 Whereas this limited attention has almost entirely written Vergil’s contribution to the epic herald tradition out of the critical record, this paper will address Mercury in Book 4 of the Aeneid in light of his capacity as an agent of Homeric closure, that is, a force which signals an end to Homeric precedent. Previous scholarship has focused almost exclusively on the parallels between Odyssey 5 and the Mercury episode in Aeneid 4 in accordance with E.L. Harrison’s evaluation; “It is clear that this is Vergil’s model for Mercury’s first mission to Aeneas.”2 A closer look at Iliad 24 will demonstrate a clearer narrative connection between the Homeric and Vergilian epics in terms of content and structure since, within each poem, two characters receive divine assistance from Mercury at pivotal moments; Priam in Iliad 24 when he barters for Hector’s body and Aeneas in Aeneid 4 when he leaves Dido in Carthage. This Iliadic comparison will also necessitate an analysis of Priam and Aeneas themselves in terms of their relationship to Mercury who functions more as a guide than messenger in this context.3 This analysis follows a similar methodology to that of D.C. Feeney in his article ‘Reconciliations of Juno’. Here Feeney demonstrates the force Juno asserts upon the narrative of epic poetry: 1 Feeney 1998, 105. 2 Harrison 1982, 16. 3 Harrison 1982, 13. 1 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 “Anxiety about the validity of the state may be expressed, in the conventions of epic or lyric, as an apprehension concerning the goodwill of heaven, the divine sanction. This uncertainty is incorporated by the poets in the perennial and potent shape of Juno.”4 Just as Juno functions as a structural placeholder for divine anxiety, so in part Mercury fulfills the poetic function of reshaping the Homeric precedent by embodying a sense of closure. To address Mercury as an agent of Homeric closure it is necessary to analyze his three appearances within the narrative. In Aeneid 1 Mercury arrives in physical form to establish the goodwill of the Carthaginians: utque novae pateant Karthaginis arces / hospitio Teucris (“so that the country and strongholds of this new Carthage would open to the Trojans, as guests,” 1.298- 299).5 In Aeneid 4 he delivers Jupiter’s mandate that Aeneas leave the African city (4.219-278). In the final episode (4.553-570), Mercury in a vision, Mercurio similis (“similar to Mercury,” 4.558) shakes Aeneas from his sleep. The tragic death of Dido and the Trojans’ departure from Carthage frame a larger episode around these appearances that has been treated as a set piece lifted from Odyssey 5. The first appearance bears the least resemblance to any kind of Homeric antecedent. Harrison attributes this to a deficiency of critical attention and provides his own explanation, namely that, “The well established model for Aeneas’ arrival at 4 Feeney 1984, 193 5 All citations are to the Aeneid unless otherwise noted and English translations from A.S. Kline. 2 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 Carthage is the arrival of Odysseus on the island of Scheria.”6 Here it is not Mercury, but Athena who tells Odysseus that she spread feelings of hospitality among a hostile people: οὐδὲ σύ γ᾽ ἔγνως Παλλάδ᾽ Ἀθηναίην, κούρην Διός, ἥ τέ τοι αἰεὶ ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίσταμαι ἠδὲ φυλάσσω, καὶ δέ σε Φαιήκεσσι φίλον πάντεσσιν ἔθηκα (“Still you failed to know me, Pallas Athene, Zeus’ daughter: she who is ever by your side to protect you in all your adventures. It was I who made the Phaeacians kind to you,” Od.13.299-302). Although these lines reflect a similar situation, Vergil’s description of the mission in Aeneid 1 little resembles this passing remark from Athena. Here Athena boasts of her great service to Odysseus to shame him into recognizing her efforts as emphasized by the three indicative verbs in the first person in quick succession at the end of lines 301 and 302: παρίσταμαι, φυλάσσω, and ἔθηκα (“I support (you), “I protect (you), “I made (you dear to them).” The intent is clearly to make her actions known to Odysseus. The comparable episode in the Aeneid bears no such self-aggrandizement. In fact, Jupiter sends Mercury in secret to prevent fati nescia Dido (“Dido, unaware of fate” 1.299) from interfering with Aeneas’ final purpose of founding Lavinium. The adjective nescia 6 Harrison 1982, 8. 3 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 (“unaware, ignorant”) reinforces the overall tone of secrecy. Apart from the reader, no other characters are aware of the gods’ intervention in this way. Here Mercury is very clearly acting upon the mandate of Jupiter in present time. Vergil stresses the immediacy of Jupiter’s judgment by marking the passage with an extensive use of the present tense: demittit (“he sends”), pateant (“they open”), volat (“he flies”), facit (“he makes”), ponunt (“they put”), accipit (“she receives”) (1.297-304). The present tense invests the scene with concern for Aeneas by heightening the imminent danger and hostility of the Carthaginians. In Odyssey 13, Athena refers to her intervention with the Phaeacians in the aorist to express completed aspect since the danger has been averted. Even if “Vergil in fact provides eight lines to reproduce an effect that in Homer occupies just one,”7 as Harrison suggests, Vergil shifts the focus of that effect so radically that another explanation must be sought for the placement of Mercury here in relation to his other two appearances in Book 4. Before we can begin to address the placement of this passage in relation to Mercury’s role in the Aeneid, a closer look at the language of his first appearance will help to define his role as intermediary between the heavens and the Earth: Haec ait, et Maia genitum demittit ab alto, ut terrae, utque novae pateant Karthaginis arces hospitio Teucris, ne fati nescia Dido finibus arceret: volat ille per aera magnum remigio alarum, ac Libyae citus adstitit oris. 7 Harrison 1982, 8. 4 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 (“Saying this, he sends Mercury, Maia’s son, down from heaven, so that the country and strongholds of this new Carthage would open to the Trojans, as guests, and Dido, unaware of fate, would not keep them from her territory. He flies through the air with a beating of mighty wings and quickly lands on Libyan shore,” 1.297-301). Mercury is not once mentioned in Book 1 by name or by epithet, but as Maia genitum (“Maia’s son” 1.297). This distinction is significant in that “it was commonly supposed she [Maia] was an earth-goddess.”8 It then follows that the ‘Earth-born’ Mercury is sent ab alto, / ut terrae…pateant (“down from heaven so that the country…would open,” 1.298-299). Kline translates terrae as country, but it would be more fitting in this context to use the literal meaning of terrae, “lands,” to fully appreciate the word play between alto and terrae especially given their close proximity. Mercury then flies through the air, volat ille per aera (1.300), to finally land on the shores, oris, of Libya. Here again Vergil plays with the defined boundaries of the heavens and the earth by demonstrating Mercury’s ability to navigate both. In the end, Mercury prevents Dido from closing off the finibus (1.300), (“borders, end, limit”) of Carthage, which, in a larger context, represents his function as an intermediary god who governs boundaries and liminal states. This will prove to be of supreme importance when we examine Vergil’s choice of Mercury to deliver Jupiter’s mandate In Book 4. When we encounter Mercury in Book 4, Fama (“Rumor,” 4.173-197) has already begun spreading rumors of the love affair between Dido and Aeneas, and Iarbas has also pleaded to Jupiter to punish ille Paris (“That Paris,” 4.215) who has stolen Dido and her 8 Rose 1933, 56. 5 Shane Black Agent of Homeric Closure: Mercury in Aeneid 4 kingdoms from him. In this context Jupiter orders Mercury to deliver his message to Aeneas: naviget (“Let him sail,” 4.237). What follows is “a repeated Homeric prototype (Iliad XXIV.339-45 = Odyssey V.43-9)”9 in which Mercury’s sandals and wand are described as he prepares to complete his assignment. There is little doubt that these passages serve as Vergil’s model since the imagery and structure of the episode is nearly identical. The scenes in question are literally identical in the Homeric sources: εἵλετο δὲ ῥάβδον, τῇ τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει, / ὧν ἐθέλει, τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει (“He took with him that wand with which he lulls to sleep or rouses from slumber whomsoever he will”).10 However, it is worth noting the difference in emphasis Vergil places on the description of the virgam (“wand” 4.242) in the comparable passage from Aeneid 4. tum uirgam capit: hac animas ille euocat Orco pallentis, alias sub Tartara tristia mittit, dat somnos adimitque, et lumina morte resignat. (“Then he took up his wand: he calls pale ghosts from Orcus with it, sending others down to grim Tartarus, gives and takes away sleep, and opens the eyes of the dead.” 4.242-244).
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