A Study of the Types and Purpose of Dreams in Vergil's Aeneid By

Home , Aeneid, Ascanius, Caieta, Dolos (mythology), Gates of horn and ivory, Latinus

A Study of the Types and Purpose of Dreams in Vergil's Aeneid

by Shawn McNeely

A thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in conformity with the requirements for

the degree of Master of Arts

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

September, 1997

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By the time Vergil was writinq (40-19 B.C.) there was already a long tradition of dreams in ancient literature. From the beginning dreams were a topic of interest for poets, historians, and philosophers . We find in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome five main classifications of dreams: prophetic, anxiety, wish- fulfilment, oracular, and incubation. Other drean-types existed, of course, but these seem to have been the ones most employed by ancient authors, In the Aeneid Vergil employs anxiety-dreams six times, oracular-dreams three times, and the incubation-dream once. His choice, we may be sure, was in part detemined by the necessities of plot, and in part under the influences of authors such as Homer, Apollonius, Euripides, Lucretius and Cicero. Without sacrificinq narrative immediacy and the illusion of reality, dreams allow the Vergil to reveal not only simultaneous events, but also a characterts motions, with their causes and potential consequences. Vergil uses dreams in the Aeneid to great effect. Dreams introduce the three main characters in the epic, Aeneas, Dido, and Turnus. They motivate the actions of the characters and help to advance the plot to its conclusion. Dreams not only set

Aeneas on his journey and mark his arriva1 in Latium, but they continually provide more information about his destination while on his journey. Dreams also bolster

Aeneas' resolve in moments of emotional and physical crisis. In a grander and more enigmatic way, Book 6, as a sustained dream-vision, conveys to the reader, at least, Vergil's vision of both the tragedy and greatness of Rome's mission and history. CONTENTS

Abstract

Contents iii Preface Chapter 1 Dreams in Antiquity

Chapter 2 A Classification of Dreams in the Aeneid

Chapter 3 The Purpose of Dreams in the Aeneid

Chapter 4 The Underworld as a Dream Conclusion Appendix Bibliography

Vita PRE FACE

1 came upon the topic of Vergilts dreams while reading a commentary that suggested the dreams in the Aeneid were virtually the same as those in the Homeric epics. This struck me as an odd comment to make since Homerfs dreiuns do not advance the plot in the way Vergills do, nor are they as numerous. 1 have also found that when some aspect of the

Aeneid is simply said to be part of the epic machinery, it is usually because it has not been examined closely enough. So, after doing some preliminary reading, and discovering that there was very little dedicated strictly to Vergills dreams, 1 decided to undertake the present task. 1 have stayed away from interpreting the dreams of the Aeneid for a few reasons. Primarily, though, 1 did not think it just to apply modern psychological theories to literary characters; since Vergil could not have been aware of such theories, he could not have been influenced by them.

As far as abbreviations are concerned, 1 have tried to follow the example of 1 Vhnée Philologique. 1 have used C.

Day-Lewis1 translation of the Aeneid, as it seems to be one of the best. For the rest, 1 have tried to use the readily accessible Loeb Classical Library, except for the v translation of Herodotusl Histories for which 1 followed the

Penguin translation. 1 have used Richmond Lattimorers translations of Homer, which seem to me to contain the fewest errors . Finally, 1 would like to thank the following people for their support of rny research and the production of this thesis : Terry Smith, May Chan, professors Ross Kilpatrick, Tony Marshall, and Dietmar Hagel, and especially my wife

Debbie, without whom none of this would have been possible. The earliest classification of dreams in the extant

literature of ancient Greece and Rome is found in Homer's

epic, the Odyssey.' From the beginning there was a need

for those interested in dreams to distinguish between those

dreams which foretell the future and those which do noL2

This dichotorny is exemplified in Homer's description of the

gates of sleep (Od. 19.559-567) in which the poet

differentiates between true and false dreams. According to

the Homeric description, false dreams are those which tell

of things which do not come to pass; in other words, false

dreams are those which do not reliably predict the future.

True dreams, on the other hand, reveal to the dreamer

events that will come to pass and are therefore to be

considered as predicative:

lAccording to W. S. Messer, however, "Homeric vocabulary gives no hint of an elaborate classification, under the general term 'dreamv of many types of experiences ...such as gradually took shape and, at a later period, was widely known ." The Dream in Homer and Greek Tragedy, p. 1. Into the Homeric classification could be added the 6vap / ~~o~pdichotomy, important in spelling out what dreams are not.

Behr, Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales, p.173. And thoughtfuï Penelope addressed him: Stranger, surely dreams are inexplicable and hard ta interpret, and one does not reveal everything to people. For there are tsm gates of unsubstantial dreams; the one is constructed ftom horn and the other from ivory; those which go thzough the sawn ivory are deceptive, bearing unfulfilled messages; those which go throuqh the polished horn bring reaL +_hings to pass, whenever one is seen by mortals,

This early epic division of dreams into two groups, prophetic and non-prophetic, remained ahost unchallenged as the standard classification of dreams, Save for a few refinements, until around the third century B.C. In the

Homeric epics there is no question that either type of dreams, both prophetic and non-prophetic alike, are sent from one deity or another. The fifth century historian

Herodotus, though he does not present any systematized classification of dreams, retains Homer's two-fold system; in doing so, however, he also provides an alternative to

Horner's non-prophetic type. In Herodotus ' Histories, the prophetic dream-type still originates with a god, but no deities ever appear to the dreamer as they do in Homer; rather it is an agent of the divine who appears, just as the

05A&6ve~whoappears to Agamemnon in Book 2 (6-15) of the

For a detailed study of dreams in Herodotus see Peter Frisch Die Traume bei Herodot, 1968. I'liad. By the fifth century B-C. it seems that there was a decline in the belief in the traditional gods,' and perhaps it was as a result of this apparent decline that

Herodotus attributed the non-prophetic dream-type to the dreamer himself rather than to some external force. As

Frtabanes explains to Xerxes, who had been complaining of a recurring dream, these dreams do not give the dreamer a false picture of events to corne, but instead reflect the dreamer's rnind and what he has been concerned with during the day:

But these things are not divine, my boy, for the things which wander about to men in sleep are of such a sort as 1 shaZT teach you, being older than you by many years: often these wandering visions which are usual in dreams are what you think about during the day-

Although he makes this assertion, ultimately the nature of the dream forces Herodotus to accept that even this dream is divinely sent. Homerts description of Achilles' pursuit of Hector around Troy seems to indicate that this type of dream, the anxiety-dream, was also known to Homer:

' Dodds, p-118. Herod. Hist, 7.16.18-22,

predecessors, Plato too employed a two-fold classification

distinguishing between prophetic and non-prophetic dream~.'~

Unlike Homer, though, Plato's prophetic dreams did not corne directly from the gods, but rather from a Aaipv péyas (Symp.

202d13), which acts as an intermediary between mortal, and immortals:

A god does not egIe with a hm,but al1 dealings and discourse from the go& toward humans [and from himi~nstoward the gods] both those who are awake and asleep are through this [great spirit] . Plato ' s non-prophetic dreams, like Herodotus ' , also reflect to some degree the mind of the dreamer, but that part of the psyche that they reflect, however, is entirely different. In his description of the tyrant, Plato explains that a tyrant is a man who acts on those desires that ordinarily are expressed only through dreams. Dreams that

loin his commentasy on Plato's Timaeus, Calcidius attributes a five-fold classification to Plato: dreams which result from physical causes (253), those that result from divine providence, those that result from the love that the gods have for humans (2541, those that reveal the future (255). and according to Kessels 'Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " 403, wA fourth class cornes about when Plato reflects on the fact that even in a waking state the human being is not without the benevolent help of a god, and by this support is moderated in his actions-. ." On Calcidius ' classification see Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " M)-rem- 23 (1970) 403-405.

Plato, Symposium 203. See also C.A. Behr, p. 173. express those desires ha describes as kvbv. Üypmv d 6wy10v'~

(terrible, savage and lawless), and are what would today be

called wish-fulfillment dreams. While Herodotus attributed

the cause of the non-prophetic dream to the impact of the

dayts events on the dreamerts mind, Platots non-prophetic

dreams result from a disordered bodily state:

'And what are these [desires] you talk about, ' he said; 'Those, ' 1 said, 'which axe awakeneci in sleep whenever the rest of the spirit sleeps, so far as reason is the gentle and dominant part of this, the savage and wLLd side, having been filled either with food or strong drink leaps around and thrusting off sleep seeks to go and to fulfill its am disposition. It should corne as no surprise that this type of dream

is also described by Hornes. In Book 20 of the Odyssey,

Penelope dreams that Odysseus, looking as he did some twenty

years earlier whan he left for Troy, was beside her in her

bed.14 Throughout the poem Penelope puts off making a

l2 Plato Rep. 5728. " Plato Rep. 517c. If an-individual, however, goes to sleep in the proper physical condition, then "ofa8' k a T' aqkai~-pot ~hai 6y1e~qawKouwn ta)v ~VU&~V.~According to Behr, (p. 173) "The soul, depending on how polluted it is with wine or food or bodily passions, produces dreams which Vary between great intelligibility and integrity to confused, enigmatic, and.symbolic drearnsOw

" Ody. 20.83-90. decision whether or not to choose one of the suitors, until finally in Book 20 she decides that she will choose a new husband.

ft is not surprising, therefore, that at this point in the poem she should dream about what she has wanted most throughout the entirety of the poem -- the return of her husband.15 Another philosopher who concerned himself with dreams is Aristotle. Aristotle had no belief in a divine origin for dreams; he does, however, concur with Plato that some dreams may be ptophetic, or, in his words, signs

(qpeîr) of events to corne and others are net.'' Those that do seem to be prophetic he attributes, not to the interaction of sorne Wipv with an interna1 organ of divination, as

Plato does, but ta the independent contemplations of the soul. l7 Expanding on Herodotust theory that dreams are caused by the events of the day, Aristotle explains that the stimuli for such dreams cornes from the actions during the day pave the way for the se-enactment of the events in a dream:

l5 According to Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification," 393, Plato knew of three types of dreams? each type corresponding to a part of his tripartitioned soul. But in truth, that some of the apparitions ia sleep are the causes of actions related to them is not without reason: for just as we intend to do something and are in the process of doing it or have completed it, we very often associate a th these things in a vivid âream and we do them (the teason being that the motion [of these images] is put underway by the &y.)

The standard two-class system of predicative and non- predicative dreams, however, did-not take into account the

God-sent dream-oracle (~pi\c~an~&/oraculum),but simply grouped it among the prophetic class of dreams. This indifference seems to have been an affront to the religious significance associated with the dream-oracle, and consequently a third or fourth category, dream-oracles s~nt by Gods as distinct from predicative dreams sent by daemons, was created." These mqpanapoE were the subject of a work in the fourth century B.C. by Demetrius of Phalerum, and were also a topic for discussion by the physician

Herophilus .20

lg Behr, p. 174. According to Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, ' 394 n. 4, the verb XPI\CIQ(~~(~may have initially been used in connection with the practice of incubation

20 On Herophilusl classification see Kessels -Amient Systems of Dream Classification. " 414-424. See also P. K. Schrijvers "La Classification des Rêves Selon Herophile." Herophilus àistinguished between those dreams that are sent by a god, those that originate in the sou1 of the dreamer (and that may also have some prophetic abilities], and those that represent, like erotic dreams, a preoccupation of the so~l:~~

~erophilussays that some dreams are god-sent and arise from necessity, others are a natural type of the spirit iorming images for itself about the past and all about to come, some stilï are mixed from a mixture of images whenever we desire what we see just as in sleep for those seeing the ones they love.

This is not unlike the god sent dreamsof Herophilus is the incubation dream. Incubation had been practiced in

Egypt since around the fifteenth centusy, and its first appearance in Greece seems to have been in association with cults of Earth and the deadmZ3The earliest form of incubation may have simply involved sleeping on holy ground in the belief of receiving a cure in a dream. After the fourth century B.C., this practice was changed into the

a Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire de la Divination, p. 297.

22 Plutarch, Placita 5.1,2 (Diels Dox. Gr. 146). c.f. Galen Historia Philosophiae 106 (Diels Dox. Gr. 640)

*' Dodds, p. 110. These cults "have al1 the air of being pre-Hellenic." practice of sleeping in a temple in the hope of receiving medical healing or some other command from the g~ds.~'

Incubation dreams seem to have been widely used in historic times primarily for two reasons: to obtain prophetic dreams

£rom the dead and to acquire medical cures,z5 We find that incubation was pxactised at the shrines of heroes and chthonic daemons, and at places reputed to be entrantes to the underw~rld.*~Whether the 6ve1poXOk~ Achilles calls for in Iliau 1.63 is to be considered as an interpreter of other peuplers dreams or as the dreamer himself inspired by a god

(intentionally lying down for a mantic sleep), seems to be left vague, and except that no dreams of others are mentioned, there is no indication of whether he is, as Van

Lieshout sayo, a Traumseher rather than a Traudeuter. '7

In general, then, it seems that until the first century

Z4 Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream CLassification, " p-394 n.4. * Dodds, p.Ill.

z6 Dodds, p. 110-111. According to W. S. Messer, however, "The works on incubation.. -agree in holding that widespread practise of incubation was confined to the worship of Asclepius and of the allied Amphiaraus, Trophonius, Faunus, Podalirius, Calchas, Isis, Serapis, and in general the chthonic divinities. "

27 Van Lieshout, Greeks on Dreams, p. 166. See also Kessels, Studies on the Dream in Greek Literature, p. 25. B.C., dreams were divided into three main categories:

prophetic, non-prophetic and oracular, although other dream- . - types, most notably tne anxiety and wish-fulfilment-dreams, were quite obviously known. In the first century the Greek polymath and Stoic, Posidonius, rnodified the three-fold system that he had inherited Prom Herophilus, among others, and added a fourth class by more clearly defining the difference between the "clear and enigmatic predicative dreams"; he also argued, as Herophilus had, that Vhe sou1 is capable of receiving drearn-images through its own divine connections and without other external aid~.""~ According to Cicero, Posidonius discerned three ways in which one can dream as the result of divine impulse:

Sed tribus modis censet deorum appuisu homines sonmiare: uno, quod praevidet aimus ipse per sese, quippe qui deorum cognatione teneatur; aftero, quod plenus aer sit imrtaiium an_imortm,- in quibus tamquam insignitae notae veritatis appareant; tertio, quod ipsi di cum dormientibus colloquantur But he [Posidonius] estimates that people &eam by the influence of the go& in three ways: one, because the spirit itself

'* Behr, Aelius Aristeides and the Sacred Tales, p. 175-6. In general terms, Posidoniusr classification tries to explain how humans are able, with the help of the gods, to learn about their future. On this, see Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " 400. " Cic. de div. 1.64. According to Kessels ("Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " 400) , the phrase deorum adpulsu in Cicero rnay indicate that "Posidonius did not exclude a category of dreams that were not under the influence of a deorum adpulsus and that therefore did not have any predicative value." forsees through itself, to be sure it is held in relationsbip with the gods; second, because the air is full of brtal spirits, because on Ithich known signs of the truth become visible; third, because the gods themselves converse with the sleeping.

In a somewhat altered form, Posidoniusl classification finds

itself repeated in the work of Philo:

The writing before this one encompassed those images assignecl to the class of divinely-sent dreams, on which we said the divine sends visions in sleep from Ms own accord. In this one, as you are alone, we shall show those coincicihg with the second class. The second class of images, in -ch oumind being moved by itself decides to restrain from itself and the god-born.

o..---.-.---.-----.-.~..-.*-.~--.....----..----.-o--. The third type of image [of god-sent dreams] arise whenever the spirit is moved in sleep from itself and bursting forth it agitates itself being inspired is able to know beforehand and prophesy the things about to happen. Finally, by the first centusy A.D., medical theories on disruptions of the digestive process had divided non- predicative cirems into two groups: "In effect this was

Philo Judaeus, On Dreams, 1 .i-ii. " Philo, 2.1. Philo's first category of dreams corresponds to Posidonius ' (or Cicerol s) third; his second corresponds to Posidonius second and his first corresponds with Posidonius' third category. On the relationship between Posidonius' and Philo's classifications see Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification," 396-397. simply the isolation of the phantasma or visum £rom other

non-predicative dreams. R32

As we have seen, a system of dream classification took

a long time to develop. The belief in prophetic dreams

lasted throughout antiquity, as the dream-book of

Artemidorus and Macrobius' commentary on Cicerots Dream of

Scipio attest. Within the class of prophetic -- perhaps the term "significantW is more applicable here -- there are

certain recognizable and different types. There is the

symbolic dream that seems to disguise its meaning in symbols

and riddles, such as the dream Penelope relates to Odysseus

in Od 19.535-553, and can only be understood by an

inter~reter.'~ The other types of prophetic dreams are the

6pa)ia/ visio which is a straigntforward preenactment of the

future, and the ypqpaztapk /orucuh, which presents to the dreamer the image of some respected person or even a god in order to reveal without any symbolism what will or will not happen in the future, 34

33 See Dodds, p.107. According to Ann Amory, "The Reunion of Odysseus and Penelope," p. 103, Penelope knew that the beggar in her halls was Odysseus, and that by relating this dream to him she was covertly asking whether he was planning to kill the suitors there in the house,

34 Dodds, p. 107. 14

Likewise, among the non-prophetic dreams we have seen that there are different types. The anxiety-dream, first understood as such in Herodotus and discernable in literature as early as the Iliad and Odyssey, rernains a standard type of non-prophetic dream throughout antiquity-

It finds expression in the works of such philosophers as

Aristotle, Lucretius and Cicero, as well as among poets such as the Roman Accius, who in his Brutus attributes an anxiety-dream to Tarquinus, and it is discussed much later by the dream interpreter Arternidoru~.~~The other main type of non-prophetic dreams is the wish-fulfillment dream. It seems evident that Homer was aware of this type of dream, though he does not differentiate it £rom the other non- pxophetic dreams- The wish-fulfillment dream seems to have been first identified by Plato in the Republic, where he explains that certain desires express thernselves only through dreams .36 The ancient medical practitioners believed that dreams had the ability to show the dreamer's state of health even before the symptoms could manifest themselves physically, a theory also discussed by

35 Lucretius, 4.962-977; Cicero, De Divinatione 2.67; Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 1 6

Plato, Rep. S72B Aristotle .37

It was not until the late second century A.D. when

Artemidorus, a professionaf dream-interpreter, produced his

Oneirocriticus, that a sornewhat unified classification of

dreams came into existence. In the Oneirocriticus,

Artemidorus draws a sharp distinction between b6xvtov. the

non-predicative dream, and Ov~rpo~,the dream that has

significance for the dreamergs future.34 These two classes

he subdivides into £ive classes. The significant dreams,

6v~ipo~,are subdivided into. iiv~tpoc.6p6rpa~a. and ~pqpamqoi; the

non-predicative dreams he subdivides into Evfima and

cpaw&qaux? He is also aware of two other dream-types:

0~opqj~am~oi.which fulfill themselves exactly as they are

dreamed, and brÂ3Lqyop~m>i, which require interpretation in

order to discern their meaning for the future.36

These systems of dream-classification seem to have been

developed primarily in the Greek world, though it is evident

that the Romans accepted them as well. It was not until

37 Aristotle, nepi 'EVUICI&DV460b 28 - 461a 8. '' Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 1.1. See also Kessels, A. K. M. "Ancient systems of Dream Classification, " p. 3 92. '' Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " p. 393, Art~ddorus,1.2. Also Kessels, "Ancient Systems of Dream Classification, " p. 392. about the mid fourth-century A,D. that a unified and

coherent system of dreazn classification is found in Latin.

Macrobius ' commentary on Cicero ' s Somnium Scipionis gives

the following five-fold classification, which he based, if

seems, on Artemidorus:

omnium Wae videre sibi dormientes videntur qyinque sunt principales et diversitates et nomina. aut enim est 6v1~secundum Graecos quod ~atinisodum vocant, aut est 6ppquod visio recte appellatur, aut est XP~)LQTLG)~~quod oraculum nuncupatur, aut est bhVL0~qyod insomnium dicitur, aut est qMk~~aqL(rquod Cicero, quotiens opus hoc nomine fuit, visum voca~it.~'

About everything which seems to be seen by you while sleeping there are five ras, differences and names. For there is either oneiros, following the Greeks, which the Latins cal1 soduni, or there is horama Mch is rightly coUed viso, or there is chrematisrm3s which is caLled oraculum, or there is enupnion uhich is called insomnium, or there is fantasma which Cicero, whenever he needed this -rd, called visum.

These theories on dreams and ciream-classification seem

to have been the rnost influential in the ancient world.

Other theories naturally existed, but these seem to have

been the ones that held the greatest sway over ancient and

even modern understanding of dreams. We can be fairly sure

that at least some of these dream-theories were familiar to

Vergil, and probably influenced the dream-types that he

employed in the Aeneid.

J7 Macrobius, Comentary on the Dream of Scipio, 1.3.2-6. Chapter 2 A Classification of Dreams in the Aeneid

When Vergil was writing (40-19BC), dreams were

- generally classified into five main types: the prophetic- dream, the anxiety-dream, the wish-fulfilment-dream, the

oracular-dream and the incubation-dream. In the Aeneid the

most frequently used dream-type is the second, the anxiety-

àream. This type is not only found in Greek literature

£rom the earliest tirne, but also in such Latin authors as

Accius, Lucretius and Cicero.' Considering the probable

influence of such authors on Vergil and other later Roman

poets, it cornes as no surprise that the anxiety-dream

appearo so frequently in the works of Vergil and his contemporaries . The first dream in the Aeneid, for example, Didots dream of Sychaeus, which Venus narrates to her son, is also the first example of Vergiffs use of the anxiety-dream.

1 Accius, Brutus 17-38; Lucretius 4 .962-977. See also Cicero, De Re Publica 6 .10.

Gordon Williams, Technique and Idea in the Aeneid, p.107, writes that dreams "in Homer and Virgil are usually mere repetitions of real life...." In Aeschylus' Eumenides 94- 116, for example, the Furies are visited by a dream-vision of Clytemnestra whose death they have been attempting to avenge. On the dream in Homer, see W.S. Messer, The Dream in Homer and Greek Tragedy (1918) and A. H.M. Kessels, Studies on the Dream in Greek Literature (1978). 18

Elizabeth Block in her discussion of the first two dreams in the epic, this one and Aeneas' dream of Hect~r,~writes,

"Interna1 unease prompts a dream vision which seems to suggest from the outside a course of action.w4 Vergil seems to have had in mind here Achilles' dream of the recently killed Patroclus (IL 23-65-98} when he described both these dreams.' In Dido's, the mutilated figure of her murdered husband appears to her, just as the image of the mutilated Patroklos appears to Achilles, and reveals the truth about his death (1.355-356) . The dream also warns her of impending danger, as Patroklos warns Achilles that he is destined to die at Troy, and finally advises Dido to leave her home.

The appearance of a dead figure in a drem was certainly not a new motif. It was employed in Greek by

Homer and Aeschylus (Eumenides 94-139) . Lucretius believed that people see the dead in their dreams because there are

en. 1.353 ff and Aen. 2.268 ff respectively. Though 1 am not sure that Vergilfs contemporaries would have considered it as an anxiety-dream.

' Block, The Effects of Divine Manifestation an the Reader 's Perspective in Vergil 's Aenead, p. 208-9.

'And later by Lucan in the Pharsalia [ 3.8-40) . images that are constantly assailing the eyes and the mind.

When the body is asleep memory relaxes also, and so when these images assail the mind and it is not able to contradict itself, we may see in Our dreams those who have died.' Similarly Cicero explains that a dreamer sees a close acquaintance in a dream just because that person was in the dreamer's thoughts immediately before going to sleep.

In other words, it is traces of a person's waking thoughts that lead to a dream about another person:

Tibi autem de me cum soiJicitudine cogitanti subito cum visus emersus e fZumiae. Inerant enim in utriusque nostrum aniIM vigfiantium cogitationum vestigia. At quaedem adiuncta sullt.. ..

As for your dream, it occurred whiie you were thinking and mrrying about me, and then you had the vision of me as I suddenly arose from the river, For in the sous of both of us were traces of our waking thoughts, but with some added features of course.. .. 8

Vergil intended the reader to understand that Dido was pining over the death of her husband when she went to sleep, and was concerned about the circumstances surrounding his death. It is Didofs interna1 unease and concern for her dead husband, therefore (not to mention her own fate which she may have been calling into question), that prompted

Zucretius 4.757-761 and 4.765-767 translation by W.H.D. Rouse, 1959.

'Cicero, De Div. 2.140, translation by W.A. Falconer, 1964. Sychaeus' appearance in a dream.

Aeneas' dream of Hector (2.268-297) is perhaps not to

be so neatly placed into any one category. According to

Lucretius, people who have been preoccupied with something

for an extended period of the often dream about this preoccupation:

Et quo quisque fere studio devinctus adhaeret aut quibus in rebus dtumswius ante morati atque in ea ratione fuit contenta magis mens, in somnis eadem pler-e vide- obùer causidici causas agere et componere leges, induperatores pugnare ac ptoelia obire, nautae contxactum cum ventis degere bellum, nos agere hoc autem et naturam quaerere rerum semper et inventam patriis errponere chartis. cetera sic studia atque =tes plerunque videntur in sonmis an-s hominum frustrata tenere.

And whatevet be the pursuit to which one clings with devotion, whatever the things on which ue have been occupied much in the past, the mind being thus mre intent upon that pursuit, it is generally the same things that we seem to encounter in cire-: pleaders to plead their cause and collate laws, generals to contend and engage battïe, sailoss to fight out their war already begun with the winds, 1 myself to ply my own task, always seeking the nature of thiags and when found setting it forth in our own wther tongue. Thus too all &der pursuits and arts usually seem in sleep to hold fast men1s minds with their delusions?

There can be little doubt, 1 think, that Vergil intended the reader to understand that the war had long been on

Aeneasl mind, not to mention the recent death of his good

friend and comrade, Hector. Aeneas* speech to the dream- image of Hector seems to show that he had been lamenting the death of many friends, Hector included, whom Troy had longed to see again.1° It seems seasonable, then, to think . - that Hector appears in a dream because botn ne and Troy's fate (which Hector symbolizes), were foremost in Aeneas ' mind as he went to sleep. Although the war seemed to be over, and things were looking better for the Trojans, we can still detect in Aeneas* description of the dream certain elements of unease. Aeneas describes the sleep that brings the dream as donm divom (a gift of the gods) ; the participial form of the verb do has been used five other times up to this point in Book 2, each time in reference to the Tro jan horse. " Fu~thermore, this sleep creeps (serpit 269) upon the Trojans, recalling imagery of the serpent that killed Laocoon and his sans (2.213-219):

et primm parva duorum corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque inplicat, et miseros morsu depascitu artus: post ipsum, awrilio subeuntera ac tela ferenteni, corripiunt, spirisque ligant ingentibus; et iam bis medium amplexi, bis col10 squamea circuni terga dati, superant capite et cervicibus aitis

Pirst each snake knotted itself Round the body of one of Laocoon's dlsons, hugging him tight In its coils, and cropped the piteous flesh with its fangs.

l0 Aen. 2.282-284 seems to state quite clearly that both the war and the loss of Troy's lux had been on Aeneas* mind. This is perhaps especially understandable, since people tend to reflect on traumatic experiences once the danger is over, a tendancy that Vergil may intend us to understand this here. Next thing, They fastened upon Laocoon, as he hurried, weapon hand, To help the boys, and lashed him up in thair giant uhorls. With a double grip round his waist and his neck, the scaïy creatures Embrace him, their heads and throats powerfully poised above Itim.

With this description Vergil intends the reader to understand a certain tension within Aeneas about the end of the war. This may serve to explain the appearance of Hector in the dream, but not, however, the message that he delivers .

In the first part of the message, Hector tells Aeneas that the Greeks are within Troy's walls, and the city is being destroyed, and that he should escape before he loses his life: "heu fuge, nate dea, teque his, ait, eripe flammis

/hostis habet muros; mit alto a culmine Troia." (Goddess born, you must go, you must Save yourself from these flames.

The enemy's within the gates. Troy's tower is falling.)12

Just as Aeneas was falling asleep, the Greeks managed to gain entry into the city, and so began their slaughter of the Trojans. According to Aristotle, there are stimuli

(rcivqmq), which pass unnoticed by the mind during the day; but in the night, when the senses are asleep, even the smallest stimuli seem greater than they really are. Since the senses are inactive, the mind interprets these stimuli 23 without recourse to the sense organs, and as a result dreams may distort what is really happening. When dreaimers awaken, however, they are immediately able to recognize what is truly going on." Vergil may have had this type of idea in mind when he composed the dream. According to A.H. Fleston.

he was asleep, and the sounds of the Greek invasion were heard by a "never-sleeping" part of the personality lying below the level of consciousness.14 Weston suggests that the "subliminal selfw interprets the sounds of the invasion, and in a "lightening-swift mental process he draws the logical conclusions and corollariesrn namely that resistance is futile and the only alternatives are death or escape.''

Weston argues that Hector's message about Aeneas' fate is due to the fact that the latter cornes tu the realization that he can best serve his people by leading them from Troy to some other home. This, Weston says, is what went through

Aeneas' mind as he slept; the appearance of Hector in the dream is merely the result of the unconscious mind trying its best to represent "hoth the glory and the fa11 of Troy"

13Aristotle iiepl* me' 5mov pava* 4 63A.

"Weston, 'Three Dreams of Aeneas," CJ. (1937), 231.

lsWeston, ad. loc. 24

to the conscious rnindef6

It seems more likely, though, that at least the end of

Hector's message was meant to be both a divinely-inspired prophetic dream and an allusion to Achilles' dream of

Patroclus in Book 23 of the Iliad. In discussing Achilles' dream, Messes explains that the sou1 "has a wider vision than Patroclus had possessed in life; it knows that bitter fate surrounded it from birth; it prophesies that Achilles too is doomed to die beneath the walls of Troy."17 Although powers of prophecy were attributed to the dead, as the practice of incubation attests, we must conclude that

Vergil's Hector was acting as an agent of the divine. We find in al1 of Aeneasl narrated dreams the dream-vision acting as an agent of Jupiter or ~pollo.'' We have, therefore, no reason to suspect that Hector, though he does not Say so, is not, for Vergil, an agent of the divine.

The dreams that Dido says she has been experiencing, and that have been terrifying her, may also be grouped among the anxiety-dreams. ALthough Vergil does not describe these dreams, based on 4.465-471 we may reasonably asssume that

- 16We~t~~rad. OC.

"Messes, op. cit. p. 15.

"This is true except for the dream of Tiberinus (8.31-66) where the god acts as his own agent. he had something like Medea's dream in Book 3 of Apollonius'

Argonautica in rnind." In kg. 3.618 Medea is described as

having painful dreams (bi6wqm~) such as one in grief

might experience, and at 3.636 she complains, just as Dido

does, that she is troubled by these dreams. At Arg. 3.616-

632 Medea dreams that Jason had corne not to obtain the

fleece, but to take her as his wife. In the dream she is

forced to choose between Jason and her parents, and

ultimately chooses Jason. At Aen. 4.465-471, Dido

complains that she has been &eaming either of Aeneas

pursuing her, or of unending solitude, walking alone in

search of her people. These dreams reflect Didots recent

actions: she bas chosen Aeneas over her vows to Sychaêus,

just as Medea chose Jason over her parents. She had even

given up supervising the building of her city and passed

that responsibility into the hands of Aeneas: in other words, she had chosen Aeneas even over the kingdom that once

she had so ruthlessly def ended. 20 M. Weiderhorn argues, quite convincingly, that this dream "articulates her mood

According to Henry (Aeneidea II p.558), Dido's dreams are of her husband Sychaeus. At Apoll. Arg. 3.636. Medea's wA~lAfiiybv, oav pe mîsé-mv 6vecpoiWis too sirnilar to Dido' s "Anna soror, quae me suspensam insomnia terrentw to be a coincidence.

Z°Compare with Aen.1.524-526. 26 and fortifies her sesolution to die.... In this vision there

are no supernatural forces, no gods or dead souls." It is, - - in fact, the only natural dream in the AeneXZr

Aeneas' dream of Mercury (4. 265-27 6) also seems to be

of this anxiety-dream type. Acting as Jupiter's messenger,

Mercury appears to Aeneas, and reminds him of his destiny to

found Rome and instructs him quickly to leave Carthage and

Dido, the regina furens? Aeneas immediately orders his men to make preparations to sail and to fight if the need

should arise, and then approaches Dido to infom her of his

intention to leave Carthage. She is already aware of his secret actions, though, and her response is what Glover describes as "a wild outbreak of fury, in rnarked contrast to

the delicacy and kindliness of her welcome of Aeneas in the

Pirst book.w23 Looking at Aeneas with disdain, she curses him and threatens to haunt him from beyond the grave.

According to Glover, "The savage element in her nature lies dormant during the early part of Aeneasr stay, but we have seen signs of its waking, and now it is not only awake but

%Iéiderhorn, "The anxiety Dream in Literature from Homer to Milton, " SPH (64) 1967, 77. See also Heinze, Vergil Epic Technique, p. 313 and Berlin, Dreams in Roman Epic, p.26.

23T.R. Glover, Virgil, p. 196. 27

entirely master of ber?' Finally Dido tears herself away

from Aeneas, leaving hirn standing there "hesitating, fearing

many things and preparing many things to ~ay."*~

Later that night, as Aeneas sleeps on the deck of his

ship, he is visited in a dream by the image of Mercury,

looking as he had earlier that same day when he appeared to

hird6 The dream first adrnonishes Aeneas for not setting

sail earlier and warns him that Dido may be planning to commit sorne desperate act, saying that she has an evil thought in her mind: "illa dolos dirumque nefas in pectore versat.- (That woman is brooding now some trick, some desperate deed .) "' Aeneas had reason for concern: Dido's reaction to the news of his departure was, after all, a

"wild outbreak of fur).," The reception that Ilioneus received when part of the storm-tossed Trojan fleet landed on Carthage's shores may also have been on Aeneas' mind,

=Aen. 4.390-391 multa metu cunctantem et multa parantern / dicere.

26Aen. 4 .557-559. omnia Mercurio similis, vocemque coloremque / et crinis flavos et membra decora iuventa. "Just as he'd looked before, as if giving the same admonitions --/ Mercuryl s very image, the voice, the complexion, the yellow hair and the handsome youthful body identical*" Day Lewis trans. When some Trojan ships were forced onto the shore by the storm in Book 1, the Carthaginians, led by Dido herself, . - attacked them and threatened to burn their boats. It was only the pleading of Ilioneus that saved them:

Troes te miseri, ventis maria odavecti oranaw: prohibe infandos a navibus ignes, parce pi0 generi, et propriw res aspice nostras.

We hapless Trojans, wanderers over a world of seas, Implore you, stop your people from mckedly burning ouP ships. Gad-fearing men we are. Incline your heart to spare us.

We must not forget that the first time Aeneas saw Dido he heard about this preemptive attack on his countsymen. The threat, then, that Dido would attempt to prevent Aeneas from leaving, or else destroy th* Trojan ships, seems to have been one which would have legitimately concerned Aeneas, as was the danger of the Carthaginiansr retribution for the slight against their queen. A.H. Weston argues that Aeneas realized the 'depths of the queen's passionate nature"; therefore it is not surprising that as he slept, '... there smouldered in his mind a spark of uneasiness, of subconscious realization of his danger that eventually blazed up into the dramatic vision of Mercury, with his

2s Aen. 1.524-526. Apparently this was not the first time Dido had acted brutally against foreigners: "res dura et regni novitas me talia cogunt / muliri et late fines custode tueri. " Aen. 1.562-3. warning word~.~~~It seems clear that what spawned this dream, and the warnings from the image of the god, was

Aeneas' preoccupation with preparations for departuse, his final encounter with Dido, and the potential for danger that one could reasonably understand from her reaction.

Furthemore, since Mercury had already appeared to Aeneas in a waking vision with virtually the same message as the dream, it is only natural that Aeneas should be visited by the same divinity who had appeared in pe~son.'~

Another obvious example of the anxiety-dream in the

Aeneid is Aeneasl dream of Anchises in Book 5. 31 Until this point in tha epic, Aeneas is supposed to have been wandering for about eight years, searching for the place sanctioned for his city. Fhen he arrives in Sicily for a second time, and the end of his wanderings is imminent, Juno sends Iris to the Trojan women, who encourages them to set fire to the

%eston, op. cit. 232. We must, of course, be careful in the application of psychological theories to literary characters*

30Stearns, Studies on the Dream as a Technical Device in Latin Epic and Drama, p. 15,

3'According to Block, op.cit. p.121 11-27, this should not even be considered as a dream since Aeneas is not described as sleeping, nor does he awake at the end. Based on Aen. 4.353-356 and the overall description of the episode, 1 think that we may reasonably presume that Vergil intended th-e scene to be understood as a dredm. ships, and although Jupiter intervenes and puts out the

fires, al1 but four ships were destroyed. With al1 that had

transpired in Aeneasl recent past, he begins to despair,

and we find him questioning whether he should press on to

Italy or just remain there in Sicily:

At pater Aeneas, casu concussus acerbo, nunc huc ingentes, nunc Uuc pectore curas mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis, oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras-

But lord Aeneas, hard hit by this mrsst ctuel disaster, was fui1 of anxiety, and his mind kept oscillating between tw thoughts -- should he settle &wn in Sicil here and forget his destiny, or struggle on towards Italy.PY

With the fire out and the situation under control, Nautes

counsels Aeneas to leave behind the crews of the destroyed

ships, and al1 those who were no longer up to continuing on

to Italy, in Sicily. After his conversation with Nautes, when Aeneas goes to sleep that night he is described as

"talibus incensus dictis senioris amici / tum ver0 in curas animo dliducitur omnes" (Aeneas was much disturbed by the words of his aged friend;/ al1 the more was he pulled this way and that by his wo~ries).~'ft is at this point that the

1 is interesting to note that Iris justifies the action of the Trojan women by saying that Cassandra had told her in a ciream that .Sicily was where they should make their home (Aen. 5.636-638). image of Anchises cornes to him.

The dream daims to be sent by Jupiter, and tells

Aeneas to accept the advice of Nautes; Anchises ir, iurn counsels him almost exactly as Nautes had done before Aeneas went to sleep: to select only the best soldiers to take with him to Italy and Latium.3"chises then instructs Aeneas to seek out the Sibyl and to make a descent into the undeworld, where he shall learn his people's destinyO3'

Furthemore, it is understandable that Ascanius' and his

Trojans' future was ever on Aeneas' mind. In Boak 4, for example, Aeneas tells Dido that he must leave Carthage, for he is concerned with the ham he is doing to Ascanius' future: 'me puer Ascanius capitisque iniuria carii / quem regno Hesperiae fraudo et fatalibus arvis." (1 am disturbed no less by the wrong 1 am doing Ascanius,/ defrauding him of his destined realm in Hesperia)." The events of that day had such an effect on Aeneas that he considered abandoning the thought of sailing to Italy, and thereby forgetting about his destiny (oblitus fatorrun). In the dream, Anchises addresses the weakening of Aeneas' resolve, and reminds him

36Aen. 5.733-737. As odd as this instruction may seem it is a necessary precursor to the events of Book 6. 32

that Troy's destiny, not just hi3 O-, is in his hand~.~' Based on the message of the dream, Aeneas renews his

determination to land in Italy, and imrnediately begins

preparations for the voyage to Italy, and ultimately the

fulf ilment that destiny.

Another dream-type that figures quite prominently in

the Aeneid is the oracular dream. According to Macrobius'

definition, the oracular dream is one in which either a

priest, a parent, a dignified or important person, or even a

god appears and announces to the dreamer what the future will hold, what he must do or not do, as well as what he must avoid:

et est oraculum quidem cum in somnis parens vel aliqua sancta gravisne persona seu sacerdos vel etiam deus apette eventmum quid non eventurum, fauendm vitanduxnfe denuntiat ,"

It is an oracular &eam when in sleep a parent or another sacred or important person or a priest or even a god appears and clearly announces what is about to happen, what is not about to happent what must be done and what mst be avoided.

Among the dreams in the Aeneid there are two fairly obvious examples of the oracular type. The first occurs on Crete in

Book 3, when the Penates appear to ~eneas.'O The Trojans

40According to A.H. GJeston, op.cit. p.232, though, this should be classified as an anxiety-dream. In his opinion, Aeneas goes to sleep concerned over the welfare of his people had recently arrived on Crete where, thinking they had

reached their destination, they undertook the building of a

city. At this point they began to experience severe

hardships: a plague broke out, the fields went barren frorn

the heat, and the crops failed from di~ease.~' Anchises

advised Aeneas to sail for Apollo's oracle at Delos to

inquire how they might bring about an end to these hardships

and find their divinely-appointed destinati~n.~~That night

the Penates appeared to Aeneas and, speaking as an oracle

for Apollo, told Aeneas that Crete is not where the Trojans

should be building their city, and that they must seek out

the birth land of Dardanus' birth, a place known by the

Greeks as "Hesperia" and as "Italy" by the local inhabitants:

Est locus, Eesperiam Grai cognomine dicunt, terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubere glaebae: Oenotri coluere viri; nunc fama minores Italiam dixisse ducis de nomine gentem: hae nobis proprzae sedes: hinc Dardanus ortus, fasiusque pater, genus a quo principe nostrum. Surge age, et haec laetus loagaevo dicta parenti haud dubitanda refer: Corythum terrasque requirat Ausonias; Dictaea negat tibi Iuppater arva These is a place -- the Greeks call it Hesperia -- an antique land, well warded, possessed of a rich soil.

and with the advice of his father still seemingly fresh in his mind. This is why in his dream a solution to the problem - at hand is offered. On this see also Stearns, opecitep.15. Oenotrians coloniseci it; dose heirs, so rumr says now, have named it, after their first founder, Itaïy. This is our real home: there was Dardanus born, and old Iasius; there did ou line begin. Rise up then, with a cheerful mind repeat to your father these sure and certain sayings: let Corythus be his bourne and Italy, for Jove forbids you to colonise ~rete.~

Although the welfare of the Trojans, as well as the location where he was to build his city would have been foremost in Aeneas' mind, there is no obvious interna1 source for the dream: Vergil does not write, for example, as he does in Book 5 of Aeneas: "talibus incensus dictis ssnioris amici / tum vero in curas animo diducitus ~rnnes."~~

Heinze suggests that when Vergil was writing this dream- episode, he was drawing on the tradition that the Penates customarily appeared in drearns in ordêr to announce their wishes to the dreamer. 4s The message of the dream is clear: leave Crete, for it is not the place Jupiter has determined to be Aeneas' destiny. Once he awakens, Aeneas consults his father about the meaning of the dream and fearns that Anchises had often heard from the prophetic

Cassandra that Hesperia was the true origin of the Trojan

-- 43Aen. 3.147-171.

g4Aen. 5.718-719. See p.30 above for translation.

"Heinze, ad loc. race -- Italy was to be Aeneas' destiny. 46 Like many dreants in the Aeneid, Turnus' dream in Book 7

is one in which one divinity acts as the drearn-messenger for

anothero4' Reminiscent of Agamemnon's dream of the 0%

5vnpg sent by Zeus4', Allecto, acting on the command of

Juno, appears to Turnus disguised as Calybe, a priestess of

Juno. She reminds hirn that Latinus has recently denied him

Lavinia as a bride, and warns that the land he controls is

threatened by the Trojans. She then encourages him to wage war against Aeneas in order to ensure peace for the Latins.

In his dream Turnus sesponds that women should keep out of

the affairs of men, especially warfare. Angered by Turnus' words, Allecto reveals herself to him in his dream, and in

spite of his fear, stirs in him a blood lust. This is the only true dream where the dream-messenger disguises

"St is interesting to note that this is the only dream about which Aeneas consults another person. According to Weston (p.232), Aeneas probably had been privy to the conversations between Cassandra and Anchises where she told him about Hesperia and that the remnants of those conversations rose to the surface under the stress of the situation and manifested themselves in the form of a dream. Let us also not forget that at 2.781 Creusa tells Aeneas that he shall reach Hesperia and so this too may have contributed to the use of Hesperiam by the Penates. 36

herselfragbut it is not the only dream in the poem in which

the dreamer attempts to interact with the dream-figure; it is the only one in which the dream-figure reacts to the dreamer. Aeneas in Book 2 questions Hector, who ignores him, only to deliver his message and then disappear. In this dream Turnus responds to the commands of Allecto, telling her to keep out of the affairs of men. The goddess- dream-figure then responds to Turnus by becoming angry and revealing her true identity. She then proceeds to hurl an incendiary device at him, and only after she has responded thus does she vanish.

Despite these obvious differences, there are certain similarities. The dream instructs Turnus to wage war on the

Trojans, not unlike the way the Penates instruct Aeneas to seek out Hesperia. In this, as in other oracular-dreams, the dream-figure chooses to disguise herself as a person well-known to the dreamer, in this case as Calybe, a priestess of un o. As we recall from Macrobius, the oracular-dream is partly characterized by the appearance

49The dream Iris describes in Aen. 5.636-638, while is disguised as Beroe is not truly a dream and so cannot be considered in the present discussion.

this with the way Athena disguises herself when she appears to Nausicaa (Ody.6.20-49) and the effects of that dream on the dreamer, a priest, priestess or some other holy person, not to mention an actual deity. We may, therefore, quite accurately group Turnust dream with Aeneas' dream of the

Penates in Book 3 as an oracular-dream.

Another example of Vergil's use of the oracular drem occurs in Book 8, where the river-god Tiberinus appears to Aeneas as he sleeps on the banks of the Tiber. Aeneas had just lost the opportunity for peace, and the spectre of war grew ever more fearsome. That night the god appeared to Aeneas and informed him that he had reached his divinely- allotted destination, and that Juno's anger had subsided.

The god then instructed Aeneas to build his city at the site where he should find a white sow with thirty white piglet~.~~Tiberinus goes on to tell Aeneas where he may find an ally in the war against Turnuss2, and finally advises him to placate Juno through prayers. Just before he vanishes, Tiberinus, like Mercury in 4, tells Aeneas to wake

SIThis is the only dream which is confirmed by physical proof -- the white sow, although Panthust actions confirmed the dream of Hector and Anchises' recollection of Cassandrats words confirmed the dream of the Penates. See Block, op.cit. p.119.

52 Except for Vergil' s desire to have Aeneas visit the site of Rome and the introduction of Evander and Pallas, Tiberinus' instruction is unnecessary since in 8.13 we learn that many local tribes were joining their fates with Aeneas'. up and get on with resolving the situation.53

Like Aeneas' dreams of Hector, this dream also has elements that allow it to be grouped into two categories.

The simile comparing Aeneas' thoughts with the light reflected off water in a bronze container onto the walls and ornate ceiling of a Roman house (8.20-25) is intended to show that Aeneas was indeed anxious when he went to sleep.

It could, therefore, be argued that Aeneas' dream is merely the manifestation of these concerns with the most obvious solution, which the dreamer knew before going to sleep, presenting itself.

Not far removed £rom the oracular type of dream is the incubation dream. Generally, incubation dreams involved a process of sacrifice 2nd prayer, ending with sleep on the skin of the sacrificial victim. Aithough this practice seems to have been followed primarily in the Greek world,

Vergil includes it among the dreams in the Aeneid. As was discussed earlier, incubation seems to have been used in historic times primarily for two reasons: to obtain prophetic dreams from the dead and for healing pur pose^.'^

In Book 7, however, Latinus was concerned about signs he has

53Aen.8.26-65.

54Dodds, Greeks and the Irrational, p. 111. received about the arriva1 of a stranger in Latium.

Intending to consult the oracle of his father Faunus about

their meaning, Latinus goes to Albunea, where the local

Italian tribes customarily seek advice from the priestess

who gains her knowledge through incubation:

Eiinc Itaiae gentes omnisque Oenotria teUus in dubfis responsa petunt: huc dona sacerdos Cum tulit et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti pellihus incubuit stratis somnosque petivit, multa mdis sixuuïacra videt volitantia miris et varias audit voces -turque deorum couloquio atque imis Acheronta adfatur Avernis.

Here the Itaan tribes, all the Oenotrians, go for advice in times of perplexity: hither the &estess brings the offerings, and couched at dead of night on the fleeces of the sheep sacrificed there, she woos slumber; and then visions appear to her, shapes are floating strangely about her , and in her ears are many voices -- she is conversing with deity, addressing the powers of the nether regions. 55

After entering the sacred grove, Latinus performs a

sacrifice, and then sleeps on the victimsf skins. As he

sleeps, the voice of his father comes to him instructing him

not to give Lavinia to an Italian, but to some foreigner,

and that the descendants of the Trojans and Latins will rule

the world (7,100-101). There is no indication that Latinus

is actually asleep, but the "visitation comes as the result of incubation and the inference that Vergil is portraying a dream seems naturaLWs6 At this point it would be prudent

"Aen. 7. 85-91.

'"Stearns, opcit. p. 19. 40

to mention briefly the differentiation we must make between

this dream and Aeneasr dream of the Penates in book three, which also acts as an oracle for Apollo. We determined that

the Penates' dream should be included within the group of oracular dreams, just as Macrobius describes them. Latinus' dream too is oracular in the sense that Faunus, his father, gives him instructions about what he should and should not do. The circurnstances in which the dream comes to Latinus, however, make it quite clear that this drearn is ta be understood as an incubation-dream and nothing else. We may also distinguish this dream £rom Aeneas' because it results

£rom a direct plea for guidance, whereas Aeneas' does not.

Ne have seen then, that Vergil empioys three types of dreams in the Aeneid: the anxiety-dream, oracular-dceam and incubation dream. Aithough the anxiety-dream seems to be by far Vergills preferred type, oracular-dreams and the incubation-dream stiii play an important role in the development of the narrative. Although he was influenced by poetic predecessors such as Homer, Apollonius, Lucretius and Cicero, Vergil did not simply imitate them, but used and developed them to serve his own poetic intentions. Since

Vergil was such a conscientious poet, we must presume that he chose the models for his dreams and his dream-types after 41 great deliberation and, as we shall see, used dreams in veq specific ways to achieve a specific effect . CHAPTER 3 THE PORPOSE OF THE DREAMS IN THE AENEID

Dreams seem to possess a certain unique ability to cornmand the action of an epic narrative. Without sacrificinq hediacy and the illusion of reality, dreams allow the poet to reveal simultaneous events and a character's emotions, their causes and potential consequences. Dreams seem to have been revered among the ancient Greeks anci Romans because of their close association with the supernatural, and because of this they are especially suited to the epic genre in which the supernatural tends to play an important role. We saw in chapter 1 that Vergil chose his dream-types with great care; we shall now turn our attention to a more detailed investigation of al1 the dreams in the Aeneid, their purpose and funct ion.

1.358-364

As the Aeneid opens we find the Trojans tossed about on the sea by a storm caused by Juno. Driven by the storm to the shores of an unfamiliar land, Aeneas and Achates set out to learn where they are and who lives there (1.306-308) . As they reconnoitred the land Venus, disguised as a Spartan girl, came tc them and told them al1 about this foreign land. As she told Aeneas about Carthage and its Queen, Dido, Venus related the following dream (1.353-36O) :

ipsa sed in somnis inhumati venit imago coniugis, ora modis attollens pallida miris; crucieles aras traiectacpe pectora ferro nudavit, caecumque domus scelus omne retexit , tucelerare Eugam patriaque excedere suadet, auxiliumque viae veteres tellure recludit thesauros, ignotum argenti pondus et auri. his commota fugam Dido sociosque parabat.

But there came, one night as she slept, the phantom of her unburied Husband, weirdly floating its clay-white face up to her, Exposed the atrocious altar, the breast spitted with steel, And took the cover off that crime hidden in the house. Then the phantom urged her swiftly to fly the country, And told her where she could find in the earth an old treasure a secret Board of gold and silver ta help hec on ber way, ~ido,in great disquiet, organised her friends for escape.

Generally, dream-descriptions in the Aeneid begin with some indication of the dreamer's state of mind and they end with the dreamer's reaction to it. As Steiner accurately points out, everything that is unnecessary to the description of the dream is left out: there is-no indication of Dido's state of mind, no indication that she was deeply impressed or even frightened by the dream-vision when she awakens, just that she was moved (commota) by it .' One of the rnost striking aspects of this dream-description is its lack of detail. According to Steiner it is typical of

Vesgil's literary style that this dream is narrated with few but well calculated words.' Despite this brevity of

- -- Steiner, Der Traum in Der Aeneis, p. 23-4. 44 expression (or perhaps because of it) the reader still fully appreciates the menacing aspect of the dream-apparition, and the horribleness of Sychaeus' murder. In fact, in this short description, Vergil seems to establish a certain sympathy for Sychaeus and Dido, a sympathy that turns to admiration ".. .für die tat kraftige, ihr Schiksal meisternde

Frau. "3

Vergil seems to juxtapose the image of the dead

Sychaeus with the living Dido in order to emphasize the relationship between them -- a relationship that transcends even death. This, Steiner argues, is especially evident in

Sychaeusl advice to flee Tyre and his directions to the hidden treasure.' It is through this emphasis on the eternal love between Dido and Sychaeus that Vergil proparês the reader for the interna1 conflict that Dido suffers in

Book 4.

Another striking aspect of this dream is that it is described neither by the dreamer nor the narrator, as al1 the other dreams in the poem are, but by Venus. It was not an unusual motif -- the dead appearing in a dream -- but

2(...contin~ed) Steiner, opcit. p.23.

Steiner, op.cit. p.24. Vergil here puts his own special mark on it. Since it is

Venus who narrates the dream after much the has passed, it

is her words that need to convey the gravity of the murder,

how gruesome Sychaeusr appearance was, and how the dreamfs message affected Dido. In narrating Dido's dream, Otis argues, Venus reveals Dido

as at once Aeneasv alter ego -- one who also has foiled the crime of the past by founding a city of the future, one who likewise has an object of pietas (in the dead Sychaeus and in her own mission of empire) -- and a tragic figure whose love has been foully betrayed by the furor of her own kinsman. 5

Venus' purpose in the Aeneid primarily seems to be emotional support for Aeneas. She seeks assurances £rom

Jupiter about Aeneas' fate (1.229-296). and despite

Jupiter's quarantees she still causes Dido to fa11 in love with him in order to protect him. In narrating this dream to Aeneas, Venus continues in this same supportive role. As a goddess she is, of course, aware of what Aeneas is suffering, even without having to be told so. When she tells him about Dido, her dream and what she has accomplished,

she not only prepares him to meet a noble queen ruling a civilized nation, but touches his heart with sympathy for sufferings scarcely less bitter than bis own and born with the

' Brooks Otis, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry, p.236. 46

Like heroisrn. '

Like Aeneas, Dido was forced from her home, and she

suffered hardships in her attempts at founding a city, much

as Aeneas will do once he finally lands in Italy. Venus'

narrative is intended to move Aeneas, but not in the way

that it does. At this point in the poem, the reader is

familiar with Jupiter's will but not with Aeneas' dream with

Hector; as a result the reader gets a different impression of the scene from that which Aeneas does. As Elizabeth

Block notes, "The dream of Dido seems to indicate a bond of syrnpathy between the two exiles, but Aeneas does not react

to the similarity; he thinks only of his own trouble.. ..11 7

Taken together, the sign of the birds (1.392-397) and the dream seem to reveal Venusr ignorance, or even refusal to acknowledge that what is really bothering Aeneas is not physical danger (the worry that she addresses), but his confusi~nas he endures his pietas.'

Unlike other dream-episodes in the Aeneid, Dido's dream does not motivate the ensuing action in the same way as

Gilbert Highet, The Speeches in Vergil 's Aeneid. p. 109.

Block? The Effects of Divine Manifestation on the Reader ' Perspective in Vergil 's Aeneid, p. 210.

Block, op. cit. Aeneas' do. ALthough it motivates Dido to action, it dies not affect the ensuing action, but it is nonetheless absolutely necessary if that action is to occur. Dido's dream seems to serve the same purpose as Clyternnestra's dream in the Choephoroi (32-41) or Nausicaa's dream in the

Ociyssey (6.13-51) . ~lytemnestra's dream of her murdered husband Agamemnon terrifies her and causes her to send

Electra to his tomb to placate him. On the way to

Agamemnon's tomb, Electra encounters Orestes, a meeting that makes the action of the play possible. Nausicaa's dream shares many similarities with Dido's and Klytaimnestra's: the appearance of Athena motivates Nausicaa's actions, which lead to her meeting with Odysseus that in turn leads to

Odysseus; telling a story which Homer had previously left out. 'O Dido ' s dream, like Clytemnestra ' s and Nausicaa ' sr provides the motivation for the character's action: it is because of the dream that Dido departs Tyre and founds

Carthage, and through these actions she is established as a character not to be taken lightly. Furthemore, the dream

' Let us not forget the possible influence of Hecubafs drearn of Polydorus in Euripides' Hecuba (21-27) He oxplains both to Hecuba and to the audience that he was murdered by Polymestor much as Sychaeus reveals his rnurder to Dido and Venus in her narration of the dream reveals it to the reader.

'' Messor, The Dream in Homer rind Greek Tragedy, p. 30. 48 sets in motion the events, which not only make Aeneas' and

Dido's meeting possible, but also allow Aeneas the opportunity to tell his story. Finally, Dido's dream sets

in motion the events that lead to her descent into madness, her self-destruction, and ulthately her suicide.

2.268-297

The second dream in the Aeneid, Aeneas' dream of

Hector, has, as Richard Heinze concludes, no irnmediate consequence and it is never alluded to again." While the dream might appear superficially pointiess, in reality it is of the utmost importance to the epic. Vergil had no mode1 for the fa11 of Troy front the Iliad or the Odyssey, nor does there seem to have been any extant pre-Vergilian tradition for Aeneas' dream. Although the story of the Trojan Eorse and the fa11 of Troy would have been familiar to Vergil and his readers, the poet required a Trojan point of view as opposed to the typical Greek one for the night of slaughter, and the dream provides the introduction for it. According to Bernard Knox, among the fundamental characteristics of

Vergil's description of the fa11 of Troy is the deep sleep

" Heinze, Vergilrs Epic Technique, p. 25. Of course, there may have been something in the lost Cyclic Epics. 49

of the Trojans on that night.12 This sleep is emphasized

first in the passage describing the approach of the Greek

fleet (sopor fessos complectitur artus (tired out in the embrace of sleep) 2.253) and then again just fifteen lines

later as the Greeks begin their invasion of the city drowned in drunken sleep (invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam

(they broke out over a city drowned in drunken sleep)

2.265). The word complectitur, used in 253 to describe the

Trojan sleep, seems to carry with it certain associations of a friendly or loving embrace; it is, thesefore, fitting to describe the Trojansl sentiments as they give in to the sleep that ends their first day of peace. Yet, the word also seems to bear a certain irony with it, for according to

Knox, "by its evocation of the serpent the word [complectitur], represents Aeneas horror at the recollection of that sleep as he tells his tale some seven years later." l3 With this emphasis on the Trojans' sleep, what better way for Vergil to begin his narration of that night of bloodshed than with a dream?

The dream that begins the description of the night of butchery is full of the pathos that vividly summarizes the

l2 Knox, B. The Serpent and the Flame, p.367.

'' Knox, op.cit. p.388. significant elements of what follows, and "at one stroke

puts the reader into the right frame of mind for hearing about these event~."~~In the first line of the dream-

description we are again reminded of the Trojans' welcome

acceptance of sleep (tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus

aegris serpit Tt was the time when worn-out mortals begin to

get some rest, 2.268). The second line is pervaded with

sinister implications. In dono divum there is a feeling of

tension: each of the five times in which donum has been used

up to this point in Book 2 it has referred to the "Trojan

horse."ls This rest (which brings Aeneas' dream), is indeed a gift from the gods: the associations of donum, however,

in this context remind us that there is a deliberate and terrible plan at work within the walls of the sleeping city.

In other words, the sleep that brings the dream is part of a divine plan for Troy's overthrow.16

The message that Hector delivers is straightforward enough. He tells Aeneas that the Greeks have ,entered the city and that Troy's fa11 is imminent. He informs Aeneas that it is not his fate to die defending Troy as he had, but

l4 Heinze, op.cit. p.16

lS Aen. 2.31; 36; 44; 49; X189.

l6 Knox, ad loc, that he is to save Troy's sacra and find for them a new home, which he will accomplish only after having wandered the seas. Hector's role is to announce to Aeneas the capture of the city and to indicate Aeneas' own immediate danger. Ke also conveys to Aeneas that it is he who is to carry Troy's sacra from the falling city and to establish for them a new and great settlement beyond the sea ." He urges, and through his recommendations he justifies, Aeneas' flight. This role, Henry concludes, confers upon Hector the status and importance of an actual character -- in other words, Hector becomes one of the poet's significant dramatis pers~nae.'~ Because of the prologue to Book 1 and Jupiter's prophecy about the future of Aeneas and the Romans, Hector's words are of great significance to the reader (hos cape fatorum comites (take these as partners in your fate,

2.294), but not for Aeneas in Troy, Hector imposes on Aeneas a responsibility of which only the reader knows the importance; already at this early point in the narrative reference is made to Aeneas as the founder of Rome, but in an obscure manner, which is not intelligible to the hero at

If Henry, Aeneidea, vol. l p. 15.

'"enry, opcit. vo1.2 p.152. this point either.I9

As important to the dream description as Hector's words

are, "...in addition to and sometimes exclusive of the

spoken word the dream as an image offers the poet a focal

point for exploitation that is suggestive for thinking about

poet ic imagery .. . "*O. Hector's appearance in the dream

contrasts sharply with his former appearance, just as Troy's

former greatness contrasts with her impending ruin; Aeneas'

description of the dream juxtaposes these two contrasts for

the reader.*l The direct description of the plight of

Hector in the dream is interrupted in order to place it in poignant contrast with the appearance presented by the same

Hector in al1 his strength and still flush with victory on

the battle-field. It seems strange that at 2.287 Aeneas describes Hector as lux Dardaniae (the light of Troy) when in the Aeneid light is generally connected with life

(3.311), prosperity (2.589 ff), favourable omens (2.694), and help from the gods (3.1511, not death and misfortune.

After describing Hector's facial features as serenos (2.285) a word generally used to describe the serene sky which

l9 Stearns, op.cit. p.26.

20 Berlin, Dreams in Roman Epic, p.5.

2' Block, op.cit. p.212. promises saifors a safe voyagez2 Vergil introduces with greater effect the remainder of the description; the beard and hair clotted with blood and dust, and the body covered with wounds received in defence of his country.23

Even without saying a word, the image of the rnutilated figure spoke volumes to Vergil's Roman reader. According to

Patrick Kragelund, it has generally been taken for granted that "...the shadowy figures of the dead acquired their permanent appearance at the moment of death, ..."24 It has, Kragelund argues, not been adequately recognized that there are differences in belief regarding what these figures would look like when they appeared in a dream. In the collective

Roman consciousness, it seems, the image of the dead in dreams was not eternally tied to their appearance at the moment of death: they could choose their appearance depending on the message that the dream-image was to d~liver.'~The significance of such a dream described in

Latin literature, then, depends îargely on the appearance that the dream-figure has chosen to appear in; and the

22 Kragelund, op-cit. p. 30. Compare 3.518; 9.630.

24 Kragelund, op.cit. p.17.

25 Ibid. The opposite seems to have been true in the t radi t ional Greek view, though - oaxp ay2

>3 e axe appearance of the mutilated figure seems to have acted as an

indication of impending doom. We may, Donatus explains,

conclude on the basis of experience that the mrrtilated

appearance of Hector would have foretold death and calamity

even had he not said a single worde2j For the reader, the

dream foreshadows doom; to Aeneas, however, Bectorls words

are a complete surprise. The full horror of the dream is

apparent only when the reader remembers that Aeneas had gone

to sleep thinking that the long war was over at last, then

awoke from his dream only to see his city in flames. "27

The context in which the dream comes to Aeneas,

combined with its visual aspects, influences the response to

it. Aeneas does not react within the dream; it is not until

he awakens from it (excutior somno, 302) that he feels how

important it really is." According to Gordon Williams,

the dream presents

a duplicated motivation: the dream could have revealed the truth to Aeneas, but the poet does not use it in that way; instead he allows the physical reality around the sleeping man to make a gradua1 impact on him. This is somewhat like the duplicated motivation later in the same book (604-623 and 624-33) where Venus opens Aeaeas' eyes to an explanation on the divine level but it does not have a

26 Danatus on Aen. 2.272 ff . When we compare this image of Hector with the image of Sychaeus showing his chest mutilated by Pygmalion's sword to Dido it cornes as no surprise that she acted the way she did once she awoke.

29 Ibid. physical effect on hh; insteaci the poet shows Aeneas affected by the actual physical ruin taking place around hh- This analogy shows that the experience represented by the dream is on a different Level from that of ordinary reality and that the level on which it operates is analogous to that of the gods- mat Aeneas describes is an authentic mystical experience and it is marked as authentic by the ;harp dich&omy between fantasy and reality. 29

This dichotomy, between dream/fantasy and reality, is

maintained even after the dream has ended, allowing Vergil

to present Aeneas' reaction to the Greek treachery as

conventionally heroic and, therefore, realistic. 30

The appearance of Hector is essential to the plot; it

is what supplies the motivation for Aeneas* departure from

Troy, which is the real beginning of the story. Vergil

achieves a feeling of suspense through the indefiniteness of

the tems in which Aeneas is informed that he shall found

The dream, and especially the appearance of

Hector, is also necessary to allow the reader to corne to

tems with the way in which Aeneas abandons Troy, rather

than remaining to die in its defence. (And who is more appropriate to deliver this message than Troy's former defendor, Hector?) This desertion needs to be shown not as

29 G. Williams, Technique and ldeas in the Aeneid, p. 107-8.

30 G.Williams, op. cit. p. 108.

'l 'l Stearns, op.cit. p.26. the desperate act of a man concerned only to save his own life, but rather as a way of carrying out an act of pious duty towards Troy1s sacra, the Penates .'*

Aeneasr description of that dream while in Carthage seems to reproduce his mental state in Troy. Through his account of the dream Vergil allows the reader to apgrehend Aeneas ' state of mind; in short, ".. .the narrative complexity conveys a reality of emotion that would not be available through direct comment. "If This double response is illustrated by vana (287): hindsight tells Aeneas why

Hector spoke in the way he did, but at the tirne of the vision he had no way of knowing that his questions would be in vain. Aeneas, therefore, seems to reveal both his past and present emotions as he recalls his dream to Dido and the

Carthaginian court. As Elizabeth Block explains :

Within the fiction of the buediate experience which we assume for Aeneas * s sake and Aeneas for ours, Vergil uses divine manifestations to create a division of perspective in the poem. By as~ngthe reader to accept the fiction, the poet allows him to question it. This effect enterges from Aeneasrs narration of his dream, to which both reader and characters experience a dual ceaction; each responds as if the dream were in process, and also as if it were being recalled after seven years. 3s

32 Heinze, Vergil *s Epic Technique, p. 16-17.

33 Block, op-cit. p.212.

34 Ibid. '=Block, op. cit. p.213-214. This dream acts as the first indication (chronological, not

textual), of the primary difference between Aeneas and the

usual heroic character: "Aeneas has a sense of mission that

transcends his own personality, and it is to his devotion to

the goal that lies outside himself that his reptation for pietas is owed. "36 Finally, Aeneas' dream of Hector, Block

suggests, "makes clear to Dido for the first time that

Aeneas is going to leave her, at the same the that it

recalls her dream of Sychaeus and strengthens her love of

the man who has suffereci as she did. "37

3.l47-lïl

Book 3 is marked by uncertainty, false starts, a lack of specific directives, or clear-cut divine help. Aeneas

left Troy knowing only that he was to found a city to be the new home of the Trojan sacra. The Trojan's first attempt to found this city was in Thrace where bad omens prevented their settlernent. Sailing next to Delos, Aeneas inquired at the oracle of Apollo where his destiny would lead. The godls response was, of course, ambiguous and even misleading: they were to settle in the land from which the

Trojan race ~prang.~'Thereupon Anchises spoke up and

36 Williams, The Aeneid, p. 108.

37 Block, opcit. p.217. PLEASE NOTE by Apollo to act as his voice, the first thing the Penates

tell Aeneas is fairly obvious, 1 think, to both the reader

and Aeneas: the Trojans must change homes, for Apollo had

not rneant Crete in his oracle,

Hector had told Aeneas that he was to found a new Troy

to be home to the Penates; Apollo told him that his home was

to be in the land from which the Trojan race sprang; and now

the Penates give Aeneas even more information about his destination:

est locus, Hesperiam Grai coqnomine dicunt terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubese glebae; Oenotri coluere viri; nunc fama minores Itzliam dixisse ducis de nomine gentem: hae nobis propriae sedes, hinc Dardanus ortus, Iasiusque pater, genus a quo principe nostrum. There is a place -- the Grseks call it Besperia -- An antique land, well warded, possessed of a Nch soil. ~enotrianscolonised it; whose heirs, so rumur says now, Have named it, after theh first founder, ItkLy. There is gur reaï home: there nsDardanus born, And old Iasius; there did our line begin.

The Penates, then, clearly define Hesperia-Italy as Aeneast destiny. This is hardly a detailed itinerary, since Italy covers an area of about 301,250km2. So while this dream fulfils its purpose providing Aeneas with slightly more than a general direction in which to travel, it does not tell him where in Italy to go, and in this way the dream allows the poet to continue to develop the tension within his story. Furthemore, through the appearance of the PLEASE NOTE husbandO4' Elizabeth Block, on the other hand, convincingly

argues that Dido now dreams about Aeneas just as she had

previously dreamed about her husbandm4' When she says to

Anna quae me suspensam insomnia terrent (what are these

nerve-racking dreams that haunt me? 4.9) ,45 she seems to betray her inability to confess the true content of her dreams. The reader, though, "sees her hesitation and her guilt fully because she does not admit what he already

knows, that she has given up pudor before she speaks to

Anna. "'" In other words, Aeneas has now completely replaced

Sychaeus and he now appears even in her dream~.~~According to Stearns, Dido

would quite naturally dream of Aeneas, the lover who occupied

" Ibid. Highet imagines that Dido sees Sychaeus not as the loving husband, but as a turbida imago like the one Aeneas daims to have seen at 4.353. It has been suggested by Kakridis ("Didonis Insomniaw Hermes 1910, 463-465) that Dido could not have ignored a warning £rom Sychaeus and so when she dreamt of marriage with Aeneas she was frightened by this revelation of her desires. cf this passage with Apollonius Rhod. &g. 3.622.

44 Block, op.cit. p.218.

45 Austin, Aeneidos Liber Quartus, p.28, believes that insomnia are visions that are seen between the sleeping and waking states rather that simply dreams.

47 Venus was responsible for narrating Dido's dream of Sychaeus, and it is she who is also responsible for the change in Dido's dreams. her thoughts during the &y.. .- Quite naturally also she might dream of marriage with Aeneas, Upon awakening, the thought of her obligation to Sychaeus presents itself, but she is ~ersuaded

Dido's second dream in Book 4 is narrated only after she has finally decided that she must commit suicide. There is no external prompting, nor is the dream pivotal in her decision to commit suicide. It does, however, provide a

'rcommentary on Dido's pst and future in light of her present circ~rnstances."~~The dream itself is set up by the pause after horrificant (465), which "precedes the climax of horr~r"~~and establishes the dream as the "crowning incident in the catalogue. 1151 In her dreams, Vergil tells us, either Aeneas pursues and drives Dido ad, or else she dreams of unending solitude and desertion, of walking down a long road in search of her Tyrians:

agit ipse furentem in somnis ferus Aeneas, semperque relinqui sola sibi , semper longam incomitata videtur ire viam et Tyrios deserta quaerere terra.

Aeneas himself pursued her remorselessly

Stearns, op. cit. p. 32-3. See also Kakridis, "Didonis insomnia" Hermes 45 (1910) 463, who believes that the dream is based on Apollonius Arg. 3.616 ff.

43 Berlin, op.cit. p.26.

Berlin, op.cit. In dreams, dciving her mad; or else she dreamed of unending Solitude and desertion, of walking alone and eternally Dom a long road, through an empty land, in searcb of her Tyrians ,52

The first part of the dream is fundamentally a re-enactment

of her pursuit of and desertion by Aeneas, which Dido

perceives for herself. Furthermore, Vergil's use of furens

in 4.65 not only recalls Aeneas' description of Dido as the

regina furens (4.283) but also 4.69, where in her passion

Dido wanders her city like a wounded doe wandering through

the forest.

Evidently, Vergil was influenced by Ilia's dream in

Ennius' Annales in writing this scene. The substance of that dream is that Ilia is taken away to an unfamiliar place by an unknown man where she wanders searching for her sister.

The spirit of her father, Aeneas, then appears to her and tells her that she is destined to meet with many difficulties before her good fortune arises from the river.

Despite Ilia's efforts to detain him, the dream ends with

Aeneas' sudden departure. She then awakens in terror and tells the story to her sisteros3Ilia tells her sister about the dream in much the same way as Dido tells Anna of

=* Zen. 4.465-468.

Ennius, Annales 1-32-48. 64

remarkably similar: Dido's wanderings allude to Ilia's, and

both dreams seem to reflect the dreamerts reaction to the

trials of life. Dido' s dreams (4.9 included) have much in

common with IliaTsand even Medeats dreams in Apolloniust

Argonautica: they are nerve-racking and generally prophesy

evil in a symbolic manner. Their function, Stearns

explains, "is to forecast subsequent action rather than to

motivate in the usual sen~e."~~

In Book 1 Aeneas and the Trojans find themselves

carried to Africa by Juno's storm. Mter they spend enough

tirne in Carthage to become comfortable in Tyrian gaments

(4.262-2641, and to take charge of the building of Carthage,

(4.260; 4.265-7), Jupiter suwons Mercury and orders him to remind Aeneas of his destiny. This vision greatly impressed

Aeneas and a desire to leave Carthage behind blaze up

(ardet) inside him. Despite this feeling and the unmistakeable message from Jupiter, Aeneas does something which one might not expect: rather than fleeing from

Stearns, op.cit. pp. 33-34. Of course, there are differences between the two dreams. Iliavs dream contains a prophecy that Didots lacks, nor does Dido's dream contain the spectre of Aeneas like Ilia's does. Finally, Iliars dream is couched in allegory, which is less important in Dido's dream.

55 Stearns, op.cit. p.35. which one might not expect: rather than fleeing from

Carthage he stays and confronts Dido about the necessity of

his unexpected departure. Once that task was completed, and

the ships were ready to sail, Aeneas still did not set out

from Carthage, but instead he fell asleep on the deck of his

ship. According to James Henry,

not even father Abraham hhself knew better than father Aeneas that divine cormnands explicitly conveyed, whether in dreams or otherwise, are to be obeyed in the first instance, whether in dreams or otherwise, there being the enough afterwards for examination of them in their moral bearings, if indeed, such examination need ever be made at all--, .5 6

And yet this is exactly what Aeneas does.

As Aeneas sleeps on his ship, Vergil shows that the hero's will is not as resolute as he imagines it to be.

Furthermore, Vergil shows that Aeneas and Dido do not react dissimilarly in crises: despite her decisisn at 4.475 Dido shows irresolution just as Aeneas shows his irresolution here. As a result of Aeneas' failure to commit to a course of action, the image of Mercury (forma dei) appears as a dream and delivers a forceful message of motivation.

There is something a little strange about the dream- figure being described as appearing in the image of Mercury, and not as Mercury himself. Aeneas knows that the rnessenger is a god (4.574); he later tells his men that this was the

'6 Henry, op-cit. vo1.2. p.686. he who he had actually appeared in the dream? If Aeneas

assumes that it is Mercury himself who appears to him, as he

seems to, why then does he address him only as "sancte

deorum/quisquis esr" (Sacred god, whoever you are 5.576-77) ? Steiner seems to believe that the identity of the dream-

figure was intentionally left vague. According to him, it

was not necessary for Mercury to make a second journey £rom

Olympus, since this the the message was not entirely true, and somewhat e~aggerated.~~So, why does the dream corne to

Heneas at all, when he was intending to leave Carthage in

jüst a fe= hours anyway? Vergil's intention may have been

to use the dream-opisode as a way of forcing Peneas to leavo

before seeing Dido again and attenpting to bid her

fare~ell.~~By doing this he avoided the possible

repetition of a further confrontation between Aeneas and

This dream-image first admonishes Aeneas for delayinq,

57 Aen. 4.574-577. It is interesting to note that Aeneûs tells tris men about the drem in terms similar tv those Agamemnon uses at Iliati 2.56-71 to tell about his dream.

56 Steiner, op. cit. pp. 51-53.

s9 IUghet, ûp.~it.p.203. 1s it poaailsle thât ve~yrr was thinking of the Lucretian sïrnulacra of the gods which qpeur t~ pecple Erm the i~terxu~diawher, be wrvte this? cf Lucretius, 5.1169-1182 ana 6-76-77. 67

This dream-image first admonishes Aeneas for delaying ,

especially since there is a favouring west wind (561-2), and

warns that danger is brewing (561-2). Mercury explains th&

Dido is in a frenzy and is capable of just about anything.

He warns at 4.564 that Dido will have vengeance, even at the

cost of her life, and concludes the dream-message with a

warning to get underway before morning lest Aeneas find the

Carthaginian fleet bearing down on him. The point of

Mercury's message, R.G. Austin notes, "is to represent Dido

as desperate to the point of attacking Aeneas: how far she

was from such a plot may be judged from her unhappy gropings

in 534ff. Furthermore, since the dream motivates Aeneas

to leave Carthage before Dido's suicide, it prepares the

reader for their reunion in the underworld.

In this depiction of Mercury we do not find the old

Roman god of commerce (Merces), but rather we find the Greek

Hemes, messenger of the gods and protector of travellers.

Consequently, it is fitting that he should appear as a dream ta tell Aeneas, a traveller, of Jupiter's will. Furthermore, since Mercury had already appeared to him, Tt is natural that Aeneas should be visited in his dream by the divinity

Austin, op-cit. p.167 66 who had previously appeared to him in person.. . .''s' By using

the same god's image that had previously visited Aeneas,

Vergil accomplishes two things: the first is that the image of the god as the conveyor of the message once again associates Aeneas' mission with Mount Olympus, effectively emphasizing that Aeneas' mission is divinely sanctioned.

The second effect is directly related to the economy of the plot. In his first appearance, Mercury is said to be the messenger of Jupiter. The dream makes no reference to

Aeneas' destination, but it does not need to. Mercury's first message contains the phrase Romana tellus (4.275), which adds a certain definiteness to Aeneas' instructions when compared with the more general directives he received from his dream of the Penatos. The dream-image of Mercury does not need to repeat what the god has already told

Aeneas. In other words, the dream-image may confine itself to reminding Aeneas that he must promptly carry out

Jupiter ' s wishes and leave Carthage. 5.718-739

Following Aeneasr encounter with Dido, the Trojans sailed to Sicily where, prior to the beginning of the poem,

(as related in Book 3.709) , they had buried Aeneas ' father,

Stearns, op-cit. p. 15. Anchises. As they celebrate games in his honour, Juno again

intervenes to prevent Aeneas from reaching Italy and thereby cheating the fates. On the first occasion she attacked the

Trojans with Aeolus' winds (1.76-91), the second time she arranged the marriage of Aeneas and Dido (4.90-104). and here she sends Iris to stir up dissension among the Trojan women. Disguised as Beroe, the wife of Tmarian Doryclus,

Iris convinces these women to burn their ships by claiming that Cassandra had corne to her in a dream and told her that Sicily was their promised land (5.635-6411 . Each attempt by Juno to prevent Aeneas from obtaining

Italy is followed by a decline in his pietas: when the storm hits, he wishes he had died in battle; after his "rnarriage" with Dido, he delays in Carthage neglecting his destiny; and now having arrived in Sicily, he contemplates abandoning his venture and settling there:

at pater Aeneas casu concussus acerbo nunc huc ingentis, nunc illuc pectore curas mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras

But lord Aeneas, hard hit by this most cruel disaster, Was full of anxiety, and bis mind kept oscillating Between two thoughts -- should he settle dom in Siciiy here And forget his destiny, or struggle on towards Italy. To each of these declines in Aeneas' pietas, Jupiter responds with a type of counter-intervention in order to

62 Aen.5.700-703. See also Otis, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry, p. 276. 70

ensure the Trojansr success, and here is no exception. This

divine response, though, does not corne right away. First we

have Nautes, who recognises the impact that the loss of four

ships would have on the expedition. He predicts the founding

of Acesta where Aeneas could settle al1 but the most war-

ready Trojans, to be ruled over by Acestes. This sound advice, though, does not go far in bolstering Aeneas' confidence and strengthening his resolve to see the mission through. That night Aeneas went to sleep disturbed by his conversation with Nautes: talibus incensus dictis senioris amici [Aeneas was much disturbed by the words of his aged friend, 5.719). At that moment Anchises appeared and addressed him. The description of Anchises' image appearing to Aeneas (caelo facies delapsa parentis, 5.722) is reminiscent of 2.693 (de caelo lapsa per umbras stella) where Anchises was, in a way, commissioned by Jupiter to go with Aeneas on his mission. Here he is commissioned by

Jupiter (imperio Jovis) to remind Aeneas of his fate and duty. In book four he had been only a turbida imago preceding and foreshadowing Mercury, the actual messenger of

Jupiter. He now plays both roles: that of the father or father-image and that of Jupiter's direct agent. 63 7 1

Anchises confirms the advice of Nautes and gives Aeneas

the real reason for eliminating the weak and non war-ready:

Lectos iuvenes, fortissima corda/defer in Italian; gens dura

atque aspera cul ta/ debellada tibi Latio est (choose out warriors, the bravest of heart, and lead them to Italy; for

tough and primitive are the people that you will have to subdue in Latium, 5.729-731) . Unlike Nautes ' Anchises ' speech looks toward the future, and Putnam argues: " [A] s the emphasis shifts from former events toward those which are to corne, there is a consequent and parallel shift from sea to

Land, from the dangers of an ocean voyage to the risks of war . ut 64 Before going to Latium, though, Aeneas must visit him in the underworld (5.731-733) ; for only then will Aeneas be shown the future of his race, and ultimately the underlying purpose of his mission.

It seems, though, that there is another reason for

Anchises' strange request that Aeneas meet him in the underworld. Only the bravest and most experienced fighters were to make the journey to Latium: the burning ships were just a sign of the danger inherent in the expedition, and up to this point Aeneas had not reacted well at moments of

64 Putnam, The Poetry of the Aeneid, p. 91. 32

crisis." We may even Say that at moments of crisis Aeneas'

pietas failed him. Now on the eve of his arriva1 in Italy

and his greatest crisis, Aeneas "needed to be reborn,

remade, enabled to exercise his pietas not as something

enforced from without but as sornething renewed from within.

this is the most fundamental meaning of Anchises' demands

for their reunion in the underworld. """ 7 .81-101

In none of the main sources for Aeneas's story is there

reference to Latinus consulting the oracle of Faunus or that

he was advised by an incubation oracle to marry his daughter

to Aeneas instead of Turnus. In some places there is not even a place for such a dream-oracle: according to Cato6'

Latinus and Turnus were allies £rom the beginning, and therefore there is no need for the dream oracle. In

Strab~,~'on the other hand, Latinus immediately offers

Lavinia to Aeneas. In his account there is no mention of

Turnus; furthemore, Latinus was already at war with the

Rutuli and in need of an ally. Both Dio (the Tzetes

66 Ibid. The following chapter will examine Book 6 as a dream-episode,

67 Servius 1.267. 73

Latinus and Aeneas both have dreams, and the result of their dreams is a reconciliation and the offer of Lavinia in marriage. In Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.57) Latinus was visited in a dream by an unidentified divinity who advised him to make peace with the Trojans, but there is no mention of Lavinia or her marriage to Aeneas. The sources to which

Vergil, Dio and Dionysius go back rnay have inserted a dream- apparition in order to exonerate Latinus' conduct against

Turnus. 69

The tradition, then, existed in Vergil's time, and together with the fact that it suited the economy of the plot it may have persuaded him ta include a dream-episode within the context of the Latinus episode. Furthemore,

Vergil may have decided to make Latinus have a dream because of Augustus' belief in drearnso7O Latinust dream, in fact, is not unlike Augustust dream of Apollo (Pliny, 34.8.58) for in both cases the father figure (Apollo was to some extent the fatidicius genitor of Augustus), appeared to his son with a prophetic message.

When we read Horner we find gods appearing to "awakeW individuals almost at random, but in dreams they never

69 Boas, Aeneas' Arriva1 in Latium, p.179.

70 Boas, op.cit. p.180; cf. Suetonius Aug. 91.

dream is no ordinary dream, but an incubation ciream, In Dio

and Dionysius there is mention only of dreams, and so we

must question why Virgil chose to invent an incubation dream

for this particular episode: there is no conclusive evidence

to suggest the practice of incubation in Homer, nor are the

later testimonies of Augustus following the practice of

incubation. We can, therefore, rule out epic convention and

popular, contemporary mythology as influencing Vergil's

choice here. The most likely reason may be that Vergil

wanted to add as much variety as possible to his dream-

episodes .73 If Vergil in fact wanted to make Latinus have an

incubation dream in order to add variety to the dream

episodes and divine revelations, he would have better

recourse to the incubation-oracle. This type of oracle

seems to have been less manifestly Greek than a mantic oracle like that of Delphi for example." It seems, furthemore, that the practice of incubation had increased somewhat in Vergil's time. This growth may have been due mainly to a flourishing of the cults of Isis and Sarapis, and perhaps also to the support dream-oracles and incubation

73 Boas, op.cit. p.182.

'Vbid.

contrast with the single clear voice Latinus hears,

Furthemore, it is unusual that Faunus does not appear in

Latinus' dream while prophesying, but is only heard. It

seems that in the Augustan age Faunus was represented in the

shape of Pan, an image that Vergil may not have considered

to be in accordance with the character of this divine

ancient king and father of Latinus." In addition, Vergil

may have preferred to use this voice emanating from the wood

because of Dionysius (1.56), and because the oral side of

the oracle of Faunus seems to have become its most important

aspect in Vergil's time.

Finally, twice during this dream-episode Vergil

stresses that the dream-oracle took place during the silence

of the night. In doing so he may have intended to allude to

the auspices that required the silence of the night.

Latinus' incubation-dream oracle therefore, which may have

seemed somewhat Greek in nature, was made to correspond to

the Roman practice of taking the auspices.

7,413-469

As Aeneas and Latinus seal their agreement for peace

Juno makes her final attempt at cheating fate (or at least delaying it as long as possible). She summons the Fury

" Ibid. 78

Allecto, and orders her to disrupt the peace between Trojans and Latins, and to sow the seeds of war (disiice conpositam pacem, sere crimina belli (7. 338) ) . Allecto's first target is Latinus1 queen, Amata, whom she easily turns against her husband and the peace-process. Her next target is Turnus, the Rutulian king, who until now (7.413) has only been mentioned as one of Lavinia's suitors.

In very Homeric fashion Aïlecto disguises'herself as

Calaybe, an aged priestess of Juno, as appears in a dream to the sleeping Turnus. Claiming to have been be sent by Juno, the dream-image tells Turnus about the Trojans' arriva1 in

Latium and their intention to settle in Latium; he is to mention the betrothal of Lavinia to Aeneas. She tells him he has been made a laughing-stock by these recent events and that in order to ensure peace and get what he desemes--

Lavinia as a wife- he must wage war. She then finishes by claiming that it is heaven that has bidden him to wage war.

Turnus, however, rejects what the dream-image tells him. He replies to Allecto/Calaybe that he is aware of the

Trojan presence in Latium, but he is not overly concerned;

Juno7' after all, is not indifferent to him. He proceeds to

'' The final lines of Turnus' speech are modelled on Hector's facewell speech to Andromache at 11.6 .490-2 (cf. Heinze, op. cit. p. 189). 79

deride the dream-image, saying that her old age is impairing

her judgement and sense of reality. He finishes by telling

her to mind her own business--the temple and images of the

gods-and he will concern himself with matters of war and

peace. Angered by Turnusl contempt, Allecto reveals herself

to him as the fury that she is. She repudiates him for his

treatment of her and hurls her torch at him, igniting a lust

for war in Turnusr heart.

Richard Heinze has suggested that, in writing Turnusr

dream, Vergil was influenced by two episodes from Greek

literature. The first is in the Odyssey (4.794ff. ) where

Athena, disguised as Iphthime, appears to Penelope and

delivers her message. Penelope, like Turnus, replies to the

dream-imago but does not reject its message; nor does Athona

reveal herself (she does not after al1 need to do su) but

maintains the illusion. The other model is Callirnachusl

Hymn to Demeter (42 ff) which, although not a dream itself,

dues have some similarities to Turnus dream. Here Demeter,

like Allecto, disguises herself as a priestess and when she

is rejected she throws off the disguise to reveal her divinity. In doing so she reveals that she is a god and

therefore should not be rejected.

Heinze, however, neglected to mention that in the

Greek context, the disguise primarily expresses a difference PLEASE NOTE argument in a way which cannot be contradicted and thus

convinces the stubborn and impudent yo~th."~~TO this end

she drops her disguise, revealing her true self to him --

snakes in her hair, fire in her eyes and a whip in her hand.

Just as the mutilated figure of Hector was itself a sign predicting misfortune and destruction, so too is the image of Allecto's true self. Not only do the snakes in her hair conjure an image of the snakes that killed Laocoon(as Otis observed) ,e3 but the fire in her eyes reminds us of the

flames engulfing Troy in its last hours. Furthemore, in the Roman context, images and syrnbols of fire carried with them definite connotations of disaster and misfortune, which

Allecto here certainly seerns to repre~ent.~'

Havinq revealed herself, Allecto responds to Turnus ' rejection of her, quoting in fact his description of her as an old hag lacking the ability to give him proper advice:

En ego victa situ, quam veri effeta senectus arma inter regnum falsa formidine ludit?"

So, my mind is clogged? Old age, impairing my sense of Reality, scares me with delusions of civil war?

R2 Kragelund, op. cit. p. 66.

Oti~,~p.~it. p.327-8.

54 Kragelund, op.cit. p.20.

2s 7.452-3. Compare with 7.440-3.

go ta war with the Trojans (7.482 and 550) -

Vergil may havs been inspired by Greek tragedy here in

his use of Allecto, especially by Euripidean tragedy, yet

the idea for her appearance may have been influenced by

Ennius.89 According to Heinze, Allecto is the

personification of discord, whose work it is to destroy the

peace-agreement between Trojans and Latins. In other words,

it is her job to bring war to Italy. She is especially

suited ta her task, a fact that only those who share in the

total contempt for war that Vergil's contemporaries felt can

fully understand.

At this point it is worthwhile noting that there are

some significant similarities between this dream and Aeneas'

dream of Hector. In Aenêas' dream, Hector not only told him

about the fa11 of Troy, but also made a prophecy about the

city he shall found as well. In other words, the dream

contained predictions about both the beginning and end of

the events that led to the founding of Rome. Similarly,

In his Annales Ennius wrote, Postquam Discordia taetra bel1i ferra tos postis portasque refregi t, (when hideous Discord burst apart the iron-bound doors and gates of war), which is echoed by Vergil's Belli ferratos rumpit saturnia postis (Then did the queen of heaven glide down, and with her own hand roughly push open those resisting doors, dash wide upon their turning hinges the iron gates of war. 7.622). See Heinze, opcit. p.184.

9G Heinze, op-cit. p.183. Both dreams conchde in a similas way, with a

"significantw gesture by the dream-image. Hector's gesture is to take Vesta's headbands and undying fire from the temple; in doing so he emphasises the fa11 of Troy and the sânctity of the mission. Allecto concludes her message by hurling a burning torch at Turnus; her gesture, according to Patrick Kragelund, emphasises that she has delivered a prophecy of defeat and death, and more specifically, that the war Turnus is about to start will result in his own defeat and death. g1 Furthemore, both characters seem to forget significant portions of their dreams upon waking.

Aeneas forgets that Hector told him to abandon Troy, and so upon waking he takes his weapons and rushes into battle.

Turnus forgets that ALlecto had predicted his death, and upon waking he too takes his weapons and rushes toward battle. 92 Turnus, though, initially resists violence when it is first suggested to him by the disguised ALlecto, while

Aeneas, who is encouraged to avoid violence, rushes into battle without a second thought.

Finally, dreams in the Aeneid usually begin with some sort of indication of the drearnex's mood, and this

91 Kragelund, op.cit. p.68.

92 cf. 2.314 arma amens capio and 7.400 arma amens fremit. See also Block, opcit. p.330 note 36. information is always relevant to the dreants message.

Usually this is the case, but not so in Aeneas' dream: we

are simply told that it is night, and people are sleeping

and dreaming; the narration then proceeds to describe

Hector's mutilated figure and the questions Aeneas puts to

the dream-image. When Ailecto finds Tu~~us,Vergil only

tells his teader that Turnus is asleep with no indication of

his mood or mental tat te.^^ Ailecto then disguises herself

and the dream-episode unfolds. The effect is that the

reader does not learn beforehand what makes these two men

reject what their dreams tell them. Furthemore, it is not

until they address the drearn-images that we learn what type of men Aeneas and Turnus really are.

This dream of Turnusr acts as a sort of parallel to

Aeneas' dream of Hector. We have already seen how there are certain remarkable shilarities in the content of the two dreams. What is most remarkable, though, is the way Vergil uses both these dream-episodes to introduce the two principal characters in the Aeneid. The Aeneid begins in the middle, and as a result we know very little about Aeneas or his mission when we first encounter him in Book 1 on

93 C. J. Mackie, "Nox erat, " G&R 38 (1991) 59 believes that the fact that Turnus is asleep when RLLecto finds him is indicative of his peace of mind in response to Aeneast arrival. 86 board his ship. When Aeneas relates his dream we then learn what type of person he is and what he is destined to accomplish. As far as Turnus is concerned, prior to the dream-episode he is only named as a suitor of Lavinia, and it is only though the dream that we learn what his purpose in the narrative is. 94

Through his questions to Hector, Aeneas seems to express the wishes of the Trojan people. He sees in Hector the lux Dardaniae (light of Troy) and the fidissima spes

Teucrum (surest hope of the Trojans) . As Kragelund says, "[Ilt is not his own, but the cityls and the people's sufferings, he wants to believe belong to the past (A.2.281-

6) ."9s Aeneas could have expressed his own wishes to the drsam-image, yet he does not. On these grounds, we may conclude that Aeneas is a man who, in such a situation, expresses such wishes on behalf of his people.w96 Indeed, this is in keeping with Aeneasl character: except for two instances (1.94-101; 5.701-703), Aeneasr main concern is not his own situation but the situation of Ascanius and his

94Turnustfirst mention is at 7.53. Kragelund, op. cit . Kragelund, op. cit. 87

Tro j an fol1owers ,97

Turnus, on the other hand, is a different story. In his rejection of the disguised Ailecto he declares that he already knows a fleet has arrived. This old crone will not frighten him nor will Juno forget him. He also says that it is men of his sort who decide the rnatters of war and peace.

In other words, Turnus refects what Allecto says on the basis of his personal qualities: Juno is on his side, he knows best about matters of war and peace, he trusts in his youth and in his intellect not to mention his masculinity.

By establishing these two dreams as parallels to one another, and by introducing Aeneas and Turnus in this way,

Vergil stresses the fundamental differences between these two principal characters.

8.26965

Book 7 closes with Turnus seizing control of the

Latins, Juno throwing open the gates of war (7.610-612) and the gathering of the Latin/Rutulian allies. Book 8 then opens with the symbols of war (belli signum) being raised by

Turnus, the "conscription" of soldiers from among the labourers and an embassy to Diornedes seeking aid for the war

97 Cf. Aen. 4.349-355 where Aeneas tells Dido that he must leave because of the wrong he is doing to his Trojans and especially to Ascanius. against the Trojans. Although many tribes were joining forces with Aeneas (131, the Trojan leader was plagued by worq once again. As night falls Aeneas continues to brood over the impending war. With the formulait opening (nox erat 8.26) of what Gransden calls a "descriptive set piece of the 'topos1 of nightw Vergil combines the therne of the contrast between sleeping nature and sleepless hero with the dream-vision through which the hero, though unquiet, sleeps lightly.

As he sleeps, Tiberinus, god of the Tiber, appears to him dressed in a veil of grey, gauze-like stuff and a crown of reeds on his head (33). In other words, Tiberinus appears with the conventional garb of a Greco-Roman river- god. In art he is often rapresented in a similar way, as a bearded old man, scantily clad and with a crown of reeds.

The carbasus in which he is wrapped is a type of linen made from fine flax, which Pliny (N.H. 19.2.10) says grows well by river-irrigation and for which the Tiber valley was famous during the Augustan periodOg9

The line that preceeds Tiberinus ' speech (8.35: tum sic adfari et curas his demere dictis ...) is repeated in two

98 See Gransden's commentary on Aeneid 8 -26.

99 Eden, A Commentary on Vergil, Aeneid VIII, p. 22. See also Grattius, Cynegetica 36ff. other places in the Aeneid. In the first (2.775) , Creusa appears to Aeneas £rom the ruins of Troy. This obviously calculated reference does rnuch more than simply equate ghost with dream, for we have seen that same equation with Aeneas' dreams of Hector and Anchises, as well as Dido's dream of

Sychaeus. It refers the reader back to the fa11 of Troy, just as Creusa's speech at Troy refers the reader to Aeneas' arriva1 at the Tiber (2.781-2) :

et terrant Hesperiam venies, ubi Lydius =va inter op- virum leni fLuit agmine Thybris-

Then you alreach Hesperia, where Lydian Tiber flous Gently through a land in good heart, and good men live. It is not surprising, therefore, that in his speech Tiber alludes first of al1 back to Troy (8.36-7):

O sate gente deum, Troianam ex hostibus urbem qui revehis nobis aeternaque Pergama servas .-.

O prince of divine Lineage, who out of the enemy's clutches Bring Troy town back to us, preserving it for ail the.

According to Putnam,

One context anticipates, one reviews the other. One foresees Aeneas' safe arrivai in ftaly and renewai of Troy, the other announces that this has at last occurred, that Tro has been transplanted to the mre productive soi1 of f taïy. %O

The second instance of this line (3.153: tum sic adfari et curas hfs dernere dictis) occurs as the Penates appear to

Aeneas in a dream. It seems clear that line 3.147 (nox erat et terris anhalia somnus habebat (It was night, and sleop

'O0 Putnam, The Poetry of the Aeneid, p. 110. 90

makes a reality in Book VIII.102 The first thing Tiberinus actually says to Aeneas is that he has finally reached the end of his j~urney.'~~He then adds that Aeneas should not fear the Latinsr threat of war and

that the anger of the gods (deum) haç subsided (40-41). His words, although intended to be comforting to Aeneas. have

the opposite effect on the reader. The reader haç just seen Juno's anger manifest itself in Allectors mission to Amata and Turnus in Book 7, the direct result of which is the impending conflict and Aeneas' current situation. As proof of his words, Tiberinus tells Aeneas that he shall see a white sow with a litter of thirty piglets."'

Where Aeneas finds this sign, Tiberinus tells him, he is to found his city. The prodigy of the sow seems to have been commonly included with the story of Aeneasr arriva1 in

Italy, appearing in sources such as Dio (Tzetes Alex.

~1232)~Dionysius (1.56.1; 1.56.4-5), and on the An

37-38 echoes Athena's words to Odysseus upon finally reaching Ithaca (Ody. 13.339).

'O' cf. Helenusr prophesy of the sow at Tiber 3.390-393; especially 393. Tt is worth noting that Aeneas' dream of Tiberinus is the only dream that is confirmed by physical proof. His dream of Hector was confirmed by Panthus' actions and the dream of the Penates by Anchises' recollectior. of Cassandrats words. ~acis'~' In Dio the prodigy of the sow is delivered by an oracle; Dionysius, who gives two versions of the story, tells us that in one of his sources oracles delivered the

prodigy and in another it was a dream, not of Tiberinus, but of the Penates (1.56.5) . Indeed, it may be from Dionysius ' account that Vexgil decided to include this element within Aeneast dream of Tiberinus . According to Tiberinus, the thirty piglets is a sign that after thirty years Ascanius shall find a city called Alba (8.47-48) . Beginning with Fabius Pictor, Roman historians commonly associated this portent aetioloqically

with Alba Longa as the immediate tfancestor-city"of ~ome.'O6 But this may not be the whole story behind this portent. Numerological portentç are at least as old as Homer and numbers in Tiberinus' prophecy are numerologically

significant.lo7 The number three (and its multiples) seem to

dominate the structure and often the syntax of the Aeneid; Aeneas' three-year reign is attested to by inscriptions, and according to Gransden, the "legends of archaic Rome are full of threes and thirties ."'Oe It seems that there were

lo5 See also Gransden,

'O6 Gransden, op.cit p.188. Compare Aen.8.47-8 with Varro LL 5.1441

'O7 See Dilke, CQ 17.2 (1967) 322-6. originally three tribes and thirty curiae; furthemore,

there were traditionally thirty cities of the prisci Latini, the original Latin federation, Aeneas' Etruscan allies

possessed thirty ships (10.213), and Tiberinus' speech is

exactly thirty lines in length, just as the "key" section of Jupiter s prophecy (1,267-96). In some ways Aeneas' dream of Tiberinus recalls his anxiety at the moment of irnpending crisis and the dream of

Anchises in Book 5. "The great difference, Otis writes, Ys that the Tiber-god here outlines a very different

mission from that of Book 6," and that "Aeneas is now given

immediate advice for an immediate crisis,... w109, The immeciiate cxisis is, of course, the wax with Turnus and the advice is to seek out an ally -- but not just any ally. Latinus tells Aeneas to seek out Evander, of whose family

Aeneas is apparently aware (8.182-143), because his people are constantly at war with the Latins (8.51-56). There is, however, a greater and more persistent crisis in need of resolution. The anges of Juno has been a consistent threat to Aeneas, and his mission from the storm in Book 1 to Allecto's mission to Turnus in Book 7. And now, Latinus

1O8 ( ., .continued) 'O8 Gransden, op.cit. p.189. Otis, op. cit. 93

with ALba Longa as the immediate "ancestor-city' of Rome.L06

But this may not be the whole story behind this portent.

Numerological portents are at least as old as Homer and

numbers in Tiberinus' prophecy are numerologically

~ignificant.'~' The number three (and its multiples) seem to

dominate the structure and often the syntax of the Aeneid;

Aeneas' three-year reign is attested to by inscriptions, and according to Gransden, the "legends of archaic Rome are full of threes and thirties.""* Tt seems that there were originally three tribes and thirty curiae; furthemore, there were traditionally thirty cities of the prisci Latini, the original Latin federation. Aeneas' Etruscan allies possessed thirty ships (10.213), and Tiberinus' speech is exactly thirty lines in length, just as the "keyW section cf

Jupiter's prophecy (1.267-96). In some ways Aeneas' dream of Tiberinus recalls his anxiety at the moment of impending crisis and the dream of

Anchises in Book 5. "The great difference," Otis writes,

"is that the Tiber-god here outlines a very different mission from that of Book 6," and that "Aeneas is now given

'O6 Gransden, op. cit p. 188. Compare Aen. 8.47-8 with Varro LL 5.1441

'O7 See Dilke, CQ 17.2 (1967) 322-6. immediate advice for an immediate crisis .... The immediate crisis is, of course, the war with Turnus and the

advice is to seek out an ally -- but not just any ally.

Latinus tells Aeneas to seek out Evander, of whose family

Aeneas is apparently aware (8.182-1431, because his people

are constantly at war with the Latins (8.51-56). There is,

however, a greater and more persistent crisis in need of

resolution. The anger of Juno has been a consistent threat

to Aeneas, and his mission £rom the storm in Book 1 to

Allecto's mission to Turnus in Book 7. And now, Latinus

tells Aeneas how to resolve even this (8.59-61):

Surge age, nate dea, primisque cadentibus astris Sunoni fer rite preces, iraque minasque supplicibis supesa votis .

Rise up then, goddess-born, and with the dngstars Make solemn prayer to Juno, avert her menaciag wrath By vows and supplication-

Placating Juno also seems to have been necessary for Aeneas

to make his journey up-river to Evander. Tiberinus will

calm the river's water and guide Aeneas along, but according

to Putnam, the repetition of the verb supero "makes it clear

that there is a deliberate connection between the anger of

Juno and the river itself Vergil describes the river as

swelling (tumentem fluvium 8.86) making it parallel to the

log Otis, opcit. p.333. Putnam, op.cit. p.112. possible. In other words, Latinus' and Turnust dreams motivate the subsequent action, and like the other dreams in the poem, help move the narrative to its conclusion. cHAPTER4 THE UNDERWORLD AS A DREAM:

Aeneas ' descent into the underworld is quite

obviously based on Odysseusr experience with the shades £rom

Hades in Book 11 of the ûcfyssey. Aithough the motivation for

their visits to the underworld is similar, it is the fact

that Aeneas is said actually to enter the realm of the dead

that really sets it apart from Homerts episode. In her 1944 article "Lucretius and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid, "'Agnes

K. Michaels put into words what many Vergilian scholars must have thought for years -- that Aeneas' descent into the underworld is to be interpreted as a dream. The purpose of this chapter is to examine Aeneas' descent into the underworld as a dream, and in doing so to expose the influences of Lucretian dream theory and Cicero's Somnium

Scipionis on Vergil. From there the discussion will turn to some of the theories concerning what is perhaps the most written-about scene in Latin literature, Aeneas' and the

Sibylts reascent via the Gates of Sleep.

If Aeneast descent into the underworld is actually a dream-episode, it invites this question: *mat type of dream is it?" We saw in the first chapter that Vergil makes use

'Agnes Michaels, "Lucretius and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid," AJP 65 (1944) 135-148.

of three dream-types: the anxiety, oracular, and incubation.

It is also clear that the dream-types in the Aeneid are carefully selected to suit the specific needs of mood or plot; we would not be surprised, therefore, to find the samo care given here.

An anxiety-dream, the type of dream of which Vergil seems particularly fond, occurs when an individual dreams what has been most recently occupying the mind.' To a certain extent, one could argue that Aeneas' dream of

Anchises and the instructions delivered by it were occupying

Aeneas' mind. It was, after all, the instructions of the dream-image that prornpted Aeneas to sail to Cumae and seek out the Sibyl. The dream-image instructed Aeneas to seek

Fachises out in the underworld where ho will loarn of the future and the true purpose of his mission, and that is what

Aeneas dreams about -- his father, the future, and the purpose behind his mission. The appearance of Palinurus cornes as no surprise. Tt was on the way to Cumae that he was forced overboard by Somnus, and it was not until just before making land-fa11 that Aeneas noticed he was missing.'

In other words, Vergil seems to have intended the reader to

'Sec above, p. 3 and 20.

%en. 5.867-871. understand that the death of Palinurus, like the death of

Hector, laid heavily on Aeneas' ~nind.~Aeneas' descent into

the underworld, then, appears to be an anxiety dream.

Furthermore, we may, with Michaels, look to the end of the

episode for evidence that this is an anxiety-dreand In her

opinion, the gate of false dreams (falsa insomnia) throuçh

which Aeneas departs the underworld is the key to such an

i~terpretation.~In Rrtemidorus (1.6) we are told that the

kv6mov type of dream which Macrobius equates with

insomnium, is called both anxiety-dream and petitionary-

dream. Furthermore, this type of dream does not cause the

dreamer to act on what be has seen in the dream.' The

association of Aeneas and this dream-type seems clearly

indicated Sy sending Aeneas from the underworld via the gate

of false dreams. Michaels puts it this way:

Certainly he has been suffering from cura and fortunae for years, as well as a good deal of cura corporis. Anchisesr revelation of Roman history is of no practical use (utflitas) for Aeneas himself, although of great interest to Vergil's readers, nor does it prophesy anything about him, since it

'Aeneas' reaction to seeing Palinurus in the underworld seems to indicate that this was Vergilts intention (6.341- 383).

=Agnes Michaels, "The Insomnium of Aeneas, " CQ 31 (1981) '145.

6Much more will be said about the Gates of Sleep later in this chapter. begins with his son, Silvius, Aeneas' experience in the underworld might weU be described as an anxiety âream, since he is remindecf of many unhappy far-of f things, and has been anxious about the future, or as a petitionary dream, since he has petitioned the SibyL for permission to go ta his father, Most important, Artemidorus' comments explain why, if Aeneas has been dreaming an insomium, he is not impelled to any greater undertakings than those to which he was already codtted before Book 6, which were, in alï conscience, great enough for one -.= While the evidence certainly seems to suggest that the correct reading of this is as an anxiety-dream, we must not

forget what Macrobius said about the oracular:

et est üraculum quidem cum in somnis parens vel aliqua sancta gravisne persona seu sacerdos vel etiam deus aperte eventurw quid non eventurum, faciendm vitandumve denuntiat,9

It is an oracular dream uhen in sleep a parent or another sacred or important person or a priest or even a god appears and clearly announces what is about to happen, what is not about to happen, what mst be done and uhat must be avoided, In other words, in an oracular dream a parent may appear to the dreamer and reveal not only the past, but the present and future as well. We may therefore attribute the appearance of Palinurus and Dido to a revelation of the past, and the parade of Romans-in-waiting to a revelation of the future. In Aeneas' dream of the Penates (which was determined to be oracular in nature), the dream-vision rerninded Aeneas of the past -- the oracle of Apollo -- and revealed a part of the future by directing Aeneas to Italy.

P.nd so, one could argue that this is oracular, and not an

'Michaels, op. cit. (1981)145.

3Macrobius Cornm. 1.3.8. anxiety-dream after all.

Yet another possibility arises when one looks closely

at both the location of the Trojan camp at Cumae and the

preparations made in order for Aeneas and his guide to make

their journey. In its early stages, the practice of

incubation generally occurred in sacred groves or near

places reported to be entrances to the underworld (these

were often caves), in which there were often noxious

amissions and vapours. At one of these places an individual

would often perform a ritual consisting of sacrifice and

prayer, and then sleep either on the skins of the victims or

directly on the ground. The scene imxnediately preceding

Aeneas' descent. is set near a cave reported to be an

entrance into the underworld, in a place infocted by lethal

gasses emanating from the nearby lake Avernus.lo Aeneas and

the Trojans offer up sacrifices to the god and the Sibyl

rnakes prayers to Proserpine. In other words, they perform

the rituals necessary for an incubation-dream in a place

that would be ideal for such a practice.

The usual purpose of incubation-dreams, in historic

1°Cornpare the description of the gasses around Avernus with the description of the vapours in the area of Albunea where Latinus consults the incubation oracle of Faunus (7.841. Compare also Lucretiust description of the toxic atmosphere over lake Avernus (de re. nat. 6.740). 102

times at Least, was for two-fold: to obtain prophetic drearns

from the dead and for healing." We have seen how Vergil

uses this type of drem to allow Latinus to question his

father Faunus about the proper course of action to follow,

and it would not be unreasonable to suppose that he uses it

here as well to allow Aeneas to question his father about

the future,

And so we are forced to corne to terms with Vergilian

ambiguity, and determine what dream-type Vergil intended us

to understand here. Despite the case that can be made for either the anxiety-dream or oracular-dream, the scene of the

Trojan sacrifice and the Sibyl's prayers seems to suggest that this to be read as an incubation-dream.

Having deterniined the dream-typer we may now turn our attention to some of the evidence supporting the claim that this is in fact a ciream-episode, and meant to be read that way. No scholar would question the assertion that

Lucretius' De Rerum Natura had a considerable impact on the

Roman poets who followed him. If his influence was not so much due to his exposition of Epicurean philosophy, it was due to his incomparable combination of philosophy with 103 poetry. Kis influence on Vergil is most perceptible in

Ecclogue 6 and Georgic 2. While his influence is perhaps less perceptable in the Aeneid, Lucretiusr theory of images seems especially noticeable in Vergil's description of

Aeneas' descent into the underworld.

At the entrance to the undexworld Aeneas encountered the embodiment of various abstractions -- Grief (Luctus), Anxiety (Curae), pallid Diseases (pallentes Morbi) , and morose Old Age (tristis Senectus). With persmification of this sort dating back as far as Homer (for example the prayers and curses in Iliad 9), and Hesiod (Theog. 211-212) Vergil had no shortage of sources to draw upon for examples of personified abstractions. In his own life tirne he had the sxâmple of Cicero, who proviaes a list of the cnilaren of

Erebus and Night, as found in the ancient genealogi~ts.'~

No author, though, seems to have placed these personified shapes at the entrance to the underworld, as Vergil does.

In a passage that may have influenced Vergil's presentation, though, Lucretius (3.59) describes the wicked qualities of life encouraged by the fear of death, which he places before the gates of death. And so it seems likely that Vergil's presentation of these personified abstractions resulted from

'ZCicero, De Nat ura Deorum, 3.4 4. his reading of Lucretius.

Near these haunting abstractions dwelt monsters chosen

Prom popular myth -- Centaurs, Scylla and Cerberus. Norden nas found precedent for al1 these creatures as inhabitants of the underworld, except for Centaurs; by their inclusion here Vergil may be following popular s~perstition.'~It rnay also be that they are included here because of

Lucretiust treatment of such creatures in his theory of images. 14

But how are we to reconcile the presence of these creatures at the entrance to the underworld with the theory that this is not a "real" happening, but a dream? Lucretius might reply that this is possible because of the nature of thinçs. P.ccording to Lucretius (4.42) al1 things give off a thin image of themselves, which appears exactly the same as the original. These images, though, are very thin and of a fine texture, which makes them invisible on their own.fs

I3R.G. Austin, Vergil Aeneid VI, p.121-22. Norden, P. Vergilius Maro Buch VI, p.216, suggests that the Centaurs were daemonic characters in the model Vergil was following and the model has since disappeared.

14Lucretius, 4.732-734. Of course, the ancestor of the centaurs was one of the sinners conventionally found in Hades, and this may have earned them a place in the underworld. The thinness of these images combined with their constant motion causes them to unite quite easily. These combined images constantly bombard the mind, and it is front these that people seem to see such creatures as Centaurs, Scyllas, and Cerberus (IV. 724-733 ) :

principio hoc dico, rerum simuïacra vagari muta mdis multis in cunctas undique partis tenva, quae facile inter se iunguntur in auris obvia cum veniunt, ut aranea bratteaque auri. quippe etenim multo magis haec sunt tenvia textu quam quae percipiunt oculos visunque lacessunt, corporis haec quoniam penetrant per rara cientque tenvem animi naturam intus sensurnque lacessunt. Centauros itaque et Scyllarum mernbra videmus Cerbereasque canum facies--..

In the first place 1 tell you, that m~nyimages of things are mving about in many ways and in alï directions, very thin, which easily unite in the air when they meet, being like spider's web or leaf of gold. In truth tbese are much more thin in texture than those which take the eyes and assail the vision, shce these penetrate tirrough the interstices of the body, and awake the thin substance of the mind within, and assaii the sense. Thus it is we see Centaurs, and the frame of a Scylla, and the faces of dogs Like Cerberus.. ..

So, these creatures exist because of the combination of several of these thin images that are everphere around us.

This, however, does not explain how they are related to the dream experience. These same images that assai1 the mind during the day also do so at night. In other words, the blended images that cause us to perceive these rnonstrous creatures affect the mind in a similar way whether the individual is awake or asleep (4.757-761):

nec ratione alia, cum somnus membra profudit, mens animi vigilat, nisi quod simuLacra lacessunt haec eadem nostros nnimos quae cura vigilamus. .. .

Nor is there any reason why the mindrs intelfigence is awake, when sleep has pervaded the limbs, except that the same images assail our min& as men we wake... . continues explain that through this process

t hat are able see dreams people who have died

eadem nostros animos quae cum vigilamus, usque adeo, certe ut videamuc cernere eum quem rellicta vita iam mors et terra potitast- hoc ideo fieri cogit natura, quod ornes corporis offecti sensus per membra quiescunt nec possunt falsum veris convincere rebus. praetera rneminlsse iacet languetque sopore nec dissentit eum murtis letique potitum iam pridem, quem mens vivom se cernere credit.

the same images assail our minds as when we wake, and to such a degree, that we seem verily to see him who has left his life, and now death and dust are his mastors. This nature compels to happen, for the reason that al1 our senses are obstructed and quiet throughout the frame, and unable to refute the false by the bue. Besides, in sleep menary lies inactive and is relaxed, and does not urge in contradiction that he has long since been in the power of death and destruction whom the mind believes itself to see alive. The connection between these fantastic and impossible images and images of the dead associates these creatures with

Hades. This, indeed, helps to explain their presence at the entrance to VergilTs underworld. Moreover, through the close association of these types of images and dreams in

Lucretius, Vergil may be suggesting that this is to be taken as a drsam-experience. Also, of al1 the visions of the doad

described the Aeneid, the appearanco of Creusa in Book 2 that does not corne as a dream. Michaels

has convincingly suggested that these creatures should be

associated with the tree inhabited by the Somnia vana:

In Vergil these creatures are usually distinguished by editors from the false dreams which nested in the great elm tree, but, in view of their constant association with dreams in Lucïetius' mind, it does not seem far-fetched to identify the two groups and thus explain the presence of the Centaurs and ail the other creatures in this passage. This elm tree has proven to be quite a problem for

scholars. Like R.D. Williams 1 too would like to Say

something about it, "but havent t much to say. "17 Norden was

unable to find any mode1 for this ulmus opaca ingens, and

seems satisfied to put it down to folklore.'* There are

elm-trees in the Iliad (6.419) growing on Eetionts tomb; in

the Georqics elms are used mainly as supports for vines or

to have oak grafted to it, and the elm is said to bo

valuable for its leave~.'~ The elm occurs very rarely in

the Eclogues and only here in the Aeneid. We may conclude with Norden that Vergil rnay have drawn on folklore for this element and we may also agree with Williams that its

16Michaels, "Lucretius and the sixth book of the Aeneid," 138.

17Williams made this comment in his published Vergil Society lecture in 1970. See PVS 10 (1970-71) 4.

leNorden, P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, Buch VI, p. 216.

IgVergil, Georqics 2.4 4 6. inclusion here may be due to some "..,tenuous links with death and barrenness... .w20 From the entrance Aeneas passes into the underworld where first he meets Palinurus, and then crosses the river in Charon's boat. Aeneas proceeds on his journey through the underworld, coming finally to the Elysian fields whero

Anchises shows to him the true purpose of his mission.

Vergil's first depiction of Aeneas' wanderings among the shades of the dead, and of the underworld is as a dark realrn in which only the fields of the blessed have Sun and stars:

-..sit numine vestro pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas. Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram perque doms Ditis vacuas et inda regna: quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna est iter in silvis, ubi caelum condidit umbra ~uppiter,et rebus nox abstulit atra colored'

Grant me to tell what 1 have heard! With your assent May 1 revedl what iies deep in the gloom of the Underworld! DMy through the shadows and dark solitudes they wended, Through the void domiciles of Dis, the bodiless regions: Just as, through fitful moonbeams, under the monts thin light, A path lies in a forest, when Jove has palled the sky With gloom, and the nightts blackness has bled the uurld of colour . In the fourth book of Lucretius (4.453-461) there is a description of the drearn-experience which, as Michaels writes, "conveys much more of the uncanny atmosphere of

20R-D. Williams, "Vergil ' s Underworld -- the Opening Scenes (Pen. 6.268-416) " PVS 10 (1970) 5.

21Aen. 6.266-72. Aeneas ' j ourney: w22

denique cum s uavi devinxit membra sopore somus et in summa corpus iacet orne quiete, tum vigilare tamen nobis et membra mvere nostra videmur, et in noctis caligine caeca cernere censextus solem lumenque diurnum, conclusoque loco caelum mare fltimina mntis mutare et campos pedibus transire videmur, et sonitus audire, severa silentia noctis undique cum constent, et reddere dicta tacentes.

Further, &en sleep has fast bound our limhs with sweet drowsiness, and our whole body lies in profound quiet, yet we seem to ourselves then to be awake and to move our limbs, and in the blind darkness of bight we think that we see the sun and the Light of day, that in out narrow room we pass in turn over sky and sea, over rivers and muntains, and traverse plains afoot, that we hear sounds thouqh the stem silence of night reigns everywhere, that we utter speech while saying nothing.

So it seems clear that in the early scenes, at least,

Vergil was influenced by Lucretian theory of dreams. The influences on Vergilrs depiction of Aeneasr "experience" with the underworld, however, are not limited to Lucretius alone. There is another well-known source from which parts of Vergil's presentation may be taken. In the sixth book of his De Re Publica, Cicero introduces the so called Somnium Scipionis (Dream of Scipio) . The intention of the Somnium

Scipionis, Camps suggests, "is as a moral warning: that we should take care of souls in this life so that when we corne to the fatal choice of our next one we choose with a pure

22Michaels, op. cit. 145. 110

and unclouded j~dgernent."~~As Camps notes, there is no

such choice to be made in the Aeneid, and the purpose of the

story seems to be to allow Aeneas and the reader to have a

vision of the future greatness of Rome.

Aeneas began his mission in the belief that it was to

round a new city for the Trojan sacra. In Book 5 Anchises appeared to Aeneas in a drearn instructing him to visit the

underworld so that he might learn what his people's destiny

i.5~~'When they met in the underworld Anchises reveals to

Aeneas the nature of the universe, and the future of Aeneas'

Trojans. Anchises' speech with its accompanying vision is prophetic in intention and effect. Like most of Aeneas' droams, it too is a reminder of his destiny and an mcotrraçement to persist in his mission. In this scene O£ reunion and revelation that there are reminiscences of

Cicero ' s Somni um Scipionis .

In the Somnium Scipionis, the younger Scipio has a dream in which the elder Scipio appears and shows him the order of the universe, the nature of the soul, and how those who have served the state well can earn their release from

23W.A.Camps, An Introduction to Vergil 's Aeneid, p. 89.

24Based on 6.768-877 it seems clear that Anchises was roferring not to AeneasT Trojan followers, but to the future Romans whom he sees in the underworld. the imprisonment of the body. This they achieve by

ascending into a sort of heavenly region where they dwell in

harmony with other blessed spirits. A close comparison

between this dream-vision and Anchises' speech in the Aeneid

reveals several similarities-

In the Somnium Scipionis, the elder Scipio explains

that the human sou1 (animus) is derived £rom the eternal

fires which rnake up the stars and planets.

homines enim sut hac lege generati, qui tuerentu Uum globum, puem in hoc templo medium vides, quae terra diutur, hisque animus datus est ex illis senpiternis ignibus, quae sidera et stellas vocatis. .. .= For man was given life that he might inhabit the sphere caïled Earth, which you see in the centre of this temple; and he has been given a souï out of those eternal fires which you cal1 stars and planets - .. . In the Aeneid, Anchises explains to Aeneas that al1 things in the universe are sustained by an inner spirit.

Originating from £ire, this inner spirit is what makes the universe work. The human soul, like the souls of animals has this inner spirit and is therefore made £rom Pire 6.724-

principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentes lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra spiritus intus aLit: et magno se corpore miscet- inde hominurn pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum et qua@ marnioreo fert mnstra sub aequore pontus. igneus est ollis vigor et caelestis origo seminibus.. .. First, you must know that the heavens, the earth, the watery plains Of the sea, the monts bright globe, the sun and the stars are ail Sustained by a spirit within; for immanent and, Eiowing Through all its parts and leavening its mass makes the universe work. This union produced mankind, the beasts, the birds of the air, And the strange creatures that live under the sears smooth face . The life-force of those seeds is fire, their source celestial--..

In describing the origin of the human soul, Anchises explains to Aeneas that the human body is a kind of prison in which the immortal soul is kept until it dies (6.731-

quantum non noxia corpora tardant terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque memira. hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras dispiciunt clausae tenebris et carcere caeco.

But they [spirits] are deadened by and dimmed by the sinful bodies they live in -- The flesh that is laden with death, the anatom1 of clay; Whence these souls of ours feel fez, desire, grief, joy, But encased in their blind, dark prison discern not the heaven-light above , This same concept of the body as a prison for the soul is also found in the Somnium Scipionis (6.14) :

Imvero, inquit, hi vivunt, qui e corporum vinculis tamquam e carcere evolaverunt, vestra vero, quae dicitur, vita mors est-

"Surely al1 those are alive, " he said, "who have escaped from the bondage of the body as fkom a prison; but that life of yours, which nien 30 call, is reaïly death-w

Even though the body is a sort of prison for the soul, one should not attempt to liberate it by suicide. This is explicit in Cicero, and seems to be implicit in Vergil:

proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum Fnsontes peperero manu lucemque perosi proicere animas. quam vellent aethere in alto nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre Laboresl fas obstat, tristisque païus inamabiiis undae Ugatet nouies Styx interfusa c~ercet.~~

Next again are located the sorrowfuï ones who Ued Themselves, throwing their lives away, not driven by guilt But because they loathed Living: how they wouîd fike to be In the world above now, enduring poverty and hard trials! God's law forbids: that unlovely fen with its glooming =ter Corrals them there, the nine rings of Styx corral them in- In Anchises' speech to Aeneas, as in the Somnium Scipionis,

the author puts forth a doctrine of immortality of the sou1

and a life of blessedness for the good, and in both the

Aeneid and the Somnium Scipionis the blessed are those who

have shown patriotism and service to the state."' Together

with the fact that in both Vergil and Cicero the setting is

a vision and the speaker a forebear, these similarities seem

to suggest that Vergil had the Somnium Scipionis in mind when-he wrote the scene between Aeneas and Anchises in the

With this we corne to the twin gates of sleep, through which Aeneas and the Sibyl are made to exit the underworld.

It is obvious that the idea for the Gates of Sleep cornes

£rom Penelope's description of the Gates of Dreams in

Odyssey 19. Vergil does not follow his mode1 very closely.

26Aen. 6-434-439. cf Cicero De Re Publica 6-15,

27Similar ideas are common in Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy.

''Camps, opcit. p.89-90. 114

He changes the Gates of Dreams into Gates of Sleep (Somni]

and uses the gates for a very different reason £rom Homerts.

A great deal has been written on this topic, perhaps more

than on any other single passage in al1 of Vergil, and it would be difficult to add anything new. It should suffice

to examine some of what seem to be the more influential

arguments about these gates.

In 1900, William ~verett~'argued that the only exit available to Aeneas and the Sibyl was through the gate of ivory, through which deceitful dreams pass. Citing Horace

(Sat.1.10.33), and Ovid (Her.19.195), Everett argues that a

tradition existed in the ancient world where false dreams occur before midnight; Vergil, therefore, meant it to be rnderstood that Asneas and the Sibyl leave the underworlà before rnid~~ight.~' As proof of Vergil's belief in this tradition, Everett cites several instances when he believes it is evident in the Aeneid." It is here that we may find fault with Everett's interpretation. Kis first reference is ambiguous in its support (8.68):

nox Aenean somusque reliquit.

"Everett, "Upon Virgil, Aeneid VI., Vss. 893-898, " CR 14 (1900) 153-154.

)OEverett, op. cit. 154. surgit, et, aetherü spectans orientia Salis,,,

Aeneas awoke from night and dreAming, Rose up, beheld the light of the orient suin the slcy,,,

There is little suggestion in these lines that at the moment of the dream' s departure Aeneas awo ke from his dream. 32 One could argue, therefore, that Vergil intended Aeneas to sleep for several hours after the dream episode had ended.

Furthemore, from the indications of 5.73833, 5. 835, and

5.840 and 7.414, we can see that Vergil was not opposed to telling his reader on no uncertain tems what the time was when the dream-episode occurred.

As further evidence, Everett turns to Aeneasr dream of

Hector, which he suggests occurred after midnight when the gate of ivory alone would be open. Vergil tells us that

Aeneasr dream cornes at the time quo prima quies rnortalibus degris/ incipit (when worn-out mortals begin to get some

32We know from 2.302, 3.176, and 7.458 that Vergil was not opposed to indicating without doubt that his characters awaken immediately after a dream. This seerns to be lacking here.

331 have elected not to discuss this passage anywhere in this thesis simply because it plays no role in either character development such as Didors dreams do, nos does it provide motivation or move the narrative towards its conclusion in the way Aeneasr dreams do.

"We find such phrases as "torquet medios nox, " (5.738) "iamque fere mediam caeli nox umida metam, " (5. 835) and "iam mediam nigra carpebat nocte quietern," (7.414) as indicators of the time of night. rest, 2.268-9). At 6.513 Deiphobus says that the revelry

had been kept up until well into the night; so, Everett

argues, "the prima quies would not have come till after

midnight. "'' We may well side with Nicholas Reed in

rejecting Everettts interpretation of these two passages:

Everett takes quies out of context, as referring to Aeneas ' men, and says that ' according to Deiphobus (6.513) the revelry had been kept up till well into the night, so that the prima pies muid not have come tili after midnight - ' But as we have seen, it is the prima qufes mortalibus aegris, not just for the Trojans on that night, which is being referred to, and secondly, Deiphobus himself makes it clear that the people he refers to spent the whole night in reveïry, so they cannot include Aeneas, who was asleep for at least part of the the. In other words, in at least one case virgil depicts a true dream as appearing before midnight, so he does not consistently observe this factor of chronology As a final objection to Everett's argument we may look

ille viam secat ad naves, sociosque revisit; tum se ad ~aietaerecto fert litore portum.

Aeneas made his way back to the ships and his friends with ail speed, Then coasted along direct to the harbour of Caieta. If we are to consider Aeneas' ascent as occurring prior to midnight, are we likewise expected to believe that it took half the night to return to the world above? Moreover, are we expected to believe that the Trojan ships lay a half- nightrs travel £rom where Aeneas exited the underworld? Or

36Nicholas Reed, "The Gates of Sleep in Aeneid 6, " CQ 23 (1973) 312. One would also have to ask why Vergil would bother to adhere to such an apparently pointless ml-. 113

are we to expect that Aeneas sailed away from Cumae in the

early hours of the morning, even before the Sun had risen?

The answer to all these questions must be no. First, 1

think that Vergil would have made some indication of the

length of time it took Aeneas to ascend, had it been more

than, Say, a few minutes. Secondly, Vergil himself tells us

that Aeneas made it back to his ships quite quickly; so the

exit could not have been located that far from the coast.

Thirdly, the only indication of time that Vergil gives us at

this crucial point is that Aeneas encounters his ships and

straightaway sails to Caieta. This implies, if anything,

that morning has already corne, and therefore he must have

departed the underworld after midnight, not before: af ter

all, the ships would hardly set sail in the middle of the

night? And so on these grounds we may discount Everett's

theory that Aeneas and the Sibyl exit through the gate of

ivory, because their ascent takes place before midnight.

Another school of thought advocates that what Aeneas experiences is a dream, and as Brooks Otis writes, "...a

'false dreamt in the sense that it is not to be taken as literal reality."38 Yet this too is unsatisfactory. Reed

38BI Otis, "Three Problems of Aeneid 6, " TAPA 90 (1959) 176. convincingly suggests that the "fatal" error of this

interpretation lies in the suggestion that this is a false dream. He suggests that by describing the experience as a false dream, "...it can only mean that the experience gives

3 misleading impression of present and future reality."39

It seems unlikely that Vergil intended this sort of reading.

Anchises delivers prophecies to Aeneas for 126 lines (6,356-

8821, and with the exception of one, al1 these prophecies had corne true by the the Vergil was writing. It is improbable that if Vergil did not believe the one unfulfilled prophecy, that Augustus would extend the Roman

Empire super et Garamantas et Indos (794-51, he would associate it as a false dream with prophecies that had already corne truo. In ~therwords, it is unlikely that

Vergil would have meant to imply that al1 of Anchises' prophecies were untrue (which they were not) by associating them with false dreams. We may, then, discount this interpretation as being a valid solution to the problem at hand.

R.G. Austin has suggested in his commentary on Aeneid

6, that "Anchises, himself an umbra, cannot send his living visitants out through the Gat~of Horn, since they are not verae umbrae. The Gate of Ivory was his only ch~ice."~~

Aeneas, however, is no more a falsum insomium than a vera

umbra; so as Tarrant objects,

- - -it is, strictly speaking, no more appropriate for him to use one gate than the other, mess one imagines a more rigorous border inspection at the Gate of Horn than at the Gate of Ivory, a touch of realism not alien to other parts of ~irgil's Underworld (cf 373-74, 391-94) but fatally incongruous here -*'

The gates exist for the use of either the verae umbrae of

the dead who sometirnes appear to the living in dreams, and

the falsa insomnia, deceiving visions of the living or dead

such as haunted Dido in Book 4. Despite the efforts of E.C.

Kopff and N.M Kopff to turn Aeneas into a falsum insomnlum

in the literal sense, he belongs to neither ~ateg0r-y.~~

Tarrant sides with Clausen's interpretation that the end of Book 6 is to be read in the light of Vergilrs

depiction of Roman history as "...a long Pyrrhic victory of

the human spirit. "43 Tarrant writes that "Rome s

"~ustin, Vergil, Aeneid VI, p.276.

41Tarrant, op. cit. 52.

42~.C. Kopff and N.M Kopff, =Aeneas: False Dreamer or Messenger of the Manes? (Aeneid 6.893 ff)," Philologus 120 (1976) 246-250. Reed op.cit.314 agrees that Aeneas departs through the ivory gate because he is a false shade, that is, not really a shade at all. Otis, op-cit. 176 seems to suggest something similar. Tarrant, op.cit. 52, on the other hand, argues that we cannot accept Aeneas as a falsum insomnium himself.

43~lausen,"An Interpretation of the Aeneid," ,rlSCPh 68 (1960) 145. achievements are given their full value, but so are the

attendant suffering and loss. Aeneas' departure through the

gate of false dreams, tben, would hint at the limitations

imposed by mortality on al1 individual striving and

e~pectation."~~He argued that in the Iight of Anchises'

speech about the nature and origin of the soul, which he believes to be fully endorsed by Vergil himself, Aeneas'

irnplied association with these falsa insomnia, then, is

perfectly ~ensible.'~In other words, Tarrant argued that,

by sending Aeneas from the Underworld via the ivory gate, Vergil was acknowledging the imperfection of man's bodily

state, sullied by its false impressions and emotions. Since Aeneas is tainted with the false ernotions of the upper wcrlci, it makes sense that he should leave through the gats of falsa insomnia.

Harold Gotoff, though, is not entirely satisfied with Tarrant's conclusions. He argues against Tarrant's view mainly on the grounds that there is nothing to be gained dramatically from "alluding to the undisputed fact of

Aeneas' imperfect m~rtality."'~According to Gotoff, the

"Tarrant, op. cit. 53.

op. cit. 54 *

46Gotoff, "The Diff'icu .Ity of the Ascent From Avernus, " c'Ph 80 (1985) 36. purpose of sending Aeneas through the ivory gate has to do

with what he will or will not make of what he has just witneçsed:

If Virgil' s intention of introducing the gates of horn and ivory is to control Aeneas' perception of what he has just witnesseà, as 1 believe it is, then it cannot bc satisfactorily explained in terms of abstractions Like Virgil's notion of the imperfection of man's corporeaï state, We must remin, instead, within the dramatic situation of the poem and consider the interplay, repeated throughout the narrative, of Aeneas ' knowledge and that of the Gotoff explains that we need to understand that when

Aeneas ernerges £rom the Underworld it is with no knowledge

of the historical validity of his journey. In other words,

his pietas consists of blind faith rather than any knowledge

of the future's debt to him. By having Aeneas exit through

the gate of false dreams, Vergil employs a complicated,

alrnost impressionistic solution to the problem of depriving

Aeneas of knowledge of Rome's future. Gotoff notes the

irony in having Aeneas become aware of the future success of

his mission, and yet be unable to appreciate it. It is for

this reason that Vergil came up with this device of the

ascent from the Underworld through the gate of false

dreamsO4' In short,

47Gotoff op. cit . 37.

48Coto£f, op.cit. 38. AS he explains (p.39), "...the whole second half of the Aeneid would be shattered if Aeneas possessed knowledge of the success of Augustus." The ascent from the Underworld, then, is a drantatic contrivance created to deny Aeneas --but not the audience-- retentian of mat he has just witnessed, knowledge of the future of Elorne. The device is impressionistic, deaLing with Aeneas' perception, rather than with the "truth" of the vision--.-His passage through the gate of fase dreams is Virgil's way of erasing that knowledge front Aeneas' mind, casting a haze of uncertainty and unreality over the clearly viewed vignettes Anchises had so recently pointed out to bim-- Gotoffts interpretation depends on reading Aeneas' catabasis as a real incident rather than as a dream-vision.

Acknowledging that Aeneasf descent was a dream-vision, R-S. tiilpatrick suggests that the physical properties of horn and ivory may have influenced Vergil's decision to send Aeneas through the gate of ivory. Horn is said to be transparent, whereas ivory is opaque or translucent. "Had Vergil allowed

P-eeneas to depart through the transparent horn gate of sleep, he would have left open the possibility of his remembering something of his dream-vision."50 AeneasT departure through the ivory gate is an indication that no clear images of his dream-vision will remain in his memory. In other words,

"The gate of ivory is a confirmation to the omniscient reader of the poem that the katabasis is dream-vision, not literal narrative reality; Aeneas will not retain conscious

5%R.ç. Kilpatrick, "The Stuff of Doors and Dreams erg1Aeneid 6.893-981, " Vsrqilius 41 (1995) 64. access to it ,

Beert Verstraete agrees that this is to be read as a

dream-episode, and suggests that Aeneas' departure through

the gate of false dreams becomes less puzzling when compared

with his initial encounter with the somnia vana and

incredible creatures at the entrance to the underw~rld.~~

For this reason, it has been suggested that the ivory gate

is actually located at the entrance to Hades:

raich learning and inqenuity has been spent on the attempt ta solve the problem why Aeneas, after foreseeing the future history of Rome, should leave the undervorld by the gate of meality: but it is not often remembered that he entered by the gate of unreality.= Aeneas, then, circled the Underworld and ultimately exits

through the door by which he entered. Against this view we may simply refer to Otis who has shown that for symbolic

reasons, Aeneas' journey through the underworld must be

SIKilpatri~k,opcit. 67. It is, of course, not the only indication that this is to be taken as a dream episode. Kopff and Kopff, op. cit. 249, on the other hand, suggest that Aeneas and the Sibyl are sent by the Manes to the Upper World with the conscious knowledge to perfonn a specific task.

52Beert Verstraete, "The Implication of the Epicurean and Lucretian Theory of Dreams for Falsa Insomnia in Aeneid 6.896, " CW 74 (1980) 7. See also Reed, opcit. 313.

"M.E. Hirst, "The Gates of Virgil's Underworld: A Rominiscence of Lucretius," CR 26 (1912) 82-3, seems to suggost something of this sort. 12 4

linear-51

Kilpatrick is correct in his interpretation of Aeneas'

ascent £rom the Underworld, but he does not go into great

detail in his discussion of Vergil's distinction between the

gates of horn and ivory. Through the gate of horn come the

verae brae, the shades of dead people who appear in dreams

and give true messages. Through the gate of ivory come the

falsa insomnia that are, Reed suggests, " . .. not the souls of

dead people, but insubstantial 'dream-beingst, which could

partially explain the different wording when Virgil talks of

' true urnbrae' but ' false insomnia" ,5s

This is not an entirely satisfactory interpretation

though. This appears to be the first time that insomnia is

ïsed in Latin in this sense instead of just somnia. While

the word is probably patterned on the Greek word kvhvrov /

insomnium, which becomes a synonym for the usual word for

dream, civ~ipoç, by the time of Herodotus. s6 Insomnium was not

a very common Latin word. Vergil uses it only twice in the whole of the Aeneid: here and 4.9 where Dido cornplains quae me suspensam insomnia terrent (why do these nerve-racking dreams haunt me?), and it occurs elsewhere in Latin literature as a synonym for ~omnium.~'

In dream-interpretation, though, insomnium has a

technical meaning. At the beginning of his commentas. on

Cicerots Somnium Scipionis, Macrobius (1.3.2-6) equates

insomnium with iVi,mov, a dream type that is unworthy of

interpretation. Tt is a dream-type that cornes when a person

is worried about things and provides no help or meaning to

the dreamer. Quoting Aeneid 6.896, Macrobius adds "falsa

esse insomnia nec Maro tacuit, '' to make his point

Artemidorus 1.1-2) also attributes the év6mov to the dreamerts state of mind or body, and adds that the operation of the dream lasts only as long as the dreamer is asleep.

Ana so we may suggest that Vergil uses insomnium here to indicate that Aeneas' descent is in fact a dream, and a dream based on his waking experiences.

If then, insomnla seem to be fairly insignificant dreams, why does Vergil describe them as falsa? It seems unlikely that he intended them to be thought of as untrue or deceptive: falsa here must mean "unreal", as a contrast to

57~.K. Michaels, "The Insomnium of Aeneas, " CQ 31 (1981) 144.

18Soe Michaels, op.cit. (1981) 142. the verae umbrae that depart through the gate of horn.

According to Michaels, "When one remembers what Artemidorus

and Macrobius Say about insomnia, one might even Say that

they are unreal in relation to the dreamer because they are

irrelevant to his future activities, unlike the dreams that

convey advice or warnings. n59 Falsa, according to

Verstraete,

is a generic epithet pohting to the iiiusory and counterfeit nature of al1 dream-experience, Thus the contrast between the Gate of Horn and the Gate of Ivory hinges upon a contrast between real apparitions (veris umbris) of the dead and fase, unreal dreams -- al1 dream-experience being only a counterfeit simulation of waking experience

We may argue that Aeneasl whole descent into the

Underworld was intended by Vergil to be read as a dream-

episode: "Vergil meant Aeneast journey to Hades to be

lnterpreted as a dream 5y thosê versed in the Epicurean

theories of dreams and visions, while he left it to be taken

as a real episode by the uninitiated?' While there certainly are Lucretian influences on Vergil's depiction, it is mainly restricted to his description of the entrance-way with its creatures and tree of dreams. There seem to be fairly obvious connections between Aeneasv journey in the

sgMichaels, op. cit. (1981) 145.

60Verstraete, op. cit. 9.

61Michaels, opcit. (1944) 147. 227

Aeneid and Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. In both the dreamer dreams of a parental figure who shows him the nature and origin of the soul, not to mention the future of the Roman people. The associations that can be made between the

Somnium Scipionis and Aeneast descent serve to further the contention that this is indeed a dream-episode.

The gates of sleep have long provided scholars with difficulties. They are obviously based on Penelopels description of the Gates of Dreams in Homer's Odyssey, but

Virgil has here, as in rnany places in the Aeneid, taken a basic idea from Horner and made it his own. We have seen that there is little agreement among scholars regarding

Vergilts decision to make his characters exit through the gate of false drsams. The mors convincing of the modern interpretations generally seem to suggest that Aeneas has a dream in which he sees the Underworld; since the dream does not have any practical use to Aeneas it is considered a false dream,

Since Aeneas' descent into the underworld is to be taken as a dream-episode, we must briefly consider what the purposo of the dream is. Vergil tends to use dreams to motivate Aeneas to action, and in a way this happens here also. Once Anchises concludes his prophecy about the future of Rome, we find Aeneas described as fired with passion:

Anchises natum per singula duit incenditque animrim famae venientis more. ,, ,

After Pachises had shown his son oves the whole place And fired his heart with passion for the great things to corne, - - , In this way he seems to motivate him to continue his

mission. Furthemore, it is not unusual for Vergil to make

Aeneas forget things that he is told either in a waking-

vision or a dream. Creusa had told him that he would settle

in Hesperia, but when the Penates tell him that he is

destined for Hesperia, he reacts as if it were the first

time he had heard the name. Helenus told Aeneas of the prodigy of the sow; yet somehow 1 believe he would not have

known what to do with the sow once he saw it if Tiberinus had not repeated the prodigy in a dream. Hector instructs hirn to flee from Troy, but upon waking he forgets that his dream-vision had told him that fighting was futile, and charges into battle. So, when Anchises tells him about the

Laurentines and how to avoid or endure each crisis on his way (6.881-21, we should perhaps not be surprised that

Aeneas forgets this as well as the rest of the dream. In the final analysis, though, the purpose of the dream seems mainly to be to to show the reader the then future of Rome and its great political figures, and especially Augustus. CONCLUSION

From very early times dreams seem to have been highly regarded for their perceived ability to forecast the future. It did not take long for people to realize, though, that for as many dreams as seemed to predict the future, just as many did not. For purposes of interpretation, systems of dream- classification began to be developed with the earliest groupings differentiating between prophetic and non- prophetic dreams. This dichotomy, which we find in literature as early as Homer, formed the basis for al1 subsequent systems of dream-classification. As tirnes changed and the ancient world seems to have grown less superstitious, we find additions to this basic two-fold classification. Beginning with Herodotus and

following through philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, the ancient Greeks began to see certain dreams as emanating not £rom the gates of horn or ivory as they do in Homer's Odyssey, but from within the dreamer. Herodotus seems to have been the first to suggest that some dreams are caused by what has been occupying the dreamer's minci. This dream- type, the anxiety-dream, found favour with Aristotle, and perhaps most importantly for the Roman context, with Lucretius and Cicero. Plato added the wish-fulfilment type of dream, and from there the dream-oracle was added by 130 Demetrius of Phalerum and the physician Herophilos. The dream-oracle distinguished between prophetic dreams sent from daemons, as Plato had suggested, and those sent

directly from a god. In the first century B.C., the Greek Stoic and polymath Posidonius added yet another category of dreams. He suggested that a person is able to see the future in dreams because of the spirit's innate ability to predict. Finally, there was the incubation-dream. Incubation had long been used in places such as Egypt and Asia Minor, and seems to have corne into Greece at an early date. Incubation was a method of procuring a response from a god, such as Asclepius, chthonic deities, or the dead for a specific question. Going to certain holy places, such as temples or places said to be entrances to the underworld, the individual would offer prayers and sacrifices, and then sleep on the ground. In a dream, then, the god or spirit of the dead would appear to the dreamer and answer the question. These seem to have been the most widely accepted dream- types among the ancient Greeks and Romans. There were others, of course. It was these, though, which seem to have had the greatest influence on dreams presented in literature, and it was from among these that Vergil chose the dream-types he used in the Aeneid. 131 Of al1 the scholars who have studied Vergil ' s Aeneid, few have ventured to look at the dreams in any great detail (the most notable exceptions are %B. Stearns and HA. Steiner). Fewer still have endeavoured to claçsify Vergil's dreams. Stearns did an admirable job of it, but his

classification was based not on the ancient drean-types Vergil would have known, but is his own creation.

Generally, though, scholars have been satisfied to dismiss the topic with one sentence -- most dreams in the Aeneid are mere repetitions of waking life. To some extent this is an entirely valid observation. There are, though two other dream-types that Vergil uses: the oracular and incubation- dream. Of these three dream-types, Vergil employs the anxiety-dream six times, the oracular-dream three times, and

the incubation-dream once. Some dreams, though, cannot be restricted to just one category or another. Aeneasf dream

of Hector in Book 2, for example, has unmistakable elements of an anxiety-dream, but the end of the dream may be better grouped among the class of prophetic-dreams. It is what we might cal1 a typically Vergilian problem -- nothing may actually be as it seems; at the very least, nothing in the Aeneid is as straightforward as it may seem at first. There can be little argument that dreams, whatever

their type, occupy a prominent position in the Aeneid. 132 They seem to motivate the action more than any other device, and they tend to corne at tintes of crisis, both physical and

spiritual. Like Aeneasl dream of the Penates in Book 3, or

his dream of Anchises in Book 5, Aeneas' dreams tend to provide the solution to the problem at hand. Dreams introduce the three major characters of the poern -- Aeneas, Dido, and Turnus -- and through their dreams Vergil draws parallels between these apparently dissimilar characters.

Aeneast dream of Hector stands out, as we saw above, because

it doeç not fit into one particular category. It stands out for another reason as well: it is that dream that launches the epic. In other words, Vergil uses the dream to set in motion the series of events that we know as the Aeneid. A dream begins the epic, and dreams continually provide Aeneas with clues to his goal. Ultimately it is a dream which relates to Aeneas that he has finally reached his divinely appointed destination. It is for this reason that after the Trojan arriva1 in Latium Vergil does not describe any more of Aeneasr dreams. Aeneasl last dream provides him with the information that he has arrived at his destination and with al1 the necessary information to complete his mission successfully, and defeat his enemies. The dreams of the other main characters of the poem, Dido, Latinus, and Turnus, do not perform the same function 133 as Aeoeasr. Didots dream of Sychaeus sets in motion the events that lead to her meeting Aeneas and ultirnately to her death. Similarly, Turnust dream is a necessary precursor to the whole end of the poem. It is because of the dream that he goes to war with the Trojanç, a war that leads to his own death. A parallel, then, can be drawn between Dido's and

Turnust dream: each of them has a dream which sets them on a course of self-destruction which, in the final analysis, is actually caused by Aeneas. Latinust dream convinces him to give his daughter in marriage to Aeneas instead of Turnus. The actions he took because of the dream are what made the subsequent action possible. In this way it follows the general purpose of Vergil ' s dreams . As an incubation-dream, however, the only one in the poem, it is unusual.

The longest dream-episode in the Aeneid is Aeneasq descent into the underworld. There appears to be a definite connection between the images at the entrance and the Lucretian theory of dreams, which suggests that this should be read as a dream-episode. Furthemore, the similarities between Cicero's Somnium Scipionis and Aeneas' reunion with Anchises supports this contention. Moreover, the gate of false dreams, through which Vergil allows Aeneas to exit the underworld, is a device that allows Aeneas to show that the Aeneas in the underworld is not the real Aeneas, but a drectm.

These twin Gates of Sleep have provided scholars with a great deal to discuss. They are obviously based on Homer's description of the Gates of Dreams in Odyssey 19, but bear little resemblance to what Homer describes. Interpretations of why Vergil sends Aeneas front the underworld through the gate of ivory Vary from the exit taking place before midnight when only a gate for false dreams should be open, to Aeneas hinself being a false dream. The more convincinq of the modem interpretations usually agree that Aeneas' descent into the underwrold is a dream and that the Aeneas in the underworld is a dream seen by the real Aeneas. Since the dream does not have any practical use for Aeneas in his mission, it is considered a false dream. In other words, it is a i'alsum insomnium according to the definition offered by

Macrobius. It is for this reason that Aeneas is made to exit via the gate of ivory.

The purpose of this dream, like rnany of the dreams in the Aeneid, is somehow to motivate Aeneas in his task.

Perhaps there is a bettes purpose. The climax of the descent is the parade of heroes. Vergills purpose in describing this dream-episode, then, may have been to show

Aeneas and the reader a glimpse of Roman history, and 135 perhaps to make a prophecy about Rome's and Augustus' future accomplishments. ket one must wonder why, if it serves no practical purpose, and nothing is changed by it, does Vergil give this dream to Aeneas. Perhaps it is based on some tradition that already existed in Roman literature, that

Aeneas was provided an apocalyptic dream prior to his final settlement in Latium. Perhaps also it is because in his dream-vision of Anchises in Book 5, Aeneas was told that he would see the destiny of his people in the underworld.

These people to whom Anchises referred, then, were not Aeneas ' Tro j an followers, but his Roman descendants. APPENDIX OCCURRENCES OF SIGNEICANT PASSAGES WTH EMPHASIS ON THEIR RELATION TO DREAMS

Based loosely on the chart in Webster's Fmm Myceme tu Homer (p. 265-267), the following chart is intended to show some of the signXcant events in the Aentid. Special attention has been paid to the occurance of dream episodes as well as those events anticipated by dreams and those which anticipate dreams.

BOOK 1 BOOK 2 BOOK 3 ------57-96 Jupiter's prophecy about the Aeneas tek the story of the fd of Atmeas continues his story fiom the firture of the Roman rau. Troy. fdof Troy and his traveis until ht: Anticipates the parade of heros in 34 The "Trojan Horse" is reached Carthage. 6,763-865. iutroduçed fot the nrst tirne. 104- 108 Anchises interprets 353359 Venus teUI Aenm about 103-227 Thsnakes hm Apollo's oracie as indicating Cr& Dido's dmun of Sychaeua. Tenedos kill Laocoon and his sons. as th& destination. 530-534 The füst mention of The mood of the sene is recalled in 147-171 After aunering Hesperia anticipates Aeneas' dream Aenesls' ciream of Hector. hardships, the Penates appear in ofthe Penates at 3-147-17 1. 268-297 Aeneas dmamr of a drcrun to Aenerw. They tell him Hector. Tbe dreim teb him to that Hesperia - Italy b hh llee from Troy and to found a new de3tioation. home for the Penates. 183-186 Anchises confirms the 780 The ghost of Creusa tells dream's message wiih reference to Aenens he is destinai for Hesperia, Cassandra's prophtxies. Anticipates 3.163 390-393 Helenus tells Acneas thât where he sees a white sow and ihirty piglets is where he is to found tiis City. Anticipates 8.47-50. 709 Ancbises dies on Sicily.

Drearn-episodes are indicated in bold. - - 1 BOOK 4 BOOK 5 BOOK 6 - - 1-8 Dido is preoccupied with kturning to Sicily. Aeneas holds The Trojans land in ltaly for the fmt Aene;is. games in honour of Anchises. time at Cumae, and Aeneas journia 9 She romplains that she is 635-638fris mcites the Trojan through the underworld fiightened by drieama. womeu to set ûre to the ships by 9-155 Aeneas coasults the Siby 1. 165- 172 The "mmiagenof Dido claiming Cassandra had appeared in Senisrnrçts him to biuy a dwi and Aeneas. a dream and told her Sicily was cornrade. 265-276 A whgvision of where they were to settie- 162-174 Misenus dies. Mercury mstnicts Aeneûs to lave 694-5Jupiter puts the fire out. 178- 186 Preparation for Misenus' Carthage. 70-703 Aeneas considers giving burial. 305-395 Aeneas and Dido argue up his mission- He is descrii as 208-2 1 1 Aaeas obtah the golden about 6is departure. fidi of anxiety. bough- 352-353 Aencru says he has been 704-7 18 Nautes counseis Aeneas. 237-242 They are m the area of a troubled by dce!ams of Auchises. Anticipates Aeneas' ciream of cave and a Iake which gives off 465-473 Dido's dmms neem to Anchises- poismous gasses. remark on her mental rtate. 719-720 Aeneas is descfli as 243-254 Sdceto dow entrmcc: 556-570 Mercuty appears in a ûoubled by his conversation with into the underworld. dream and instiucts Aeneas to Niluies. 273-289 The creatures who iive at flee fmm Carthage 721-737 Anchha appean to the entrame way to the mdenvorId. Aenear in a dmm. He advises 34 1-38 1 remion with PaIinurus Aenear to take Nautes' advice, 413-416 Tbeycrossthe Swin and instructs Aeneas to visit hi Charon's boat. in the underworld wben he wül 4 17-422 Cerbm leam hir people's destiny. 427-665 Aeneas passes through the 838-861 Palinurus dies by the meas of the undenvorld. efforts of Somnus. 45 1473 Aeneas aicounters Dido. 679-702Reunion between Amcas and Anchises. 724-738 Nature of the soui. 760-887 Parau of Roman heros. 894-897 Gates of Sleep -- Aaeas and Sibyl exit the undmorld through îhe gate of ivory. - BOOK 7 BOOK 8 BOOK 10 - .- 58-8 1 Portents pwent the 13 ItaLaa tnies side with Ameas 1-1 17 Comlof the Gods. marriage of Lavbia and TURIUS- against Tumus. 148- 156 Aeneas makes a treaty 82-101 Latinus seeks advice 19-2 1 Aeneas is desctl%edas with the Eûuscuis- from the Incubation-oracle of agitated by surging womes. 164-2 IQ Catalogue of Trojan allies. Faunus. The dream tek him 26-30 Aeneas sIeeps apart hmLbe 268-9 Aeneas reninis to the Troj,m tbat Lavinia ihould rnarry a rest of the Trojans. encampment to hdthe battle raging stranger from abniad, 31-65 Tibcrinus appears to on* 145 A nunonr spread that the Aencaa in a dceam. 482-495 Pallas, sou ofEvmder. Trojans had found the pIace for 36-37 Refefence to Troy recaiis dies m batîle against Tumus. their city Book 2. 156-285 Embaçsv to Latinus. 44-46 The prodigy of the sow recalls 157 Aeneas be@ buildiug the Helenus' propheq (3,390-393). ci ty. 47-48 Tiberinus says AsCanius &ail BOOK Il 34 1-358 AUecto inflames Amata deat Aiba for 30 years. Recalls against the Trojaas- Jupiter's propheq at 1.269-7 1. The day &er Tumus' attack is spcnt 4 lMS7 AUecto appcars to 52 Aeneas team of Evander- holding henls and in mourning tfic Turnus in a drcam and infirimes Anticipates 8.1 19. dead- in him a passion for war against 8 1-83 Aepeas sees and sacrifices the 143 The body of Pdas is retumed Aeneas. white sow with its 30 piglets home. 590 Tunius effitively takes 1 19-550 A~~ is at the fùture site 252-26 1 Whde rejecting a plea for control hmLatinus. of Rome. Embassy to Evander. help fkom Tunius, Diornedes 6 10-6 12 Juno throws open the 626-728 Aeneas ceceives the shield remembets Troy. Recalls Book 2, gates of War. hmVenus. The depictions tecall and Arne& dream ofHector. 6 13-8 17 Cataiogue of Turuus' the parade ofheros at 6.764868- 597-9 15 Trojans attack the Latins. allies.

BOOK 9 BOOK 12

Tumus attacks the Trojan camp. 78-265 Tempotary peace whilt: Book 9 consists prnnarily of battle preparatioos are made for single scenes including the so ded combat between Aeneas and Turnus. nuktomachia (3 14445) badon a 265-276 Fighting breaks out again similar scene in the Iliad- because of the auger Tulumnius. The only other significant event 704 Aeneas and Tumus fmslfy mcct cornes at IW-I2I when the Trojan in battie. sfüps are turned into sea-maideas. 79 1-806 Jupiter forbids .iuno to continue ber attacks against the Trajans. 950-952 Aeneas kills Tumus in battle. The poem a&. Vergil. Qpera. Ed. F.A. Hirtzel. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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