Killing Turnus: a Reading of Aeneas, Man of Action
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KILLING TURNUS: A READING OF AENEAS, MAN OF ACTION by Andrew Jason Korzeniewski BA, Villanova University, 1998 MA, Villanova University, 2005 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Andrew Jason Korzeniewski It was defended on November 25, 2014 and approved by Harry C. Avery, PhD, Professor, Classics Nicholas F. Jones, PhD, Professor, Classics Dennis O. Looney, PhD, Professor, French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: D. Mark Possanza, PhD, Chairman, Classics ii Copyright © by Andrew Jason Korzeniewski 2014 iii KILLING TURNUS: A READING OF AENEAS, MAN OF ACTION Andrew Jason Korzeniewski, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 As repeatedly reiterated, Aeneas’ destiny is to found Rome, yet he frequently ignores said mission, choosing instead to live and act in the present. In the Aeneid, how do we reconcile human choice in a world where there is a fated plan? Vergil does not want the reader to write off human decision making or human personality as irrelevant due to some sort of divine sphere forcing a preordained fate; rather, there are different levels that the action of the Aeneid moves on: The divine (i.e., the mythological, poetic level requiring the action to unfold in accordance with the fated destiny of Rome); the human (i.e., the psychological dimension of characters themselves); and the crucial moments at which the two interact. This dissertation will study Vergil’s multiple track arrangement to demonstrate how Aeneas’ actions the night Troy burns reveal that his personality is not yet ready to accept his mission and act in accordance with the poetic level action of the poem. Had Aeneas been ready and willing to flee, Hector’s urging would have proven the ideal catalyst for doing so; instead, here we have the fated mission not in sync with human disposition. Attention will then focus upon how Aeneas, as well as to a certain degree his mother Venus, has to develop from a figure who lives and acts in the present to the point where he can work in accordance with his destined, future oriented assignment. This moment occurs upon receiving his new armor in book viii, gifts whose images Aeneas does not understand but at whose martial exploits he stands in awe, for Aeneas is a hero whose militancy and need for action iv stands as, if not the dominating, then at least a highly dominate aspect of his complex personality. Carrying the imagery of Rome – a civilization whose greatness will be defined by the actions of her heroes – on his shoulders, Aeneas enters the heat of battle satisfying his personal need to act while simultaneously completing his heavenly mission. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .............................................................................................................................................. VIII 1.0 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 CHAPTERS ..................................................................................................................... 5 1.1.1 Chapter Two ............................................................................................................ 5 1.1.2 Chapter Three ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1.3 Chapter Four ............................................................................................................ 9 1.1.4 Chapter Five .......................................................................................................... 12 1.2 HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND PREVIOUS SCHOLARSHIP .......................... 14 1.3 AENEAS AND FATE .................................................................................................. 18 2.0 THE DIVINE AND HUMAN LEVELS OF THE POEM ................................................ 28 2.1 AENEAS’ OTHERWORLDLY ENCOUNTERS IN AENEID II .......................... 28 2.1.1 The Dream of Hector ........................................................................................... 29 2.1.2 The Intervention of Venus ................................................................................. 60 2.1.3 The Shade of Creusa ............................................................................................ 66 2.2 AENEAS’ DREAM OF ANCHISES (V.719-745) .................................................... 84 2.3 TURNUS’ DREAM OF ALLECTO ........................................................................... 85 2.4 THE HARPIES (III.209-277) ....................................................................................... 92 3.0 AENEAS IN CARTHAGE AND THE ROLE OF VENUS ............................................. 96 3.1 VENUS, JUPITER, AND AENEAS’ DESTINY ...................................................... 96 3.2 VENUS APPEARS BEFORE AENEAS (I.314-417) ............................................... 101 vi 3.3 AENEAS IN THE STORM ....................................................................................... 107 3.4 THE APPROACH TO CARTHAGE ...................................................................... 112 3.5 DIDO’S PERSONALITY .......................................................................................... 120 3.6 THE ROLE OF MERCURY ...................................................................................... 127 3.7 VENUS AND AENEAS’ FATE ................................................................................ 131 4.0 AENEAS’ ACCEPTANCE OF HIS FATE ....................................................................... 133 4.1 PARCERE SUBIECTIS ET DEBELLARE SUPERBOS ......................................... 133 4.2 PARADE OF HEROES ............................................................................................. 139 4.3 GATES OF SLEEP ..................................................................................................... 145 4.4 AENEAS ARRIVES IN ITALY AND PREPARES FOR WAR .......................... 148 4.5 HERCULES-CACUS ................................................................................................. 154 4.6 INVOCATION OF ERATO ..................................................................................... 159 4.7 VENUS PREPARES FOR WAR .............................................................................. 160 4.8 THE ARMS OF AENEAS ......................................................................................... 165 5.0 AENEAS, WARRIOR ......................................................................................................... 172 5.1 AENEAS’ ARRIVAL IN BATTLE .......................................................................... 174 5.2 THE DEATH OF PALLAS ....................................................................................... 184 5.3 THE DEATH OF LAUSUS ....................................................................................... 191 5.4 THE DEATH OF TURNUS ...................................................................................... 195 5.5 THE WRATH OF AENEAS ..................................................................................... 197 5.6 KILLING TURNUS ................................................................................................... 203 6.0 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................... 211 vii PREFACE Academically, I spent the 2011-2012 fall and spring semester reading the poem in seminar under Dr. H.-P. Stahl, who, himself working on a manuscript on the Aeneid, had to decline to stand on my committee fearing concerns about having access to unpublished work on Vergil. I generally tend to align with Dr. Stahl approach to the epic, although my interpretation veers from his in a number of points and is a bit less stringent and authoritative in many of the points I make – whether that is good or bad, I suppose, will be left to future critics. Fortunately, Dr. D. Mark Possanza, chair of Classics as well as the department’s reigning Latinist, agreed to oversee my project. To him, I am eternal thankful. Similarly, I wish to express the most sincerely thanks to my readers, Drs. Harry C. Avery and Nicholas F. Jones of the Classics Department of the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Dennis O. Looney, on sabbatical from Pitt this year while acting as the Director of Programs and ADFL for the Modern Language Association in New York City. I wrote the majority of this dissertation while carrying a fairly substantial teaching load, a fact that caused myself, as well as Dr. Possanza, a good amount of angina concerning its completion. While I did make haste in certain sections, I never cut corners in terms of fully engaging with the text nor did I ever sacrifice quality for quantity. That said, I doubt that this volume is completely without blemish; any faults rest squarely on my own shoulders. While on this topic, two of the major suggestions that were brought up during my defense were stylistic: First, I sometimes write a bit too informally using idiomatic, conversational constructions and language – to which I plead guilty, although