DOCSLIB.ORG

THE DIDO EPISODE and the WAR in LATIUM in the First Six Books Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

CHAPTER SIX THE DIDO EPISODE AND THE WAR IN LATIUM In the first six books of the epic Vergil is concerned with the prob­ lem of Aeneas' internal struggle und ultimate success in attaining pietas. In Books 7 through 12 pius Aeneas must fight against the impii. The second half of the epic presents in most general terms an in­ verted pattern of the first. While the first half of the poem is episodic in the diversity of its narrative, if not in its structure, the second half concentrates on one event with its manifold ramifications, the war with Turnus and Latinus. At the beginning of Book 7 Latinus ap­ pears as the pious man. Omens and oracles have informed him of the divine will that his daughter marry a stranger and that the off­ spring of this marriage exalt the Latin race into the position of rulers of the world. When Aeneas arrives, Latinus sees in him the fate-appointed man, follows the dictates of pietas, and offers him a political alliance and his daughter Lavinia in marriage-at the ex­ pense of alienating Turnus. Personal desires and ambitions con­ spire to shatter an easy accomplishment of fate's design. 1 The queen's vehement support of Turnus, Turnus' own insistence on the honoring of his claims, and the resentment of the people at the intrusion of the foreigners force the weak and ineffectual Latinus to betray his promises to Aeneas and enter a war against him. There is in all of this a keen irony. We are meant to see in the narrative of the war an inversion of the pattern of the Dido-Aeneas alliance. Aeneas is a victim of a betrayal of trust as he himself had victimized Dido. At the beginning and the end of the second half of the epic Vergil draws parallels between the narrative of the war in Latium and the Dido episode. Book 7 recapitulates in an elaborate chiasmus the events of Book 1. The first book opens with the tur­ bulence of the winds unleashed by Juno. When the shipwrecked Aeneas has reconnoitered the place, he views under the protective covering of Venus' magical cloud the petition of the Trojan Ilioneus to Queen Dido for hospitium. With the acceptance into hospitium, the book ends in the serenity of the banquet at the royal palace. Sereni­ ty is the mood of the opening of Book 7. The scene is one of the 84 THE DIDO EPISODE AND THE WAR IN LATINUM tranquility of nature. Aeneas' fleet glides over a dead-calm sea to the mouth of the Tiber (A. 7.27-28). The river flowsjluvio amoeno (30-32) through a grove. Birds fill the air with their songs (32-34). 2 After reconnoitering, Aeneas sends an embassy headed by Ilioneus to seek an alliance with King Latinus. This hospitium, however, leads to the paroxysms of violence caused again by a cosmic force. Juno unleashes the fury of hell to infect the Latins with war madness. Beyond Vergil's obvious intention of fashioning sym­ metrical introductions to the two major divisions of his poem, it is clear that specific reference is made to the reciprocal relationship of the embassies to Dido and Latinus. Each is the focal point of the se­ quence of events of which it forms a part; each mediates between the polar opposites of tranquility and violence around which the books are constructed. As we examine the parallelism between the two passages, it becomes obvious that we are dealing not merely with an inversion of pattern, but as well with a controversion of the expectations which the poet arouses. Dido and Latinus both sit in temples as they conduct their audiences. The pictures on Dido's temple glorify the war at Troy; Latinus' temple celebrates res ltalae. Troy and Italy appear throughout the first half of the epic as antinomous forces, the one representing a distraction of Aeneas' will from the god­ imposed mission, the other the future to which pietas leads. The relationship with Dido is prefigured in the evocation of Troy and the past as a misstep; the relationship with Latinus appears as the attainment of a goal. In the audience with Dido, Ilioneus' assump­ tion is that Dido is a barbarian queen whom he must school in the ways of civilization. Civilized behavior is itself formulated in the terms of a specific cultural ideology. The suspicion with which Ilioneus views Dido merely heightens a mood of uncertainty which Vergil deliberately strives to create. 3 Contrary to the expectations elicited, Dido proves herself an adherent of the benign social values which Ilioneus espouses. On the other hand, Vergil manipulates the opening of Book 7 to create the opposite mood of security. The civility of manners which the Latins enjoy corresponds to the tran­ quility of nature which is conveyed in the narrative of Aeneas' arrival in Latium. The Latins seem to live in a kind of Isles of the Blessed. .
Recommended publications
  • HOMERIC-ILIAD.Pdf

    HOMERIC-ILIAD.Pdf

    Homeric Iliad Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power Contents Rhapsody 1 Rhapsody 2 Rhapsody 3 Rhapsody 4 Rhapsody 5 Rhapsody 6 Rhapsody 7 Rhapsody 8 Rhapsody 9 Rhapsody 10 Rhapsody 11 Rhapsody 12 Rhapsody 13 Rhapsody 14 Rhapsody 15 Rhapsody 16 Rhapsody 17 Rhapsody 18 Rhapsody 19 Rhapsody 20 Rhapsody 21 Rhapsody 22 Rhapsody 23 Rhapsody 24 Homeric Iliad Rhapsody 1 Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power [1] Anger [mēnis], goddess, sing it, of Achilles, son of Peleus— 2 disastrous [oulomenē] anger that made countless pains [algea] for the Achaeans, 3 and many steadfast lives [psūkhai] it drove down to Hādēs, 4 heroes’ lives, but their bodies it made prizes for dogs [5] and for all birds, and the Will of Zeus was reaching its fulfillment [telos]— 6 sing starting from the point where the two—I now see it—first had a falling out, engaging in strife [eris], 7 I mean, [Agamemnon] the son of Atreus, lord of men, and radiant Achilles. 8 So, which one of the gods was it who impelled the two to fight with each other in strife [eris]? 9 It was [Apollo] the son of Leto and of Zeus. For he [= Apollo], infuriated at the king [= Agamemnon], [10] caused an evil disease to arise throughout the mass of warriors, and the people were getting destroyed, because the son of Atreus had dishonored Khrysēs his priest. Now Khrysēs had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom [apoina]: moreover he bore in his hand the scepter of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant’s wreath [15] and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.
  • Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal

    Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal

    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal Timothy Hanford Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/427 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] SENECAN TRAGEDY AND VIRGIL’S AENEID: REPETITION AND REVERSAL by TIMOTHY HANFORD A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 ©2014 TIMOTHY HANFORD All Rights Reserved ii This dissertation has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in Classics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Ronnie Ancona ________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Dee L. Clayman ________________ _______________________________ Date Executive Officer James Ker Joel Lidov Craig Williams Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract SENECAN TRAGEDY AND VIRGIL’S AENEID: REPETITION AND REVERSAL by Timothy Hanford Advisor: Professor Ronnie Ancona This dissertation explores the relationship between Senecan tragedy and Virgil’s Aeneid, both on close linguistic as well as larger thematic levels. Senecan tragic characters and choruses often echo the language of Virgil’s epic in provocative ways; these constitute a contrastive reworking of the original Virgilian contents and context, one that has not to date been fully considered by scholars.
  • Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire

    Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire

    University of Adelaide Discipline of Classics Faculty of Arts Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire Tammy DI-Giusto BA (Hons), Grad Dip Ed, Grad Cert Ed Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy October 2015 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................... 4 Thesis Declaration ................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 7 Context and introductory background ................................................................. 7 Significance ......................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical framework and methods ................................................................... 9 Research questions ............................................................................................. 11 Aims ................................................................................................................... 11 Literature review ................................................................................................ 11 Outline of chapters ............................................................................................
  • Aeneid 7 Page 1 the BIRTH of WAR -- a Reading of Aeneid 7 Sara Mack

    Aeneid 7 Page 1 the BIRTH of WAR -- a Reading of Aeneid 7 Sara Mack

    Birth of War – Aeneid 7 page 1 THE BIRTH OF WAR -- A Reading of Aeneid 7 Sara Mack In this essay I will touch on aspects of Book 7 that readers are likely either to have trouble with (the Muse Erato, for one) or not to notice at all (the founding of Ardea is a prime example), rather than on major elements of plot. I will also look at some of the intertexts suggested by Virgil's allusions to other poets and to his own poetry. We know that Virgil wrote with immense care, finishing fewer than three verses a day over a ten-year period, and we know that he is one of the most allusive (and elusive) of Roman poets, all of whom wrote with an eye and an ear on their Greek and Roman predecessors. We twentieth-century readers do not have in our heads what Virgil seems to have expected his Augustan readers to have in theirs (Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Apollonius, Lucretius, and Catullus, to name just a few); reading the Aeneid with an eye to what Virgil has "stolen" from others can enhance our enjoyment of the poem. Book 7 is a new beginning. So the Erato invocation, parallel to the invocation of the Muse in Book 1, seems to indicate. I shall begin my discussion of the book with an extended look at some of the implications of the Erato passage. These difficult lines make a good introduction to the themes of the book as a whole (to the themes of the whole second half of the poem, in fact).
  • Virgil, Aeneid 11 (Pallas & Camilla) 1–224, 498–521, 532–96, 648–89, 725–835 G

    Virgil, Aeneid 11 (Pallas & Camilla) 1–224, 498–521, 532–96, 648–89, 725–835 G

    Virgil, Aeneid 11 (Pallas & Camilla) 1–224, 498–521, 532–96, 648–89, 725–835 G Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and commentary ILDENHARD INGO GILDENHARD AND JOHN HENDERSON A dead boy (Pallas) and the death of a girl (Camilla) loom over the opening and the closing part of the eleventh book of the Aeneid. Following the savage slaughter in Aeneid 10, the AND book opens in a mournful mood as the warring parti es revisit yesterday’s killing fi elds to att end to their dead. One casualty in parti cular commands att enti on: Aeneas’ protégé H Pallas, killed and despoiled by Turnus in the previous book. His death plunges his father ENDERSON Evander and his surrogate father Aeneas into heart-rending despair – and helps set up the foundati onal act of sacrifi cial brutality that caps the poem, when Aeneas seeks to avenge Pallas by slaying Turnus in wrathful fury. Turnus’ departure from the living is prefi gured by that of his ally Camilla, a maiden schooled in the marti al arts, who sets the mold for warrior princesses such as Xena and Wonder Woman. In the fi nal third of Aeneid 11, she wreaks havoc not just on the batt lefi eld but on gender stereotypes and the conventi ons of the epic genre, before she too succumbs to a premature death. In the porti ons of the book selected for discussion here, Virgil off ers some of his most emoti ve (and disturbing) meditati ons on the tragic nature of human existence – but also knows how to lighten the mood with a bit of drag.
  • Archaeological and Literary Etruscans: Constructions of Etruscan Identity in the First Century Bce

    Archaeological and Literary Etruscans: Constructions of Etruscan Identity in the First Century Bce

    ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY ETRUSCANS: CONSTRUCTIONS OF ETRUSCAN IDENTITY IN THE FIRST CENTURY BCE John B. Beeby A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2019 Approved by: James B. Rives Jennifer Gates-Foster Luca Grillo Carrie Murray James O’Hara © 2019 John B. Beeby ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT John B. Beeby: Archaeological and Literary Etruscans: Constructions of Etruscan Identity in the First Century BCE (Under the direction of James B. Rives) This dissertation examines the construction and negotiation of Etruscan ethnic identity in the first century BCE using both archaeological and literary evidence. Earlier scholars maintained that the first century BCE witnessed the final decline of Etruscan civilization, the demise of their language, the end of Etruscan history, and the disappearance of true Etruscan identity. They saw these changes as the result of Romanization, a one-sided and therefore simple process. This dissertation shows that the changes occurring in Etruria during the first century BCE were instead complex and non-linear. Detailed analyses of both literary and archaeological evidence for Etruscans in the first century BCE show that there was a lively, ongoing discourse between and among Etruscans and non-Etruscans about the place of Etruscans in ancient society. My method musters evidence from Late Etruscan family tombs of Perugia, Vergil’s Aeneid, and Books 1-5 of Livy’s history. Chapter 1 introduces the topic of ethnicity in general and as it relates specifically to the study of material remains and literary criticism.
  • Iliad</Italic>

    Iliad</Italic>

    300 Jim Marks Jim Marks Context as Hypertext: Divine Rescue Scenes in the Iliad A number of factors determine the fates of individual characters during battlefield scenes in the Iliad. In terms of sheer body count, most of those that perish in battle seem to have been created simply in order for others to kill them.1 Typical of this group is the Trojan Cleoboulus, who receives neither dying words nor patronymic nor homeland, and appears only long enough to fall to Oileian Ajax (16.330–334). As for the more developed characters, life or death in battle is, to begin with, a function of the plot: major heroes by definition survive through most or all of the narrative, and lesser ones at least until they have performed their subsidiary roles. Hec- tor, for instance, must remain alive until the dramatic climax of the plot in Book 22, while the Trojan ally Pandarus is killed soon after he performs the necessary function of restarting the war following the duel between Menelaus and Paris in Book 3 (4.85–222, 5.243–296). The fates of at least some of these more developed characters are also influenced by the fact that they were already or were becoming established in other contexts at the time when the Iliad was taking shape. Odysseus, to take an obvious example, cannot die in the Iliad because he was a widely recognized figure best known for a successful return from Troy, as is at- tested in the Homeric Odyssey and non-Homeric poetry, artistic represen- tations, cult activity on his native Ithaca, and so on.
  • Minor Characters in the Aeneid Page 1

    Minor Characters in the Aeneid Page 1

    Minor Characters in the Aeneid Page 1 The following characters are described in the pages that follow the list. Page Order Alphabetical Order Aeolus 2 Achaemenides 8 Neptune 2 Achates 2 Achates 2 Aeolus 2 Ilioneus 2 Allecto 19 Cupid 2 Amata 17 Iopas 2 Andromache 8 Laocoon 2 Anna 9 Sinon 3 Arruns 22 Coroebus 3 Caieta 13 Priam 4 Camilla 22 Creusa 6 Celaeno 7 Helen 6 Coroebus 3 Celaeno 7 Creusa 6 Harpies 7 Cupid 2 Polydorus 7 Dēiphobus 11 Achaemenides 8 Drances 30 Andromache 8 Euryalus 27 Helenus 8 Evander 24 Anna 9 Harpies 7 Iarbas 10 Helen 6 Palinurus 10 Helenus 8 Dēiphobus 11 Iarbas 10 Marcellus 12 Ilioneus 2 Caieta 13 Iopas 2 Latinus 13 Juturna 31 Lavinia 15 Laocoon 2 Lavinium 15 Latinus 13 Amata 17 Lausus 20 Allecto 19 Lavinia 15 Mezentius 20 Lavinium 15 Lausus 20 Marcellus 12 Camilla 22 Mezentius 20 Arruns 22 Neptune 2 Evander 24 Nisus 27 Nisus 27 Palinurus 10 Euryalus 27 Polydorus 7 Drances 30 Priam 4 Juturna 31 Sinon 2 An outline of the ACL presentation is at the end of the handout. Minor Characters in the Aeneid Page 2 Aeolus – with Juno as minor god, less than Juno (tributary powers), cliens- patronus relationship; Juno as bargainer and what she offers. Both of them as rulers, in contrast with Neptune, Dido, Aeneas, Latinus, Evander, Mezentius, Turnus, Metabus, Ascanius, Acestes. Neptune – contrast as ruler with Aeolus; especially aposiopesis. Note following sympathy and importance of rhetoric and gravitas to control the people. Is the vir Aeneas (bringing civilization), Augustus (bringing order out of civil war), or Cato (actually
  • AP® Latin Teaching the Aeneid

    AP® Latin Teaching the Aeneid

    Professional Development AP® Latin Teaching The Aeneid Curriculum Module The College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT® and the Advanced Placement Program®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.org. © 2011 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, SAT, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org. Contents Introduction................................................................................................. 1 Jill Crooker Minor Characters in The Aeneid...........................................................3 Donald Connor Integrating Multiple-Choice Questions into AP® Latin Instruction....................................................................
  • Bulfinch's Mythology

    Bulfinch's Mythology

    Bulfinch's Mythology Thomas Bulfinch Bulfinch's Mythology Table of Contents Bulfinch's Mythology..........................................................................................................................................1 Thomas Bulfinch......................................................................................................................................1 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE......................................................................................................................3 AUTHOR'S PREFACE...........................................................................................................................4 STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES..................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................7 CHAPTER II. PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA...............................................................................13 CHAPTER III. APOLLO AND DAPHNEPYRAMUS AND THISBE CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS7 CHAPTER IV. JUNO AND HER RIVALS, IO AND CALLISTODIANA AND ACTAEONLATONA2 AND THE RUSTICS CHAPTER V. PHAETON.....................................................................................................................27 CHAPTER VI. MIDASBAUCIS AND PHILEMON........................................................................31 CHAPTER VII. PROSERPINEGLAUCUS AND SCYLLA............................................................34
  • Homer in Virgil

    Homer in Virgil

    Anthós (1990-1996) Volume 1 Number 3 Article 5 6-1992 Homer in Virgil Thomas Kerns Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anthos_archives Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Ancient Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kerns, Thomas (1992) "Homer in Virgil," Anthós (1990-1996): Vol. 1 : No. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anthos_archives/vol1/iss3/5 This open access Article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team. HOMER IN VIRGIL Thomas Kerns fter studying Virgil's Aeneid one can A surmise. that Virgil understood Homer's epics, and that he wanted to incorporate both The Odyssey and The Iliad within The Aeneid. Although Virgil drew upon a large .array of predecessors including Lucretious, Appolonious, Homer, and Plato (to name a few), I believe that the biggest influence was Homer. It can also be said that Virgil did not just imitate Homer, but that he transformed his works to make them the base of his own poem (Knauer 402). In this essay, I will show how Virgil has made use of Homer's epics, their structures and units of action, and a few select characters that Virgil deemed important enough to imitate in a related yet diverse fashion to benefit his own poem and intent.
  • Aeneas and the Idea of Troy *

    Aeneas and the Idea of Troy *

    Proceedings of the Virgil Society 21 (1993) 17-34 ©1993 Aeneas and the Idea of Troy * Troy, and its importance to Aeneas, makes an immediate appearance in the Aeneid, in those pregnant first lines: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris I Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit I litora. I empha­ sise profugus. We may feel that Aeneas lacks colour, that he has little with which to engage our deeper sympathies. But his exile is a continuing theme that would have touched a chord in Roman hearts. For Romans to be exiled was a disconcerting, even depersonalising experience. In a letter to Atticus, written in 58 BC, during his exile, Cicero says that he feels a sense of loss not only for his possessions and friends but for himself: "For what am I now?" (3.15.2). Away from Rome, he had no role to play, nothing to define him as a Roman citizen. Ovid's poems from Tomi express year after year the same sense of deprivation: "My body is sick, but my mind sicker, ever surveying its ills; I miss the sight of the city, my dear friends, and, dearer than all, my wife" (Tr. 4.6.43-6). Seneca, consoling his mother for his own absence in Corsica, summarises the disadvantages of exile under three heads: poverty, disgrace and being the object of scorn {Dial. 12.6.1).1 Yet all these famous Romans had their hopes. Even Ovid, who was never allowed home, never quite despaired that flattery and the power of poetry would win his restoration.