“HOPEFUL JOY”: A STUDY OF LAETUS IN VERGIL‟S AENEID David C. Anderson Wiltshire A dissertation submitted to the faculty of 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. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by, James J. O‟Hara Nicholas M. Horsfall Sharon L. James Peter M. Smith Robert G. Babcock i © 2012 David C. Anderson Wiltshire ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT DAVID C. ANDERSON WILTSHIRE: “HOPEFUL JOY”: A STUDY OF LAETUS IN VERGIL‟S AENEID (Under the direction of James J. O‟Hara) In this dissertation I examine Vergil‟s use of laetus (and laetitia, laetor, and inlaetabilis) in the Aeneid; for context, I also present the use of the laet- stem in earlier poets and in the Georgics and Eclogues. The two basic uses of laetus in Latin literature indicate human emotion (“joyful”) and agricultural lushness (“fertile”). I argue that the laetus-emotion in the Aeneid is one of “hopeful joy”: “joy” in that the emotion is vivid, positive, and thrilling, and “hopeful” in that the source of the joy is hope for the future. This hope is usually created by a reversal (or perceived reversal) of fortune; an event (like an omen, victory in battle, etc.) causes an individual with low expectations of success to have high expectations of success. Nevertheless, this hope may be “disaster-prone,” as Lyne argues: this “hopeful joy” often results in disaster. The laetus-emotion is a thrill, a shock of sensation, and it does not refer to long-term “contentment.” In addition, this thrill of sensation is often accompanied by physical excitement: a laetus individual is often loud and jubilant in his physical exultation. In my introduction, I offer background information on other scholars‟ studies of laetus and on the use of the word in other Latin authors. In Chapter Two, I treat the instances of laetus in the Aeneid outside Book 5 that express human emotion, in the context of “fields” that I identify (setting out, arrival, battle, prayer, founding). In Chapter iii Three I discuss the uses of laetus in Book 5 of the Aeneid; I separate them in this way because the uses in Book 5 neatly demonstrate my arguments regarding laetus in the eleven other books. In Chapter Four I discuss all the instances of laetitia, laetari, and inlaetabilis in the Aeneid. In Chapter Five I treat the laet- stem in the Georgics and Eclogues, and in Chapter Six, the analogous “agricultural” use in the Aeneid. In Chapter Seven I discuss the uses of laetus in the Aeneid that do not neatly conform to any of my categories, and I offer suggestions as to their interpretation. iv for Dr. Kaye Warren dextrae se parvus Iulus implicuit sequiturque patrem non passibus aequis Aen. 2.723-724 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I decided I wanted to get a PhD in Classics when I was in tenth grade. I‟m sure I had no idea what sort of work that decision would entail. But I had an amazing Latin teacher, and she had her PhD in Latin—which meant, to my fourteen-year-old brain, that in order to be the kind of graceful, selfless, humane, and loving person that she is, and in order to care for others as she does, I would also need a PhD in Latin. My teachers and professors in college and graduate school have only strengthened this association, for me. I thank my advisor, Prof. Jim O‟Hara, not only for his attentive and thoughtful help and criticism in the writing of this dissertation, and not only for his insights and deep love of Vergil, but also for his mentorship and guidance of me over the course of this graduate program. I have learned much about classical philology from him and from the whole UNC Classics department, but I have learned even more about humanitas, maturity, discernment, and concern for others. I am deeply grateful for all of it. In this vein too I thank my dissertation committee—Profs. Peter Smith, Sharon James, Bob Babcock, and Nicholas Horsfall, without whose investment in me I would be neither the scholar nor the person I am today. Their fingerprints are on every page of this dissertation, in the gifts of knowledge and understanding (and helpful comments!) they have given me, over many years. The fingerprints of many more are there, too. I am deeply in debt to the entire Classics faculty at UNC, and to the Department of Classics, for its generous support of me during my time in North Carolina. vi I also thank Prof. Susan Wiltshire and Prof. Dan Solomon, from Vanderbilt, and my high school Latin teacher Dr. Kaye Warren (as well as her husband, Grady, and Ed and Laura Long), all of whom taught me to love Latin by their selflessness and kindness and dedication to the gifts they give. Prof. Wiltshire once told me that, by her reckoning, it has taken sixty-four generations of Vergil scholars to bring the text to our eyes, today. I think Vergil would be very impressed by all the people I have mentioned above, and I think they do him—and us, their students—an extraordinary service. Speaking of homines Vergilianissimi, to use Nikolas Holzberg‟s compliment of Philip Hardie and Stephen Harrison—I have been wonderfully supported, educated, and molded by my fellow graduate students in the UNC-CH Classics program. Arum Park, David Carlisle, Ted Gellar-Goad, John Henkel, Chris Polt, Derek Smith Keyser, Elizabeth Thill, Erin Galligan, Patrick Dombrowski, Serena Witzke, Rebecca Worsham, Hans Hansen, Zack Rider, and Andy Spencer, to name a few—I have looked to your good example for many years now, and my life has been enriched by yours. Thank you. There are many other people in my life without whom I could not have written this dissertation. Thanks, Dad—this is for you. Sonya Sowerby, Isaiah Bartlett, Rachel Will, Catherine Adamson, Terri Phoenix, Rebecca Stephen, Steve Killen, and Caitlin Fischer: you have supported me for a very long time, through many strange transitions, and I am grateful. I am also grateful to my motley church family, here at Princeton Seminary and ever more spread out across the country—to Mieke Vandersall, Anna Pinckney Straight, Debbie Davis, Alex Turpin, Hannah Burke, Emily Morgan, Craig Rubano, Ariana Salazar-Newton, John Molacek, Elizabeth Cluff, and so many more—for vii their care and concern, their patience, their joy, and their love. Rebekah Smith, I include you in this category, because where you go, I will go, and I take you with me. For all the people named here, and all those not named, and all the ways in which their presence blesses my life, I thank God. D.C.A. Wiltshire Princeton, New Jersey May, 2012 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction to the Use of Laetus...............................................……. 1 I.1: General Information................................................................................ 1 I.2: Modern Authors on Laetus...................................................................... 6 I.3: Definitions of Laetus............................................................................... 13 I.4: Gaudium in the Aeneid............................................................................ 15 I.5: Appearance of Laet- Family Words in Vergil......................................... 29 I.6: The Laet- Stem in Other Ancient Authors.............................................. 30 I.6.1: Ennius....................................................................................... 33 I.6.2: Lucretius................................................................................... 40 I.6.3: Catullus.................................................................................... 57 Chapter Two: “Forward-looking” Laetus in the Aeneid............................................ 65 II.1: Setting out on a Journey (1.35, 1.554, 4.140, 4.295, 4.418).................. 66 II.2: Arriving at a Destination (3.524, 7.36, 7.130) ...................................... 81 II.3: Battle (2.260, 2.395, 2.417, 7.430, 8.171, 9.157, 10.643, 10.738, 10.787, 11.238, 12.616) + 6.862.............................. 89 II.4: Prayer (2.687, 3.169, 3.178, 6.193, 7.147, 7.259, 8.268, 8.279, 8.544, 8.617, 8.681, 10.874)........................................ 116 II.5: Founding (1.275, 1.503, 3.133, 7.288, 8.311)........................................ 137 II.6: Other “Forward-looking” Uses (1.732, 9.89, 10.15, 11.42)................... 147 ix Chapter Three: Laetus in Aeneid 5.............................................................................153 Chapter Four: Other Laet- Family Words in the Aeneid............................................186 IV.1: Laetitia.................................................................................................. 186 IV.2: Laetari.................................................................................................. 205 IV.3: Inlaetabilis............................................................................................ 227 Chapter Five: Laetus in the Georgics and Eclogues.................................................. 233 V.1: “Health” or “Productivity”: Plants......................................................... 236 V.2: “Health” or “Productivity”: Animals and People.................................. 246 V.3: “Productivity”: Soil................................................................................ 248 V.4: Personal Emotion: People...................................................................... 253 V.5: Personal Emotion: Animals................................................................... 258 V.6: Laet- in the Eclogues............................................................................