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Virgil’s Aeneid. Virgil (70-19 BCE). Born near Mantua Studied philosophy, medicine, poetry Eclogues, Georgics won him fame and favor. Aeneid unfinished at death Written for Augustus, as national epic. Aeneid 2nd, Literary Epic Heroic Values: Stoic Ideal, fate and duty
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Virgil (70-19 BCE) • Born near Mantua • Studied philosophy, medicine, poetry • Eclogues, Georgics won him fame and favor. • Aeneid unfinished at death • Written for Augustus, as national epic
Aeneid 2nd, Literary Epic Heroic Values: Stoic Ideal, fate and duty Narrative Meaning Symbolic Images: hunting, storms, snakes, struggles History…Propaganda Homeric Epics Oral, formulaic Heroic Values: Individual Honor Narrative Meaning Transparent Images: animals, weather, chaos/order History…Education Homer & Aeneid
Royal Period (800-509 BCE) Founding legends Overthrow of Etruscian kings Republican Period (509-27 BCE) Established res publica (SPQR) Expansion and civil unrest Julius Caesar rise and death Octavian defeats Anthony Principate of Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE) Augustus as princeps and imperator “Reconstitution” of Republic: Pax Romana Imperial Age (14-476 CE) Death of Augustus Split in 284 (Diocletian) Reunification by Constantine in 330 Byzantine Period (565-1453 CE) Continuation of Eastern Empire Fall of Constantinople to Muslims History of Rome
Royal Period (800-509 BCE) Founding legends Overthrow of Etruscian kings Republican Period (509-27 BCE) Established res publica (SPQR) Expansion and civil unrest Julius Caesar rise and death Octavian defeats Anthony Principate of Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE) Augustus as princeps and imperator “Reconstitution” of Republic: Pax Romana Imperial Age (14-476 CE) Death of Augustus Split in 284 (Diocletian) Reunification by Constantine in 330 Byzantine Period (565-1453 CE) Continuation of Eastern Empire Fall of Constantinople to Muslims History of Rome
Caesar and Pompey co-council • Caesar’s success in Gaul • Marched on Rome, Pompey withdrawals • Caesar effectively did away with the crumbling Republic, instituting reforms • Assassinated by Senators
Triumvirate • Antony marries Octavia, falls for Cleopatra (Egypt), and falls out of favor with Romans. • Octavian defeats Antony in Egypt (31) • Returns to Rome as Augustus (27)
Book I Prologue Juno’s Wrath At Carthage Book II Trojan Horse Fate of Priam Leaving Troy Book VIII At Pallanteum Shield of Aeneas Book XII Conflict with Turnus Death of Turnus Episodes from Aeneid • Book IV • Passion of Dido • Aeneas’ Escape • Death of Dido • Book VI • Travel to Underworld • Heroes of Rome
Book I • Books 1-6 are Virgil’s Odyssey • Prologue • Wrath of Juno • Jupiter’s Prophecy • In Carthage • Aeneas and Dido • Venus intervenes
Prologue I sing of arms and of a man: his fate has made him fugitive; he was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores. Across the lands and waters he was battered beneath the violence of High Ones, for the savage Juno’s unforgetting anger; and many sufferings were his in war – until he brought a city into being and carried in his gods to Latium; from this have come the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.
Prologue I sing of arms and of a man: his fate has made him fugitive; he was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores. Across the lands and waters he was battered beneath the violence of High Ones, for the savage Juno’s unforgetting anger; and many sufferings were his in war – until he brought a city into being and carried in his gods to Latium; from this have come the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.
Prologue I sing of arms and of a man: his fate has made him fugitive; he was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores. Across the lands and waters he was battered beneath the violence of High Ones, for the savage Juno’s unforgetting anger; and many sufferings were his in war – until he brought a city into being and carried in his gods to Latium; from this have come the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.
Aeneid (I.133ff.) O, three and four times blessed Were those who died before their fathers’ eyes Beneath the walls of Try. Strongest of all The Danaans, o Diomedes, why Did you right hand not spill my lifeblood, why Did I not fall upon the Ilian fields, There where ferocious Hector lies, pierced by Achilles’ javelin, where the enormous Sarpedon now is still, and Simois Has seized and sweeps beneath its waves so many Helmets and shields and bodies of the brave! Odyssey (V.306ff.) Three and four times blessed are the Danaans who perished in broad Troy bringing favor to the sons of Atreus. How I wish I had died and met my fate on that day when innumerable Trojans threw their bronze-tipped spears at me around the corpse of Peleus’s son I would have received my funeral honors and the Achaeans would remember my glory. Now it is my fate to die a pitiful death. What do the different passages tell us about the respective hero?
Books 4 & 6 Dido’s tragic love for Aeneas & Voyage to the Underworld
Book 4: Passion of Dido • The ‘marriage’ of Dido and Aeneas • Mercury’s visit to Aeneas • Dido confronts Aeneas, and his escape • Death of Dido
Book 6*: Underworld • Entering the underworld • Sibyl and golden bough • Across the rivers • Dido, Deiphobus, Tartarus and Elysium • Punishment in the underworld • Purgation and reincarnation • Anchises and the future vision of Rome • Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda
Sybil’s Prophecy “I see wars, horrid wars, the Tiber foaming with much blood. You shall have your Simois, your Xanthus, and your Doric camp; already there is in Latium a new Achilles – he, too, son of a goddess. Nor will Juno fail anywhere to hound the Teucrians…” But when her frenzy is done, Her raging lips are hushed, hero Aeneas Begins: “None of the trials you tell of, virgin, Is strange or unexpected: all of these I have foreseen and journeyed in my thought. One thing I ask: since here is aid to be The gateway of the lower king and here The marsh of overflowing Acheron, May it be granted me to go before The face and presence of my dearest father?” (p. 134-35)
Golden Bough, p. 136-137, 144. • Entering the underworld, p. 139ff. • Jaws of Orcus, Treat of empty dreams, Acheron, Charon, Styx, Cerberus, Minos… • Across the river: p. 145ff • Field of Mourning, Dido (145-46; cf. Odyssey XI.541-567), Deiphobus (147-48), roads to Elysium and Tartarus, punishments of iron tower (149f; cf. Myth of Er)… • Groves of Blessedness: p. 151ff • Anchises (153ff), Lethe (154-55), future of Rome (155ff)
Future of Rome • Silvius (by Lavinia) • Romulus • Caesar (line of Iulius; Augustus) “but yours will be the rulership of nations, remember, Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud.” (158-59) • Marcellus* • Gates of Sleep (Horn and Ivory)
Books 8 & 12 • Books 6-12 are Virgil’s Iliad: Sybil’s prophecy • Turnus and Aeneas vie for the hand of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of Latium. Latinus offers Lavinia to Aeneas because of prophecy. Turnus is enraged, by Juno. War ensues. • Truce is imposed so that Turnus and Aeneas can decide the issue in single combat, but Juno’s meddlings incite war again. Aeneas is injured, but cured my his mother, Venus. *Jupiter and Juno agree on a pact (325-27). • *Aeneas disarms Turnus, intends to spare his life, but is overcome by rage upon seeing the belt of Pallas (Evander’s son) and kills Turnus (329-31); a portent of Rome’s future?
