AENEAS AND THE UNDERWORLD

1. AENEAS AND THE UNDERWORLD BK 6

2. ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AS STATEMENTS • Who built the temple to Apollo and what scenes did he decorate it with? (pg 147) • What did the Trojans have to do before consulting the Sibyl? • What does the sibyl promise to the Trojans? (one word) (149) • Why is the descent to Avernus easy? What is the hard part of the journey Aeneas wants to undertake? (151) • What does Aeneas have to take to the underworld as a gift to Proserpine? (151) • Where is the entrance to the underworld? (154) • What kind of creatures does Aeneas meet on entering the underworld? (155-156) • Why does Charon refuse to ferry some souls over the Styx? (157) • Which friend does Aeneas meet there? Where did he die? • Where are the Fields of Mourning, and who does Aeneas meet there? (160) • In the fields of warriors, Aeneas meets Deiphobus. What happened to him? • What happens to the incurably evil? (164) • Where is Anchises? What is he doing? (167) • Why are souls crowding at the river Lethe? (168) • Why does Anchises point out Augustus immediately after Romulus? (170-171) • What are to be Rome’s special skills? • Who is the young Marcellus/ Why does night flit around his head (173) • How does Aeneas leave the underworld?

3. Answers to questions • Daedalus built the temple and decorated it with scenes from the myth of the minotaur of Crete • Sacrifice (7 bullocks and 7 sheep) to Apollo • War • It is easy to get to Avernus by dying but coming back is the hard part • The golden bough • A cave by Lake Avernus • Monstous beasts and afflictions such as disease and pain • If they are not buried they must wait 100 years • Palinurus, who died on the voyage from Sicily to Italy • Across the Styx. Dido • He was killed and mutilated by Menelaus, Helen’s first husband. • They go to Tartarus • Elysium, surveying the shades who would be his descendants. • They drink the waters of Lethe to forget their past life before returning to earth to live again • Virgil links Romulus and Augustus to honour Augustus • Guiding nations (govt) and giving peace • Nephew and son-in-law of Augustus, who died young (aged 19) • By the Gate of Ivory (gate of false dreams)

4. DO NOW – ACTIVITY • YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO STUDY THE NEXT SLIDE AND REMEMBER AS MANY WORDS AS POSSIBLE • NO PENS ALLOWED

5. VOCAB JUMBLE • Cumae Italy hades Anchises Augustus Deiphobus Sibyl Cerbeus Schyaeus Dido Minos Caesar Lethe Baachus Cato Livius Drusus

6. PREDICTION • What are we going to be doing this period that will include all of those words you studied??

7. ACTIVITY • GO THROUGH THE CLOZE EXERCISE THAT YOU RECEIVED YESTERDAY 

8. Answers to the cloze exersice The Trojans ships arrive in Italy, near CUMAE. While the men prepare camp, Aeneas c limbs to the temple of APOLLO to consult Deiphobe. At the sanctuary, Aeneas sacrifices BULLS and SHEEP and offers PRAYERS to the god. The SYBIL appears to him and answers his questions. She also tells him o the wars he will fight and the ENEMIES he will face. Aeneas asks to be guided into HADES and despite the dangers the sybil mentions, he perseveres. She agress to take him and tells him what he has to do in order to gain admittance which he carries out. At the start of the underworld Aeneas must pass many evil SPIRITS and horrible BEASTS these FRIGHTEN him but his courage helps him through and eventually the two mortals arrive at the river ACHERON. Here, many souls line the banks waiting to cross on the FERRY. Among them is the soul of PALINURUS (the drowned helmsman) and Aeneas promises him a proper BURIAL which cheers him up. Initially the feryman, CHARON, refuses to take the living beings across the river but when Deiphoe shows him the GOLDEN BOUGH he consents, taking the two across the Acheron and the STYX into Hades proper.

9. Answers to the cloze exersice On the way to Elysium they must pass through the various regions of the underworld. They land at the place that is allotted to those that died in INFANCY. After this they pass through the area reserved for SUICIDES where Aeneas recognises DIDO. He tearfully begs her FORGIVENESS but she refuses to speak to him. Next is the area set aside for great WARRIORS where he meets and talks to many heroes from the Trojan War. Next they come to a fortress surrounded by high walls and a river of FIRE. This place is TARTARUS, where sinners are imprisoned and suffer dreadful PUNISHMENTS. Finally, the pair readch a pleasant area where blessed and righteous souls spend their time: this is the ELYSIAN Fields.

10. Answers to the cloze exersice Aeneas meets his FATHER here and they embrace with great affection. ANCHISES shows Aeneas a large group of people drinking from the river LETHE (the river of FORGETFULNESS) so they can return to earth to live again. As they walk by this group, Anchises points out many of those who will later become famous ROMANS. In doing so, Anchises is giving Aeneas a short summary of the history of ROME. Amony the famous people are Silvius (Aeneas’ as yet unborn SON), ROMULUS (founder of Rome), early kings of Rome, many heroes and political figures of the Roman Republic. The last figures they come to are Julius Caesar and his nephew AUGUSTUS who will be the greatest leader and ruler in Roman history.

11. Answers to the cloze exersice As father and son wander through ELYSIUM, Anchises tells Aeneas of his future wars and victories. All this knowledge of Rome and his own destiny in it, fires Aeneas to achieve all that has been fated for him. Aeneas bids farewell to his father and is taken back to earth by the Sibyl. He rejoins the fleet and they continue their voyage.

12. AENEAS’ PRAYER Phoebus you have always pitied Troy in her grievous suffering. It was you who guided the hands of Paris when he aimed his Dardan arrow to strike Achilles the Aeacid. It was you who led me forth to sail over all those seas which thrust against eh vast continents and to force a way even to nations of the remote Massylians and lands screened by the Syrtes. Now at last we have gained a foothold in Italy’s elusive shores. From now on, let Troy’s old ill-fortune pursue us no farther. And you too, all Gods and Goddesses, who were jealous of Ilium and the too brillian grandeur of our Dardanland, may now, with no violation of divine justice, spare the nation which held the fortress of Troy. And you, most holy Prophetess, who foreknow the future, since I ask no empire which my destiny cannot rightly claim, permit my Trojans, and their vagrant deities, the Powers and Patrons of Troy tossed with us in strom, to find in Latium a home. There I shall inaugurate a temple all of marble for Apollo and Trivia with festal days called by Apollo’s name; and for you yourself, benign Lady, there shall also be in my realm a noble shrine where I shall store your oracular lots, with the prophetic secrets which you communicate to my people; and I shall choose and consecrate priests for your service. Only, pray, do not commit your prophecies to leaves for they might fly in disorder as playthings for the grasping winds; I beg of you to chant in words of your own.’

13. The gate of Ivory and the gate of Horn Aeneas leaves and returns to his fleet, but the way he left has aroused controversy among critics ever since. There are two gates of sleep which act as ways out from Hades. One is made of horn and allows out true shadows. The other is ivory, which sends false dreams to people, and Aeneas leaves by this gate. What does this mean?

14. That Aeneas was living and not a true shade? • That it was all a flase dream? • That the pursuit of Roman greatness is a vain hope? • That the truth or falseness of Aeneas’ experience will depend o nthe actions of Aeneas and his descendants?

15. Symbolism plays a large part in Virgil’s poetry so it is not surprising critics look for hidden meanings here, but it is possible that the exit by the gate of horn is purely practical. Ancient people attached great importance to dreams but recognised that not all dreams were signficant. Possibly they believed dreams before midnight were false while dreams after midnight were true. Did Aeneas and the Sibyl have to leave before midnight, as a condition allowing them to visit the underworld. If so, they had to use the only gate open, the gate of ivory.

16. IMAGERY OF BK6 Virgil does not use many similes in book 6 as his scenes in the underworld bear little comparisonm to real life. Two comparisons however, stand out. • Pg156 the vast numbers of souls waiting to cross the river to the underworld are compared to the many leaves which die and fall in autumn, or the flocks of birds which gather to migrate south in winter. Here the falling leaves and departing birds echo the melancholy and loss of death. • Pg 160-61 A. sees Dido dimly through the shadows of the underworld, like a man glimpsing the thin new moon through clouds. This similie emphasises the gloom of the underworld and the lack of substance of souls mere shadows of their former selves.

17. ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS • How does Virgil build up an atmosphere of mystery and supernatural awe in BK6? • Why is it clear A. hazs a divine destiny? • How does A. display Pietas in bk6? • What messages does he learn in the underworld? From whom does he learn them?

18. ANSWERS • Virgil builds up an atmosphere of mystery and supernatural awe by: • Description of temple at Cumae • Behaviour of the Sibyl in giving her prophecies • Burial of Misenus • Religious rituals before entering the underworld • The collection of gloomy spirts at the start • Sadness of the helpless unburied • Grimness of eternal punishments • A. found and plucked the golden bough, his passport to the underworld. The Sibyl accompanied him, and he was able to return. • He overcame all obstacles and horrors to meet his father • Messages include: • Look forward not back • Dead souls are reborn • Rome has a glorious future of heroes and empire • Rome’s mission is to conquer and rule in peace with law • Augustus will bring back a new Golden Age.