Aeneid 2nd lit Flashcards
Augustan historical context
David Shotter - talks about all the things A did to restore Rome, temples laws etc. Instated legislations concerned with the ‘status of family’, thought that the disasters of ‘recent past were due to the anger at their [the gods] neglect’, A restored ‘no less than 82 temples’ in 28BC.
Wallace-Hadrill - Forum of A was ‘full of positive feelings of the past’ to identify with it. Ara Pacis => his ‘laws pointed to a way of life for which he was personally a model’ , ‘his whole family thus joined him in playing role model for the Roman happy family’. Lacked triumphant imagery to focus on the ‘paradise like peace that his victories secured for Rome’.
Richard Alston - (Lex Julia laws, 18BC-9AD) divorce accepted, adultery now ‘criminal offence’, penalties for being unmarried, rewards for having kids, law that made speaking or doing anything against the state illegal.
Clipeus Virtutis - (shield of valour) awarded to A for virtus, clementia, iustitia & pietas (towards gods and country)
Augustan propaganda
David Shotter - Having a city worthy of being the centre of an empire = propaganda as it showed the development of Rome under a ‘strong, unified, pacified empire’
Jasper Griffin - Aen shield allowed V to present battle of Actium in tableau rather than narration to present battle in satisfying Homeric manner. ‘Aug is the destined leader as heir of A and A is credible because of the unique greatness of his descendant’, ‘would be absurd to suppose that Virgil embarked on an epic simply in order to flatter Aug’, ‘The myth of Rome herself’.
J.W.Mackail - the cost of the war and the ‘infinite pity of things’
R.D.Williams - (about Dido) ‘her energy and courage, her beauty like a goddess, her capable and lovable nature as a ruler and her warmheartedness and helpfulness to those in distress’.
R.J.Tarrant - ‘a private lack of faith in the vision of Rome and its future that the epic’s public voice seems to project’, ‘consistently ambivalent or multivocal viewpoint’
W.A.Camps - ‘[A] his courage and sense of duty and reverence for the gods, are expressive of the moral values of Roman tradition’,’the hero’s trials and labors are evidently illustrative of the effort and sacrifice of Romans down the ages and in the service of the Roman state’
Rae Gustae - ‘those who slaughtered my parents i drove into exile, avenging their crime’, ‘a civic crown was fixed over my door’
Importance of the gods
Jasper Griffin - ‘he [V] was naturally moved by attaining that rank [of Homer]
R.D.Williams - V can ‘transport the reader to another world of fantasy and beauty’, ‘the gods simply illustrate innate mortal emotions’
W.A.Camps - Fate is ‘consistent and takes care towards the Roman state’, ‘Rome stands under the protection’
R.Gransden - ‘plot generators’
Lyne - ‘the gods are in part working with human emotions to bring about events’
Cicero - Rome ‘could never have achieved it’s greatness had it not labored…to propitiate the immortal gods’
Gordon Williams - the gods served an ‘important dramatic purpose’
Aeneas (positive)
Piety (to state and followers) - D.Willaims, ‘the true turning point of the poem: the fuller understanding of his mission gives Aeneas the confidence, resolution and positive passion to succeed’
Piety (religious) - D.Williams, ‘following the ever present dictates of the gods’, ‘what is most remarkable is the sudden and total decision that he will obey’. W.A.Camps - ‘the traditional religious element of piety is illustrated in the Aeneid by his frequent and careful acts of religious observance’
Piety (family) - W.A.Camps, ‘active participation of the father in the leadership…reflects Roman feeling for the position of the father in the family’. C.M.Bowra - ‘justice is the one compartment in which Aeneas never fails. His relation with the gods, his family, his followers, indeed all Virgil meant by pietas is beyond question’
A new kind of Hero - D.Williams, ‘to do this he had to sacrifice much of himself and his personal wishes’, ‘he could not be a brilliant hero like Odysseus but had to try to reject the Heroic way of like for a more cooperative self-denying attitude’, ‘presenting us with a new type of hero - a man with limited strength who nevertheless seeing dimly what is required of him doesn’t give up’, ‘his duty prevails in spite of all’, ‘the fulfillment of Rome’s mission involves suffering not only from it’s opponents but also from it’s champions’
Aeneas imperator - D.Williams, ‘in the second half of the poem, Aeneas is seen to be basically peace loving, fighting only because he has to’. W.A.Camps, ‘Aeneas stands as defender of his homeland…his talents as Homeric and Roman hero’
Aeneas the Stoic - R.Lyne, ‘in obedience to this [stoic/imperial] role. he eventually, belatedly, turns his back on love, passion and Dido - in a very stoic gesture suppressing that other irrational perturbation, compassion’
Aeneas’ piety - C.J.Mackie, ‘Aeneas’ general concern to facilitate fate is the cornerstone of his pietas’
Aeneas (negative)
New hero but audience wanted homeric - R.D.Williams, ‘Virgil’s problem was how to create an epic hero in an age that was very different to Homer’s’
Lacks courage - C.W.Bowra, ‘we must not confuse his pietas with courage, moderation or wisdom…it is these three qualities that Aeneas most conspicuously fails’, ‘stoics would have found him futile in his behaviour after the storm’, ‘in his despair over the burning ships he falters’
Furor gets the better of him - R.Williams, ‘like a true Homeric hero he is agog to make the heroic gesture, and when all is lost, die fighting (bk 2)’. W.A.Camps, ‘he takes prisoners to be sacrificed alive, but human sacrifice was barbaric to authors’. R.Lyne, ‘he represents all furor as the inimical polarity to everything that makes for peace, civilised empire and justice’, ‘(bk 10) Aeneas fails to uphold the principles of stoic imperialism: he fights in a frenzy not with dispassionate bravery; he fails to extend mercy…he loses sight of the final purpose of war…peace is a higher aim’
Not always good stoic - R.D.Williams, ‘(P death) wild grief overcame a man who could so often show self control’, ‘waves of pity overcame him for Lausus’. W.A.Camps, ‘ anger expressed itself in brutalities which are at variance with the hero’s usual humanity’, ‘amor is a compulsive power that makes a man utterly absorbed in a woman…to Cicero writing as a moralist, amor renders its victims shameless and irresponsible’
Women
Fascinating characters - R.Williams, ‘[V] has created in her [Camilla] a strange and memorable mixture of the idyllic pastoral world and the heroic world’. Fantham and Foley, ‘if women achieve distinction [in Aug Rome] it is as wives and slaves. Says Dido would have reminded readers of Cleopatra, a way of Y trying to make her more interesting
Impediments to Roman mission - R.Williams, ‘her [Camilla] rash desire for glorious spoils is her downfall’
Promote Aug marriage values - Alston, ‘‘functional relationship between families for the production of children. Love had nothing to do with it. E.Olliensis, ‘the uncomplicatedly virtuous women of the epic [Creusa & Lavinia] prove their virtue precisely by submitting to the masculine plot of history’
Show cost of Roman mission - W.Camps - ‘an accidental result of scheming and counter scheming - in which she is a pawn, an object of indifference’, ‘the optimistic beginning, her kindness…heightens the bitterness of her downfall’
Turnus
Plot generator - Gransden, ‘plot generator. R.D.Williams, says T provides a way for the conflict between the gods to be resolved & ‘he represents opposition to the Roman mission; he is an obstacle to the divine will’
Challenges characterisation of A - R.D.Williams, ‘a foil to the character of Aeneas’, ‘represents a barbaric and antique way of life which can have no part in the new civilisation’, ‘he is portrayed as a man who is truly himself on the battlefield…set in contrast with Aeneas who hates the prospect of war’. Otis, argues that T makes way for the new proto-Roman way of life.
Allows V to rival H - Jasper Griffin, ‘Virgil was naturally moved by the idea of achieving great rank [of H]
Tragic figure/cost of mission - R.Williams, ‘his role is destined to be that of a tragic figure who pursues a path which must lead to disaster’. W.A.Camps, ‘It is apparent that Turnus is meant to have his share of the readers sympathy’
Consequences of furor - W.A.Camps, ‘furor is the cause of his making a tactical mistake (when killing instead of opening gates)’, and says same words ‘furor’ and ‘violentia’ were used by Cicero to describe Antony
Father - son - relationships
Reinforced Roman family ideals - Jones & Sidwell, ‘this becomes the icon of Roman pietas: the family man who looks back respectfully to the past generation while securing the opes of the next’. Lyne, says A exemplifies filial pietas when he ignored wife’s pleas to leave until his father agrees.
Anchises provides essential guide - Gransden, ‘Evander’s moral precept to despise wealth corresponds to Anchises’ exhortation to his son to stand firm in Latium and extend his reputation by the exercise of Virtue’. He also argues Evander fulfills this purpose by crucially giving A a tour of the future site of Rome. Williams, ‘he [Anchises] sets a standard for Aeneas to follow in his own relationship wit his son’
Aeneas relationship with son - BAD E.Canterella, argues pietas was bilateral but not symmetrical so not affection in their only convo. Oliver Lyne, says there’s a ‘further voice’ to criticize attempts to follow stoic precepts. R.Lyne, ‘Roman tradition admired and recorded fathers who were attentive to and anxious for young sons’
Dido
No claim on A - F&F, ‘Roman readers were not likely to see this unofficial and unsanctioned love as having claim over their hero’
Associations - F&F, ‘some readers would have associated Dido with that famous contemporary queen, Cleopatra’
Qualities - F&F, ‘exemplifies hard work and courage of Roman leader -fails like heroine of Greek tragedy’
Dangers of desire - E.Olliensis, ‘ease with which Dido’s erotic passion converts to untimely suicidal violence’
Victim of gods/sympathetic figure - Camps, ‘an accidental result of scheming and counter scheming - in which she is a pawn’, ‘the obsessive love that comes over her is a daemonic force, not an impulse that could have been overcome’, ‘the optimistic beginning, her kindness…heightens the bitterness of her downfall’. R.D.Williams, ‘dying not in accordance with fates’
Responsible for her death - Camps, ‘her will is not free; but decision to kill herself is her own’. R.Williams, ‘Dido chose to yield, and from then on the decisions were hers’, ‘Dido is brought to her disaster by a love for Aeneas which she might have resisted more strongly than she did’
Characterisation of A - R.Williams, ‘Virgil makes it clear he is deeply unhappy to leave her’, ‘does not show at the crucial moment the love which he feels’. R.Lyne, ‘A has a struggle between love and duty and chooses duty; he displays stoic attitude as required’.
Fate and free will
What is fate/Jupiter’s relationship w/ it - Camps, ‘the concept of a fixed order of things, which we may call fate. This includes on one hand certain unalterable laws…and on the other the unalterably predestined occurrence of certain events’, ‘the will of Jupiter is always identified with the ordinances of fate’. Williams, ‘the king Jupiter, as the agent of fate, represents the concept of an ordained universe’. R.Lyne, ‘Jupiter and his will are identifiable with that of fate’
Fate is for Rome - Camps, ‘this emergence of Rome is ordained by fate…against which the opposition of individual gods could not in the last resort have prevailed’
But against the individual - Camps, ‘the epithets that Virgil applies to fate are at one instructive: inexorable and ineluctable…a power that is deaf to prayer and that holds a man in the grip of inevitability from which no struggling can avail him to escape’
Awareness of the problem - Williams, ‘the problems of human motivation are vividly portrayed in Nisus’ question to Euryalus when he feels a sudden determination to do great deeds’.
Leeway in what is fated/when gods can act - Camps. ‘the other gods cannot prevent what is laid down by fate, though they may try to do so, with important incidental consequences’
Characters influenced by gods to have no free will- Williams, ‘in the end, Dido had no choice about being involved with Aeneas’, ‘he is [A]…no more than a puppet or automaton’. Camps. her will is not free; but her decision to kill herself is her own’, ‘Turnus like Dido has been the victim of daemonic possession’.
Details of events not fated - Camps, ‘what fate ordains is rigid and cannot be changed by the power of god or prayer of man, But the texture of the ordinances of fate is loose’
On Aeneas - Williams, ‘the basic theme if the Aeneid is the fulfillment of a mission laid upon him by fate: the poem is heavy laden with fate but never becomes fatalistic. Aeneas has the free will to continue or not’
Gods work through humans - Gransden, ‘the gods work through human wills and desires’. Lyne, ‘they play on emotions already present’
Importance of Juno
Opposition to A - Gransden, ‘plot generator’
Embodiment of -ve female traits - E.Olliensis, ‘women cause trouble’. Edwards, ‘it is characteristic of Juno, as it is indeed of the madness of war, to spare neither side; she does not care what it costs as long as she has her way, Dido is sacrificed and ultimately Turnus too’, ‘It is clear that for Virgil Juno embodies the dreaded spirit of strife’
Fascinating character - Williams, ‘as a character in her own right she is formidable, relentless, brilliantly rhetorical in expressing her anger or her guile; on another level she is the main cause of mortal suffering throughout the poem’
Impediment to Roman mission - Williams, ‘His Juno symbolises the hostile environment, the apparently senseless disasters that befall the good and bad alike. Everywhere and implacably, she seems to bring calamity upon the Trojans’. Gransden, ‘Aeneas’ most formidable impediment’
Plot driver - Gransden, ‘most of the plot of the Aeneid is generated by Juno’, ‘her idee fixe, her obsessional hatred of Troy, provides the motivation for the entire poem,’
Relationship w/ fate - Williams, ‘her relationship with the fates is a paradox that Virgil explored; she cannot change the immutable purposes of destiny but in all ways she can delay it’s fulfillment , cause such difficulty that the fulfillment may be less glorious, less complete’
Portrayal of ethnic groups
Gransden - ‘one of Virgil’s chief problems in writing the Aeneid was that he did not want to devalue the sturdy heroism of the aboriginal Italians, while at the same time the Trojans must avenge their defeat at the hands of the Greeks. So he made the Italians brave, but unable to see beyond their own parish and their own lives’
