Aeneid Gaps Flashcards
Section 1 - Section 2 Gap
Aeneas asks the Sibyl (virgin priestess) why the River is so crowded
Sibyl explains that these are the unburied souls. People need to buried with a gold coin in order for Charon to take them across the river. Until then they have to wait 100s of years.
Aeneas spots some people he knew in the crowd, and pities them. He sees Palinurus who tells Aeneas and asks him to bury his body. The sibyl tells Palinurus that people will be driven by signs to bury his body.
Section 2 - Section 3 Gap
Sibyl gives Cerberus a honey cake containing drugs to stop him barking.
They hear crying from:
* the souls of infants
* those wrongfully killed
* unhappy people who commited suicide
Aeneas sees Dido and tells her that he didn’t want to leave, but was forced to by Apollo.
Dido refuses to look at Aeneas, and runs away to her husabnd (Sychaeus)
Sibyl tells Aeneas that
to the left: Tartarus - the place of the damned
to the right: Elysium
Cerberus
monster with 3 throats who guards the underworld
Section 3 - Section 4 Gap
Anchises explains that the souls that are crowding are the ones that will be reborn.
Aeneas questions why the souls would want to go back into the physical body
Anchises explains that are souls are like fire, but are weighed down by our guilt ridden bodies. So they are punished for their sins. After this, some go to Elysium until the circle of time is completed, and some are called out by God to drink from the River Lethe to forget their past and so that they are willing to return to physical bodies.
What is the River Lethe?
River of forgetfulness
What happens in Section 1?
Description of entrance to underworld
Disgusting imagery of Charon (ferryman) and his job
Description of souls and their reliance on Charon
What happens in Section 2?
Charon (the ferryman) stops Aeneas and the Sibyl and asks them why they are in the underworld.
Charon describes the living people he has taken across, previously, and their bad fate.
The Sibyl bribes Charon with a bough with golden leaves and Charon lets them cross the River Styx
What is the river Styx
The boundary between the world of the living, and the world of the dead.
The unspeakable river - Gods swear by the River
What happens in Section 3?
Anchises is getting together the souls that are about to be reborn.
Anchises spots Aeneas and expresses his emotions of how much he missed him.
Aeneas asks Anchises to come with him, but Anchises is a ghost so they cannot physically touch.
Aeneas sees many people crowding around the River Lethe and is confused.
What happens in Section 4?
Anchises explains that these souls will be the future Romans which will be made up of Trojan and Italian descendants. and that these would be in Aeneas’s name as he will be the founder of Rome.
Section 4 - Section 5 gap
Anchises points out a ghost and says that this will be Aeneas’s and Lavinia’s future son. He will called Silvius and will be born after Aeneas’s death. He will take over Alba Longa, from the founder - Iulus (son of Aeneas and Creusa). Silvius will take up Aeneas’s name -> Silvius Aeneas.
Romulus will found Rome (which will have 7 citadels - strong castles/fortresses)
Garamentes
Ancient civilisation based in southern region of Libya
Conquered by the Romans in 19 BC (the year Virgil died)
Libya
Modern day Fezzan
Atlas
Was the leader of the Titans in their war against Jupiter
Was defeated in the war, and was punished by Jupiter to carry the heavens on his shoulders
Caspia = Scythians
Maeotia = Partians
Romans had wars with these people
- Anchises is saying that they are shuddering with fright of Anchises who is not even born yet
