Aeneid information

Question 1

When did Virgil begin work on the Aeneid and how long did he work on it?

Answer 1

c. 29BC and worked for 10 years

Question 2

Who is a source on how Virgil wrote the Aeneid and what does it say?

Answer 2

Donatus says that Virgil drafted it in prose, split it into 12 books and worked on it bit by bit in whatever order he fancied

Question 3

What metre does Virgil write in?

Answer 3

Dactylic hexameter

Question 4

Who was Virgil’s patron?

Answer 4

Maecenas - advisor to Augustus

Question 5

Who proposed the idea that the books of the Aeneid mirror each other (e.g book 7 mirrors book 1 etc)

Answer 5

Ducksworth

Question 6

When does Virgil include narrator intervention?

Answer 6

• to the muses in books 1,7 and 9
• to the gods - Mars b11, Jupiter b12
• to himself b9
• to his reader b4, b10
• to participants - b7 Oebalus

Question 7

What is the effect of the use of 1st person in flashbacks?

Answer 7

• increases tragedy
• gives specific perspective e.g Aeneas’ birdseye view of Troy
• questions if Aeneas puts a spin for Dido
• allows time for Dido to succumb to Venus’ poison

Question 8

5 examples of ekphrasis in the Aeneid?:

Answer 8

• the sculpture of the Carthaginian’s temple to Juno b1
• the sculpture on the temple to Apollo at Cumae b6
• Turnus’ shield b7
• Aeneas’ shield b 8
• Pallas’ sword-belt b10

Question 9

What is catalogue?

Answer 9

Like a list - giving description of individuals

Question 10

2 catalogues in the Aeneid?

Answer 10

book 7 list of Turnus
allies
- book 10 listing Aeneas’ allies

Question 11

What can Virgil’s descriptive techniques be compared to?

Answer 11

a camera

Question 12

Difference in purpose of Homer and Virgil?

Answer 12

Homer told stories of a heroic world shrouded in myth
Virgil moved from fantasy to the real world

Question 13

Who is presented as the second Achilles, predicted by the Sibyl in book 6?

Answer 13

Turnus

Question 14

Who in the Aeneid compare to Achilles and Patroclus?

Answer 14

Nisus and Euryalus

Question 15

Whose thirst for time is their downfall?

Answer 15

Nisus and Euryalus - especially Nisus who gains fame and glory through his sacrifice but has abandoned his mission

Question 16

Aeneas as a post-Homeric hero?

Answer 16

• no need for kleos
• more humble than Odysseus
• pietas key difference
• Aeneas’ fights for other’s glory not his own
• Aeneas often considers his heirs, fate, the community and shows reluctance to fight

Question 17

How old was Virgil during the civil wars?

Answer 17

21-40

Question 18

Which female characters parallel each other and how?

Answer 18

Dido and Camilla
- their clothes and their deaths

Question 19

How is war portrayed in the Aeneid? (3)

Answer 19

• causing suffering
• a result of human behaviour
• represented by images of inhuman/ irrational behaviour

Question 20

How are Trojans portrayed in the Aeneid? (3)

Answer 20

• city characterised by wealth
• seen as victims - first Juno then Greeks
• mocked by enemies - for being effeminate mostly

Question 21

How are Greeks portrayed in the Aeneid? (4)

Answer 21

• murderous
• treacherous
• Evander shifts perception
• expressed by Anchises to not be an enemy in future

Question 22

How are Carthaginians portrayed in the Aeneid? (4)

Answer 22

• civilised
• regulated social structure/ activity (bees)
• wealth and luxury similar to Troy
• connection with Augustus’ invasion of Egypt, doesn’t wish to portray too negatively

Question 23

How are Italians portrayed in the Aeneid? (5)

Answer 23

• already on brink of civil war
• Latinus has already received prophecy + child’s hair on fire
• Latinus must be seen as an ancestor and his city in resonance with Augustan Rome
• people of Pallanteum have Roman values
• Virgil gives a catalogue of the tribes fighting against Aeneas - ancient audience would have recognised their homes

Question 24

Aeneas’ main epithet?

Answer 24

pius

Question 25

Aeneas and Odysseus both lament not having died at Troy. What is the difference between the two?

Answer 25

Aeneas doesn’t reference the glory this would bring, whilst Odysseus says a death at Troy would have “spread my fame abroad” and says “it seems I was predestined to an ignoble death”

Question 26

What is furor used to describe?

Answer 26

• Dido’s love, madness and suicide
• Amata after her visit from Allecto
• Turnus rushing to war
• Aeneas defending Troy
• Aeneas avenging Pallas

Question 27

6 scenes around edge shield of Aeneas?

Answer 27

• wolf, Romulus, Remus - to found Rome in the 750sBC
• rape of the Sabine women
• pubishment of dictator of Alba Longa who will make a treaty and then desert the king of rome, 673-642BC
• 508BC etruscan attack on rome
• 390BC Gauls
• Scenes from the Underworld - events of 1st century BC

Question 28

scene in centre of shield of Aeneas?

Answer 28

Augustus’ victory at Actium 31BC and triple triumph of 29BC - 54 lines compared to 41 lines depicting the whole edge of shield

Question 29

Who tells Turnus to attack the Trojan camp b9?

Answer 29

Iris (sent by Juno)

Question 30

What piece of equipment does Turnus have made by the gods?

Answer 30

The sword given to his father Daunus

Question 31

Why does Amata kill herself?

Answer 31

She thinks Turnus has been killed

Question 32

How long is the truce in book 11 agreed for?

Answer 32

12 days

Question 33

What is the overall story being shown by Aeneas’ shield?

Answer 33

it displays the propensity of Rome towards inner conflict, civil strife and therefore Actium as the inevitable outcome of this propensity to turn against herself

• Romulus and Remus portrayed before the fratricide, and a set of key oppositions - east vs. west, male vs. female, one vs. many, olympian vs. egyptian gods, order vs. chaos

Question 34

What real life parallel is there to Aeneas’ shield in book 8?

Answer 34

the gold shield given to Augustus which was placed in the Senate house