Aeneid Scholarship Flashcards
Natalie Haynes on Venus and Aeneas
“in spite of her physical distance from Aeneas… [Venus] is deeply invested in his wellbeing”
Kershaw on Priam’s death
“the sheer savagery of the Greek assault is rammed home in the repulsive slaughter of Priam”
Kershaw on Aeneas’s response to Pallas’s death
“a mixture of mad anger (furor) and pietas”
Kershaw on Turnus
“Turnus seems boy-like in comparison to Aeneas”
Kershaw on the ending
“did furor win in the end, or pietas? The emotional and moral effects of the ending are highly ambiguous”
Meban on friendship
“friendship was always an institution central to Roman cultural life”
Meban on Nisus and Euryalus
“viewing the two Trojans [Nisus and Euryalus] in light of those who suffered and were defeated in the civil war gives voice to such victims”
Sforza on Aeneas
“the hatred of Virgil towards the prime ancestor of the despot of the day is so intense that it is practically impossible to find a passage, where Aeneas appears, that does not in some way indict him with dastardly, criminal, or stupid actions”Sf
Sforza on liberty
“Virgil’s poem is a passionate vindication of Liberty, and the most sublime hymn to spiritual and political Freedom ever sung”
Levi on Augustus
“the grandeur of Augustus was a terrifying presence even to his friends, and Virgil trod as carefully as Horace”
Levi on the shield of Aeneas
“he [Virgil] lied shamelessly about the battle of Actium [in the shield of Aeneas] … in particular in reverses the roles of Augustus and Agrippa”
Boyle on the ending
“Virgil could not have been more clear… it is Virgil’s concern to emphasize that it (the ending) is a victory for the forces of non-reason and the triumph not of pietas but of furor”
Powell on Virgil’s purpose
“Virgil’s myths are purposeful propaganda, aimed at proving that Augustus deserved his place in the world and that Rome’s destiny in history was willed by divine intelligence”
Williams on the Aeneid and unity
“in some ways of course the Aeneid achieves unity; but perhaps it was a sense of failure in his urge to harmonize the discordant, to reconcile the opposites, that caused Virgil on his deathbed to ask Augustus to see that the Aeneid was burned”
Williams on book 6
a crucial book in the development of Aeneas
Jenkyns on Dido and Aeneas’s affair
it was a fit of passion so no one was to blame
Fearn and Laird on the epic’s themes
“though the epic is about war, it is also about human values and human emotions”
Fearn and Laird and the Aeneid’s purpose
“the Aeneid is really an attempt to win hearts and minds for this change of regime”
Fearn and Laird on propaganda
“if you want to write propaganda, you mustn’t let people see that it is propaganda”
Harrison on Virgil and violence
Virgil is not a “pea-shooting pacifist”, he is “someone who appreciates a fine kill”
Harrison on death scenes
they are the literary equivalent of going to watch gladiator shows
Harrison on tough guys
“tough guys don’t talk they do”
Harrison on Dido
Virgil is not condemning Dido , it was the fault of the gods
Hardie on women
There are no powerful or successful women in the Aeneid
Hardie on visits to the underworld
they are typical of epics
Hardie on the parade of heroes
“a male dominated view of history”
Mac Góráin on Aeneas’s virtues
“Aeneas displays virtues that are quintessentially Roman”
Mac Góráin on Aeneas and Augustus’s ideals
“his character is consistent with the ideals which Augustus was keen to promote… religious, social and familial”
Mac Góráin on Aeneas’s duties
“Aeneas… scrupulously fulfils his duties to the gods, to his family, and to his fatherland”
Bragg on Ascanius, Aeneas and Anchises
“the past, the present, the future of what will be Rome”
Edwards on Aeneas
Aeneas is “often put in a position where he must overcome emotion to pursue duty”
Hall on the Aeneid
people have to say the Aeneid is subversive because we live in a post-colonial society
Griffin on the ideal Virgilian family
grandfather, father, son