Aeneid VI, Lines 384 - 397

Question 1

“ergo iter inceptum peragunt fluvioque propinquant.”

Answer 1

• alliteration and repeated sound helps to suggest the steady onward progress of Aeneas and the Sibyl.

Question 2

“iam inde”

Answer 2

• Virgil makes it clear from this phrase that Charon shouts out Aeneas and the Sibyl immediately he sees them and thus gives us a first hint of the ferryman’s hostility.

Question 3

“tacitum nemus”

Answer 3

• can be argues that the fact there is a silent grove is Virgil continuing to evoke the eerie atmosphere of the underworld.

Question 4

“sic prior adgreditur dictis atque increpat ultro:”

Answer 4

• an example of pleonasm, as Virgil says the same thing in two different ways with two halves of the line presented in chiastic balance.
• the verbal phrase “adgreditur dictis” and the verb “increpate” both connote hostile speech, and the adverbs “prior”(first) and “ultro”(spontaneously) both make it clear that Charon does not want to be spoken to before launching in.

Question 5

“quisquis es”

Answer 5

• the confrontational opening - “whoever you are” - continues to establish Charon’s immediate hostility.
• the fact this is singular leads us to understand Charon is talking specifically to Aeneas at this point, rather than to Aeneas and the Sibyl collectively.

Question 6

“fare age…comprime gressum.”

Answer 6

• imperatives at the beginning and end of the line gives Charon’s words a blunt and forceful tone.

Question 7

“corpora viva”

Answer 7

• the “living bodies” at the beginning of this line are set in deliberate contrast to the “shades” of the previous line - only the latter are permitted on Charon’s boat.
• the fact that only dead bodies are permitted on the boat at all helps to reinforce the eerie atmosphere which Virgil is creating.

Question 8

“nec vero Alciden…deducere adorti”

Answer 8

• Charon recalls precedents of other mortal heroes who have made the journey to the underworld. Hercules was tasked with capturing Cerberus, the 3-headed dog whilst Theseus and Pirithous came to carry off Persephone.
  
  • Charon gives, in “ille manu” (the former with his hands) and “ipsius a solio regis”(from the throne of the king himself) clear indication as to the sheer audacity of Hercules in abducting Cerberus.
  • Alliteration of “d” helps to strike a note of sombre disapproval at the audacity of Theseus and Pirithous in attempting to abduct Proserpina from her very marriage champer.