Aeneid VI, Lines 411 - 416

Question 1

Give a brief description about what is happening in these lines.

Answer 1

• Now having non verbally agreed to take Aeneas and the Sibyl across the river as a result of the Sibyl having given Charon the bough, Charon shoos away the other souls wishing to make the crossing in order for the two others to get onto the boat.
• There is a description of Aeneas as to his size and how the boat slowly starts to break under his prodigious stature
• Finally, the Sibyl and Aeneas are put across the river, unharmed

Question 2

“deturbat laxatque”

Answer 2

• the juxtaposition of these verbs indicate how energetically Charon makes room for Aeneas, and we are perhaps struck as, he chivvies out his dead passengers to make way for the living Aeneas, by how charged he is in attitude from the man who has declared at line 391.

Question 3

“simul accipit…rimosa paludem.”

These lines describe the events of Charon letting Aeneas onto his boat.

Answer 3

• Virgil conveys the effect of the mighty Aeneas’ getting into Charons rather flimsy boat:
  
  • The positioning of the adjective “ingentem”(the huge) at the beginning of the line places emphasis on Aeneas’ enormous bulk, an effect which is reinforced by the use of the noun “pondere”(his weight) in the same line.
  • The positiong of the verb “gemuit”(groaned) at the start of its sentence helps to suggest the boats creaking under Aeneas’ weight as soon as he steps aboard.
  • The hyperbaton of “multam..paludem” emphasises just how much water is leaking into the boat, and further suggests that it is only barely staying afloat under the living hero’s great weight.

Question 4

“vatemque virumque”

Answer 4

• The balanced phrasing used to refer to Aeneas and the Sibyl presents them on strikingly equal terms

Question 5

“informi limo glaucaque exponit exponit in ulva”

Answer 5

As he has from the start, Virgil continues to seek to convey the gloominess and unpleasant ness of the surroundings