Book 1 Summary Flashcards
What purpose does the proemium serve in the Aeneid?
- It sets the theme by declaring the subject—warfare and a man at war—and invokes the Muse to guide the narrative, establishing the tone and purpose of Aeneas’s journey
Who is Aeneas and what is his mission at the start of the poem?
- Aeneas is the Trojan hero fleeing the ruins of Troy; he is destined to lead his people to Italy, where his new settlement will eventually give rise to the Roman race
- he is currently trying to cross the Mediiterranean from Troy to Italy, his father has just died in Scicily
Which goddess opposes Aeneas and why?
- Juno opposes Aeneas because of her longstanding grudge against Troy
- This stems partly from the Judgment of Paris
- and a prophecy that Trojans will one day destroy her beloved city, Carthage
How does Juno attempt to hinder Aeneas’s journey?
- Juno enlists Aeolus, the god of winds, to unleash a fierce storm that scatters the Trojan fleet and threatens to doom their voyage
how does Aeneas react to Juno’s storm
- we expect him to show courage & resolution,
- but he is terrified - (his limbs grew weak’ & he exlaims how lucky those who died at troy were
why has Aeneas been shown as weak in the midst of Juno’s storm
- Virgil has deliberately shown Aeneas as a frail mortal, put under pressures which are almost too great for him,
- and under this latest disaster, of his seven-year wanderings, almost ready to give up
- We realise at the outset that our hero is not someone of superhuman strength,
- but rather a brave man at the end of his tether
how is the conflicting values of furor & pietas depicted in the calming of the storm
- A simile is used in which a statesman calms a violent mob
- It uses two key words of the poem - furor for the violent mob, and pietas for the responsible statesman
- The task of Aeneas throughout the poem is to calm the force of furor in others and himself by means of pietas
Who intervenes to save the fleet and what does this intervention involve?
Neptune, the god of the sea, intervenes by calming the storm after Aeolus oversteps his bounds, ensuring that Aeneas’s fleet is not completely lost - 7 of 20 still intact
What is the outcome of the storm for Aeneas’s fleet?
- The storm scatters the ships; out of an original twenty, only seven remain intact, and they are cast ashore on the coast of Libya.
When they land in Africa, how does Aeneas lead his men in spite of his emotions
- Once they land in Africa Aeneas goes out to forage and organise food for his men
- His rousing speech as they feast on the stags he has shot - ‘we have suffered worse before, and this too will pass’
- is nevertheless not truly felt by Aeneas himself who ‘kept his misery deep in his heart’ (209)
What does Venus do with Jupiter to ensure he is protected
- Venus, Aeneas’s divine mother, first pleads with Jupiter to relieve Aeneas’s suffering
- ‘Is this our reward for piety and obedience?’
What prophecy does Jupiter deliver regarding Aeneas’s future in response to Venus?
- Jupiter assures Venus—and implicitly Aeneas—that he will safely reach Italy and establish a settlement, from which the mighty Roman race will eventually emerge
- Aeneas will begin a process of taming the wickedness and frenzy in men’s hearts by means of pietas, devotion to others.
- SCROLLS OF FATE (257-259)
What is revealed about Aenea’s take on his fate when he sets out to explore Carthage
- He declares himself as ‘Aeneas, known for my devotion’ - his own use of this epithet emphasises his knowledge that he is a man with a calling
- Yet this reference to his devotion also highlights the injustice which he believes has been inflicted upon him after seven years of travails
- Yet he does not give up - this is the essence of a new kind of heroism
What do Venus instruct Aeneas and why can he proceed
- Venus then appears to Aeneas in disguise, and tells him that he has landed in Carthage;
- she relates the story of Dido, herself an exile and a widow, who is trying to found a new settlement just as Aeneas must do
- Aeneas, protected and concealed by a mist in which Venus has enveloped him
What does Aeneas see when he moves inland
- sees the Tyrians building the new Carthage;
- the temple which is being built in honour of Juno-significantly, the anti-Trojan goddess is worshipped by the city which will one day, under Hannibal, be Rome’s greatest enemy
- scenes from the Trojan war are depicted, by which Aeneas is deeply moved, especially since he himself is included in the pictures: his fame has got to Carthage before him
How does Venus further influence the events in Carthage?
- Venus sends Cupid, disguised as Aeneas’s son Ascanius, to deliver gifts that spark Dido’s passion for Aeneas
- leading her to fall in love with him and his companions and to invites him to recount his adventures
What recurring epic motif is evident in Aeneas’s journey in Book 1?
- The interplay of fate and divine intervention—mortal destinies are steered by the gods, ensuring that Aeneas’s trials ultimately fulfill his preordained role in founding a great civilization
In what way does Virgil both emulate and revise the epic traditions of Homer?
- While following Homer’s example (with an invocation to a muse and themes of heroic struggle),
- Virgil revises the tradition by emphasizing his narrative voice and embedding uniquely Roman themes of destiny, duty, and the founding of an empire
what is said about Aeneas fatein first lines of book 1
- We are told in the first line that Aeneas is ‘fated to be an exile’.
- This is not a Homeric fate which determines the problems of the moment or at the most a man’s lifetime; this fate has its plan for hundreds of years ahead
- In a paradoxical way it requires the cooperation of a man for its fulfilment.
what is the reaction of Aeneas when he finally recognises Venus (who had be dressed as a huntress disguised to guide him
- he rebukes her, ‘You too are cruel’ (407)
- He is clearly a lonely figure, with a dead father, a young son, and no strong companions to help him
‘can there be so much anger in the hearts of the heavenly gods’
- the poem is a meditation of this problem
- raising insoluble problems about the struggle between man & the gods
- between juno & jupiter - king & queen of the gods
- & function of the gods on the freewill of human beings - whether the gods seek to help or destroy
