Book 3 Summary Flashcards
What major personal loss does Aeneas suffer in his narrative?
- Aeneas loses his father, Anchises, marking a turning point in his journey
After the fall of Troy, what is one of the first actions Aeneas takes with the survivors?
- He leads the survivors to Antander where they build a new fleet of ships
Once theyve built new ships on Atander, where do they sail to first
They sail first to Thrace, where Aeneas prepares to offer sacrifices
In Thrace, what supernatural encounter does Aeneas experience?
- While making sacrifices, a tree bleeds and speaks to him as the spirit of Polydorus, son of Priam
What does the tree say which makes Aneas like so uncomfy
- Priam had sent Polydorus to the king of Thrace to be safe from the war,
- but when Troy fell, the Thracian king sided with the Greeks and killed Polydorus
- After holding a funeral for Polydorus, Aeneas and the Trojans embark from Thrace
- with a sense of dread at the Thracian violation of the ethics of hospitality.
How does Aeneas learn about his destined ancestral land?
- At Delos, Apollo instructs him to go to the land of his ancestors, which is intepretted by Anchsises as Crete
What prophetic declaration do the Trojan gods make regarding Aeneas’ future?
- his father is mistaken: the ancestral land to which Apollo referred is not Crete but Italy, the original home of Dardanus, from whom the Trojans take the name Dardanians
- They proclaim Roman supremacy and instruct him to “prepare great walls for a great race,” foretelling his destiny in Italy
What challenge do the Trojans face on the Strophades islands?
- The Trojans slaughter many cows and goats that are roaming free and hold a feast, provoking an attack from the Harpies
- They are attacked by Harpies, who curse them with a prophecy that they won’t settle until hunger forces them to eat their tables
Where do the Trojans go after Strophades
- the Trojans depart for the island of Leucata, where they make offerings at a shrine to Apollo
- Next, they set sail in the direction of Italy until they reach Buthrotum, in Chaonia
What does Aeneas discover in Helenus
- Aeneas is astonished to discover that Helenus, one of Priam’s sons, has become king of a Greek city
- Helenus and Andromachë had been taken by Pyrrhus as war prizes, but seized power over part of their captor’s kingdom after he was killed
What Andromache & Helenus built
- a small scale replica of Troy, but that was never going to be future for Aeneas whose destiny wa sto create a big new city
What do Helenus & Andomache advice Aeneas
- when approaching Scicily, they should veer away to the South to circumnavigate it
- rather than go through the straight guarded by Scylla, a 6 headed monster & Charbydis, a whirlpool
What additional tale is recounted during the journey around Sicily?
- A ragged stranger in the greek army under Odysseus recounts his narrow escape from a Cyclops
- as he finishes his tale, the blinded cyclops nearly stumbles upon the group
- —an episode linking Aeneas’ travels to wider Greek myth traditions
How does Aeneas ultimately frame his destiny at the conclusion of his narrative to Dido?
- He asserts that divine will has driven him to her shores, even as he must continue to fulfill his destiny in Italy
what happens after the cyclops dies
- The Trojans make a quick escape with the Greek straggler, just as the other Cyclopes come down to the shore
- Sailing around Sicily, they pass several recognizable landmarks before landing at Drepanum, where Aeneas endures yet another unexpected loss: his father’s death
