Book 6: The Underworld

Question 1

Where is Aeneas arriving at the start of Book 6?

Answer 1

Cumae, a place in Italy close to Lake Avernus (entrance to the UW) - not final destination

Question 2

What is Aeneas’ first reaction after landing?

Answer 2

He goes to Apollo’s temple to find the Sibyl - puts his mission above his personal needs (his men attend to fire, food, and water)

Question 3

Which scenes are depicted on Apollo’s temple?

Answer 3

• Prince Androgeos, son of Minos, killed by the Athenians and as punishment they has to give 7 sons (by lot) to the minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth
• Theseus was chosen and Princess Ariadne helped him out as she was in love with him - she was helped by Daedalus. the creator of the labyrinth
• Daedalus and his son, Icarus, had to flee as Minos was furious - used wings but Icarus flew too close to the sun and died.
• Daedalus survived and decorated this temple

Question 4

What is the name of the Sibyl?

Answer 4

Deiphobe

Question 5

Describe the Sibyl’s cave

Answer 5

A hollowed cave inside the temple with ‘a hundred broad shafts, a hundred mouths’ in the walls - voices wpuld stream out and talk to the Sibyl

Question 6

Desribe the Sibyl’s transformation during her prophecy

Answer 6

All transformed - face, colour, hair in disorder, heaving breast, wild heart. ‘She seemed to grow in stature and speak as no mortal had ever spoken’

Question 7

What does Aeneas ask of the Sibyl?

Answer 7

For pity and mercy from their sufferings, they have been led to Italy and asks that the gods/goddesses that opposed them at Troy stop persuing them. In return, he will build a temple to Apollo (like Augustus in 28BC)

Question 8

What does the Sibyl predict about the war to come?

Answer 8

It will be a second Trojan war:
- There will be a Xanthus and Simois (Trojan rivers) = Tiber and Numicius
- ‘torrents of blood’
- Will be a Greek camp
- Second Achilles = Turnus (both have divine parents)
- Juno’s involvement
[- Cause will be a foreign bride (Helen, Lavinia)

Question 9

What simile is used of the Sibvl in her prophetic frenzy?

Answer 9

’ Apollo shook the reins upon her in her frenzy and dug the spurs into her flanks’ - controlling, inciting

Question 10

Give examples of other heroes that have been to the Underworld

Answer 10

• Orpheus resuced his wife from the UW
• Pollux shared death with his brother, Castor
• Hercules stole Cerebeus (one of 12 labours)
• Theseus went to the UW as part of his 6 labours

Question 11

What does the Sibyl says Aeneas needs to do to return from the Underworld?

Answer 11

The golden bough, grows on a branch in the woods - only a man with a great Fate may pick it - must take it to Proserpina.
She says he also must bury his dead friend who is polluting the fleet (Misenus)

Question 12

How did Misenus die?

Answer 12

Son of Aeolus, was a trumpeter in the Trojan war and one of Hector’s comrades.
One day he blew into a sea shell and challenged the gods to play as well as he could. Triton, a sea deity famous for playing the sea shell (and Misenus’ rival), drowned him among the rocks for his hubris

Question 13

How did Aeneas find the golden bough?

Answer 13

Aeneas prayed the bough would show itself and Venus sent 2 doves - they flew from branhc to branch as Aeneas followed them

Question 14

How did Aeneas and the Trojans honour Misenus?

Answer 14

They built a pyre and made offerings. Aeneas raised a mound, put Misenus’ oars, armous, and trumpet on it - this is on the mountain that was also named after him (Mount Misenus)

Question 15

Describe the cave at the entrance of the Underworld

Answer 15

Surrounded by dark woods and the ‘black waters of the lake’ - jagged pebbles, gaping mouth
The breath that streamed out was so deadly that no birds flew overhead (hence Greek name Aornos, place without birds)

Question 16

Who do the Sibyl and Aeneas call upon/sacrifice to before entering the Underworld?

Answer 16

Hecate, Night (mother of the Furies), Prosperina

Question 17

Who does Virgil evoke before telling of what happened in the Underworld? Why?

Answer 17

Chaos and Phlegathon, rivers of the UW. Homer invokes muses. Doing something wrong?

Question 18

What do they first see whent they enter the Underworld?

Answer 18

The personified ills of men: Grief, Revenge, Old Age, Diseases, Fear, Hunger, Poverty, Death, Drudgery (meniality), Sleep, Pleasures, War, Discord

Also, monsters - centaurs, Scylla, hydras, chimaeras, gorgons, harpies, Geryon

Question 19

Describe Charon

Answer 19

• ‘Filthy rags’, untrimmed grey beard - unkempt, dishevelled, ‘a foul cloak hangsfrom a knot on his shoulder’
• ‘thick grey beard’ ‘no longer young’ - appearance of being old (but not as gods don’t age)
• ‘rude strength’, ‘he plies the pole’ - strong, job of a slave in Roman world
• ‘terrible Charon’ ‘his glaring eyes are lit with fire’ - fierce, scary

Question 20

How are the souls at the bank of the river Cocytus described?

Answer 20

‘mothers, men… heroes, boys, unmarried girls, and young men [who died before their parents]’

• as many as ‘the leaves that fall [in autumn]’ and ‘the birds that flock [to warm lands]’
• quantity, wasted potential, pathos, fluttering
• season similes: stages of life, passing of time before death

Question 21

Describe Palinurus’ conversation with Aeneas and the Sibyl

Answer 21

• Aeneas asks what happened to Palinurus
• Palinurus says a ‘mighty force’ threw him from the ship but he feared more for A’s ship that himself (pathos) - drifted for 4 days and on the 5th he swam to shore (Italy) - band of ruffians killed him with knives, now his body is left at the water’s edge
• Palinurus begs A to bury him
• The Sibyl scolds P, says the gods will drive nearby people to bury him, the place will be known as Cape Palinurus (glory)
• Palinurus rejoiced

Question 22

Describe the conversation between Charon and the Sibyl

Answer 22

• Charon bitter about Hercules, Theseus, and Pirithous - got in trouble for the bad things they did (humour)
• Sibyl says they come to see Anchises - if A’s piety doesn’t convice him, they also have the golden bough
• Charon marvells at it and drives off the souls on the boat (humour) - takes them across (ship groaning at Aeneas’ weight - humour)

Question 23

How do they get past Cerebeus

Answer 23

The Sibyl gives him ‘a honey cake seemed in soporific drugs’ - humour

Question 24

Describe the types of the dead in Limbo

Answer 24

• Infants: weeping
• Those condemned to death on false charges: is an UW “appeals court” presided over by Minos
• Suicides: now wish for life
• Victims of unhappy love: in the Mourning Plains in a wood of myrtle trees (Virgil mentions a few women like Homer’s catalogue od women in the Odyssey)

Question 25

Describe Aeneas encounter with Dido

Answer 25

• Dido walking in the wood, ‘her wound still fresh’
• A says he didn’t want to leave, the gods made him - weeps - asks why she is running away (like in Dido’s speech to him in Book 4)
• Dido wouldn’t look at him - like ‘a block of flint or Parian marble’ (like A in Book 4 and Ajax in Odyssey - unresolved conflict)
• Dido rushed away to Sychaeus
• A pitied her unjust face - brings back pathos of Book 4

Question 26

How do the Greek warriors in the fields of the brave warriors react when they see Aeneas?

Answer 26

‘wild panic’ - some ran and some tried to shout (but made no noise) - A is a fearsome warrior

Question 27

Who was Deiphobus?

Answer 27

Priam’s son (A’s cousin) - married to Helen after Paris’ death - represents the Trojans that died

Question 28

Describe the conversation between Aeneas and Deiphobus. Why is this so important?

Answer 28

• Deiphobus was how he was when he died (torn face, no ears, ‘noseless and hideous’
• A asked what happened - raised a senataph for him (empty tomb) - feels guilty
• D says Helen led Menelaus into their house while he slept
• Sibyl says they don’t have much time
• D tells him ‘Go, Aeneas. Go, great glory of Troy, and enjoy a better fate than mine’ - transition for Aeneas from Troy and the past to Italy and the future - leaves burden of guilt
  (Advice like Agamemnon)

Question 29

Describe Tartarus

Answer 29

’ a broad city encircled by a triple wall’ and the river Phlegathon - an unbreakable gate and hydras guarded by Tisiphone (fury, never sleeps, bloody dress)

• In an abyss are all those who have rebelled against the Olympians (Titans etc)
• Tityos, liver being pecked by vulture (and others)
• In front of them is a feast that they can’t touch

Question 30

What type of people are in Tartarus?

Answer 30

• Those who wronged their family (didn’t provide for them or beat their fathers)
• Men caught and killed in adultery (Julian laws)
• Men who fought their own people - civil wars

Question 31

What is Phlegyas, a sinner in Tartarus’, message?

Answer 31

’ Learn to be just and not to slight the gods’

Question 32

Describe the Elysian fields. Contrast this with Tartarus

Answer 32

’ the land of joy… the home of the blest’, sky and stars, ‘glowing light’

• Athletics, dancing, singing (while Orpheus plays his lyre)
• ‘horses wandered free’ and have armour but don’t use them
• Feasting on the grass and singing in a choir
• Lighter, happier than Tartarus. Community, outside, natural, idyllic

Question 33

What type of people are in the Elysian fields?

Answer 33

Those who bettered mankind - died fighting for their country, chaste priests, prophets

Question 34

How do Aeneas and Anchises react when they see each other? What do they say?

Answer 34

• Anchises stretches out hands - welcomes, cries - says he never doubted A would come, worried for him in Libya
• Aeneas wept - says it was his vision of Anchises that drove him on, wants to embrace but can’t (like Odysseus and Anticleia/Aeneas and Creusa)

Question 35

What does Anchises say about reincarnation?

Answer 35

• Certain spirits are chosen and purified though punishment until their immoral life is gone
• Then they drink from the river Lethe to forgot their life and await rebirth
  ( not a mainstream Roman philosophy, Virgil is using it as a vehicle for the patriotic pageant )

Question 36

Pageant: Silvius, Romulus, and Augustus

Answer 36

• Silvius: A’s son, born after his death, ‘your equal in piety and arms’
• Romulus (son of Ilia and Mars) will found Rome - empire will cover earth
• Augustus: out of chronology so he’s like a second Romulus, second founder of Rome. ‘Golden years’ (like Saturn - peace), ‘son of a god’ (via Aeneas and JC). Will extend empire (refers to the Nile - Actium in 31BC)
• Augustus is compared to Hercules and Bacchus - travelled far and civilised
• Anchises questions whether A still hesitates at fulfilling his mission - A is fired up

Question 37

Pageant: Roman kings and heroes (examples)

Answer 37

• Numa, first king of Rome: peace, civilisation, religious
• Brutus: executed his sons in an uprising: duty over personal concern
• JC and Pompey civil wars (49BC onwards) - plea for young men to not turn against their country
• Fabricius and Regulus: simple living
• Fabius: battle strategy, delayed battle with Hannibal

Question 38

Pageant: What does Virgil say the Roman task is?

Answer 38

‘to govern the peoples of the world and to impose a settled pattern upon peace’ - pardon the defeated and war down the proud

Question 39

Pageant: Marcellus

Answer 39

Augustus’ heir that died in his teens (23BC) - Virgil says he died as Rome would be too powerful with him - tragic, pathos

Question 40

How do Aeneas and the Sibyl leave the Underworld?

Answer 40

There are two gates, one for the shades (Gate of Horn) and one for ‘false dreams’ (Gate of Ivory). Take Ivory Gate.
Aeneas returns to his ships and makes course of the harbour of Caieta