CH. 11 - Aeneas and Virgil's Aeneid

Question 1

Aeneas

Answer 1

• sone of aphrodite and Anchises
• in Homer’s illiad, he was an important warrior but inferior to the Trojan champion Hector
  *when Aeneas meets Achilles, he would’ve been killed if he wasn’t saved by Poseidon

Question 2

The Aeneid

Answer 2

• written by Virgil
• an epic 12 book literally source of historical and mythological past
• it has reference to the events and hopes of Virgil’s own day, when emperor Augustus was rebuilding the roman state after decades of civil war and instability
• it follows the hero Aeneas, survivor of the fall of troy and ancestor of Rome’s leaders, as he

Question 3

how would Aeneas know when the ending future wanderings would come? And what is this prophecy?

Answer 3

• hey would reach Italy and would only found his new city when hunger had compelled the Trojans to eat the tables upon which they ate their food
• also complements a different story that says he wil have arrived when he saw a white sow with 30 piglets on a riverbank of italy

Question 4

who is Aeneas’ father and where did he die

Answer 4

• his father (Anchises) died while leaving troy and was buried in Sicily
• another story said he was struck down after revealing the name of his mother

Question 5

how do book 2 and 3 of the Aeneid begin?

Answer 5

• begins with a storm that scatters Aeneas fleets after setting said from Sicily
• the survivors are reunited in northern Africa, where Dido, queen of Carthage, hospitably receives them
• she fell deeply in love with Aeneas, who would’ve stayed with her if Murcury didn’t give him Jupiter’s orders, which were to sail away and fulfill his destiny in Italty

Question 6

What did Dido do as Aeneas left Carthage

Answer 6

• she cursed him and all his descendants, that they will always be enemies of Carthage
• Dido is a favorite of Juno which is why she opposes Aeneas
• she killed herself with the sword he had given her, on her own funeral pyre

Question 7

What happened when Aeneas arrived in Sicily from Carthage

Answer 7

• he was welcomed in Egesta by king Acestes, a Trojan himself
• they celebrated funeral games to honour his dad Anchises
• meanwhile Juno incited the Trojan woman to set fire to his ships, which most were saved by Jupiter and a miraculous rainstorm
• he left some of his followers behind Sicily and sailed on to Italy, where he reached Cumae

Question 8

what happened in Cumae

Answer 8

• Sibyl foretold the wars he must fight in the new land and she escorted him to the Underworld, where he spoke to alot of the dead he had known in the past
• he talked to his father, Anchises, who foretold the Greatness of Rome and showed his a pageant of future romans
• this is a turning point for Aeneas as now he is determined to settle in Italy, regardless of what life throws at him

Question 9

Where does Aeneas go after Cumae/what happens

Answer 9

• sails to the mouth of the Tiber river where the prophecy (told by the Harpy Calaeno) was fulfilled
• as the Trojans ate flat cakes upon which their food was placed, Iulus shouts “we are even eating our tables”

Question 10

Calaeno’s prophecy

Answer 10

the Harpy Claeno fortold that Aeneas would reach italy and would only find his new city when hunger had compelled the torjans to eat the tables upon which laid their food

Question 11

What is going on in Latium

Answer 11

the king of Latium, King Latinus had betrothed his daughter Lavinia to Turnus, prince of the Rutuli tribe
- King Latinus went to an oracle which told his to give Lavinia to a foreigner instead
- Latinus attempted to give her to Aeneas but Juno sent the Fury Allecto to infuriate Turnus and Lavinia’s mother Amata so that they violently opposed Aeneas

Question 12

fallout of Allecto talking to Amata and Turnus

Answer 12

• wasr was inevitable and Latinus was poweless to stop it
• Turnus and the other Latins opposed the Trojans
• after ferocious battles between the Latin allies and the Trojans, Aeneas kills Turnus in single combat
• was going to spare him but saw that Turnus is wearing his friends (Pallas; son of Evander) sword belt
• it’s at this point the Aeneid ends

Question 13

Evander

Answer 13

• king of Pallenteum, which was the city that would eventually become rome
• ally to Aeneas in the war agains the Latins (The Rutulians)
• father of Pallas who is killed by Turnus

Question 14

what motivates Aeneas throughout his journey

Answer 14

• motivated by pietas (“sense of duty”) which leads him to leave ease and comfort to pursue a destiny which he does not become fully aware until he visits the underworld

Question 15

why is the word of Jupiter so much greater in significance than that of Zeus

Answer 15

• Jupiter becomes identified with destiny/fate and jupiter’s prophecies therefore is basically saying it is coming from fate itself

Question 16

Camilla

Answer 16

• warrior maiden, leader of the Volscians
• was said she could run over the fields of grain without bruising them and over the sea waves without her feet touching the water
• when she was a baby, her and her father king Metabus (forced out of his kingdom) had to cross a wild river
• Metabus knew he couldn’t swim to the other side with a baby in his hands. He prayed to Diana and promised her his daughter in case she would live through the next moments.
• Then he tied her to a spear and threw that spear to the other bank with a mighty blow. The plan worked. He swam and found his spear with the little Camilla on the other side.
• when fighting for the latins, an unremarkable man called Arruns had the luck to throw a killing spear in a moment when Camilla didn’t pay enough attention
• Her only misfortune was, that she fought on the losing side.

Question 17

death of Aeneas

Answer 17

• he died in battle several years after his original battle
• Venus asked Jupiter to make him immortal, which he agreed
• the river god Numicus cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts, was Venus anointed him with nectar and ambrosia, which made him a god
• he was then worshiped with the divine title Indiges (“patron deity”)