Lecture 19 Flashcards
Aeneas and Hellen
- Sees Helen and is enraged and decides he’s going to kill her
- Venus steps in and stops him
- says it’s not humans, Greeks, humans, who caused this war and Troy to fall but the gods.
- Let’s him see all the Gods destroying troy
- Doesn’t want her son killing Helen because she’s one of the favorites
- Says think of your family and this distracts him from his rage and he goes back home to save his family (father, wife, and son)
- Resembles Achilles
Aeneas family’s escape from Troy
- Carries his father
- leads his son by the hand
- his father carries statues that represent the gods of Troy to take to Rome
- Wife follows behind and doesn’t make it out of Troy
- Patriarchal Roman family (Grandfather, Father, Son-3 generations)
- this escape demonstrates his piety toward his family and nation
Book 3
- sea wanderings (7 years)
- bad things keep happening
- learns he has to go to Italy
Dido’s Feelings
-Dido falls in love with Aeneas as he tells his story
-Partly cupid’s fault
-At first she resists
-Dido had to flee Tyre cause her brother (Pygmalion) killed her husband (Sychaeus) for his money
A woman who was only married once had a special status so she didn’t initially want to accept her feelings for Aeneas
-Anna, her sister, encourages her to love Aeneas
Univira
-woman who has only had one husband
Juno and Venus’ plan
plan to marry Aeneas to Dido so Aeneas won’t found Rome
- Juno’s plan but Venus goes along with it because she doesn’t think it’s going to work. Jupiter already reassured her of Aeneas’ fate
- Marriage boils down to them getting caught together in a cave and they have sex apparently that means they’re married.
Result of Plan
-relationship depicted as a bad thing for Carthage because Dido is ignoring her duties as a leader and is focused on lust
Why does Virgil choose to involve Aeneas with an African queen?
-sets up the conflict between the western and Mediterranean powers and also brings up Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator
- last (Greek) pharaoh of Egypt
- Member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty: Descendent of one of Alexander the Great’s generals (Northern Greek heritage)
- Lover of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony
- Known for her intelligence
- Civil war between Antony and Augustus presented by Augustus as a war against Egypt and Cleopatra
- Killed herself to prevent being taken prisoner by Augustus
Dido vs Aeneas
-whos side do you take see these notes if essay question
