Points to make Flashcards
Two possible meanings behind Aeneas’ name
Aeneas is derived from the Ancient Greek word for ‘terrible’ (αἰνός) but could also come from the Ancient Greek word for ‘praise’ (αἶνος)
Jupiter questioning the need for war at the beginning of the book (2)
‘Why do you contend with such bitterness of heart? I had forbidden Italy to clash with the Trojans’
‘Time will come for war’
Venus describing Turnus at the beginning of the book
‘swollen with the success of his arms’
Venus begging Jupiter to spare Ascanius
‘Allow me to take Ascanius safely out of the war. Allow my grandson to live’
Juno discrediting the fated nature of Aeneas’ mission (2)
‘Neither man nor god compelled Aeneas to choose the ways of war and confront King Latinus as an enemy.’
‘We are told he has the authority of the Fates for coming to Italy. The Fates, indeed!’
Turnus’ ancestors (2) - mentioned by Juno
His grandfather was Pilumnus
His mother was the goddess Venilia
Latin-sounding and ‘old-fashioned’ names - Virgil is underlining Turnus’ Italian ancestry/status and therefore his arguably legitimate claim to supremacy
Adds to the sense that this is a civil war - the Trojan (but ultimately Roman) Aeneas vs the undeniably Italian Turnus
Jupiter’s declaration of divine withdrawal from the events of Book X (3)
‘this day let each man face his own fortune and set his course by his own hopes’
‘Trojan and Rutulian I shall treat alike’
‘The Fates will find their way’
Ascanius jewel epic simile
‘was like a gem sparkling in its gold setting’
Quotation reflecting on Mark Antony and Octavian fashioning him as a foreign leader in the civil war
‘Then these Etruscans…committed themselves to a foreign leader in accordance with the will of the gods’
Here Aeneas is the foreign leader = ambiguity in his character or casting doubt on the impiety of Antony
Relationship between Aeneas and Pallas (on the ship)
‘All the while young Pallas stayed close by his left side, asking him now about the stars’
Aeneas kills Gyas and Cisseus
‘Nothing could help them now: not the weapons of Hercules, nor the strength of their hands, nor their father Melampus’
Alcanor comes to help Maeon as he dies
‘a brother’s right hand to support a brother’
Epic simile about the two armies as a whole (winds)
‘Trojans and Latins were battling on the very threshold of Italy’
‘like opposing winds fighting their wars in the great reaches of the sky’
Pallas and the Arcadians epic simile (shepherd)
‘just as a shepherd…sits in triumph looking down on the exulting blaze’
Halaesus’ father attempts to save him
Had hidden him in the woods, but when the father died, ‘the Fates lay a hand on the son and consecrated him to Evander’s spear’
Pallas’ prayer before he killed Halaesus
Prayed to Father Tiber
Promises to strip his arms and ‘hang them on your sacred oak as spoils’
