Scholarship Flashcards
Richard Jenkyns - Dido and Aeneas
The tragedy of Aeneas and Dido is that it should have been alright but it’s gone wrong.
To blame these two people too much is the wrong approach.
Virgil invites us to share the emotions of these people and sympathise with them.
Richard Jenkyns - Augustus and the Aeneid
The Augustan Age is regarded as one of the high points of human civilisation because of what the poets wrote.
Aeneas can be inconstant and imperfect, the way Augustus could not have been in a praise poem.
Virgil praises Augustus for conquests of peoples and the restoration of order.
Virgil is looking at Augustus seriously by calculating what his place in history is.
Richard Jenkyns - Heroism
Odysseus and Achilles were acting only for themselves, whereas Aeneas has the burden of destiny imposed on him.
Virgil decides right at the beginning that this will be a full mythological epic.
Virgil wants us to know that Aeneas, in some ways, is a primitive, red-blooded warrior with strong emotions.
We are mistaken to think of Aeneas as a stoic hero or Roman hero.
Aeneas’ fault is not feeling too little but feeling too much.
Virgil is addressing the audience when Anchises says ‘you Roman’.
Richard Jenkyns - Cities
Virgil saw that cities are complete societies, unlike the Odyssey which takes place on islands.
Cities are where humans can live a good and secure life.
The poem shows a quest for salvation in institutions.
Richard Jenkyns - The underworld
Virgil’s underworld is an exploration and development.
Aeneas’ experience with Dido will not work unless she is an independant presence - can’t be a dream.
Aeneas moves from darkness to revelation.
Richard Jenkyns - The Italians
Virgil explores the diversity of lands and their peoples.
Books 7 and 8 are about exploring Italy.
Phillip Hardie - Book 6
Arrival marks the end of the Trojans’ wanderings.
We learn most about Italy and Rome in Books 6 and 7.
Paradoxically it is a journey to the future.
Book 6 is a book of funerals, mourning and the dead.
Theme of premature death - Icarus and Marcellus.
Virgil’s reworking is very masculine.
The journey is significantly different from the Odyssey.
