The Aeneid Flashcards
Dactylic Haxameter
A poem style where each line has six syllable groups (or feet) mad up of dactyls which go long, short, short, and sponsees which go long, long.
Who wrote the Aeneid and why?
The Roman poet Virgil wrote the epic poem the Aeneid as a rival to the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” of Ancient Greece.
Pietas
Roman for “a duty”
Aeneas
- the hero
- honorable
- pious
- honorable
Who is Aeneas’ mother?
The goddess Venus
Queen Dido
Was Aeneas’ s/o but when fate took Aeneas away from her she killed herself. She symbolizes the consequences when the careless will of the gods conflicts with fate.
Anchises
- Aeneas’ father
- Wise and string in character
- the source of Aeneas’ values
- he exemplifies the Roman ideal of the respect for honor and family
What does Aeneas have to find to go to the underworld?
The golden bough which is only pluck able if fate allows it.
What does the golden bough symbolize?
Aeneas’s extraordinary and inevitable fate.
Themes of The Aenead
- Inevitable Fate
- The destiny of Rome (it glorifies Rome and it’s leader, Augustus, whilst demonstrating the traits of an ideal Roman)
- Honor and Respect (Pious, honoring and being mindful of one’s duties to family and country)
- Will of the Gods (do the gods merit the respect they demand of humans?)
Setting of book 6
After the Trojan war in Sicily, Italy
The Sibyl
A priestess of Apollo who agrees to guide Aeneas to the Underworld
What kind of poem is the Aeneid?
A Roman Epic
Who does the Sibyl say needs to have a performed funeral rites by Aeneas and his men?
Misenus
What does Aeneas do with Misenus?
Burns his body in a funeral pyre.
Who is the ferryman of the underworld?
Charon