The Aeneid

Question 1

Dactylic Haxameter

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Who wrote the Aeneid and why?

Answer 2

The Roman poet Virgil wrote the epic poem the Aeneid as a rival to the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” of Ancient Greece.

Question 3

Pietas

Answer 3

Roman for “a duty”

Question 4

Aeneas

Answer 4

• the hero
• honorable
• pious
• honorable

Question 5

Who is Aeneas’ mother?

Answer 5

The goddess Venus

Question 6

Queen Dido

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Anchises

Answer 7

• Aeneas’ father
• Wise and string in character
• the source of Aeneas’ values
• he exemplifies the Roman ideal of the respect for honor and family

Question 8

What does Aeneas have to find to go to the underworld?

Answer 8

The golden bough which is only pluck able if fate allows it.

Question 9

What does the golden bough symbolize?

Answer 9

Aeneas’s extraordinary and inevitable fate.

Question 10

Themes of The Aenead

Answer 10

• 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?)

Question 11

Setting of book 6

Answer 11

After the Trojan war in Sicily, Italy

Question 12

The Sibyl

Answer 12

A priestess of Apollo who agrees to guide Aeneas to the Underworld

Question 13

What kind of poem is the Aeneid?

Answer 13

A Roman Epic

Question 14

Who does the Sibyl say needs to have a performed funeral rites by Aeneas and his men?

Answer 14

Misenus

Question 15

What does Aeneas do with Misenus?

Answer 15

Burns his body in a funeral pyre.

Question 16

Who is the ferryman of the underworld?

Answer 16

Charon

Question 17

Why are there souls of the dead on the shore of the River Acheron?

Answer 17

They cannot be ferried over because they haven’t been buried and therefore need to wander aimlessly for 100 years before they can cross.

Question 18

Who frowns on the journey over from Carthage to Italy? And when does Aeneas notice he is dead?

Answer 18

Palinurus drowned but wasn’t discovered until Aeneas saw him on the shores of the River Acheron.

Question 19

Why does Charon bring Aeneas and the sibyl across the River?

Answer 19

Because they carry the golden bough.

Question 20

Who confronts Aeneas at the cave that leads to the Nine Circles of the River Styx?

Answer 20

Cerberus, the three headed watch dog

Question 21

Infants, those condemned on false charges, suicides, those who died for love, and warriors can be found in which section of the underworld?

Answer 21

Limbo

Question 22

Deceitful, fraudulent, adulterers, and people disloyal to masters can be found where?

Answer 22

Tartarus

Question 23

Heroes, poets, priests, and benefactors of humankind can be found where?

Answer 23

Elysium

Question 24

Where does Aeneas see his father?

Answer 24

The Elysian Fields

Question 25

What is so significant about the River Lethe?

Answer 25

Souls which will be reincarnated drink from this river to forget about their former lives.

Question 26

Where does Aeneas exit the underworld from?

Answer 26

The ivory gate of false dreams

Question 27

What does Anchises tell Aeneas?

Answer 27

He tells him that he needs to establish a home in Italy and shows him a vision of a line of descendants reaching from Aeneas to Augustus.

Question 28

Where does Aeneas ask Apollo if the Trojans can live there?

Answer 28

Latium

Question 29

How is the Aeneid similar to the Odyssey?

Answer 29

They both are story telling of hero’s journeys, both protagonists visit the underworld, they are told in chronological order but both have flashbacks where they tell someone about their life, and the protagonists want to find home.

Question 30

How is the Aeneas different from Odysseus? Why did Vergil do that?

Answer 30

Odysseus is more arrogant and self involved than Aeneas. Vergil most likely did that to show that Roman hero’s express the values of true heroes in an attempt to make Rome look good.

Question 31

What rhetorical devices are prominent in the Aeneid?

Answer 31

Imagery, allegory(symbols, alliteration, anaphora(repetition of a word), apostrophe(address of an absent person)

Question 32

How are Aeneas and the sibyl able to pass Cerberus?

Answer 32

They feed him a drugged honey cake.

Question 33

Where in the underworld does Aeneas encounter Dido?

Answer 33

Field of Mourning

Question 34

Who is Dido with in the underworld?

Answer 34

Sychaeus, her husband

Question 35

Among men in famous in war, Aeneas encounters this warrior, who has been hacked to pieces…

Answer 35

Deiphobus

Question 36

Who is the famous “Spartan Whore” who betrayed Deiphobus?

Answer 36

Helen

Question 37

Which river in the underworld is the river of forgetfulness?

Answer 37

The river Lethe

Question 38

How long must souls wait before drinking the water from the River Lethe?

Answer 38

1000 years

Question 39

What river runs just inside the gate of hell where you can fin Charon?

Answer 39

The River Acheron

Question 40

Who is Minus?

Answer 40

The judge in the underworld of those who had been given the death penalty on a false charge.