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Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter.
Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (Arma virumque cano…, “I sing of arms and the man…”) and an invocation to his Muse (Musa, mihi causas memora…, “O Muse, relate to me the reasons…”). He then explains the cause of the principal conflict of the plot; in this case, the resentment held by Juno against the Trojan people. This is in keeping with the style of the Homeric epics, except in that Virgil states the theme and then invokes his Muse, whereas Homer invokes the Muse and then states the theme.
Also in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res, with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. Juno stirs up a storm which is on the verge of sinking the fleet. Neptune takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno’s intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas gains the favor of Dido, queen of Carthage, a city which has only recently been founded by refugees from Tyre and which will later become Rome’s greatest enemy.
At a banquet given in the honor of the Trojans, Aeneas recounts the events which occasioned the Trojans’ fortuitous arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the events described in the Iliad, and tells of the end of the Trojan War, the ruse of the Trojan Horse, the sack of Troy by the Greek armies, and his escape with his son Ascanius and father Anchises, his wife Creusa having been separated from the others and subsequently killed in the general catastrophe. She was later turned into a minor goddess. He tells of how, rallying the other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean (including Thrace, Crete and Epirus) before being divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known as Ausonia or Hesperia), where his descendants would not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. The fleet reached as far as Sicily and was making for the mainland, until Juno raised up the storm which drove it back across the sea to Carthage.
During the banquet, Dido realizes that she has fallen madly in love with Aeneas, although she had previously sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband, Sychaeus, who was murdered by her cupidinous brother Pygmalion. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas’ mother, with the intention of distracting him from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido’s love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a cave in which Aeneas and Dido presumably have sex, an event that Dido takes to indicate a marriage between them. But when Jupiter sends Mercury to remind him of his duty, he has no choice but to part. Her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon a pyre with a sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas’s people and hers; “rise up from my bones, avenging spirit” is an obvious invocation to Hannibal. Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees Dido’s funeral pyre’s smoke and knows its meaning only too clearly. However, destiny calls and the Trojan fleet sails on to Italy.
Aeneas’s father Anchises having been hastily interred on Sicily during the fleet’s previous landfall there, the Trojans returned to the island to hold funeral games in his honor. Eventually, the fleet lands on the mainland of Italy and further adventures ensue. Aeneas descends to the underworld through an opening at Cumae, where he speaks with the spirit of his father and has a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome. Returning to the land of the living, he leads the Trojans to settle in the land of Latium, where he courts Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus. A war ensues between the Trojans and some of the indigenous peoples of Italy, which is brought to a close when Lavinia’s rejected suitor Turnus, king of the Rutuli, challenges Aeneas to a duel in which Turnus is slain.
Aeneid
Bk I: After seven years of wandering, the Trojans are leaving Sicily for Italy. Juno, for a number of reasons, chief among them her continued resentment of all things Trojan, arouses a storm that drives them off course to Carthage. They are welcomed by Queen Dido, who settled Carthage after escaping her brother, who killed her husband. Venus makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas (as a way preemptively to thwart Juno). At a banquet, Dido asks to hear the stories of his wanderings. Bk II: An intense and tragic flashback to the Fall of Troy, including an account of the Trojan horse, the death of Priam, Aeneas\'92s loss of his wife Creusa while he escapes with his father, Anchises, and his son, Iulus (also called Ascanius). Bk III: Aeneas continues his narrative with a telling of his six years of wandering . His account includes the founding of several ill-fated settlements; an encounter with the Harpies (perhaps contrived by Virgil so that Aeneas can share an experience with Jason and the argonauts); a meeting Hector's widow Andromache (now married to Helenus, son of Priam); Apollo's prophetic advice-- including instructions to see the Sibyl at Cumae; landing on the island of the Cyclops and meeting Achaemenides (thus, Aeneas shares an experience with Odysseus); and finally to Sicily, where, we learn at the end of this book, Anchises dies. Bk IV: The love affair of Aeneas and Dido. Jupiter sends Mercury to order Aeneas to leave Carthage and fulfill his divine mission to found Rome. He immediately realizes he must sacrifice his personal happiness to his national and religious duty (he is "pious Aeneas"). He tries to explain to Dido, but she accepts no explanation and, as the Trojans depart, she kills herself in despair. Bk V: The Trojans return to Sicily and hold funeral games for Anchises. Juno causes Trojan women to set fire to the ships, but Jupiter puts the fire out. While on the final leg of the journey, the helmsman Palinurus is swept overboard by the god Sleep. Bk. VI: The Trojans land at Cumae in Italy (as instructed by Apollo), and Aeneas descends with the Sibyl to the underworld in order to consult the ghost of his father. He sees Dido while he is there. Future heroes of Roman history pass in a pageant before him, and he returns to the upper world resolute. Book VII: The Trojans reach the Tiber, and are welcomed by King Latinus, who recognizes Aeneas as the stranger referred to in an oracle as the one who would marry his daughter Lavinia. She is already betrothed to Turnus the Rutulian. Juno intervenes and ensures that Turnus will fight the Trojans. War breaks out. Book VIII: Aeneas visits Evander, an Arcadian living on the site of Rome (Pallanteum), to seek help. Evander's son Pallas heads the Arcadian contingent. Venus has a shield made for her son Aeneas, and on it are pictures from (future) Roman history. The description of these at the end of the book remind us why Aeneas has to fight Turnus, and what is at stake. Book IX: While Aeneas is away, Turnus achieves great deeds. In a much remarked upon passage, Nisus and Euryalus are killed. Turnus breaks into the Trojan camp but, because of pride and overconfidence, fails to open the gates so that his forces can join him. He escapes by jumping into the Tiber. Book X: Aeneas returns with Pallas and the war continues. Turnus seeks out Pallas and kills him, arrogantly boating over him and stripping off his sword-belt. Aeneas, in anger an guilt, rages over the battlefield, killing, among others, Lausus, whose father, Mezentius, in depair, recklessly engages Aeneas and is killed. Book XI: The funeral for Pallas. A truce for burial of the dead is made, but the fighting shortly resumes. The deeds and death of Camilla, an Italian warrior-maiden, are described. Book XII: A single combat is arranged between Aeneas and Turnus; but the truce is broken-- by Juturna, Turnus's sister, who is instigated by Juno-- and Aeneas is wounded. On Olympus, Juno accepts defeat on condition that the Italians shall be dominant in the Trojan-Italian stock from which the Romans will descend. Aeneas pursues Turnus (as Achilles pursued Hector in the Iliad), and wounds him. Turnus begs for mercy. Aeneas hesitates but, on seeing Pallas's sword-belt on Turnus's shoulder, kills him. Subsequent events (told by Jupiter in Book I, line 266ff.): Aeneas founds Lavinium; three years later, Ascanius succeeds him and rules for 30 years before moving the settlement to Alba Longa. The Alban kings rule for 300 years (Aeneid 6.760) until Romulus, grandson of Numitor, founds Rome.
Candide
Voltaire, Candide
Candide means innocent. Candide is a very innocent young man living in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in Westphalia. Candide lacks knowledge of the outside world. He believes that this castle is the best place to live in. He considers it ideal. One day he and Cunegonde, the Baron’s daughter are seen in romantic positions. So he is kicked and thrown out of the castle.
Candide goes through many adventures. His eyes open to reality. He sees that everything does not happen for the best as the philosophers and metaphysician Pangloss had told him in the Baron’s castle. In Europe as well as in America, he encounters misery. He meets a number of people from various walks of life. He comes across many philosophers ranging from extreme optimism of Pangloss to the bleak pessimism of Martin. He experiences the love and total selflessness of Jacques and also the extreme cruelty and selfishness of the drunken sailor. He experiences the kindness of the old lady who happens to be the daughter of the Pope and a princess. She is always ready to help though she has gone through tremendous suffering herself.
When Candide reaches Eldorado he feels peace but he leaves so he can find Cunegonde.’ He finally finds her and she has become ugly.’ But they get married and he and the rest of the people mentioned above live together and plant a garden and bask in their ideals.
