Virgil's Aeneid: Lines 335-359 Notes

Question 1

Does Venus agree to help Aeneas having been satisfied by his words?

Answer 1

Yes

Question 2

Does Venus reveal her identity?

Answer 2

No

Question 3

What sort of dye was purple dye?

Answer 3

A famous but expensive one

Question 4

What was purple a symbol of? Why?

Answer 4

Power and status in Rome because it is a famous and expensive dye

Question 5

How did they make purple dye?

Answer 5

Crushed and treated shellfish

Question 6

Why would purple be likely to feature in a Carthaginian habitat?

Answer 6

Shellfish was often found off the coast of Tyre (Dido’s homeland)

Question 7

Who is Agenor?

Answer 7

An ancestor of Dido from Tyre

Question 8

How does Venus comfort Aeneas that Carthage is not warlike?

Answer 8

Compares to their neighbours

Question 9

How is her introduction to Dido’s story well calculated?

Answer 9

She mentions many aspects of Dido’s life that are similar to Aeneas’

Question 10

What is the effect of the well calculated introduction to Dido’s story?

Answer 10

Catch Aeneas’ attention

Question 11

Which aspects of Dido’s life are common with Aeneas’?

Answer 11

Dido is an exile, was wronged after many adventures, has founded a new city

Question 12

In line 345, there is ellipsis of what? How many times is it repeated?

Answer 12

‘Her’ is repeated twice

Question 13

Who is Sychaeus?

Answer 13

Dido’s first husband

Question 14

What accentuates the number of crimes Pygmalion has done?

Answer 14

Polysyndeton

Question 15

How is Dido’s suffering magnified?

Answer 15

With then audience’s knowledge she will fall in love and be abandoned a second time by Aeneas

Question 16

Which word is emphatically placed on line 349?

Answer 16

‘Impius’

Question 17

Where is there a contrast on line 349?

Answer 17

‘Impius’ followed by ‘ante aras’ - Pygmalion is not dutiful while Sychaeus is being dutiful to the Gods

Question 18

Which word is emphatically positioned on line 352?

Answer 18

Amantem

Question 19

What is the last mention of Pygmalion’s evilness?

Answer 19

He hides Sychaeus’ body and does not bury him

Question 20

What did Romans believe about the unburied?

Answer 20

They could not enter the underworld so wandered as ghosts haunting and disturbing the living

Question 21

Where is the irony in this passage?

Answer 21

Altars are meant to protect a man but could not when faced with Pygmalion’s pure evilness

Question 22

What is theoxeny?

Answer 22

When a goddess disguises as a stranger and is described as a stranger

Question 23

What is xenia behaviour?

Answer 23

Guest friendship - she is being a stranger

Question 24

Who had purple on their togas?

Answer 24

Politicians have a band of purple around their togas

Question 25

What two animals make up purple dye?

Answer 25

Shellfish and beetles

Question 26

Where is Carthage?

Answer 26

Tunisia

Question 27

Where is Troy?

Answer 27

Just below Bulgaria

Question 28

Where is Tyre?

Answer 28

Lebanon

Question 29

What does 'windings' mean?

Answer 29

To and fro

Question 30

What typically happens in epic poetry?

Answer 30

Strangers meet, one has suffered and one tells a story

Question 31

'Summa' could also mean...

Answer 31

Highlights

Question 32

What helped to mark out someone's status?

Answer 32

How much land you had

Question 33

What is the effect of the ellipsis?

Answer 33

For scansion, 'her' shows she is unimportant in the transaction, starts a more dramatic section

Question 34

What is significant about 'medius'?

Answer 34

Actually divides the line in the middle

Question 35

Who is Pygmalion the opposite of?

Answer 35

Aeneas who is pious

Question 36

What sort of lexis is present with Pygmalion? Why?

Answer 36

Negative to show how evil he is

Question 37

There is polyptoton of which word?

Answer 37

Amore

Question 38

Why us Sychaeus at the altar?

Answer 38

It is their wedding day

Question 39

What does 'lusit' actually mean? Does this add to the evilness?

Answer 39

'To play with' so yes it does

Question 40

How is Pygmalion the opposite of what Romans esteem to be?

Answer 40

Romans esteem to be careful with their money

Question 41

Why did Dido and Pygmalion divide?

Answer 41

Because of rage

Question 42

Which words should go together but do not? Why?

Answer 42

'Aegram' and 'amantem' relates to love and sickness at the end of each line

Question 43

Is the section about Pygmalion ambiguous?

Answer 43

Yes

Question 44

Do ghosts look like their normal human selves?

Answer 44

No- they look possessed

Question 45

What did people think when a ghost appeared to them?

Answer 45

They are seeing the actual person although they are just dreaming