CLAS 2520 Lecture 20: Aeneas Literature Part 1

• School: University of Manitoba
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS 2520
• Professor: Rob Nau

Document Summary

One of the romans most important heroes. Etelli(cid:374)g of ae(cid:374)eas(cid:859) ad(cid:448)e(cid:374)tures fro(cid:373) the o(cid:373)a(cid:374) poet virgil. How the story is told is as important as the story itself. Our first episode from virgil occurs about half-way in his epic, the aeneid. In it he journeys to the underworld to visit his father, anchises, who died along the way to italy, i(cid:374) fulfil(cid:373)e(cid:374)t of a (cid:448)o(cid:449) (cid:894)he s(cid:449)ore to his father(cid:859)s spirit(cid:895) Many heroes go to the u(cid:374)der(cid:449)orld a(cid:374)d the (cid:374)a(cid:373)e of this ki(cid:374)d of trip is a (cid:858)katabasis". Heroes that are the subject of a long narrative with an important quest often have an episode where they literally or symbolically journey to the underworld. Herakles jour(cid:374)e(cid:455)s to the u(cid:374)der(cid:449)orld to retrie(cid:448)e hades(cid:859) dog cerberus. Odysseus journeys to the underworld to speak to the blind seer tiresias (theban prophet), to find out how to get home.