CLASS 20B Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Latins, Aeneid, P73
5/29/18 - Lecture 15
Virgil’s Aeneid Books 1-4
Aeneid: The Opening
- Divinely ordained11 mission
- 1. Mission: found a city, bring his gods to Latium (source of the Latin race)
- Nation & future-building
- “He bore in battle too, before he could found a city, bring his gods to Latium,
source of the Latin race, The Alban lords & the high walls of Rome”
- 2. Terribly high personal human cost to create Rome
- Price to pay for successful completion of mission
- “yet many blows he took on land & sea from the gods above….and many losses
he bore in battle too”
- 3. Why?
- Why does a hero have to pay such a price for something that is blindly ordained?
- Why did she force a man, so famous for his devotion, to brave such rounds of
hardship, bear such trials?
Juno’s Rage (cf. Homer’s Hera)
- Opening ‘in media res’ = in the middle of the story (7 years in: p73)
- Juno = Homer’s Hera (hates Trojans b/c of Judgement of Paris)
- Juno “loves” Carthage, wants it to “rule the nations of the earth”
Aeneid Books 1-3
- Jupiter reveals Aeneas’s future → will only live for 3 summers, son will take over
- Promises a limitless empire in space & time
- 1. Aeneas, 7 yrs after leaving Troy, is blown by a storm to site of Carthage
- Storm caused by Juno’s anger
- Complaint of Venus to Jupiter; Jupiter’s promise & prophecy (scan of pp 56-57)
- Venus makes Dido (queen of Carthage) fall in love with Aeneas
- 2. Flashback 1: Aeneas tells Dido the story of the Fall of Troy
- Trojan horse (Laocoon)
- Laocoon: “I fear the Greeks, especially bearing gifts”
- Greeks pretend to flee by dedicating the horse to Athena for a safe trip home
- Sinon = the Greek double agent
- Persuades Trojans that horse should be pulled into city
- When that happens, he opens the horse from the outside
- Two snakes attack Laocoon & his sons (omen that convinces Trojans to bring in
the wooden horse)
- Massacre in the palace: slaughter of Trojan King Priam
- Flight from Troy
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Document Summary
Mission: found a city, bring his gods to latium (source of the latin race) He bore in battle too, before he could found a city, bring his gods to latium, source of the latin race, the alban lords & the high walls of rome . Terribly high personal human cost to create rome. Price to pay for successful completion of mission. Yet many blows he took on land & sea from the gods above . and many losses he bore in battle too . Opening in media res" = in the middle of the story (7 years in: p73) Juno = homer"s hera (hates trojans b/c of judgement of paris) Juno loves carthage, wants it to rule the nations of the earth . Jupiter reveals aeneas"s future will only live for 3 summers, son will take over. Promises a limitless empire in space & time. Aeneas, 7 yrs after leaving troy, is blown by a storm to site of carthage.
