The Aeneid

1
The Aeneid

• Context and Background

2
(No Transcript)
3
Virgil

• Born 70 B.C.E.
• Eclogues 41 B.C.E.
• Georgics 29 B.C.E

4
Octavian (Augustus)

• First TriumvirateJulius Caesar, Pompey, and
  Crassus.
• Crassus killed in 53 B.C.E. and Caesar wages
  civil war against Pompey.
• Caesar wins against Pompey and reigns until 44
  B.C.E. when he is killed by Brutus and Cassius.

5
Octavian (Augustus)

• Second Triumvirate Octavian, Antony, and
  Lepidus.
• After killing Caesar, Brutus and Cassius fall
  into civil war with the second Triumvirate.
• 36 B.C.E. only Octavian and Antony are left -
  they war with one another.

6
Octavian (Augustus)

• 31 B.C.E. The Battle of Actium Octavian defeats
  Antony and Cleopatra.
• 27 B.C.E., Octavian takes the Title Augustsus
  (the Blessed).

7
The Trojan War

• The Goddess of strife - Eris - throws a golden
  apple before the Goddesses Venus, Minerva and
  Juno in Mount Olympus and says it is for the most
  beautiful of them.
• The three Goddesses choose Paris - a Trojan, and
  the most handsome human - to choose among them.

8
The Trojan War

• Paris awards the apple to Venus because she
  promised him the most beautiful woman - Helen -
  who was already married to the Greek King
  Menelaus.
• Paris takes Helen to Troy.
• Menelaus gathers Agamemnon, Ulysses and Achilles
  to fight the Trojans.

9
The Trojan War

• The Goddesses take sides in the ten year war.
• Minerva and Juno are on the side of the Greeks.
• Venus is on the side of the Trojans.
• Aeneas is the son of Venus.

10
Junos Grudge

• Juno has a grudge for several reasons
• Shes still angry about the incident with Paris.
• Shes already sided against the Trojans in the
  Trojan war.
• She knows that Aeneas is destined to found Rome
  and that the Roman descendants of Aeneas will
  attack Carthage. Juno is the patroness of
  Carthage.

11
Book I

• Aeneas is fleeing the destruction of Troy by the
  Greeks with the survivors (men, women and
  children).
• He knows he is supposed to found a new home for
  the Trojans.
• Aeneas sails south of Sicily where Juno calls
  upon Aeolus to send a storm to blow the Trojans
  off course.

12
Book I

• Neptune is disturbed and accuses Aeolus of
  overstepping his bounds. Neptune restores calm.
• With only seven ships remaining, the Trojans land
  on the coast of Libya in order to recover.
• Venus begs Jupiter to ease the suffering of the
  Trojans.

13
Book I

• Jupiter reassures Venus that Aeneas will
  eventually found Rome. He sends a God to ensure
  that the people of Carthage will welcome the
  Trojans.
• Venus appears to Aeneas in the woods and tells
  him about how Dido came to be queen of Carthage.

14
Book I

• Dido lived in Tyre, a city in Phoenicia (now
  Syria) with her wealthy husband Sychaeus.
• Her own brother, Pygmalion murdered Sychaeus for
  his money.
• Warned by her husbands spirit, Dido fled Tyre
  with those opposed to Pygmalion.

15
Book I

• Didio and the Phoenecians found a city - Carthage
  - in Libya.
• Venus shrouds Aeneas and Achates to make them
  invisible so they can investigate whether the
  people of Carthage are hospitable.
• They discover a mural of the Torjan war in a
  shrine to Juno.

16
Book I

• They also discover lost shipmates.
• They witness Dido telling the shipmates that she
  wishes she could meet Aeneas.
• Aeneas reveals himself. Dido invites them to a
  banquet.
• Venus sends her son Cupid down in the form of
  Aeneas son Ascanius to cause Dido to love Aeneas.

17
Themes

• Aeneas piety (pietas fulfilling obligations to
  those more powerful, worthy of respect and those
  less powerful).
• Mortal suffering at the hands of the Gods.
• Finitude of human wisdom and seeing what you want
  to see (the temple of Juno at Carthage).

18
Book II

• Aeneas tells the story of the Trojan War.
• The Greeks (Danaans) constructed a clarge wooden
  horse and hid their best soldiers in the belly.
  The rest took the ships into hiding and made it
  appear that they had fled.

19
Book II

• The Trojans find Sinon who claims to be an
  escaped sacrifice of the Greeks in order to
  ensure safe journey away from Troy.
• He claims that the horse is an offering to
  Minerva, whom the Greeks had angered when Ulysses
  destroyed one of her temples.

20
Book II

• Sinon claims that if anyone harms the horse, they
  will be destroyed, but that if it is installed
  inside the city gates, the Trojans will be
  victorious with Minerva on their side.
• Two snakes come from the ocean and eat Laocoön,
  the priest, for having thrown a spear at the
  horse.

21
2nd Century B.C.E. In the Vatican.
22
Book II

• The Trojans take the horse into the city.
• The Greeks emerge and open the gates to the
  hidden Greeks.
• Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream and tells him
  the city is under siege.
• Aeneas and others fight bravely but are
  outnumbered.

23
Book II

• Aeneas and others go to King Priams palace.
• Pyrrhus, a Greek, kills Polites, the son of Priam
  and Hecuba, then kills Priam on an altar.
• Aeneas sees Helen hiding and intends to kill her.

24
Book II

• Venus appears and convinces Aeneas not to kill
  Helen because the real cause of the Trojan war is
  the Gods.
• Aeneas goes to his father - Anchises - but he
  wont leave. After omens appear, he agrees to
  leave Troy.

25
Book II

• Aeneas leaves with his father on his back,
  accompanied by his son Ascanius and his wife
  Creusa. Creusa gets left behind somehow and
  killed.
• Aeneas goes back to get her. Her ghost appears
  and tells Aeneas that a new home and wife await
  him Hesperia (Italy).

26
Barocci, 1598 Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese,
Rome
27
Themes

• Laocoon episode innocent suffering and
  misperception/misinterpretation.
• Personal wishes vs. obligations.
• Limits of human perception and judgment.

28
Book III

• Aeneas and the survivors land on the coast of
  Antander to build new ships and prepare for
  voyage.
• They go to Thrace, where Aeneass prepares a
  sacrifice.
• When he tears at a tree, it bleeds and cries out
  - it claims to be Polydorous, the son of Priam.

29
Book III

• Priam had sent Polydourous to Thrace to keep him
  safe, but the King betrayed the Trojans and
  killed Polydorous.
• They bury Polydorous and sail to Delos, where
  Apollo speaks to Aeneas and tells him to travel
  to the land of his ancestors.
• Anchises misinterprets this as a reference to
  Crete.

30
Book III

• They sail to Crete and begin building a new city
  when a plague hits.
• The hearth Gods of Troy appear and tell Aeneas
  that Crete is not the place but rather Italy, the
  original home of Dardanus.
• They sail to Strophades, the island of the
  Harpies.

31
(No Transcript)
32
Book III

• The Harpies, angry at the Trojans for killing
  their cattle, place a curse on them.
• The curse is that the Trojans will suffer great
  hunger before founding their city.
• They go to Leucata, where they make offerings to
  Apollo.
• They head towards Italy, stopping at Buthrotum in
  Chaonia.

33
Book III

• There Helenus - one of Priams sons - has become
  king of a Greek city.
• Pyrrhus had taken Helenus and Andromachë as
  prisoners of war. But after Pyrrhus died, they
  took over part of his kingdom.

34
Book III

• Andromachë tells Aeneas that to reach the west
  coast of Italy, one must go the long way round
  past Sicily.
• There are two hazards Scylla - a six-headed
  monster - and Charybdis - a whirlpool.
• They travel south - Mt. Etna is erupting.

35
(No Transcript)
36
Book III

• They rest on a beach.
• A Greek stranger appears and begs to go with
  them.
• He is fleeing the Cyclops, which had been stabbed
  in the eye by Ulysses.
• They all escape the Cyclopes narrowly.
• The go to Drepanum, where Anchises does.

37
(No Transcript)