The Aeneid

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The Aeneid

• Western Literature I

Presentation originally created by Ralph
Mondayimproved and updated by Curtis Currie
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VIrgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and
OctaviaJean Joseph Taillasson (1745-1809).
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Aeneas Journey
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MagicalProphecyOf theSybil.
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• When Virgil was dying in 19 BC he asked for the
  unfinished Aeneid to be destroyed.
• The emperor Augustus refused the request.
• This decision affected the course of literary
  history and the development of western culture.

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• In his own lifetime Virgil's poetry had become a
  school text.
• Early Christian writers who attempted to reject
  Virgil could escape neither his style nor his
  attitudes.

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• Christian thought assimilated them both.
• The Aeneid and the Bible were probably the two
  most consistently read books in Western Europe
  for two thousand years.

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• The Aeneid was composed at least in part to
  celebrate ''truth, justice, and the Roman way.''
• It was also composed to promote the rebirth of
  the Roman way of life under Augustus.

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AugustusFirst Roman Emperor63 B.C. 14 A.D.
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• The Aeneid also universalizes Roman experience,
  ideals, and aspirations.
• The Aeneid represents a pivotal point in western
  literature Virgil drew on the whole of Greek and
  Latin literature to create this epic.

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Publius Vergilius Maro 70 B.C.19 B.C.
Dante and Virgil In Hell
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Plot of the Aeneid

• On the Mediterranean Sea, Aeneas and his fellow
  Trojans flee from their home city of Troy, which
  has been destroyed by the Greeks.

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• They sail for Italy, where Aeneas is destined to
  found Rome.
• As they near their destination, a fierce storm
  throws them off course and lands them in
  Carthage.

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• Dido, Carthages founder and queen, welcomes
  them.
• Aeneas relates to Dido the long and painful story
  of his groups travels thus far.

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• Aeneas tells of the sack of Troy that ended the
  Trojan War after ten years of Greek siege.
• He tells how he escaped the burning city with his
  father, Anchises, his son, Ascanius, and the
  hearth gods that represent their fallen city.

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• Assured by the gods that a glorious future
  awaited him in Italy, he set sail with a fleet
  containing the surviving citizens of Troy.
• There, eventually Rome will be founded in 735 B.C.

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Book VI Journey to the Underworld
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• On the shores of Italy the ships drop anchor off
  the coast of Cumae, near modern-day Naples.
• Following his fathers instructions, Aeneas makes
  for the Temple of Apollo, where the Sibyl, a
  priestess, meets him and commands him to make his
  request.

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• Aeneas prays to Apollo to allow the Trojans to
  settle in Latium. The priestess warns him that
  more trials await in Italy
• fighting on the scale of the Trojan War, a foe of
  the caliber of the Greek warrior Achilles, and
  further interference from Juno.

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• Aeneas inquires whether the Sibyl can gain him
  entrance to Dis, so that he might visit his
  fathers spirit as directed.
• The Sibyl informs him that to enter Dis with any
  hope of returning, he must first have a sign.

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The Sibyl
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• He must find a golden branch in the nearby
  forest.
• She instructs him that if the bough breaks off
  the tree easily, it means fate calls Aeneas to
  the underworld.
• If Aeneas is not meant to travel there, the bough
  will not come off the tree.

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• Aeneas looks in dismay at the size of the forest,
  but after he says a prayer, a pair of doves
  descends and guides him to the desired tree, from
  which he manages to tear the golden branch.

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• The hero returns to the priestess with the token,
  and she leads him to the gate of Dis.

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• Just inside the gate runs the river Acheron. The
  ferryman Charon delivers the spirits of the dead
  across the river.

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• Aeneas notices that some souls are refused
  passage and must remain on the near bank.
• The Sibyl explains that these are the souls of
  dead people whose corpses have not received
  proper burial.

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• Charon explains to the visitors that no living
  bodies may cross the river, but the Sibyl shows
  him the golden branch.

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• Appeased, Charon ferries them across. On the
  other side, Aeneas stands aghast, hearing the
  wailing of thousands of suffering souls.
• The spirits of the recently deceased line up
  before Minos for judgment.

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Minos Judging the Dead
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• Nearby are the Fields of Mourning, where suicides
  wander.
• There, Aeneas sees Dido. Surprised and saddened,
  he speaks to her, with some regret, claiming that
  he left her not of his own will.

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• The shade of the dead queen turns away from him
  toward the shade of her husband, Sychaeus, and
  Aeneas sheds tears of pity.

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• Aeneas continues to the field of war heroes,
  where he sees many casualties of the Trojan War.
• The Greeks flee at first sight of him. The Sibyl
  urges Aeneas onward, and they pass an enormous
  fortress.

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• Finally, Aeneas and the Sibyl come to the Blessed
  Groves, where the good wander about in peace and
  comfort.
• At last, Aeneas sees his father.

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• Anchises greets him warmly and congratulates him
  on having made the difficult journey.

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• Anchises presses on to the reason for Aeneass
  journey to the underworldthe explication of his
  lineage in Italy.
• Anchises describes what will become of the Trojan
  descendants

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• Romulus will found Rome.
• A Caesar will eventually come from the line of
  Ascanius.
• Rome will reach a Golden Age of rule over the
  world.

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• Finally, Aeneas grasps the profound significance
  of his long journey to Italy.
• Anchises accompanies Aeneas out of Dis, and
  Aeneas returns to his comrades on the beach.
• At once, they pull up anchor and move out along
  the coast.

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Romulus and Remus
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Suckled by the She-Wolf
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• Aeneass journey to the underworld in Book VI is
  another of the Aeneids most famous passages.
• This passage helped raise Virgil to the status of
  a Christian prophet in the Middle Ages. In the
  fourteenth century, the Italian poet Dante used
  it as the foundation for his journey through hell
  in the Inferno

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• Virgils version of the afterlife was obviously
  not a Christian one.
• Like Virgil, Dante designed a hell with many
  sections and in which more severe punishments are
  handed down to those with greater sins.

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• Dante exercised his formidable imagination in
  inventing penalties for sinners.
• While Virgils Dis is pre-Christian, it
  represents an advanced version of classical
  theology, which was not codified in the way that
  modern religions are.

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• In a world of temperamental gods who demand
  sacrifice and seem to dispense punishments and
  rewards almost arbitrarily,
• Virgil portrays an afterlife in which people are
  judged according to the virtue of their lives on
  Earth.

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• This scheme of the afterlife is an idea that
  Christianity fused with the Judaic tradition into
  the Western consciousness centuries later, but
  that has its sources in the Orphic mysteries of
  classical antiquity.

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• The presence of Orpheus, priest of Thrace, in
  the Blessed Groves confirms the influence of
  Orphism (a source for Platos views of the
  afterlife) on Virgils vision of the land of
  shades.

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• He gladly answers some of Aeneass many
  questions, regarding such issues as how the dead
  are dispersed in Dis and how good souls can
  eventually reach the Fields of Gladness.

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Charon, Ferryman of the Underworld
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• In the last two thousand years the Aeneid has
  been
• a pagan bible,
• a Latin style manual,
• a moral allegory,
• a document of European unity, and
• a pacifist document.

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• The poem is one of the most-read and studied
  works of world literature of all time.
• Entering its third millennium, the Aeneid can
  still speak immediately to the reader.

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Major Themes of Book VI

• The book tells of Aeneas descent to the
  Underworld, realm of the dead.
• He meets his father Anchises.
• Anchises reveals to him the unborn heroes who
  will contribute to the future of the Roman empire.

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Themes, continued

• The descent is inspired by Homers Odyssey, where
  Odysseus, before he returns home, sees the
  inhabitants of the Underworld.

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Themes, continued

• The journey to the Underworld represents for
  Aeneas a drawing together of his past through the
  meetings he has with his dead friends.
• It represents the profound statement of the
  mythological and historical basis of Roman
  greatness.

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Book VI Organization

• Preparations for the descent into the Underworld.
• The descent, crossing of the river Styx and the
  journey through the Underworld.
• Meeting Anchises, who reveals the secret of the
  afterlife and the future greatness of Rome.

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