The Aeneid

1
The Aeneid

• And the Augustan Ideology

2
Virgils Aeneid
Aeneas' Flight from Troy, 1598, Federico Barocci

3
Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE) Virgil

• B. 70 BCE in Mantua
• 55 BCE studied literature at Milan and Rome
• 49 BCE Retired to Naples to study philosophy
• 41 BCE lost his farm through the reforms of
  Antony and Octavian
• 40 BCE - befriended and assisted financially by
  Maecenas
• Wrote three major works 1. The Eclogues, 2. The
  Georgics, 3. The Aeneid
• Eclogues ( 40 35 BCE) pastoral poetry
• Georgics (35-29 BCE) panegyric of farm life and
  the character of the Italian farmer
• Aeneid (29-19 BCE) epic poem modeled on Homer,
  story of Aeneas flight from Troy and his journey
  to Italy in order to become the progenitor of the
  Roman people
• 27 BCE Young Romans given instruction in
  Virgils poetry
• 23 BCE Virgil reads Aeneid 2,4, and 6 to
  Augustus and Octavia
• 19 BCE Virgil dies while returning from Greece
  with Augustus Aeneid still unfinished Ordered
  the Aeneid destroyed in his will but Augustus
  chose to have it published

4
Composition and Style of the Aeneid

• Literary influences and models
• Homer Aeneid connected to Trojan saga written
  in epic meter (dactylic hexameter)
• Aeneid a historical epic modeled on Quintus
  Ennius epic the Annals
• Aeneid a more literary work than Homers (No
  mnemonic devices no oral elements intended to
  be read rather than recited from memory)

5
Organization of the Aeneid

• Divided into 12 books
• Entire epic can be divided into two parts
• Books 1-6 modeled on Homers Odyssey (The heros
  wanderings at sea encounters with mythical
  monsters voyage to the underworld searching for
  a home)
• Books 7-12 inversion of Homers Iliad (Warfare
  Trojans are besiegers and Latins are besieged
  Aeneas vs. Turnus Achilles vs. Hector story is
  about the foundation of a city not the
  destruction of one)
• Differences from Homer 1. Aeneid not solely
  concerned with the heroic exploits of characters.
  2. Aeneid is a nationalist epic, politically
  motivated

6
Summary of the Aeneid

• Story of Aeneas flight from Troy to found the
  Roman race
• Book 1 The shipwreck in Carthage
• Book 2 Recounts the fall of Troy
• Book 3 Trojans lost at sea encounter terrible
  monsters
• Book 4 Dido and Aeneas
• Book 5 Funeral games in Sicily burning of the
  Trojan ships
• Book 6 Voyage to the underworld Aeneas learns
  the future greatness of Rome
• Books 7-11 Juno stirs Turnus and the Latins to
  war war between Trojans (with Etruscan and
  Arcadian allies) and Rutulians
• Book 12 Juno appeased duel between Aeneas and
  Turnus death of Turnus

7
The Roman Connection with Troy

• Aeneas marries Lavinia, daughter of Latinus.
• Aeneas founds Lavinium.
• Aeneas son (Ascanius, aka. Iulus) founds Alba
  Longa.
• Alban kings Aemulius Numitor Rhea Silvia made
  pregnant by Mars gives birth to Romulus Remus.
• Romulus founds Rome.

8
The Legend of Aeneas and the Trojan Migration
Before Virgil

• Hesiod Theogony, 1019ff (700 BCE) associated
  Latinus with Italy and the Etruscans No
  association of Aeneas with Italy
• Hellanicus of Lesbos (b. 490 BCE) The first to
  record connection of Aeneas with Italy
• Thucydides, 6.2 associates Trojan settlers with
  Sicily and Italy but does not mention Aeneas
• Aeneas venerated cultic figure in Eturia and
  Latium
• All of Romes earliest writers claim Roman
  descent from Aeneas and his Trojans
• Cult centre at Lavinium (Varro, ibi nostri
  penates sunt)
• Q. Ennius (239-169 BCE)
• Q. Fabius Pictor (ca. 200 BCE) and M. Porcius
  Cato (234-149 BCE)
• Accepted part of Roman historiography
• Julius Caesar used the figure of Aeneas on his
  coins claimed descent from Iulus
• For details of the stages of the development of
  legend see Wiseman

9
Augustus and the Aeneas Myth

• Vergils Aeneid is the perfect propaganda tool
  for the Augustan Regime and its ideology
• Connection through his adoptive father Iulius
  Caesar to Romulus, Iulus, Aeneas, Venus divine
  ancestry provides divine sanction and legitimizes
  his and Romes rule
• His connection to Romulus emphasizes his image as
  the second/third founder of Rome
• Aeneas heroic qualities reflect Augustan
  ideology

10
Aeneas as an Epic Hero

• As a hero lacks the selfish characteristics of
  the Homeric heroes
• He shares physical characteristics of traditional
  Homeric heroes he is bigger, better looking,
  braver than ordinary people, and queens fall in
  love with them, and they have love affairs.
• Aeneas is more concerned with the future of Rome
  (good of the community) patriotism pietas (for
  family, gods, Rome)
• For his duty to found the Roman people, he
  sacrifices himself (his love for Dido)

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Aeneas as the typical hero

• But queen Dido long since had been nourishing
  deep in her veins the wound of a love that gnawed
  her with hidden fire. There recurred to her mind
  his great courage, the equally great nobility of
  his descent his face and his words remained
  fixed in her breast her concern gave no rest to
  her limbs. Vergil Aeneid, Book 4. 1-4. L. R.
  Lind, translator
• There came up the Trojans and happy Iulus
  Aeneas, more handsome than any, had joined the
  company .. Vergil, The Aeneid, 4.135-6, L. R.
  Lind, translator

12
But he has pietas the quality of a Roman hero

• Then come, my dear father, let them place you
  upon my back. I shall carry you on my shoulder
  your weight is not heavy. Let little Iulus walk
  beside me, my wife keep her distance a long way
  behind. Vergil, Aeneid, Book 2. 748-751, L.R.
  Lind, translator
• But Father Anchises, deep in a blooming valley,
  ..When he saw Aeneas approaching toward him
  through the grass, he stretched eager hands
  toward his son, his cheeks bathed with tears, and
  managed to utter this word You have come at
  last, that loyalty (pietas) which I knew has
  conquered your difficult course. Vergil, The
  Aeneid, book 6.687-694, L.R. Lind, translator

13
A Patriotic Hero

• My queen, I shall never deny you are perfectly
  right when you list all the favors youve done
  me. I shall never be loth to remember Elissa, as
  long as my memory holds, while my breath still
  governs these limbs. I shall speak to the point,.
  I did not hope to conceal my departure by shabby
  deceit (do not think that) nor ever pretended to
  be your husband or entered such bonds. If the
  Fates should allow me to lead my life at my will,
  and it were my own to settle my cares as I
  wished, I should cherish Troy city and first the
  remnants of my loved ones. If Priams tall roofs
  remained, I should have restored Troys citadel
  after the conquest. But Grynean Apollo has
  ordered me to great Italy, to seize it according
  to his Lycian prophecy this is my love, this my
  country. Vergil, The Aeneid, Book 4.333-345 (L.
  R. Lind, translator)

14
Heroic Values and Augustan ideology

• In my sixth and seventh consulships, after I had
  put an end to the civil wars, having obtained
  supreme power by universal consent, I transferred
  the state from my own power to the control of the
  senate and people. For this service I received
  the title of Augustus by decree of the senate,
  and doorposts of my house were publicly decked
  with laurels, the civic crown was affixed to my
  doorway, and a golden shield was set up in the
  Julian senate house, which, as the inscription on
  this shield testifies, the Roman senate and
  people gave me in recognition of my valor
  (virtus), clemency (clementia), justice
  (iustitia), and devotion (pietas). (Augustus,
  Res Gestae, 34. Lewis Reinhold, 1966)

15
Principal Themes in the Aeneid

• Augustan Values (Clemency, Piety, Justice, and
  Virtue) all are values embodied in the
  character of Aeneas
• Justification of the regime
• Justification of Romes empire
• Romanizing the Homeric epics

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Justification of the Regime

• The epic articulates the divine ancestry and line
  between Aeneas and Augustus
• Justifies the war against Antony as a war between
  Italy and Egypt (Roman values versus decadence of
  the East)
• The rule of Augustus has been divinely fated

17
The Julian Gens in the Aeneid

• But the boy Ascanius, who bears also the name of
  Iulus for he was Ilus while Troys kingdom
  still stood shall fulfill the rule of Aeneas in
  thirty long years. Virgil, Aeneid, 1. 269-273,
  L.R. Lind, translator
• A Trojan Caesar shall spring from a noble
  source/To bound his rule with Ocean, his fame
  with the stars, Iulius, a name descended from
  great Iulus. (Virgil, Aeneid, 1. 291-293 )
• This race and your Romans, Here Caesar and all of
  the clan of Iulus will come to the great vault of
  heaven. This man, this is he whom again and again
  you have heard in the promise of prophecy, Caesar
  Augustus, son of a god.
• Vergil, Aeneid, 6. 795-798, LR. Lind, Translator

18
Romes Destiny

• Jupiter For these I shall set no limits of time
  or possessions I have given them endless power.
  Vergil, The Aeneid, 1. 282-284
• Others will fashion the molten bronze with more
  skill )at least I believe this), will carve from
  marble live faces, will plead cases better, and
  sketch out the paths of the heavenly bodies with
  pointers, and forecast the rising of stars. You,
  Roman, remember to govern the peoples with power
  (these arts shall be yours), to establish the
  practice of peace, spare the conquered, and beat
  down the haughty. Vergil, Aeneid, 6.856-862,
  L.R. Lind, translator

19
Justifying the Past The Enmity with Carthage

• Dido to Juno ..and hear my request. ..Then O
  Tyrians, exercise hate toward his race and
  posterity and give this reward to my ashes. Let
  there be no love, no treaty between his people
  and ours. Let some avenger arise from these bones
  of mine to harry the Dardan settlers with fire
  and sword now or in future, whenever they grow to
  strength. Let shore be opposed to shore, our
  waves against theirs, our arms against theirs
  let them and their offspring fight. Vergil,
  Aeneid 4. 619-637, L.R. Lind, translator

20
Justifying the RegimeThe Shield of Aeneas

• In the middle a bronze-clad fleet at the battle
  of Actium. You could have discerned all Leucate
  aboil with ranked ships, the waves shining in
  gold. Here was Caesar Augustus, who led the
  Italian navy, with the Senate, the People, the
  Little Gods and the Greadt, standing high on the
  stern twin flames flashing out at his temples
  on his head shone the star of his father. At one
  side Agrippa with the help of the winds and the
  gods led his towering squadron, the proud ensign
  of war, the beaked naval crown, on his temples.
  Here Antony sailed with barbarian forces and
  varied arms,the victor from lands of morning, the
  Red Sea and farthest Bactria his Egyptian wife
  - O sinful! came following.
• Vergil, The Aeneid, 8.685-700, L. R. Lind,
  translator.

21
The Gods become Roman GodsThe Shield of Aeneas

• The queen in the middle with her ancestral
  sistrum marshalled her fleet not yet did she see
  twin asps at her back. Dog-barker Anubis and the
  monsters of all kinds of gods held their weapons
  against Neptune and Venus, against Minerva. Mars
  raged in the middle of battle, embossed in steel,
  and fierce Furies out of the heavens and
  Discord, striding in tattered robes, rejoiced.
  Bellona came after her, swining a bloody whip.
  Apollo of Actium, viewing the scene, bent his bow
  from above Each Egyptian, every Indian, all the
  Arabs and all the Sabaeans turned tail in fear.
  The queen herself could be seen, having called on
  the winds, to set sail as she loosed the
  slackening ropes more and more. The
  Mighty-With-Fire had pictured her, pale at the
  death which was coming, amid the slaughter as she
  sailed through the waves rolled up from the
  West-North-West. Before her the Nile,
  grief-stricken in that huge body, spread open his
  robe and called her with all of his garments to
  rest on is blue bosom, the vanquished to hide in
  his secret streams. But Caesar, borne through
  Romes walls in a triple triumph, was making a
  deathless vow to Italian gods He would build
  three hundred great temples throughout the whole
  city Vergil, Aeneid, 8. 706-727, L.R. Lind,
  translator

22
Troy Returns to Italy

• Apollo Long-suffering Dardanians, the land
  which first bore you from parent-stock will take
  you back with joyful breast. Seek out your
  ancient mother. (Aeneid 3.107-110)
• King Latinus .I remember the story has grown
  somewhat dim with the years that the elder
  Auruncans were accustomed to tel how Dardanus,
  risen among these fields, had travelled to Idaean
  cities of Phrygia and Thracian Samos, now called
  Samothracia. (Aeneid 7.218-221)

23
The Gods of the Aeneid

• Fate plays a very important role
• The gods have a very ambiguous role, they are the
  guardians of morality, justice, law and order
• We can see many influences by philosophy on views
  of gods, death and the afterlife in the Aeneid.
• Everything is controlled by Fate divine cosmic
  order with no room for individual free will.

24
The Divine Cosmic order

• Jove Do not fear, Cytherea the fate of your
  people remains unchanged. You will see the city
  and promised walls of Lavinium rise. (Aeneid, 1.
  265-266)
• for these (the Romans) I shall set no limits of
  time or possessions I have given them endless
  power. (Aeneid, 283-285)