Download classplan_Jan18_Aeneid_Session1

Lit Hum
Class Plan Jan 17th, 2006
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Welcome back! This is like Calc. II – we’re starting where we left off in papers, discussion, etc.
LAST SEMESTER COURSE ARCS?
 What overarching themes do you remember?
 Justice: divine, human, gendered, racial, nationalist
 Mortality: motivation for glory, religion (afterlife), nation, love
 Heroism: for the self, for the community
 Individual/community: shame vs. guilt, right to personality, wisdom of outsiders,
 Gods & humans: humans as divine entertainment; gods as locus of morality and judgment;
mutually contracted parties
 Genre: epic, poetry, tragedy, comedy, philosophy, history
PREVIEW OF THIS SEMESTER
 Ambitions for a different grade? Come talk to me. Let’s set goals and strategies!
 New syllabus (papers, office hours)
 focus on aesthetics: form & style (ie: 19th century realism vs. 20th century modernism)
 self-consciousness of characters and of texts
 identity
 perspective
 human nature
 politics and ideology
 intertextuality – these texts are in conversation!!
CENTRAL ACTIVITIES TODAY
 Homer vs. Vergil
 Who is Aeneas?
 Trojan War
HANDOUTS: ABOUT VIRGIL
Who has read this before? What do you know about him? About the Roman Empire? READ HANDOUT
FOR NEXT TIME.
Function:
 This is a story about the founding of the people of Rome. The people of Rome are part Greek and
part Italian, culturally, religiously, ethnically.
 Romans borrow and perfect Greek culture.
 What are the DIFFERENCES?
 THIS IS A LOSER’S EPIC! How do you write that?
Timing:
 LH not in order. This predates the New Testament – could it have influenced it?
 Aeneas and Odysseus are traveling at the same time – the Cyclops is still bleeding!

Homer wrote of events 500 years in the past – Virgil 1,000 years! Remember – Virgil didn’t
KNOW this was the golden age – he was prophesizing.
THE AENEID IN COMPARISON
Opening
 Gods: Greek to Roman (see handout)
 compare – contrast with the Iliad and Odyssey opening (see handout)
o Arms and the man—the Iliad and the Odyssey. Together. Commonplace: bks. 1-6 are
Odyssey, bks. 7-12 Iliad.
 the text asks why Juno (Hera) is so angered. answers?
o judgment of Paris, support of Greeks, ambitions for Carthage, contrary nature?
o CARTHAGE: founded by Phoenician settlers from Tyre 814 BC. By the 5th century BC
(Greek tragedy time), Carthage was the commercial center of the region (a position it
would retain until overthrown by the Roman Republic). Had a large reach – Morocco to
Egypt plus Mediterranean islands and Iberian pennensula. The Punic Wars 264 BC – 146
BC) Rome consistently triumphed. The end of the Third Punic War resulted in the end of
Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by Scipio Africanus Minor.
The people were all killed or enslaved, Carthage's harbor was burned and the city razed.
 What do we learn about the gods? About the human response to them?
o Violence of the High Ones.
o “savage Juno’s unforgetting anger.” as an indictment?
o “Can such resentment hold the mind of gods?” questioning of gods’ status and psychology
 Why the significance of the household gods? Why should they be the “remnant?” Think Bible.
 “and from this.” From what? From violence, pettiness of gods, sufferings. From this pain and
suffering has come Rome.
Similes
 What was the purpose of a simile in Homer? To provide a full picture of C8th BC Greek life.
Also to provide moral commentary. How have things changed from Greece to Rome?
o I.209-216. Political analogy to describe nature is opposite of Homer, where nature
described the political. Ground of the real = now political. Here Neputune is like Augustus,
not vise versa.
The Shield
 Iliad handout versus pgs 208-211. Read and discuss in pairs.
 Content
o packed with myths pertaining to Rome (Romulus & Remus, Sabine women
o divine justice and underworld
o the sea
o battle of Actium and Caesar Augustus’ victory
o a prophesy of Rome.
 Compare/ Contrast
o time: Homer’s = cyclical view of time, while Vergil's is linear
o justice & morality: Homer = human institutions vs. Vergil = divine
o the social: Homer = 2 generic cities at peace and war vs. Vergil = specific historical battle
leading to Pax Romana.
o both are prophesies: one of the human and one of the Roman.
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Nutshell: the Iliad's shield is a glimpse of future HUMAN institutions within a balanced, cyclical
cosmos whereas the Aeneid's shield is a more ideological, nationalist, imperial symbol with a
linear narrative.
Later: placement in the text versus placement in Iliad.
Link to Book 1 prophesy of empire
o Pax Romana—I.412-417. (Caesar to Aurelius 29 BC to 180 AD)
o It is an empire without end, both in time and space. All other empires wax and wane, but
this will wax eternal—I.389-390.
o III.110-118—city first. Also, voice in the wilderness – think bible.
AENEAS
 Who is Aeneas? What do we know about him?
o pg 20 portrait
o Goodness—pietatus/piety/dutifulness—not a “breaker of horses!”
 How does Aeneas make his appearance to Dido? (like Odysseus with the Phiakians!) pg 21 lns
825 – 834
 How does he identify himself there? 1) not by father but by country (Troy); 2) A saving remnant
(think Bible!)
 What is his destiny? Analyze Zeus’ prophesy pg 10 lns 365-417
 Aeneas as carrier of history--the saving Remnant. Aeneas, Romulus, Julius, Augustus (remnants
of the triumvirates). I.841—Aeneas a remnant, because thought to have been dead.
 What must Aeneas learn? Aeneas has to learn how to be a hero, how to found a city. Great setpiece in Book I.595-624—Aeneas learns how to found a city by looking at the Carthaginians.
 What do we make of a hero who enters the poem wishing he were dead?
Venus & Aeneas
 Venus as mom: what ideas or problems or opportunities does that introduce? (Paris, Helen)
 Why does Venus come in disguise to Aeneas? What’s his reaction? pg 12, lns 442-455/ lns 581584
 Why does she get him to tell his story? What is her reaction? pg 14 (lns 550-572)
 Why does Venus appeal to Jupiter after they have already landed in Libya?
Aeneas & Dido
 What is Dido’s background and what is the significance of it? pg 13 lns 484-520 AND pg 22 lns
879-881:
o Phonecian (Roman enemies in the future)
o her dad helped out the Greek Teucer after the Trojan war – this Teucer (founder of Salamis
on Cyprus) traces his lineage back to the Trojan King Teucer and spoke highly of Trojans
and reported the war to her family.
 What kind of ruler is Dido? pg 18 ln 714 – 716
o (her own people – like Odysseus describing Penelope!) and pg 20 lns 791-815 (the
Trojans)
 Why does Venus enlist Cupid’s help? ln 938 – 40 (the hospitality of Juno);
o Dido is friendly but indifferent to the charms of Aeneas – in no hurry to have another
husband after her sufferings.
o Dido/Carthage is a historical threat to Aeneas/Rome, so make her in love with him so that
she serves him.

After cupid’s machinations, what does she ask Aeneas for? STORIES. (Trojan war, himself)
TROJAN WAR
General
 first encounter: on Juno’s temple. Significance? pg 16-17, lns 632 – 697
 What does the representation of the Trojan war do to Aeneas?
 What does the story of the Trojan war do FOR Aeneas?
Book II: Story of the Trojan Horse
 what do you remember was said in the Odyssey? (1) Helen and Menelaos 2) Odysseus to the
Phiakians)
o Helen’s role: she was made to try to trick the Greeks into revealing themselves, calling out
to them. She claims that she helped Odysseus in his spy activities.
o Odysseus claims authorship of the idea of the Trojan horse. Not much is said about why or
how it was brought into the city.
 What is gained by flushing out the story in the Aeneid?
o re-characterization of the Greeks as lying and cheating? rescuing the reputation of the
Trojans as their dupes – instead, Trojans are noble, compassionate, and pious victims of
fate. Redefinition of heroism? Noble victims? The last shall be first?
o Can we read this story two ways? Aeneas giving a more honest account of mistakes made,
or is there some nobility to the Trojans here?
o What is the significance of the violence performed on the nay-sayers? Why can’t anyone
interpret omens correctly? Laocoön pg 36 ln 317-324
The Story of the Fall of Troy and the Rise of Aeneas
 who first tells him of his destiny and what is the significance? Hektor’s ghost: pg 38 lns 392-405
 Does he accept this fate readily while the war is on? what does this suggest?
 Why stage the fall of Priam so elaborately? pg 45-46 What is dying? Old heroic order—Achilles
being slighted by his son. Priam’s bloodline—son killed before his eyes. The “many nations and
lands of Asia.”
 Why the fall of Troy simile pg 49 lns 843-856?
 Why can’t Aeneas take revenge on Helen pg 47?
o (they are both kids of gods and Venus has a stake in both of them. More importantly,
Virgil has read the Odyssey- Helen has to survive.
 What is the function of Venus giving Aeneas a moment of god-vision?
 What is the significance of taking the household gods? what role do they have? Pg 60 ln 205 they
speak!
 Does Aeneas hereoize his story? II.338—“heedless, blinded by frenzy.”
NEXT TIME:
 Book III = Aeneas telling an Aeneid (a mini odyssey – like Odysseus telling the Phaikians a mini
Odyssey inside the larger Odyssey). DIFFERENCES?
 Book IV: Dido and Aeneas. Relationship to Greek tragedy here?
 Book V: games – pay attention to set up, skim, then read closely again starting on pg. 122 with
Juno’s meddling.
Greek to Roman Gods
Greek Name - Roman Name
Aphrodite - Venus
Ares - Mars
Artemis- Diana
Athene - Minerva
Demeter - Ceres
Eros - Cupid
Graces - Charities
Hades - Pluto
Hephaistos - Vulcan
Hera - Juno
Hermes - Mercury
Kronos - Saturn
Odysseus - Ulysses
Pan - Faunus
Persephone - Proserpina
Poseidon - Neptune
Zeus - Jupiter
The Iliad:
Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus
and its devestation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
What god was it then set them together in bitter collision?
The Odyssey:
Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven
far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel.
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,
many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea,
struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions.
Even so he could not save his companions, hard though
he strove to; they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness,
fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God,
and he took away the day of their homecoming. From some point
here, goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak, and begin our story.
Then all the others, as many as fled sheer destruction,
were at home now, having escaped the sea and the fighting.
This one alone, longing for his wife and his homecoming,
was detained by the queenly nymph Kalypso, bright among goddesses
….
But all the gods pitied him
except Poseidon; he remained relentlessly angry
with godlike Odysseus, until his return to his own country.
The Aeneid:
I sing of arms and of a man: his fate
had made him fugitive; he was the first
to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
Across the lands and waters he was battered
beneath the violence of high Ones, for
the savage Juno’s unforgetting anger;
and many sufferings were his in war—
until he brought a city into being
and carried in his gods to Latium;
from this have come the Latin race, the lords
of Alba, and the ramparts of high Rome.
Tell me the reason, Muse: what was the wound
to her divinity, so hurting her
that she, the queen of gods, compelled a man
remarkable for goodness to endure
so many crises, meet so many trials?
“Laocoön and his Sons” (pronounced roughly La-oh-koh-on)
The statue, which was probably originally commissioned for the home of a wealthy Roman, was
unearthed in 1506 near the site of the Golden House of the Emperor Nero (who reigned from 54 to 68
AD), and it is possible that the statue belonged to Nero himself. It was acquired by Pope Julius II, an
enthusiastic classicist, soon after its discovery and was placed in the Belvedere Garden at the Vatican,
now part of the Vatican Museum. Various dates have been suggested for the statue, ranging from about
160 BC to about 20 BC. Michelangelo declared that the discovery had a profound influence upon him.
He had always wanted to make violent muscular movement expressive of something more than physical
strength.