Transcript Virgil’s Aeneid - Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy

Virgil’s Aeneid
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Spartacus:
•former Roman soldier and
gladiator
•led slave revolts; defeated by
Marcus Crassus
•killed in battle
•former followers escaping north
killed by Pompey
•6, 000 escaping south crucified by
Crassus
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Marcus Crassus:
•Supporter of Sulla, who led the
first Roman civil war and reformed
Rome
•Rich from sale of land confiscated
by Sulla
•Competed against Pompey, whom
he hated, for favor
•Built political power
•lent money to indebted
senators
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Pompey:
•Supporter of Sulla, who led the
first Roman civil war and reformed
Rome
•Favored by Sulla
•Married Sulla’s step daughter
•Accrued many military victories
Brief Roman (Italian) History
The first Triumvirate
•Between Crassus, Julius Caesar, and
Pompey (married to Caesar’s daughter,
Julia)
•Crassus and Pompey elected consuls
(governed the people)
•Caesar gaining military victories abroad
in Gaul (France)
•Pompey gaining political favor in Rome
because of his loyal army
•Crassus killed in a military venture in
Mesopotamia
•Pompey and Caesar had a strained
relationship when Julia died
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Julius Caesar
•Refused to divorce his wife Cornelia, the
daughter of a man who had been
associated with those who opposed Sulla
•Spent his time doing military service
during Sulla’s reign
•Became controversial for political moves
like asking for something more merciful
than death for conspirators and
opponents and personal moves such as
divorcing his wife because she put herself
under suspicion by letting another man
into their home during a female religious
ceremony
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Pompey vs. Caesar
•Caesar uses wealth from his time
in Gaul to buy men who could
oppose his enemies in the senate,
which directed the consuls
(magistrates)
•Senate divides between Pompey
and Caesar
•War is declared
•Caesar crosses the Rubicon and
takes on Pompey’s forces
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Pompey vs. Caesar
•Pompey suffers defeat at
Pharsalus
•Pompey separated from his fleet
flees to his old friend Ptolemy of
Egypt
•Ptolemy did not want to incur the
victorious Caesar’s wrath and invite
an invasion
•Ptolemy tricks Pompey, killing him
Brief Roman (Italian) History
Pompey vs. Caesar
•Pompey suffers defeat at Pharsalus
•Pompey separated from his fleet flees to
his old friend Ptolemy of Egypt
•Ptolemy did not want to incur the
victorious Caesar’s wrath and invite an
invasion
•Ptolemy tricks Pompey, killing him
•Ptolemy and his sister/wife Cleopatra,
presented Caesar with Pompey’s head
•Caesar and Cleopatra have an affair that
produces his only son (rumored), who is
not recognized by Caesar formally
•Caesar returns to Rome, declaring
himself Emperor
Brief Roman (Italian) History
•Caesar is killed on the Ides of March,
stabbed more than 32 times by various
senators
•Octavius (Octavian) succeeded him
(Augustus Caesar)
The Golden Age of Rome
Virgil
• wanted an epic poem to emphasize the grandeur and
legitimize the success of Rome in conquering much of
the world e.g. (Greece, France, Belgium, Switzerland,
Syria, Spain, Tunisia (Carthage)
•Wrote the poem about Aeneas and the Trojan
invaders of Italy who will build the city from which
Rome will be founded
•Wrote the poem post Julius Caesar during Octavius’s
reign (Caesar Augustus)
•Died of a fever before he could finish it to his
satisfaction
•Based it on and uses characters from Homer’s Illiad
and Odyssey.
Ch1: Safe Haven After a Storm
Epic Poem:
• dactylic hexameter
•line of poetry has 6 (hex)feet (six sets of
dactyls)
•each foot is composed of a dactyl
•Long, short, short (syllables)
• ___ uu
•Elevated material – dramatic
•Catalogues (ships or the loot from war)
•Narrative in structure
•Setting is vast
•Long formal speeches
•Begin in medias res (in the middle of the action)
•Begin with invocation of the muse and a statement
of the subject
•Uses epithets: descriptive names
•Shows the intervention of the gods
•Epic hero descends into the underworld
•Iliad, Odyssey, The Aeneid
Ch1: Safe Haven After a Storm
Epic hero:
•Achilles (Iliad); Odysseus (Odyssey); Aeneas (The
Aeneid)
•Goes on a quest
•Embodies the values that are prized by that culture
•Goes through a transformation by the end of the
poem
•Usually are strong, authoritative, attractive,
intelligent and courageous
Homer vs. Vergil
Iliad/Odyssey
• Odysseus forced to roam for
10 years because a god
(Poseidon) was mad
• Odysseus blown off course
within sight of his home by
Aeolus
• Odysseus faces Scylla.
• Odysseus faces the Cyclopes
• Odysseus held by Calypso
• Odysseus/Achilles fight in the
Trojan War
Aeneid
• Aeneas forced to roam
because a god (Juno) was
angry
• Aeneas battles bad weather
from Aeolus
• Aeneas mentions facing
Scylla and the Cyclopes
• Aeneas spends years with
Dido
• Aeneas fights in Trojan War
Homer vs. Vergil
Iliad/Odyssey
• Odysseus washes up on the
shore of Phoenecia and
retells his story to the king
and Queen
Aeneid
• Aeneas seeks refuge after
the storm in Carthage with
Queen Dido and retells the
story of the Trojan War
Gods and Goddesses
• Juno (Gr. Hera) favors the Greeks (Argives,
Argos)queen of the gods
• Minerva (Gr. Athena) favors the Trojans
• Jove/Jupiter (Gr. Zeus) brother/husband of Juno
“the almighty Father” “king of men”; uses a
thunderbolt/lightning bolt
• Aeolus (Gr. same) king of the winds/storms
• Deiopea- a nymph Juno promises in marriage to
Aeolus if he unleashes storms against Aeneas
• Neptune (Gr. Poseidon) god of the seas
Gods and Goddesses
• Venus (Gr. Aphrodite) goddess of love; mother
of Aeneas; Trojan supporter
• Mars (Gr. Ares) god of war; will make one of
Aeneas’s descendents pregnant in the future
with twin sons: Romulus and Remus. Romulus
will go on to found Rome
• Cupid (Gr. Eros ) god of love; son of Venus
Mortals
• Trojan Caesar (though not a god) = Julius
Caesar
• Ascanius is sometimes called IuIus = Aeneas’s
son
Minerva and Ajax
• Ajax, a Greek, took one of Minerva’s priestesses,
Cassandra, from her Trojan temple and raped
her.
• Minerva demanded that the Greeks kill Ajax, but
they left instead.
• Minerva used a lightning bolt to smash their
fleet.
• Ajax survived by clinging to a rock and bragged,
so Poseidon split the rock and he drowned.
Aeneid version: Minerva spears him with a
lightening bolt through the chest.
Chapter 1: Character Web Names
Juno
Aeolus
The Trojan ships
(Orontes, Illioneus, etc.)
Neptune
Aeneas
Destiny/fate
Venus
Jupiter/Jove
disguise
Troy
Pygmalion
Dido
Sychaeus
Hesperia
Ascanius
Cupid
Iulus
Carthage
Epic hero
•
•
•
•
•
Stags (I. 220)
Scylla (I. 235)
Cyclops (I. 235)
Carthage exploration (I.370)
Aeneas appears from the mist (I.700)