Transcript 投影片 1
Greek Mythology The Adventures of Aeneas Historical Background Political Violence: ---The civil war that pitted Julius Caesar against the Roman Senate ---The collapse of the Roman republic Order Restored: ---The emergence, under Augustus, of Rome’s far-flung empire: Rome’s civilizing and peace-making mission Features • No given material • Created by a single poet: Virgil • With a concrete political motivation: to exalt the empire • Consciously imitating Homer • Combination of The Iliad & The Odyssey • Using the past to assess the present A Question to Explore • If The Aenead is the duplication of Homer, could it be seen as a masterpiece? Roman Name of the Olympian Gods • • • • • • • • • Zeus Hera Hades Poseidon Artemis Aphrodite Hermes Ares Hephastus • • • • • • • • • Jupiter （木星） Juno Pluto （冥王星） Neptune （海王星） Diana Venus （金星） Mercury （水星） Mars （火星） Vulcan After Reading A question to explore • What differences can you find between The Aenead and Homer’s two epics? • How do you take these differences? Strengths or weaknesses? Clues to the Question • Why does Virgil underscores the conflict between Dido and Aeneas when they parted? What kind of impression does Aeneas give you in this episode? • Our editor says Virgil transcends Homer in elevating the heroic character what elements can you find? Similarities with Homer: Overall • The Iliad: the battles • The Odyssey: the adventures on the sea Similarities with Homer: Episodes • • • • • The land of the Cyclops Descent into the underworld A new set of armor from goddess mother Kills in rage to avenge a dead friend (The affair with a strong woman character) Using the past to assess the present • Aeneas, like Augustus, must show strong leadership to a people traumatized by years of violence. • Is Dido a foreshadowing of Cleopatra? Using the past to assess the present: Ambiguities • Is Aeneas a foreign invader, pushing the boundaries of his empire into new lands— As Augustus did? • Or are these battles between different Italian peoples more like a civil war? Difference from Homer 2 • The prototype of the ideal Roman ruler: ---devotion to duty; seriousness of purpose ---the suppression of many aspects of the personality: self-denial--betraying the passion of his life Difference from Homer 1 • Not for individual objective (cf. Achilles & Odysseus) ---Mission: to found a city ---continuation of both race and culture ---fights not for himself but for future Difference from Homer 2 • More introspective and prone to ambivalent feelings: ---inner conflicts: duty vs. the longings of the heart Difference from Homer 3 • Questioning the values of the Homeric warrior code: ---Unlike Achilles, who fights for his personal honor, Aeneas must be a consensus builder, a team player Difference from Homer 4: the value of pietas (duty) • The prototype of the ideal Roman ruler: ---devotion to duty: a) to gods b) to one’s country, c) leaders, community, d) family, (especially father and son) Ambivalence: Virgil’s reflection on the Roman value? • Why does the poem end not with Aeneas’s triumph but with the death of his enemy Turnus, and why is killing the last action that this hero takes in the poem • We are left to wonder whether moderation or violence will be the truly defining quality of the future Roman Empire.