Exam 2 - Comprehensive

The three extant Greek Tragedians

Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles are the main Greek authors of tragedy whose works have survived. They inspire the majority of extant Roman tragedies, with the exception of Octavia

Fabula

a play or drama

Crepida

a type of sandal

Cothurnus

• a type of platform boot

• the most powerful man in the play wore the nicest pair

• the taller the character, the more important he was - main character had the highest heels on his boots

Fabula Crepidata/Cothurnata

• a Latin/Roman tragedy with Greek subjects

• 9/10 surviving Roman tragedies are of this type

Toga praetexta

• a type of robe worn by magistrates and prepubescent boys

• purple border

• signaled sacrosanct importance of magistrates

• signaled inviolability of young boys (don’t rape me!)

Fabula Praetexta

• a type of play about Roman historical subjects

  • real, important people only

• Octavia is the only surviving example

Seneca the Younger

• Stoic philosopher

• Dramatist

• Satirist

• Statesman - not just writer, he had power

• Advisor to Nero - exerted significant influence

• lived exclusively under emperors

• attributed to 8/10 remaining Roman tragedies

• influenced Elizabethan and French Neoclassical tragedies

• forced to commit suicide by Nero after Conspiracy of Piso

Julio Claudian Dynasty

• first imperial dynasty of the Roman Empire

  • Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero

Sexual calumny

• the use of false, salacious, or exaggerated accusations regarding a woman’s sexual behavior to destroy her reputation

• historically a potent tool used to diminish the authority and influence of powerful women

Conspiracy of Piso

• failed attempt to overthrow emperor Nero

• led to forced suicides of many, including Seneca the Younger

Naevius

Gnaeus Naevius, inventor of the Fabulae Praetextae

Judgement of Paris

• Paris was given Helen by Aphrodite, but Helen was already married to Menelaus

• Paris judged a beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena, and deemed Aphrodite to be the winner

  • they each bribed him with different things, but Paris chose Aphrodite’s gift of the love of the most beautiful woman in the world

Tiberius’ Treason Trials

• a series of prosecutions used to eliminate political threats and amass wealth

• fueled by informers and the influence of Sejanus

• targeted senators and elites for disloyalty or insults, leading to reign of terror

  • many executions and suicides

Discuss the origins of and difference between the Fabula Crepidata and the Fabula Praetexta

Fabula Crepidata

• Roman versions of Greek stories

• named after Greek footwear in plays

• nine surviving examples (eight attributed to Seneca)

Fabula Praetexta

• about Roman historical subjects, and Roman in origin

• named after Roman magisterial dress

• one surviving example

Hercules’ Choice

take the hard path to virtue or enjoy the easy life with vice

Achilles’ Choice

fight at Troy and have a short, glorious life, or stay in Greece and have a long, quiet life in obscurity

Evander

• Latin king who allies himself with Aeneas against Turnus

• father of Pallas

• name means “good man”

Pallas

• son of Evander

• killed by Turnus

  • Turnus takes his baldric as a spoil

• avenged by Aeneas

• similar to Achilles killing Hector for death of Patroclus

Mezentius

• Etruscan king

• had a reputation as a cruel tyrant, but may not have been so bad

  • loving father

  • honorable warrior

• asks Aeneas for mercy - you can kill me, but please don’t mutilate my body

• later we see that Aeneas has Mezentius’ breastplate, which has 12 holes

• shows that Aeneas probably isn’t as restrained as he seems

  • turbulent internal emotions

  • external discipline

  • very Roman

Maschalismos

• mutilation of an enemy corpse to make it impossible for its ghost to haunt you

• possibly what Aeneas did to Mezentius

How does Vergil reveal the future glory of Rome in the Aeneid?

• Jupiter - prophecy to other gods

• Helenus - prophecy to Aeneas

• Anchises - shows Aeneas future heroes of Rome in Underworld

• Sibyl - tells Aeneas of future greatness of Rome on Underworld journey

• River Tiber - sends dream to Aeneas foretelling Rome and location

• Shield from Vulcan - uses ekphrasis (description of object) to foretell

  • has scenes from many great/important moments for Rome

Compare and contrast the virtues and flaws of Achilles, Odysseus, and Aeneas

• Achilles - mercurial and violent

  • kills hector to avenge patroclus

• Odysseus - impetuous and foolhardy

  • sails through scylla and charybdis

• Aeneas - cautious, restrained, pious

  • leaves Dido bc gods tell him to

  • turbulent emotions internally

    • mutilates Mezentius

  • external discipline

• Aeneas comes across as more Roman than Greek

Protectress

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• non-sexual interest in hero - virtue, lineage, heroic deed

• ex.

  • Juturna - Turnus

  • Venus - Aeneas

Enchantress

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• dreadful powers

• can be the evil witch in the woods or the sexy seductress

• poses threat to hero

• sometimes if they’re outwitted/defeated, they can serve the hero

• ex.

  • Medea

  • Circe

Object of striving

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• woman without agency (or often personality), just the love interest of a man

• ex.

  • Andromeda

  • Penelope

  • Lavinia (second wife of Aeneas)

Juturna Identity and Etymology

• sister of Turnus

• name means “helper”

• raped/seduced by Jupiter and offered immortality or god status as compensation

Iarbas

• king of a North African tribe

• son of Jupiter

• in Aeneid, his pressure on Dido to marry him establishes her as a worthy object of striving of Aeneas

Cupid

• disguises himself as Ascanius, son of Aeneas

• makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas as favor to Venus (mom) to help Aeneas

Anna

• sister of Dido

• object of striving of Aeneas in other accounts - not Aeneid

• becomes minor goddess Anna Perenna

• Mars lusted after Minerva and asked Anna for help - tricks him into sleeping with her bc she lusts after him

  • Anna’s followers shout obscenities about her on Ides of March to commemmorate this event

Juno

• hates Trojans because they lead to Romans who destroy her favorite city Carthage

• protectress of Carthaginians and Dido

• marries Dido and Aeneas? - stay in cave during storm

Juno Pronuba

• pronuba = “for the bride”

• matron of honor

• torches and holding of right hands must be present at weddings

• Juno in her role as patroness and protectress of marriage

Lavinia

• object of striving of Aeneas - second wife

• fought for between Turnus and Aeneas

• bland and colorless compared to Dido - ideal Roman wife (one sexual partner ever, no agency)

• a city is named after her or she’s named after a city

• when father performs ritual, her hair blazes, signifying her impending importance and that she’ll cause a war

Discuss the folktale roles of women in the Aeneid

• Venus and Juturna - protectresses

• Lavinia - object of striving

• Anna - potential object of striving, never realized in Aeneid

• Dido - more complex, doesn’t fit any one role

  • protectress, but sexual interest

  • enchantress, but she turns against herself, not Aeneas

  • object of striving, but she was abandoned

Intentional fallacy

• term from literary criticism that describes the problem in trying to interpret a text by assuming the intent or purpose of the author

• created by coming up with allusions - particularly difficult when the author is from a very different time and culture

Intertextuality

• the relationship between texts

• where a reader interprets a works’ meaning by recognizing its interconnectedness to other texts

Reader Response Theory

• literary theory that focuses on the individual reader’s experience and interpretation of a text

• asserts that the meaning of a text is subjective and dependent on the reader’s interpretation and response to it

Iliad

• intertext with Aeneid

• Homeric epic - not entirely written by Homer, but by many people over centuries

• about dispute of Achilles and Agamemnon in 10th/final yr of Trojan war

Odyssey

• intertext with Aeneid

• Homeric epic

• Odysseus trying to get home to Penelope

Argonautica

• intertext with Aeneid

• Apollonius of Rhodes

• Jason and the Argonauts

  • golden fleece

  • Medea

Nostos

• voyage home

• Odyssey basis

Aeolus

• encountered in Odyssey (direct) and Aeneid (indirect)

• god of the winds

• puts unfavorable winds in bag for Odysseus - guest of god

• Juno bribes him with her maid to send unfavorable winds to Aeneas

Harpies’ ID and Etymology

• encountered by Jason and Aeneas - both direct

• name comes from “Harpazo” meaning “I snatch”

• birds with virginal faces and foul vaginal discharge

• reflect male fear of female power, womb, emasculation

• Aeneas’ only direct encounter with mythical beasts of other epics

Helenus

• twin brother of Cassandra

• Trojan prophet

  • Circe

  • Scylla and Charybdis

  • Underworld

  • allows Aeneas to avoid most fictional characters - Roman demythologizing

• marries Andromache

• inherits kingdom of Pyrrhus

• encountered in Aeneid, originally Homeric - tells Aeneas how great his descendants in Rome will be

Andromache

• originally Homeric character seen in Aeneid

• widow of Hector and mother of murdered Astyanax

• went from slave of Pyrrhus to queen of his kingdom

• gives Pyrrhus’/Achilles’ armor to Aeneas - sees his line as the new heirs of Troy

  • Ascanius shall be the heir to Hector

• widow of Hector

  • has vision of him after his death - hide the child

• mother of Astyanax

  • sees him as future avenger of Troy

Hermione

• daughter of Helen and Menelaus

• betrothed to Orestes (son of Agamemnon) before Trojan war

• given to Pyrrhus during Trojan war

• Orestes murdered Pyrrhus to win back Hermione

Discuss how the Aeneid echoes the Odyssey while also demythologizing it

• In Odyssey, Odysseus encounters Aeolus, Scylla and Charybdis, Polyphemus and Cyclopes, Circe, and the Underworld, all directly - stays with Aeolus, sails between Scylla and Charybdis, fights Polyphemus, sleeps with Circe, goes to Underworld

• Aeneas avoids every obstacle

  • Aeolus - Juno talks to him, Aeneas never meets him

  • Scylla and Charybdis - Helenus warns him and he avoids it

  • Polyphemus - they land on the island, rescue Achaemenides (abandoned crewman of Odysseys) who warns them, and he leaves

  • Circe - Helenus warns him, so they sail past the island

  • Underworld - Aeneas goes, but by exiting through the gate of false dreams, it appears that this could have been a false event

• Aeneas has an encounter with many of the obstacles that Odysseus faced, but it’s never direct, so instances of “magic/myth” don’t have to be faced head on

Hecuba

• widow of Priam

• queen of Troy

• mother of Hector, Polyxena, and others

Polyxena

• daughter of Hecuba and Priam

• Achilles ghost demands her as a sacrifice - bride after death

  • she may have lured Achilles to his death by ambush

  • she told Paris about his vulnerable heel

  • Achilles may have been in love with her

• Calchas says that she must die

Astyanax Identity and Etymology

• name means “Lord of the City”

  • his mother thinks he’ll avenge Troy one day

• young son of Hector and Andromache

• the Greeks want to kill him to end the Trojan legacy - if he dies with Troy, their descendants won’t have to fight another war

  • Calchas decreed it too

• either thrown from the battlements or used as a weapon to batter Priam to death by Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus

Priam

• elderly king of Troy

• killed by Pyrrhus/Neoptolemus, despite being spared by Achilles earlier

  • he was on/near an altar, a holy, safe space - big taboo

Agamemnon

• father to Iphigeneia

  • sacrificed her for good winds to Troy

• supreme commander of Greek forces

• always fighting with Achilles then Pyrrhus

Iphigeneia

• sacrificed by her father to be able to set sail to Troy to make war - the gods were preventing it with horrible winds

• Calchas tells Agamemnon that she must be sacrificed for them to leave

• told that she was to marry Achilles to get her to come to her own killing

Ulysses

• aka Odysseus

• portrayed negatively - cunning manipulator

  • was charming in the epic, but not the tragedy

• suggests the Trojan Horse

• gives Achilles’ armor to Pyrrhus

• king of Ithaka

• possibly threw Astyanax off the battlement (if not used to kill priam)

Pyrrhus Identity and Etymology

• aka Neoptolemus - meaning new war/new warrior

• son of Achilles and Deidameia (raped or seduced while Achilles was disguised)

  • Achilles had initially disguised himself as a woman named Pyrrha to avoid going to Troy

• killed Priam on an altar during sack of Troy

• struggling to deal with father’s legacy? - killed Priam when Achilles didn’t, fights with Agamemnon, calls for death of Polyxena

Calchas

• Greek priest/prophet

• declared necessity of deaths of Iphigenia, Polyxena, Astyanax

• messages of doom

Discuss how and why Seneca treats the issue of responsibility and blame in The Trojan Women

• responsibility for crime is a key theme in Trojan Women

• Helen says to blame the person who orders you to do the action

• Agamemnon says to blame the sword, not the person wielding it

• Ulysses blames many things

  • high command

  • Calchas

  • fate

  • following orders

• Andromache says not to blame priests or gods - you did the action

• Agamemnon says failure to stop a crime creates blame

• commentary by Seneca on how the Senators had to vote to condemn their own members in Tiberius/Sejanus’ treason trials

Populares

• “supporters of the people”

• populists who sought to gain power by appealing to the public assemblies and common people

• Caesar was one

Optimates

• “best men”

• conservatives seeking to maintain Senatorial supremacy, tradition, and elite authority

• aristocrats

• Pompey the Great was one

Julius Caesar

• a member of the Populares

• went to war against Pompey the Great - civil war

  • won battle in Pharsalia

• brilliant general and statesman who ended the Republic and laid foundations for Empire

• used to be allied with Pompey until he became Optimates

• assassinated on Ides of March - people didn’t want an empire

Pompey the Great

• member of Optimates and enemy of Caesar

• lost battle in Pharsalia

  • fled to Egypt, but murdered by people trying to gain favor with Caesar

• brilliant general and power hungry noble

• former ally of Caesar until switching parties

• supporters were dispossessed of land following Caesar’s victory

Ides of March, 44 BCE

the day Caesar was assassinated by Senators (Cassius and Brutus) trying to preserve the Republic

Octavian

• avenged Caesar, his great uncle, along with Mark Antony

• defeated Brutus and Cassius

  • won title of Augustus and became first emperor of Rome

• started fighting Mark Antony after they avenged Caesar

  • put out propaganda that Mark Antony was basically a foreign entity - sleeping with Cleopatra

  • people don’t like foreign wars, so Octavian was supported and won

    • had smaller ships that were able to destroy the ships of Egypt/Cleopatra

Cleopatra

• lover of both Caesar and Mark Antony

• queen of Egypt

• fought against Octavian with Antony

Epic

• long narrative poem on grand scale about deeds of warriors and heroes

• national significance

• history and aspirations of a nation in a lofty, grandiose manner

Rhomé

• greek for strength

• went on a tour of Italy with Ulysses and Aeneas

  • was a Trojan refugee in their company

• version of the founding of Rome by the historian Hellanicus in 5th century BCE

Romus

• an alternative story about the founding of Rome

• Romus was son of Ulysses and Circe and went on to found Rome

• written by Dionysius of Helicarnassus

  • Roman apologist trying to reconcile Greeks to Roman rule

Etymology of Aeneas

his name means grief/shame, because Aphrodite/Venus was tricked into sleeping with a mortal, which she thought was below her, though she doesn’t act like Aeneas causes her grief or shame

Pietas

• a sense of duty and devotion to the gods, the state, and family

• defining virtue of Aeneas - why he is so favored by the gods

Discuss the different origin stories for Rome and their relation to the Iliad

• Aeneas/Romulus and Remus

  • Aeneas saved from death by Poseidon, Apollo, and Venus due to his pietas - want him to save the Trojans

  • R and R are either sons/grandsons or distant descendants of Aeneas

• Rhomé

  • a Trojan refugee travelled with Aeneas and Odysseus through Italy, and suggested burning their ships to stop the wandering

  • they named the city they founded after her

• Romus

  • the son of Odysseus and Circe goes on to found Rome

• Rhomé and Romus’s stories link the founding of Rome directly to Troy

Prophetic/admonitory dream

when a ghost/deity reveals the future or prompts action in the dream of a person

Dream incubation

• a thought technique

• focusing on a specific issue when going to asleep to attempt to solve a problem

• sometimes certain rituals accompanied

• ex. Latinus - sacred grove, skins of 100 sheep, sulphuric air

Turnus

• King of the Rutulians

• brother of Juturna

• main suitor of Lavinia - fighting for her hand with Aeneas

• leader of the Italians opposed to the Trojans

  • sent a dream by Juno/Allecto to cause war with Trojans

Allecto identity and etymology

• name meaning “unceasing anger” or “implacable”

• one of the three Furies

• sent by Juno to have Turnus make war on Trojans/Aeneas

  • appears as a Priestess of Juno to Turnus in a dream

  • he initially ignores her (she’s a woman), so she reveals herself as a Fury and he agrees to comply

Latinus

• Father of Lavinia

• King of the Latins

• wants his daughter to marry Aeneas

• does dream incubation - troubled by omens surrounding Lavinia’s marriage

  • sleeps in sacred grove of Faunus, his father

  • sleeps on skins of 100 sacrificed sheep

  • breathes in sulfuric air of grove

  • communicates with souls of the dead in Acheron

Penates

• household gods

• explain to Aeneas that he must seek Italy - will be his home

• originally gods of the pantry, symbolic of the home

Anchises

• Aeneas’ dad

• appears to Aeneas in a dream

  • tells him to consult the Sibyl

  • visit Underworld

  • leave Trojans who don’t want to travel further

• sends Aeneas out through the gate of false dreams

  • demythologizing or a critique of the Roman mission

• shows Aeneas the future of Rome while in the underworld - future heroes to come

Sibyl

• priestess of Apollo’s oracle

• guides and protects Aeneas when he visits the Underworld

  • restrains from battling empty images from tree of false dreams

• has gift of prophecy - tells Aeneas of Turnus and foreign bride

Tartarus

torture prison in the Underworld where the villians of classical mythology are punished for eternity

Elysium

• aka Groves of Blessedness

• paradise in the Underworld reserved for dead heroes

The Roman Mission

• tame the proud - achieved

• teach the ways of peace to those you conquer - achieved

• spare defeated peoples - did they really? …

Gates of Sleep

• two versions

  • horn gate for true visions/shades/dreams

  • ivory gate for false visions/shades/dreams

• the exit from the Underworld

Discuss, with examples, the different kinds of dreams in the Aeneid

• True vs. false dreams

  • prophetic/admonitory

    • Dido’s husband Sychaeus comes to her and tells her that her brother murdered him for treasure. Tells her where the treasure is and to flee from Tyre with it. - true dream, from a dead loved one

    • Hector’s ghost tells Aeneas to flee Troy

    • Penates tell Aeneas to go to Italy

    • Anchises tells Aeneas to go to Underworld with Sibyl

    • Tiber River god tells Aeneas how to ID site for future city - white sow and many piglets

  • nightmares

    • Allecto visits Turnus and scares him into going to war against the Trojans. He initially dismisses her

  • incubation

    • Latinus sleeps in the grove of his father in order to understand the omens surrounding his daughter’s marriage

• False dreams

  • Tree of False dreams emanates empty images

  • Vergil alludes to the fact that Aeneas’ journey to the Underworld may have been a false dream by him exiting through the ivory gate of false dreams