Major themes in the Aeneid

Piety quotes

B1- "i am Aeneas, know for my devotion"
B1- Illioneus- "he has no equal for his piety and his care for justice"
B4- even in her madness, Dido "renewing her offerings all day long"
B6- those who "hated their brothers and beatch their fathers" are punished on shore of Styx, whilst Anchises who upholds peace resides in paradise
B9- "he prayed first to Jupiter" (ascanius knows order of duties)

War/Furor

B1- Aeneas- "he has no equal in the field of battle"
B2- we see a sign of Aeneas' furor taking over him. He has be reduced back to his dutiful self from "raging passion" by Venus and Creusa!
B6- Deiphobus presented with gruesome descriptions of his "hands in shreds" and "ears ripped from head" - physical costs of war!
- "Trojan Aeneas famous for devotion and feats of arms" (placed on equal footing?)
B7- "criminal madness, and above all anger" "wicked war" - sin of sins
- Ascanius is "burning with a passionate love of glory" (kleos doesn't apply to post-Homeric/roman standards
B9- "so through sham and anger, they obeyed orders"
- "Euryalus was overcome, pierced to the heart with great love of glory"
- effects of furor: "their strength was broken (Trojan army)
- "Turnus instantly abandoned the work he has and rushed in a savage rage" (sacrifices pietas for furor)
- "that would have been the end of the war, but instead his (T) mad lust for blood drive him upon his enemies" (errors)

...Furor- more

B9- "its glittering betrayed them" and "held back by their booty" g=furor leads to greed and self sabotage

Reputation

= not about past but about future and heritage
- B4- "i see my son Ascanius and the wrong im doing him, cheating him of his kingdom
- B4 (D)- "oh if only you had given me a child before you abandoned me!"
- B6- "the love for glory that is to come"(Anchises to Aeneas)
- B6- "the wars he would have to fight in due course" (A to A)
- B6- "love of his country will prevail him and his limitless desire for glory" (is pietas about glory??)
- B9- Virgil gives N&E gloriful death "fortune has favoured you both...the day will never come when time will erase you from memory of man" and "he cut off the breath of his enemy"

Fate/destiny

B1- we hear about the 'doomed dido' whilst gods are 'devising new plans' and 'secret scrolls of fate'
B1- Aeneas set out to be at receiving end of Juno's anger
B7- " the gods forbade it", despite Turnus being a good match for Lavinia, ultimately her fate with Aeneas is sealed
B7- Juno is even limited by fate "I have used every resource and what use?"
B7- "all things were taking their course according to the nod of savage Juno"... leads King Latinus to "give up reigns of power"

Other religious obligations

1. Burial rites
- B4: Didio ensures she is "veiled with a sacred ribbon
- B6: Misenus "they will raise a burial"

Prophecies/omens

B2- flame on Ascanius' forehead
B7- "look we are even eating our tables" (link to book 3)
Success of Roman history is explicitly tied with divine sanctions/omens.
B8- Tiber appearing to Aeneas in dream "this is the home decreed for the gods of your household"

City-building/ future of Rome

B1- "on them i impose no limits of time or place...an empire that will know no end" (in context of Virgil's audience Rome has reached pinnacle state)
B2- image of Aeneas carrying Anchises and so Ascanius
B4- Aeneas seen "laying foundations of a citadel", contrasted with image of city-depletion "ceasing to rise" (Dido)

Political purpose

- grounded in legitimising Augustine's divine lineage and direct link to famed city of Troy/Illium
- Virgil is therefore playing a tribute to him
- links in book include
- explicit praise by name and achievements referenced
- implicit references which could be veiled praise of Augustus
- passages promoting Augustan values such as Piet as
- some believe Aeneas is based on Augustus

Political purpose evidence

B1- Jupiter' speech talking abt future of Rome
B2- image of Aeneas carrying father and leading son (symbolic of pietas)
B6- reference to number of names, connection made from past to present as a way to legitmaise Augustus. (From familiar, ancient mythological names to personal/present (Misenus) to parade of future Romans (Pompey)
B7- eg: flattery of Turnus and Latins, shows Augustus as unifying figure
B7- "Dardanus was born in these fields"- extended ancestral cataloguing
B8- Tiber: "this is the home decreed for the gods of your household"
B8- Evander and Aeneas discussing their linkage through Dardanus
B8- "what Roman power now raised to the heights of the sky"
B8- ekphrasis of shield, Augustus "leading the men of Italy into battle alongside the senate and people of Rome"
B8- "without knowing what they were, Aeneas lifted on to his shoulder the fame and fate of his descendants"

Women/madness

Role of women:
B4- without love/children, Dido will "waste away" (Anna). She also needs a husband for political reasons, considering refugees status ("shall i beg a husband from the Numindians?"

Madness:
B4- "what use are prayers and shrine to a passionate flame"-> D's "fiery love" is reflected onto women as whole
B4- "the flame that was eating her"
B4- Mercury: "women are unstable creatures always changing"
B4- "she was not dying by decree of fate but by a sudden blaze of madness"
B7- "Womanly anger" Amata infected by Allecto, "greater impieties and greater madness" (true sin)

Dido- sympathy or alienation

Sympathy
- "wounded doe"
- "death of my poor husband Syuchaeus"
- the hope given by Anna
Alienation
- "flame was eating soft marrow..."
- "buildings ceased to rise"
- "salve of lust"

Supernatural intervention

B2- Aeneas relies on Venus and Creusa bringing him down from his state of furor. He was willing to sacrifice pietas for vengacy.
B2- hectors tells him to escape and establish a new city
B4- "the fates forbade it and God blocked his ears"

Aeneas and Venus

B1 "why do you so often mock your own son by taking on these disguises"
B1- she gives "beauty to his hair and..."
B2- "do not disobey me" A is subordinate to her

Heroism context

- more defined by civic duty, rather than glory-seeking
- more concerned with future descendants than past ancestors
- reluctance to fight and no excessive anger

Homeric influence

- evoking muse
- a hero
- epithets, parallel scenes, similes, characters

- major difference: purposes of poem

Negative portrayal of enemies

- B7: "cruel Mezentius"
- B7: "

Positive portrayal of enemies

B7- flattery of Latins (especially Turnus) "Turnus the handsomest of all", "the stalwart latins"- they are heroes in own right and also makes Augustus a unifying figure

Aeneas- cunning/ distinct nature

B1- ability to see through divine disguise
B2- abscence-> war breaks out
B6- Priestess gets himself to physically "stand apart"
B6- he knows the birds belong to mother, able to sieve branch
B6- he is assertive and understands what fate owes him "no more than what is owed me by the fates"
B7- absent-> war breaks out
B8- he is marked out as divine through shield and thundery pathetic fallacy

The Trojans without Aeneas

b2- "fools" "blinded" without their leader
B7- things go wrong when Aeneas is not present again
B9- "Aeneas has left his city"
- "they were not to dare trust themselves on the plain"
- called "Phyrigian women" (effeminate slur)
- "no thought for your fatherland...or for great Aeneas?" (It is the reference to their leader that re-ignites the Trojans)

Ascanius

B7- "burning with a passionate love for glory"
B9- "my father will give you twelve chosen matrons and twelve..." (naive/wrong)
- "he prayed first to Jupiter"-> he knows the order of duties (pietas first).

Turnus

B1 - "a second Achilles"
B7- "Turnus the fairest of them all"
B7- "do not invent these fears for me (to Allecto)
B9- "Turnus instantly abandoned the work he has and rushed in a savage rage" (sacrifices pietas for furor)
B9- "that would have been the end of the war, but instead his (T) mad lust for blood drive him upon his enemies" (errors)