Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1

Here are a few salient points from the lecture/discussion of Aeneid Book I. . .

I. Virgil, poet of the Aeneid

• Writing, not oral, poet
• Aeneid composed between 30-19 BCE
• Virgil died before putting the poem into final form (he wanted his friends to burn it)

II. 1.1-49 (Fitzgerald) Prologue

A. CREATIVE IMITATION OF HOMER (1.1)

• Aeneid 1.1 I sing of WARFARE and a MAN AT WAR
• Iliad 1.1 WRATH, Sing goddess, the wrath of Peleus' son Achilles
• Odyssey 1.1 The MAN describe to me, Muse, the man of many ways,

B. MOVEMENT FROM TROY TO ITALY (1.2-12)

• The movement is both geographical and ideological; Aeneas must leave the old/East behind and move on to the new/West
• Virgil's epic is simultaneously working on two levels: that of Aeneas and that of contemporary Rome of the 20's BCE.
• Aeneas is conditioned by a public destiny/fate marked out for him: he must subordinate every individualistic heroic impulse to the goal of founding the city from which would result the Latin nation and, finally, Rome.

C. PIETAS - the reinvented hero, pius Aeneas

• loyalty and fulfilling obligations in respect of one's family, city, and gods.

III. BOOK I

A. The STORM

• Watch for this nexus of images here and throughout the poem: wounding; fire; pain; furor; fury; storm
• First simile in the Aeneid, 1.201-15: evokes image of Roman civil wars, "Neptune's action indicates the goal of peace and stability toward which Aeneas is groping and, beyond that, points to the achievements of Augustus, who quieted the storm of the mob at Rome." (Anderson, 25)

B. Jupiter's "historical summary" 1.347-98: Latium, Alba Longa, Rome; final defeat of impious Furor.

C. Hunting (1.411)

• Aeneas hunts deer for his men
• Venus appears to him in guise of huntress (what is she hunting?)
• [Aeneas first possesses Dido during a hunt]
• [Dido's passion for him is put in terms of the agony of a wounded deer]

D. Scenes of the walls of Juno's temple; last is Penthesilea

• Aeneas' response to the "story" on the wall is to weep; compare Odysseus' response to Demodocus' song about the Trojan Horse in Odyssey 8.521-34

E. Dido and Aeneas

• To think about: What is Venus' interest in enflaming Dido with passion for Aeneas?