1. The Poet and his PoemsThe Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil) lived from 70 to 19 BCE. Born near Mantua, he lived through the age of the Civil Wars which ended with the accession of the Emperor Augustus. Vergil became a friend of Augustus and enjoyed the patronage of the Emperor and his wealthy and powerful associate Maecenas.
Vergil wrote in Latin, but the influence of Greek civilization was so pervasive among the Romans that they viewed themselves as continuing, developing, and commenting upon the Greek tradition which they had inherited as the conquerors of Greece.
Vergil's earliest work, the Eclogues (or Bucolics) is a collection of ten poems about rural life which continue a Greek tradition of sophisticated poetry on outwardly simple rustic themes.
Next came the Georgics, a poem on farming in four books. Again, Vergil followed Greek and Roman tradition in composing a didactic (i.e., "instructive") work.
Vergil's last work, left unfinished at his death, was the Aeneid, an epic poem in twelve books which continues the story of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by telling the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and journeyed amid many travails to Italy, where by alliance and conquest he united the Trojan and Italian peoples to form the ancestors of the Romans of Vergil's day.
Though all of Vergil's works are in dactylic hexameter, the meter of Homer, the Aeneid was a radical departure from Vergil's earlier work. It could be described as an historical epic, since it is concerned not only with the saga of the Trojan War but also with the history of Italy and Rome right up to Vergil's own time. What Aeneas began, Augustus was to finish.
Vergil's audience knew intimately the great works of Greek literature; many had studied in Athens. Vergil expected his readers to be constantly comparing and contrasting the characters and situations of the Aeneid with those of Greek epic and Greek tragedy.
Reading the Aeneid with the Iliad fresh in your mind, you will be like a Roman reader. What Greek hero(es) does Aeneas remind you of? What about his mother Venus? The supreme god Jupiter (Jove)? The observations you make will define the Aeneid for you.
2. Roman Names and Greek Names
The most striking evidence of Rome's debt to Greece is the fact that the Romans adopted Greek mythology and made it their own. They identified Greek gods and goddesses with their own native deities and linked themselves, via the Trojan conquest of Italy, with the heroic tradition of Greece.
Here are the equivalent goddesses and gods:
Some human names are also slightly different:Jupiter (Jove) = Zeus Juno = Hera Neptune = Poseidon (god of the sea) Venus = Aphrodite Mercury = Hermes Minerva = Athena Vulcan = Hephaistos Apollo = Apollo (but sometimes identified by the Romans with the Sun god) Diana = Artemis (huntress, sister of Apollo) Mars = Ares (god of war) Saturn = Kronos (father of Zeus/Jupiter) Bacchus = Dionysos Ceres = Demeter (goddess of grain) Aeneas = Aineias [Don't EVER call him by the name of the poem!] Ulysses = Odysseus Ajax = Aias
3. How Does the Aeneid Begin?Like Homer, Vergil assumes that his audience already knows the basic outline of his story. Thus he can begin in the middle of the narrative, with only a brief introduction.
As the Aeneid opens, the Trojan War has been over for seven years, and Aeneas and his men have nearly reached Italy on their fated voyage. Juno, who despises the Trojans, prevents them from landing by inducing Aeolus, god of the winds, to send a storm, which Neptune eventually quells.
Juno's anger is based on events both past and future: Paris favored Venus (Aphrodite) over Juno (Hera) and Minerva (Athena) in the famous beauty contest; Jupiter (Zeus) brought the beautiful Trojan boy Ganymede up to Olympus to be cup-bearer to the gods; and it was fated that descendants of the Trojans would one day conquer Juno's favorite city, Carthage (as the Romans had in fact done a century before Vergil wrote the Aeneid).
The Trojans' ships are driven ashore on the north coast of Africa, near the place where Dido, a queen who has fled the city of Tyre, is building the new city of Carthage, which she will rule. Aeneas' ship, along with six others, is separated from the remaining twelve; Aeneas does not know whether the rest of the Trojans are safe until he encounters his companions as they meet queen Dido.
In Book 2, at a banquet in Dido's palace, Aeneas narrates the story of the fall of Troy. Thus we experience the sequel to Homer's story from the Trojan point of view.
4. Further Background Information
Further information about the historical background and literary character of the Aeneid is available in the Core 1 Study Guide. Remember also that the Study Guide has questions to guide you as you read the Aeneid.
5. Caucus Discussion
Our on-line discussion will focus initially on the similarities and differences between Homer's Iliad and Vergil's Aeneid.
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