Virgil (70-19 BC) THE AENEID

-Born near the Italian town of Mantua -Came of age during civil war ending in the defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian - civil wars ended in the reign of Caesar Augustus and the peace (Pax Romanus) that so many desired -However, it also brought an end to the Republic -The Aeneid register the relief from war as well as the anxiety over the loss of the Republic in the ancient story it tells -Book 1: “So hard and huge a task it was to found the Roman people.” -Virgil’s first collection of poetry: the Bucolics or Eclogues (42-39 BC): adaptations of Greek pastoral poems -He came under the protection and patronage of a famous/wealthy aristocrat, Maecenas - over next ten years, Virgil polished his next collection of poetry, the Georgics—a book on farming and bee-keeping interspersed with mythology

- he spent the last ten years of his life working on The Aeneid - even though he ordered it burned, Augustus countermanded the order and had the poet Varius organize its publication - the book immediately became a school text used for teaching grammar, verse, and philosophy - in the Middle Ages, Virgil was assimilated as a forerunner of Christianity - Aeneid functioned as a linking text between Christian doctrine and the classical tradition, especially Dante’s work

The Aeneid - composed of 12 books - first six books recount the difficult journey of Aeneas from the defeated Troy to the shores of Italy, where he is fated to found Rome - starts in medias res when Aeneas’s fleet is nearly destroyed by a storm sent by Juno who bears grudges against the Trojans - however, they are taken in by Queen Dido, herself in exile from Phoenicia and in the process of building the city of Carthage in northern Africa - following the machinations of Aeneas’s mother, Venus, the pair conducts a brief but passionate love affair that ends in Dido’s suicide when Aeneas is ordered by the gods to return to his fated duty - Aeneas decides after further difficulties to journey to underworld and consult with the shade of his father, Anchises => Anchises shows Aeneas in the Elysian Fields the souls waiting to return to the world above and sketches out his descendants in a prophetic history of Rome

The Aeneid - the final six books of the poem describe the war that awaits Aeneas after he lands in Latium on the coast of Italy - a series of broken treaties and much maneuvering by Juno and Venus lead to a conflict between the Trojans and their allies and the local king, Turnus and his allies -these books offer a sustained meditation on the costs of civil war and the pros and cons of empire building - TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK: constantly sending the reader back and forth between the legendary period of the poem’s setting and the contemporary period of the poem’s composition - the character and choices of Aeneas constantly reflect on the current ruler, Augustus, and the costs and benefits of empire building - also: many anachronistic similes: it compares events in Aeneas’s time to people and events in Virgil’s time (i.e. things that have not happened yet, according to the setting of the epic)

The Aeneid - interpretive problem: how do we read the disturbing attributes of female characters, especially Juno and Dido - especially: focus on the problem of rage - even though rage is often attributed to women, the epic also ends with Aeneas himself overcome with rage in the final scene, even though Juno has agreed to lay down her own rage QUESTIONS: - What does the epic say about the costs and benefits of building an empire? - How does the epic comment on the opposition between duty and desire/love? - Is the epic an example of misogyny or does it sympathize with Dido in spite of her ultimate demise for the sake of Aeneas’s (and thus Rome’s) greater glory?