Book VI

Book VI

Dear SM Summer Reading Group,

Welcome to the Underworld! Vergil goes into great detail to describe the traditional Roman understanding of the underworld by visiting it through Aeneas' eyes. You may remember, if you've read the Odyssey, that Homer describes the underworld as Odysseus experiences it.  Vergil's description is much more detailed, as are the visits that he makes with various shades and the information that they provide about life after death. Here's a visual comparison of the two heroes voyage to the underworld.

Need to Know

• The Trojans have now made landfall in Italy. They arrive at Cumae where the sanctuary of Apollo and the Sibyl (prophetess) reside.  Cumae is near modern day Naples. St. Marker's in the Classical Diploma program will stay in Cumae next year when we travel to Italy.
• Aeneas receives a prophecy of Apollo through the Sibyl. You may have noticed that she enters a kind of trance-like state in order to communicate the prophecy. Scholarly theories about sibylline prophecy have gone as far as to suggest that these priestesses used sulphur fumes to induce this trance-like state. In the prophecy, Aeneas' concerns about reaching Latium (a little bit further north in Italy), are quelled. Unfortunately, the Sibyl also predicts that things are about to get much worse for Aeneas and his men once they arrive. To add to his fear and frustration, she comments that he will meet a new Achilles (Turnus), and start a war over a new Helen (Lavinia).
• Aeneas requests a visit to the underworld from the Sibyl.  She has him retrieve the Golden Bough (literally a golden branch), in order to appease Proserpina (Persephone), the queen of the underworld. You can probably get a sense for the fact that mortals rarely visit the underworld and come out alive. The Sibyl warns Aeneas of this.
• There's so much to say about the Underworld. Read this section carefully and let me know if you have any questions. The shades are organized by the moral quality of the lives that they lived - somewhat similar to a Christian concept of Heaven and Hell. The shades that occupy the Plain of Judgement are experiencing something similar to the Christian idea of Purgatory. They are waiting to be received into another more permanent resting place once things are sorted concerning their earthly "stains". Tartarus is a place of torture for those who have severely offended the gods and humankind in their lifetimes. The Elysian Fields are something like the Christian idea of Heaven. 
• Aeneas has encounters with a number of lost friends, comrades, and family members. He even faces the official snub from Dido who has returned to her deceased husband Sychaeus in the Underworld. Deiphobus, just to keep things straight, is not Paris, the famous lover of Helen who brought her Troy and supposedly started the conflict between Greece and Troy. Deiphobus received Helen after Paris was killed in battle. Unfortunately, he also received the rage of Menelaus when he showed up to collect Helen and bring her home to Greece. 
• Anchises provides the majority of the explanation of how the Underworld works when he speaks with Aeneas. Within his explanation, he shows Aeneas the souls that will be recycled or reincarnated as future Italians, the offspring of his own line. Rome gets a shoot out here as Anchises celebrates with Aeneas the vision of Romulus, the founder of Rome, "under his auspices, watch, my son, our brilliant Rome will extend her empire far and wide as the earth, her spirit high as Olympus…"(ll.900). Furthermore, Caesar Augustus, Vergil's emperor and the recipient of this national epic is pointed out by Anchises as a prophecy and promise of the great Empire to come. Lofty praise of the emperor, who would be reading Vergil's text, Anchises proclaims, "Son of a god, he will bring back the Age of Gold to the Latian fields where Saturn once held sway…"(ll.915).
• The Gate of Horn and the Gate of Ivory - very confusing. One plot-based theory on why Aeneas is led out of the Gate of Ivory, thereby forgetting all that he has learned in the underworld about the fate of his family line, is that his vision provides no advantage to him in the struggles in Italy (Books VII - XII). He's forgotten his own advantage!

Poem

The visual quality and imagery of this Book have always captured my imagination. There are a number of literary techniques that enhance this visual experience for the reader.

Old but True

Aeneas has a pressing need to visit the souls of those who have passed, not an unfamiliar human experience. Interesting that this voyage is reduced to a dream state by its conclusion at the end of Book VI. Communication with loved ones through dreams is a reported experience in modern dealings as well.

Roman

The triumph of Rome and the Empire! Civic pride expressed in family lineage, victory on the battlefield, and the extent of power is the fuel that runs the Roman empire. Vergil capitalizes on the opportunity to openly flatter Augustus and his rich heritage in Book VI. It was also probably not received as a cheesy sentiment to a Roman at the time as it may seem to you now. Can you think of a modern example of openly-expressed nationalism in the US?