Book VII

Dear SM Summer Reading Group,

Aeneas has reached Latium and our story has hit the halfway point.  You may have noticed that Vergil changes briefly over to the first person again in the beginning of Book VII.  He invokes the muse of poetry, Erato, just as he had at the beginning of the text, asking for the inspiration to tell the second half of Aeneas' tale. The journey is over but the resolution of the resettlement of the Trojans is not quite as simple as just showing up.

Need to Know

• Latinus is the king of the region of Latium where Aeneas and his men are destined to establish their new kingdom. He has a daughter, Lavinia, but no male heir.  This means that whomever Lavinia marries will take control of Latinus' kingdom.  Latinus has had two prophecies (bees on laurel & burning hair), as well as an oracle from his father that this future heir will not be a local guy, but rather a foreigner. This foreigner will have traveled far for his kingdom and will make it even greater than it already is.
• While waiting for this foreign son-in-la, Latinus has turned down many local suitors, including Turnus, of the Rutulian tribe. Turnus is the so-called "new Achilles" that the Sibyl referenced in Book VI.
• Juno's at it again. Though she knows she can't mess with Fate (Fate is beyond the power of the gods), she plans to delay the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia for as long as possible by starting a war among the Italic tribes and the alliance of Latins and Trojans. She employs Allecto, one of the Furies from the underworld, who operates with evil intentions. The Furies are the representation of revenge in the ancient world - a nasty trio!
• Allecto inspires the Queen of Latium, Amata, to rile up in support of Turnus. Her rage/craze is described like a Bacchic frenzy. Bacchant revelers performed religious ceremony in honor of Bacchus (Dionysus) in Greek culture and were known for their crazed & near animalistic antics.
• Allecto also gets to Turnus and convinces him to take action in support of his own candidature as a suitor of Lavinia. She comes disguised as a priestess, but when Turnus rejects her encouragement, reveals herself as a Fury and frightens him to action.
• Last but not least, Allecto is the one responsible for Iulus' hunting error. The Latins are enraged over the wounding of the sacred stag and fighting breaks out between Trojans and Latins after this somewhat unusual act of war.

Poem
The imagery of Amata's crazed rampage like that of a spinning top is particularly fun to read and imagine. The resolution of the riddle spelled out by the Harpies in Book III about the Trojans eating their own tables links journey (Books I-VI) to the founding (Books VII-XII) in a successful way, but of particular poetic excellence is the repetition of the invocation of the muse at the start of Book I and Book VII.

Old but True
Revenge in the personified form of the fury Allecto being the source of trouble in the court of Latium. The kind of "justified" chaos that revenge brings to Amata and Turnus inspires a deep-seeded rage that will surely end up regrettable.

Roman
That long list of warriors. Woah, that's totally Roman. A first century Roman audience would have had much more attachment to that list than any of us probably did because the warriors mentioned are for the most part tied to other myths associated with the founding of Rome. Perhaps a like comparison would be reading a list of characters from American tall tales (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed) or maybe Marvel Comics superheroes (Batman, Superman).