Book III

Book III

Dear SM Summer Reading Group,

"Hoist our sails to fate!" In Book III, Aeneas details the many ports of call in his journey from Troy. Here's a map to help you get a sense for the dimension of his travels. It's quite an exhausting list of landfall and start-up civilizations gone wrong!

Need to Know

• Aeneas truly has no idea where he is intended to found this new settlement for displaced Trojans. Clearly. Creusa, in ghost form, mentioned Hesperian, but what's a name without any context. Book III is a record of his failed attempts to find his new home. The "epic" wandering is reminiscent of another epic odyssey, The Odyssey, or the story of Odysseus' homecoming. The two journeys even parallel at some of the same rest stops along the way, encountering the Harpies and Polyphemus the Cyclops right after one another. I wonder if Aeneas spotted any Odysseus was here graffiti.
• You probably noticed that prophecy plays a large role in Aeneas' quest. What are some of the omens, oracles, and rites undertaken in a Book III and what impression does this give you of traditional Roman beliefs?
• Anchises gets Apollo's prophecy wrong when he guesses Crete, the home of ancestor Teucer, rather than Italy, the land of the second Trojan parent, Dardanus. The Trojans are sometimes referred to as Dardans and it's partially Juno's longstanding grudge against Dardanus that inspires the storm in Book I. Dardanus is the love child of Jupiter and Electra - good reason to be despised by the queen of the gods, Juno.
• Aeneas has the chance to catch up with Andromache, the former wife of great Trojan Hero, Hector, who was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War. After the war, Andromache was taken as part of Pyrrhus' bounty. Pyrrhus, remember, was the ruthless son of Achilles who slaughtered King Priam in Book II. The good news, Pyrrhus had it coming and was offed by Orestes, Agamemnon's son. That's another story. Andromache is now married to Helenus, a prince of Troy, who inspires Aeneas with his "little Troy" built on the Greek mainland. 

Poetry

I love "scudding on buoyant hulls thorough wastes of ocean" around ll.230. I can hear the endless blue waves as the prow of the ship breaks them. Consider the many allusions to the Odyssey in Book III. What does it do for the work to condense the journey into one book?

Old but True

Andromache's gifts for Ascanius in memory of her son Astyanax - old but true. Having lost her own son, she cherishes the sight of Ascanius, who was almost the same age as Astyanax and has a similar look about him. Losing a child in the ancient world was just as painful of an experience, despite the detachment suggested by research on population-depleting plagues and infant & childhood mortality rates nearing 75%. Andromache's longing for her son left in Troy is a good reminder of this.

Roman
Lots of superstition in Book III. We've got burial rites, oracles, omens, libations, votive gifts, and honorary Trojan games. What do you think it would be like to live under this tradition? How do the characters act to the performance and outcome of these rites?

Book II

Book II

Dear SM Summer Reading Group,

You may have noticed that Book I opened in the middle of an action scene - shipwrecked disaster for Aeneas and his men. This mid-action story telling technique is termed in media res, "in the middle of the matter". The technique is a great hook for a storyteller, it gets the reader involved in a conflict from the very beginning and builds interest in a resolution. In Book II, Dido convinces Aeneas to tell his story to her dinner crowd, a perfect opportunity for the storyline to catch the up to the point we've entered in media res.

Need to Know

• Aeneas is telling the story of the sack of Troy from his perspective, that of a Trojan noble man. The Iliad recounts events prior to the fall of Troy and The Odyssey references the Trojan horse that Odysseus devised, but this telling of the actual sack of the city from a Trojan perspective is unique to The Aeneid. It is possible that a third epic, a telling of these events, was extant at the time Vergil wrote The Aeneid, giving him a source to borrow from, but the text no longer survives.
• The Greeks are represented as cunning tricksters throughout the telling. If you've read The Odyssey, you know that Odysseus is famous for his ability to outsmart sad his wily nature. Sinon's deceit and the treachery of the Trojan Horse are less admirable and overall ruinous from the Trojan perspective. At one point, Aeneas is faced with the choice to adopt treachery as a strategy when he is presented with the opportunity to dress in agrees armor during the heat of the battle. His decision-making process further confirms His reluctance to "give in" to a Greek strategy, perhaps because he considers these actions outside of the rules of engagement.
• The twin snakes attacking Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons - woah. I'd be superstitious too. Remember that Laocoon is the one to speak the famous line, "Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, especially bearing gifts." He totally called it.
• Pyrrhus/Neoptolemus is Achilles' son. He ruthlessly kills Priam, the King of Troy, in his inner court. Priam's exchange with his wife and his feeble attempt to defend himself and the honor of Troy are indicative of the weary end of a ten year besiegement.
• Creusa, Aeneas' Trojan wife, is somehow lost and left behind in the family's escape. Iulus/Ascanius (same son, two names) and Anchises, Aeneas father come with Aeneas. The loss of Creusa, though terribly sad, in some way grants permission to Aeneas for a future life in a new land and the marriage alliance that will make this integration successful.

Poetry
How about foreshadowing in Book II? There is plenty of ground work laid for later events in the text. The prophecy of Iulus' head on fire and Creusa's ghost propel Aeneas forward. The retelling of a well-known story (to all first century and many twenty-first century readers), creates a nice dramatic irony where the audience knows what will happen before the events are told by the story teller, and perhaps before the story teller himself fully realizes their implications.

Old but True
Family relationships, father/son & husband/wife, play out in the emotionally charged moments recalled in Book II. Hecuba's feeble attempts to dissuade Priam from acting in pride, Anchises debate with Aeneas, and Creusa's hectic fear and parting message (in ghost form), present a relatebale pathos or emotional appeal that may have left you feeling sympathetic. What did you notice about these family dialogues? What seemed to transcend time and what did not?

Roman
How about all of this prophecy? You've got soothsayers, priests, rituals, ghosts, burning halos - you name it, Book II probably has it (more to come in Book III). What's the reason for all of this? Where does prophecy come from and how does it gain legitimacy? What are superstitions or prophecies that exist today? Why do people choose to believe in them, should they believe?

Book I

Dear SM Summer Reading Group,

Hopefully by this point you've had the opportunity to start reading and are well on your way. I wanted to point out a few things about Book I.

Need to Know

• Aeneas is Trojan. He fled the city if Troy once the Greeks took it after a ten year siege. Clever Greek Odysseus snuck Greeks within the walls of Troy with his Trojan Horse. Aeneas and his men barely got out in time (more about that in Book II).
• Juno brought on the storm that kicks off the action. She's miffed that she has been unable to prevent Aeneas from reestablishing the Trojan race in Italy. She is a supporter of the Greeks and the city of Carthage. Athena got to punish Ajax, why can't Juno punish Aeneas (ll.50)?
• The goddess Venus is Aeneas' mother. That's why she comes to help him when he lands in Carthage. She's in disguise and he does not know that the young huntress with whom he is speaking is actually his mother until she leaves. She's kind of helicopter momming in Book I especially with the quick total make-overs that she does for Aeneas and his son Iulus/Ascanius. She's just trying to be helpful.
• Dido is the Queen of Carthage. In fact, she's building Carthage right now (ll.520). Dido originally fled from Tyre in the Levant (Phoenicia) to found Carthage in North Africa. Does that fated quest sound familiar? What a good person for Aeneas to get to know at this point in his journey...

Poetry
What have you noticed about the style of the writing now that you have begun reading? Any favorite lines or passages? How about the similes? Did you catch those? What is being compared?

Old but True
What stuck out to you as relatable human experience? You probably have not been sent on an epic quest to found a new city yet (not sure about the incoming students in our group), but have you ever thought that something in your life was just "meant to be"? What role does fate, destiny, or design have in your life, if any? How about Aeneas as a leader? Is he human or is he epic? Does he have traits that we might hope for in a leader in the modern sense of the role? Does he have flaws?

Roman
Jupiter/Jove comforts Venus by reading her the fate that has been spun for Aeneas and the Trojan people. He tells her that their race, their family line, the Roman people, will be limitless in space and time (ll.233). It's hard not to think about the fact that this prophecy, written by Vergil in the 1st century AD, was either commemorating achievement or setting an expectation for the city and it's people. What are your initial impressions of the Roman tradition? What does it mean to be Roman and from where might this feeling come?

You've also had a great introduction to some of the major Roman gods in Book I (Juno, Neptune, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury). What do you think about them? How does an artifact of "mainstream" Roman culture represent divinity? How might a Roman reader think of these gods?

Welcome to the SM Summer Reading Group: Vergil's Aeneid!

Salvete Summer Reading Group,

First of all, I just wanted to applaud you on your decision to read the Aeneid this summer.  Epic choice! Hopefully you have your copy of Fagles translation by now, and if you don't, please try an pick up this specific translation.  It comes with a couple of different cover designs, but as long as it says "translated by Robert Fagles" on the cover page, you have the right one. I like this translation the best for the maps and notes in the back, but most of all for the way in which Robert Fagles translates the Latin text. He does a great job keeping things accurate to the way the text reads in Latin, without losing all of the beauty of the poetry. Speaking of which, I wanted to make sure that you are keeping a couple of things in mind as you start reading because I think it will improve your experience:

1) The Aeneid is a poem
I know. Hard to believe when you think about how long it is.  You're holding it right now, right? This thing has some weight. This isn't your cute little rhyming selection.  This is a twelve book epic poem. You'll notice that it doesn't rhyme, and it actually doesn't have to, because it was written according to a specific rhythm or meter. Every line has a certain pattern of long and short vowel sounds that, when read aloud, give it a kind of drum beat sound.  The last five syllables always went dum-diddy-dum-dum. Think of it almost like rap lyrics spoken to a beat. The lyrics don't always have to rhyme in order to fit together from one line to the next, but rather, the flow needs to fit the beat.  Meter is the beat. The words are the lyrics. The flow is when the lyrics riff off the beat, riff off the meter.  That's good rap and that's good metrical poetry.

2) The Aeneid is a Latin poem
Yup. Fagles translated all twelve books from the original Latin. You won't be reading the Latin, unless you want to (available online for free here), but it's important to keep in mind that what you're reading is a translation of an original text.  Translating is a difficult job.  What do you keep and what do you change? How much fluency do you loose for the sake of accuracy? How do you account for the sound and style of one language in another language? If you are curious, feel free to flip through another translation to see how Fagles compares to Fitzgerald or Lombardo.

Latin literature is a great tool for interpreting Roman culture. In fact, you're reading ancient Roman culture. Vergil was considered to be something like the poet laureate of Rome. The Aeneid was the national epic, a story about the earliest ancestors of Rome and the blended culture of myth, geography, and heroes that this civilization based it's foundation in.  The poem was written in the earliest years of the Roman Empire (great brief summary in the first two pages of the introduction of the text), the dawn of a new era. Rome, at this point, stretched well beyond the city and surrounding countryside of Italy and into central and Western Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia Minor to the East.

3) The Aeneid is an old Latin poem
Like I just mentioned, the poem was written by Vergil in the very beginning of the Roman Empire.  This text is over 2,000 years old.  Sometimes, I need to stop and think about how old that really is and all of the ways in which the world has changed and developed since the text was written.  At the same time, it's something of a comfort to trace the human elements of the interactions between characters and their response to the circumstances that they find themselves in. Sure, the text is 2,000 years old, but think about how much has actually stayed the same.  Human response, motivation, virtue is fairly consistent, which never fails to amaze me.

As you read, I'd like you to think about the fact that this is an old Latin poem.  Enjoy the text for the beauty of the poetry.  Mark one passage that you just really love, for the image it conveys, the symbolism it calls to mind, or even the beauty of the way the language  is arranged.  As though you were reading an autobiography or a primary source, enjoy the way in which the story can inform us about the culture of Rome and Roman identity at the very time that these concepts were being defined. Reflect on some component of the text that furthered your understanding of this ancient culture.  Finally, keep in mind that though this poem is old, I mean, really really old, enjoy the way in which it exposes elements of the human experience that are seemingly universal and transcend time. Pick out one part of the text that felt this way you to you, something that you can relate to in 2014 and be prepared to talk about it when we get back together in September to discuss our summer reading.  

Most of all, enjoy reading The Aeneid because it's just a plain old good story and who doesn't like to read something like that?

Best,
Ms. Cook