Vergil, Aeneid: Study Questions for Books I-VI
Book I
1. The Aeneid
begins: arma virumque cano--"Of arms and the man I sing."
(That "I sing," by the way, is metaphorical; the Aeneid was
a written text, with no bardic ambitions.) Considering how Vergil conscious
is of his role as a successor to Homer, what do you make of this opening
line?
Compare the proema (opening stanzas) of the Iliad (I:1-7), the
Odyssey (I:1-10), and the Aeneid (I:1-49). Aside from the obvious difference
in length (less so in the original Latin), what fruitful comparisons and
contrasts can you draw among them?
2. The first six books of the Aeneid have sometimes been called the "Odyssean" part, and the last six the "Iliadic." What significant allusions, parallels, and differences do you observe between Aeneid I-VI and the Odyssey? What about the hero? What does Aeneas represent? What adjectives/key-words accrue to him? Is he like Odysseus, or not? If so, how so? If not, why not?
3. The world Vergil creates seems more allegorical than Homer's, although not as fiendishly so as the world of Dante's Inferno (as we shall see). What do the assorted gods (Juno=Hera, Venus=Aphrodite, and Jupiter=Zeus) stand for, in the world of the Aeneid?
4. Keep track of Vergil's similes (e.g., those at lines 201ff. and 660ff.). They will recur from book to book, building up a vocabulary of images and correspondences within the text. How do they compare to Homer's similes?
5. Track the role of fate and prophecy in the Aeneid, particularly the steps by which Aeneas comes to know the Roman destiny. Why is its revelation so gradual? Also keep close track of the way Vergil "warps" time to weave the prophetic reality (of 750-30 B.C.E.) and Aeneas's contemporary reality (ca. 1183 B.C.E) together.
6. Just as Odysseus, landing in new places, encounters buildings and gardens emblematic of the local societies, so Aeneas sees Dido's Carthage being built and, most importantly, the shrine to Juno (lines 576-677.). Look very closely at this passage. What crucial things are revealed or foreshadowed? How does the ekphrasis function here differently from that in Iliad XVIII? What Odyssean antecedents do you notice? Why is the scuplture unfinished?
1. This is one of the most touching books in the poem, and draws to our attention an important, curious feature of this epic; it is written from the point of view of the losers. What can we make of this seemingly contradictory project, especially for a national epic (as the Aeneid is, to Rome)?
2. Compare Aeneas as narrator to Odysseus (Odyssey IX-XII). What impact does the act of narration have in each case? How does the teller approach/feel about his tale? How do their respective audiences resemble and contrast with each other?
3. FIRE is an important symbol in the Aeneid; keep track of its role in this book especially, and in the poem generally. (Keep in mind that neither the Trojans nor the Greeks seem to have had much motive to set Troy on fire at this point; in the third Punic War, however, the citizens of Carthage did burn down ttheir own city as it was being conquered by the Romans. Coincidence? Timewarp?)
4. Note carefully how Aeneas behaves in this battle (keep in mind the comparison with Odysseus), what he brings with him, what he leaves behind, and what gets lost on the way. What lessons are being imposed on him by the gods? Why should it be his wife, Creusa, who gets lost? Can this be considered a necessary sacrifice?
5. What do you make of the gods' role here (as compared to in Homer)?
Book III
Compare Aeneas's travels to those of Odysseus in terms of: goals (set and/or achieved), impact on the voyagers, body count of guests, marauders and fellow-travellers. Another fruitful parallel to consider is that of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (and the many mini-exoduses of Genesis: Abraham and Lot, Jacob + wives, etc.). What kind of information are the Trojan/Romans getting from the gods and why is it not better?
1. Where would you locate Dido in the tradition of epic heroines (Helen, Andromache, Penelope, Circe…)? What is the function of the Dido episode (sometimes referred to as the "tragedy of Dido") in the Aeneid? What values are Dido and Aeneas made to represent? If it is Dido's tragedy, what is her crucial mistake?
2. The divine planning behind this disaster (lines 127ff.) is particularly complicated. Who is really pulling the strings? How sharply can amor (Venus) and furor (Juno) be discriminated?
3. While we get a detailed psychological portrait of Dido, we hear very little of what is going on in Aeneas's head. What do you make of his behavior here? He makes an argument in his own defense (lines 459ff.); are you convinced? As our hero sails on, what "baggage" will he be taking with him, in your estimation as epic-reader?
Book V
Compare and contrast the games in Book V with those in Book XXIII of the Iliad. What are the respective roles of Achilles and Aeneas? What is their relationship to the contestants? Pay particular attention to the two boxing matches, and to the two vehicle races (ships in Vergil, chariots in Homer). Who are the participants? What do we learn about the two poems? How does Vergil stake out his territory (as inheritor of Homer and as an original poet) here?
1. Vergil's account of the Underworld will be of particular interest to us, as mediating between Homer's relatively non-allegorical account and Dante's extremely allegorical and complex one. What elements of Vergil's Underworld are new, vis-à-vis the Odyssey version? Compare and contrast Aeneas's motives for going into the Underworld, and his experience while there, with those of Odysseus. Note especially the encounter with his father….
2. What sorts of themes does the account of Daedalus (lines 21-50) establish at the outset? Note: it's another example of ekphrasis (like the temple of Juno), and another example of a work of art left by its creator to be interpreted by others (Aeneas in the temple-of-Juno example, the narrator-apparently speaking from a Trojan perspective-in the Daedalus example). What are we learning about art and interpretation from these encounters? What seems to be the artist's relationship to his subject matter?
3. More time-warp shenanigans: note carefully the summary of the Roman future (lines 130-47). How does Vergil perceive the cyclicity of history?
4. Note the golden bough (lines 292ff.). What does it symbolize? Does it break according to the Sybil's prophecy (lines 214-215)? What new inflections accrue to Aeneas's role as epic hero?
5. What kind of history do the Romans have to look forward to (lines 1014ff.)? Why is important for Aeneas to hear this? How is the now-familiar Vergilian device of time-warp employed here?
6. The very famous lines 1145-1154 bear interestingly on the roles of (a) Aeneas, (b) Vergil, (c) Augustus Caesar. How do they accommodate the Greek achievement? How do they characterize the arete (so to speak), or virtue, of Rome and the Roman character? (Keep this in mind for later.) What relationship is there between this character and what we've been led to believe about Aeneas's?
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