EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Greek and Roman Mythology
Dr. Peter Struck, University of Pennsylvania
 |
C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Journey of Aeneas Notes taken on January 14, 2014 by Edward Tanguay |
•
Aeneid
•
written between 29BC and 19BC
•
tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans
•
first half: journey from Troy to Italy (like the Odyssey)
•
second half: Trojans' victorious war upon the Latins (like the Iliad)
•
the text
•
"I sing of warfare and a man at war"
•
Virgil makes clear at the beginning that he is going to tell both an Iliad and Odyssey-like story
•
instead of suggesting that muses use the bard as mouthpieces, Virgil says, "I am a human being and I am going to be doing the singing about this past"
•
uses the concept of fate: no matter what you do, Aeneas will reach his destiny
•
Greek sense of fate was backward looking, links you to the past, e.g. Oedipus
•
Roman sense of fate was forward looking, more like our concept of destiny
•
the Aeneid is a story largely drawn out by large, tectonic forces pushing it forward
•
moves from sea coast of Troy to Italy to Lavinian Western shore, and "the Romans know he is talking about them"
•
Juno
•
ancient Roman goddess
•
protector of the state
•
daughter of Saturn and sister of chief god Jupiter
•
mother of Mars and Vulcan
•
her Greek equivalent is Hera
•
patron goddess of Rome
•
Juno keeps holding back Aeneid's drive to his destiny, constantly retarding the progress
•
journey achieved with lots of pain and suffering
•
many people get torn up in the machine of this journey
•
friends push him forward and Juno pushes him back
•
his future is to build something: a city
•
build walls
•
make order out of something chaotic
•
has laws that organize people
•
the enemy is disorder and confusion
•
the friend is clarity and conciseness: will show the straight lines which show what it means to be Roman
•
building walls his something he is anchored to in his heroic expression
•
pietas
•
Aeneas is marked by pietas
•
duty, religiosity, religious behavior, loyalty
•
one of the chief virtues among ancient Romans
•
distinguishing virtue of the founding hero Aeneas
•
utterly devoted to his mission
•
devoted to duty, more than Greek heroes
•
the divinities become angered with Aeneas