Aeneas

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome.
O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;
For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began
To persecute so brave, so just a man;
Involv'd his anxious life in endless cares,
Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars!
Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,
Or exercise their spite in human woe?
Against the Tiber's mouth, but far away,
An ancient town was seated on the sea;
A Tyrian colony; the people made
Stout for the war, and studious of their trade:
Carthage the name; belov'd by Juno more
Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore.
Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind,
The seat of awful empire she design'd.
Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly,
(Long cited by the people of the sky,)
That times to come should see the Trojan race
Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface;
Nor thus confin'd, the yoke of sov'reign sway
Should on the necks of all the nations lay.
She ponder'd this, and fear'd it was in fate;
Nor could forget the war she wag'd of late
For conqu'ring Greece against the Trojan state.
Besides, long causes working in her mind,
And secret seeds of envy, lay behind;
Deep graven in her heart the doom remain'd
Of partial Paris, and her form disdain'd;
The grace bestow'd on ravish'd Ganymed,
Electra's glories, and her injur'd bed.
Each was a cause alone; and all combin'd
To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind.
For this, far distant from the Latian coast
She drove the remnants of the Trojan host;
And sev'n long years th' unhappy wand'ring train
Were toss'd by storms, and scatter'd thro' the main.
Such time, such toil, requir'd the Roman name,
Such length of labor for so vast a frame.

·        The Aeneid begins in media res (in the middle of things) with Aeneas and his men adrift

·        Aeneas has been instructed by the penates that he will found a new Troy from which a race will spring “known to all nations”

o   But while all the other gods/goddesses want him to succeed…  Juno does not

§  He is the son of Venus

·        Back to the apple

·        Jupiter’s indescressions

§  He is destined to bring strife to her chosen city of Carthage

§  He is Trojan

·        Ganymede

·        Juno bribes Aeolus (the god of the winds) with a sea nymph to cause a storm

o   While Aeneas’ ships are being reduced from twenty to seven, Neptune gets annoyed and sends the winds home

§  Aeneas and the Trojans limp to land

·        Two scenes transpire simultaneously

o   Aeneas is out hunting and comes across a young woman who is dressed for battle/hunting (Venus in disguise)

§  She tells him that he is in Libya and the nearest city is Carthage

·        Also tells him the tragic story of Dido, the queen of Carthage who is recently widowed

o   Dido and her husband were exiled from Tyre by her brother who tracked them down and killed her husband

o   Dido continued on with her followers to north Africa where they land and ask the locals for some space to rest

§  The locals say they can have as much land as an ox hide

·        Isoperimetric inequality problem, or “Dido’s problem”

o   “The isoperimetric inequality is a geometric inequality involving the square of the circumference of a closed curve in the plane and the area of a plane region it encloses, as well as its various generalizations. Isoperimetric literally means "having the same perimeter". The isoperimetric inequality problem is to determine a plane figure of the largest possible area whose boundary has a specified length”

§  What she does is slice the hide into thin strips and lays them out

o   In building the city, they find two animal heads

§  A bull—The city will prosper but be subject to others

§  A horse—The city will be potent in war

o   Meanwhile…  Dido gets a vision from Mercury

§  “Be kind to the Trojans”

·        Then, twelve of the thirteen ships Aeneas lost show up

o   Send out scouting parties for Aeneas

·        Just as Venus finishes telling Aeneas about Dido, the scouting party shows up and (poof) Aeneas is made man-pretty

·        Big feast where Aeneas relates their travels to date:

o   On Crete, a harpy named Celaeno curses them that they will not find rest until they “eat their tables”

o   At Buthorum (up the coast from Ithaca), they meet the last surviving son of Priam and Hector’s widow, Andromache

§  They’ve built a new life and mini-Troy

§  Also find out about the fate of Agamemnon, Orestes, etc.

§  Told to seek the Sybil of Cumae

o   Polyphemus?!

·        Dido and Aeneas feast and picnic and hunt and get caught in the rain…  Yea.

·        Eventually, Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas that he has a city to found

o   Big scene—Aeneas leaves his sword (which Dido gave him)

·        Dido plots, schemes and rages and prays

o   If he must found a city, no rest for him

§  Lie unburied in the sand

o   All Carthaginians to hate his descendants

§  A special avenger to rise from Carthage

o   Climbs onto her own funeral pyre and stabs herself with Aeneas’ sword

·        Aeneas and his men land at Cumae

o   Sibyl leads Aeneas down into underworld

§  Sees the scores of souls on the banks of the Lethe waiting to be reborn as Aeneas’ descendants         

·        Make their way to the mouth of the Tiber

o   King Latinius sends down flatbreads with meat and veggies on it—Pizza!

§  They realized that they’d “eaten their tables” and arrived

·        Vie with Turnus for the hand of Lavinia (daughter of Latinius)

o   Finally comes down to single combat and he has Turnus at his mercy

§  Aeneas wants to grant mercy but then sees that Turnus has taken a war trophy something from Pallas (Aeneas’ son’s best friend)

·        Settles down with Lavinia and have a son named “Silvanus” who is the ancestor of Romulus

o   Son goes off to found a nearby city, Alba Longa, which Silvanus inherits

·        Aeneas drowns in a river three years later—Unburied in the sand