ENGL 3413: World Literature

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 3: Virgil, Ovid

Revised 8-29-11

 

Virgil (70-19 BCE)

Virgil (also spelled “Vergil”) is one of only three Roman writers (all poets) we will study in this class, the others being Ovid and Catullus.  Latin was the language of Rome. 

  1. On the “Chart of Epics” you received on the first day of class, what information do you find about The Aeneid?
  2. On the map on page 626 of your textbook, find and be prepared to identify in class the following locations associated with The Aeneid: Pergamum on the western coast of Asia Minor (the closest labeled city to Troy, which Aeneas leaves at the end of the Trojan War), Rome on the western coast of Italy (where Aeneas and his people land and lay the foundations for that city), Tyre on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (the home of Dido and her people, the Tyrians, before they moved to Carthage), and Carthage, on the northern coast of Africa (where Aeneas is shipwrecked and has an affair with Dido in your reading for today).

 

Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honor the greatness of Rome and its first emperor, Octavian, also known as Caesar Augustus, who reigned 27 BCE -14 CE, achieving the Pax Romana (“Peace of Rome”—a long period of peace).  In The Aeneid Virgil gave Rome a great—though completely fictional—epic poem about its founding.

  1. The story of an epic should be of great importance to an entire nation.  Does The Aeneid satisfy this criterion?  How?

 

Folk Epic vs. Literary Epic

The two main types of epic are folk epic and literary epic. Homer’s epics are folk epics, whereas Virgil’s Aeneid is a literary epic.  The two types of epics differ in the following ways:

 

·         Origin of the story: The plot of a folk epic is based on oral tradition (mythology), whereas the plot of a literary epic is invented by the author.  To make his literary epic sound authentic, however, Virgil models many aspects of The Aeneid after Homer’s folk epics.                     

                                         

·         Means of composition: A folk epic is composed orally, whereas a literary epic is written.

4.      Extra-credit research: What writing implements were in use when Virgil wrote The Aeneid? Would he have used paper, pen, and ink?

 

·         Presentation to the original audience or reader: A folk epic is sung to an audience, whereas a literary epic is read by literate individuals.

 

Greek vs. Roman Names of Gods

The Romans modeled their gods after Greek gods, but they gave them Latin names.  Because The Aeneid is a Roman epic (written in Latin), it uses Roman (Latin) rather than Greek names for gods and goddesses.  Know the following equivalent names:

 

Greek                          Roman (Latin)                      

Zeus                            Jupiter, Jove                           

Hera                            Juno                                        

Aphrodite                    Venus                                     

Hermes                        Mercury                                  

 

The Families of Aeneas and Dido

The family of Aeneas

 

The family of Dido

 

Opening of The Aeneid

To answer the following questions, refer to the opening lines of The Aeneid on pages 639-40.  

  1. Does The Aeneid begin with a statement of theme (announcement of subject)?  If so, what is the theme, and where is it stated?
  2. Does The Aeneid begin with an invocation of the muse? If so, where is it?  What “epic question” does the speaker ask the muse?
  3. Virgil gives many different reasons for Juno’s anger against Aeneas (640). In general, Juno hates and envies the Trojans and loves the Carthaginians (people from Carthage).  Find the lines that state each of the following specific reasons for Juno’s hatred of Aeneas:
    1. Juno hates Aeneas because of the prophecy that Rome (founded by Trojans) will eventually overthrow Carthage, the city of which Juno is the patron deity.
    2. Juno hates Aeneas because she supported the Greeks rather than the Trojans in the Trojan War.
    3. Juno hates Aeneas because of the Judgment of Paris, in which Paris, prince of Troy, chose Aphrodite, rather than Juno, as the most beautiful goddess.
    4. Juno hates Aeneas because her husband, Jupiter, had an affair with the beautiful Trojan boy Ganymede and made him cupbearer to the gods in place of Juno’s daughter Hebe.

 

To answer the following questions, see the textbook’s summary of the beginning of Book I (640b-41t):

  1. Does The Aeneid begin in medias res, as Homeric epics do?  If so, how? 
  2. How does divine intervention propel the plot of The Aeneid?   

 

Outline of The Aeneid

Books I-VI: The Wanderings of Aeneas (based on The Odyssey)

Book I:  Shipwrecked at Carthage, Aeneas and his fellow Trojans receive a warm welcome from Dido, queen of Carthage.

  1. On what events in The Odyssey are these events based?

 

Books II-III: Dido gives a banquet in Aeneas’s honor.  At the urging of Juno (whose good will Venus wants to regain following Juno’s anger at the Judgment of Paris), Venus sends Cupid to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas.  (Read the summary on page 647b).  At the banquet, Aeneas tells the story of his adventures in the seven years since the fall of Troy. 

  1. On what events in The Odyssey are these events based?

 

Book IV: Aeneas has an affair in Carthage with Dido.  (This book is your required reading.)

  1. On what affair in The Odyssey is this affair based?

 

Book V: Funeral games are held in honor of Aeneas’s father Anchises.  (These are based on the funeral games for Patroclus in The Iliad.)

 

Book VI: Aeneas visits the underworld (just as Odysseus does).  Aeneas is snubbed by Dido (just as Odysseus is by Ajax) and talks with the shade of his father Anchises, who predicts the future (just as Odysseus talks with Tiresias).

 

Books VII-XII: The Wars in Italy (based on the Trojan War in The Iliad)

Aeneas kills his native Italian enemy Turnus and wins a wife, Lavinia.  Aeneas is held up as a  symbol of Roman justice, order, law, and ethics. 

 

 Epic Traits of The Aeneid

For each of the following devices of Homeric epic, try to find an example in The Aeneid, explain or quote what the example says, and give the line numbers.  For each of the following devices that you do not find in The Aeneid, explain why Virgil would have chosen not to include it.

  1. Long, formal speeches
  2. Epic similes
    1. How is Dido like a Bacchantë (page 656, lines 389-95)?  What is the literal term of this epic simile? What is the figurative term?
    2. How is Aeneas like an oak tree (page 660, lines 583-96)?  What is the literal term of this epic simile? What is the figurative term?
    3. What other epic similes can you find in the assigned reading?
  3. Epithets
  4. Repetition of lines and situations

           

The Aeneid: Book IV

The Punic Wars

For almost 125 years (269-146 BCE), Rome fought with Carthage in the Punic Wars.  In the end, Rome totally destroyed Carthage. Then after almost another 125 years, Virgil, in The Aeneid, made up an explanation of why Rome had to fight the Punic Wars.

  1. According to Virgil, why did Rome have to fight against Carthage?
  2. How does Dido ask the gods to curse Aeneas (page 665, lines 820-44)?  In the context of The Aeneid, how is this curse a prophecy of the Punic Wars?  In the context of Roman history, how is this curse an after-the-fact explanation rather than a prophecy?

 

The Character of Aeneas

  1. What circumstances bring Aeneas and Dido together in a union (page 652, lines 215-26)?  Do they actually marry?  Support your answer. 
  2. How does Aeneas see his relationship with Dido?  Does Aeneas consider himself to be married to Dido?  Does he love her?
  3. What event forces Aeneas to choose between personal happiness and duty? 
  4. What is Aeneas’s immediate response to this event?
  5. What is Aeneas’s response when Dido confronts him?
  6. In what ways do you find Aeneas to be a sympathetic (admirable) character?
  7. In what ways do you find Aeneas to be an unsympathetic (unadmirable) character?

 

The Character of Dido

  1. How does Dido see her relationship with Aeneas?  Does she consider herself to be married to him?  Does she love him?
  2. How does Dido react when she learns that Aeneas is planning to leave? 
  3. Why does Dido feel so vulnerable and angry that Aeneas is leaving her under these circumstances?  List several different reasons mentioned in your reading.
  4. What does Dido say to Aeneas when she confronts him? 
  5. What is unrequited love?  Does Dido experience it?
  6. How does Dido die?  Because of the circumstances of her death, what has to happen before Dido’s spirit can find rest in the underworld?
  7. In what ways do you find Dido to be a sympathetic character?
  8. In what ways do you find Dido to be an unsympathetic character?
  9. Extra credit: Watch the video of Henry Purcell's English opera Dido and Aeneas, on reserve in the NSU-BA library.  How is the plot of the opera different from the plot of The Aeneid, Book IV?  Why do you think these changes were made in the opera?

 

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

In this work of Latin poetry, Ovid takes well-known Greco-Roman myths and retells them in a clever and elegant way.   

  1. What is Ovid’s stated purpose at the beginning of Book I (684m)?
  2. What is the meaning of the title of Ovid’s work?

 

“The Creation”

  1. In what sense are Ovid’s creation myths “metamorphoses”?
  2. What are the four elements (685t)?

 

In the records left by ancient cultures, creation myths are prevalent.  The similarities among the creation myths of different cultures are remarkable.  Read Genesis 1:1-2:7, and answer the following questions: 

  1. What specific similarities do you find between the Hebrew creation stories in Genesis and the Greco-Roman stories in Ovid?
  2. What important differences do you find between these two accounts of creation? 
  3. According to Ovid, who or what is responsible for creation?
  4. In Ovid, each natural phenomenon is associated with its own deity.  What phenomena illustrate this point (685b)?
  5. Where do the gods live (686t)?

 

“The Four Ages,” 686

  1. During the Golden Age, what features of life does Ovid say are NOT present?
  2. What in Genesis is the equivalent of the Golden Age?  How is the loss of the Golden Age different in Genesis than in Ovid?
  3. During the Age of Silver (686b), what features are ADDED to society?
  4. During the Age of Bronze (687t), how does society degenerate?
  5. What behaviors and activities are typical of the Iron Age?
  6. In the myth of the Iron Age, what is comparable to the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis?
  7. In the myth of the Iron Age (page 687, lines 144-52), what is comparable to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis?  
  8. In Genesis, what is comparable to the giants in the Iron Age?  See Genesis 6:4.

 

 “Jove's Intervention,” 687b

  1. Why does Jove say all humans must be destroyed?
  2. According to your college dictionary, what are “demigods”?  What does Ovid say about demigods?

 

“The Story of Lycaon,” 688b

  1. Who is Lycaon (pronounced “ly-KAY-un”)?  Where does he live?  Where is the Peloponnese? 
  2. What evil deeds of Lycaon anger Jove (Jupiter)?  Explain the steps in the story.
  3. What does Jove do to Lycaon in retribution?
  4. What metamorphosis does Lycaon undergo (page 689, lines 232-39)?  What does Lycaon’s name mean in Latin?  How does his name foreshadow his metamorphosis?
  5. How does this story compare with that of Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament book of Daniel?  What specific verses from Daniel are relevant here?
  6. Why does Jove want to destroy the human race?
  7. Why does he decide to destroy the human race with a flood rather than lightning?

 

“The Flood”

  1. What gods play a part in causing the flood?
  2. What description of the flood is given?

 

“Deucalion and Pyrrha”

  1. Read Genesis 6-9, and compare the story of Noah with that of Deucalion (“dew-KAY-lee-un”) and Pyrrha (“PEER-uh”) by answering the following questions:
    1. What is the difference in the extent of the flood?   
    2. What is the difference in the number of people in the ark?
    3. What is the difference in the description of the ark?
    4. What is the difference in the resting place of the ark?
    5. Which story includes more detail?
    6. What is the difference in the way the earth is repopulated with humans after the flood?
    7. What is the difference in the way the earth is repopulated with animals after the flood?
  2. What does the goddess Themis (pronounced “THEME-us”) mean when she says, “Throw / Your mother's bones behind you!” (692)?
  3. What metamorphosis occurs as a result of their following Themis’s command?
  4. How are other living things regenerated after the flood (page 693, lines 416-34)?  What metamorphosis occurs?
  5. What transition does Ovid use to get from this story about the flood to the next one about Apollo and Daphne?
  6. Before laurel existed, with what were winning athletes crowned?

 

“Apollo and Daphne”

  1. Why is Daphne so repulsed by Apollo?  Why is Apollo so enamored of Daphne?
  2. Identify and explain the epic simile on 696t.  What is the literal term?  What is the figurative term?
  3. What metamorphosis occurs in this story (696m)?  Why?

 

“Pyramus and Thisbe”

  1. This myth is the archetype of the Romeo and Juliet story.  According to your college dictionary, what is an archetype? 
  2. What similarities do you see between this myth and the Romeo and Juliet story?
  3. What differences do you see between this myth and the Romeo and Juliet story?
  4. If you are familiar with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, how is the myth of Pyramus (“PEER-uh-mus”) and Thisbe (“THIZ-be”) used in that play?
  5. What circumstances lead to the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe?
  6. Extra-credit research or prior knowledge: What knowledge does Pyramus have that makes his death even more excruciating than Romeo’s?
  7. What metamorphosis (698) involving the mulberry tree occurs in this story?
  8. What causes Thisbe to notice that Pyramus is dead?