EMBLEMS OF POWER by GAIL CECELIA POLK

504 Pages·2013·3.84 MB·English

by  Gail Polk

THE HELMSMAN AND THE CHARIOTEER IN THE AENEID: EMBLEMS OF POWER
by
GAIL CECELIA POLK
(Under the Direction of Sarah Spence)
ABSTRACT
This dissertation argues that although in the Aeneid Vergil engages extensively with the textual tradition
to develop Aeneas’ role as helmsman and Turnus’ as charioteer into emblems of their contrasting
leadership, he subsequently interweaves into the text evidence of this distinction’s instability and
concludes with its reversal. Chapter 2 discusses the relevance of both Cicero’s community-centered
helmsman and politicians he implies are charioteers unable to restrain their passions to the Aeneid’s two
leaders and recent history and attitudes toward the Triumph. Chapter 3 argues that Aeschylus’ Seven
Against Thebes, the story of an internecine war, in which Eteocles is a figurative helmsman with polis-
centered values, while Polynices and his chariot-driving, attacking forces connote future brutal
domination, is an important unrecognized intertext for the Aeneid. In the development of the two
emblematic images in the Aeneid’s first half (Ch. 4), Juno’s affiliation with the chariot is established in
the context of Achilles’ excessive brutality. Mnestheus’ speech to his crew in the ship race engages with
that of the Iliad’s charioteer Antilochus to express the salient differences in values of helmsman and
charioteer in the Aeneid. The three-way intertextual dialogue between Aeneas, Palinurus and Odysseus,
prepares for the substitution of Aeneas for his helmsman, but also highlights Palinurus’ misfortune, while
the nature of his sacrificial death evokes the Ciceronian selfless helmsman. Chapter 5 discusses the
contribution of Argonautic traces to the construction of the ambivalence of Latinus and his kingdom,
symbolically manifested in his ominous gift to Aeneas of fire-breathing horses and a chariot, as well as
the intertextual presence of Septem’s warriors among those in the Latin catalogue. Although the linking
of Aeneas’ ship of state in his approach to battle with that of Augustus receives immortal confirmation
(Chapter 6), his subsequent rage-driven domination of suppliant Latin charioteers is incongruous and
exhibits similarities with Turnus’ tyrannical behavior in the scene of Pallas’ death. Significant changes in
the heroes’ public speech (Ch. 7) and their exchanging of characteristics in book 12 (Ch. 8) prepare for
Turnus’ allusive likening to Odysseus, foreshadowing his death, and Aeneas’ figurative assumption of the
role of charioteer.
INDEX WORDS: Vergil, Aeneid, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, Political Imagery, Helmsman,
Charioteer, Cicero
THE HELMSMAN AND THE CHARIOTEER IN THE AENEID: EMBLEMS OF POWER

by

GAIL CECELIA POLK
BA, Pennsylvania State University, 1971
MA, Pennsylvania State University, 1973
MA, University of Georgia, 1994

A Dissertaton Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2013
© 2013
Gail Cecelia Polk
All Rights Reserved
THE HELMSMAN AND THE CHARIOTEER IN THE AENEID: EMBLEMS OF POWER

by

GAIL CECELIA POLK

Major Professor: Sarah Spence
Committee: James McGregor
Ronald Bogue
Charles Platter
Anthony Corbeill

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
December 2013
iv

DEDICATION
I wish to dedicate my dissertation to my father, Stuart Patton, who has been for me the very best
life-long model of and advocate for the value of investigative research.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I arrived at the point of being able to conceive and execute this project, first, thanks to members
of the Latin faculty of the University of Georgia’s Department of Classics, Richard LaFleur (my Master’s
thesis advisor), Robert Curtis (from whom I learned a love of Cicero’s Latin) and James Anderson
(teacher of the monuments of Rome par excellence), who have written me countless letters of
recommendation for jobs, summer travel grants and graduate school. The opportunity to teach Vergil’s
Aeneid and readings in Cicero at Athens Academy for seventeen years deepened my appreciation of these
authors, while a summer spent at the American School in Athens led directly to my desire to study their
Greek antecedents. Again, Georgia’s Department of Classics provided me with excellent teachers of
Greek literature to whom I feel a great debt of gratitude: Charles Platter, Nancy Felson, Nick Rynearson
(who also served on my comprehensive exam committee) and Brett Rogers. Georgia’s Department of
Comparative Literature not only provided me an academic home to pursue a doctorate, but also
instruction in literary criticism and theory, which have so significantly informed the study of Greek and
Latin literature. I am especially grateful to Ronald Bogue, Dorothy Figueira and James McGregor for
their instruction and help in this area. Richard Tarrant generously provided me early access to a part of
his wonderful commentary on Aeneid 12 and Stanley Lombardo read and commented on several sections
of the dissertation. The opportunity to have the criticism and advice of so distinguished a doctoral
committee––Ronald Bogue, Anthony Corbeill, James McGregor and Charles Platter––has been one of the
greatest benefits of earning a doctorate. But I am especially grateful to my advisor Sarah Spence. A
comparatist and classicist she has brought not only her years as a highly successful teacher and scholar to
the reading of my dissertation, but also her ample experience as an editor. Without her knowledge and
appreciation of the Aeneid and the questions it raises and her insightful and wise criticism the completion
of this dissertation is difficult for me to imagine. My husband, Tom Polk, not ony financed the last stage
of my studies, but also tolerated the vast amount of time I devoted to them. I have no doubt that I also
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owe the completion of this degree to the ever-ready help of the secretaries in the Departments of
Comparative Literature (Nell Burger and Sharon Brooks) and Classics (Kay Stanton and JoAnn Pulliam).
To all of the above I wish to express my heartfelt thanks.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... v
CHAPTER
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
2 Cicero’s Engagement with the Platonic Helmsman and Charioteer ........................................ 13
Plato: The Democratic Ship of State ................................................................................. 13
Cicero: The Republican Ship of State ............................................................................... 21
Cicero and the Phaedrus ................................................................................................... 45
The Unbridled Dark Horse and Charioteer ....................................................................... 53
The Case of Marc Antony ................................................................................................. 60
The Roman Triumph ......................................................................................................... 63
3 Helmsmen and Charioteers in the Greek Literary Tradition ................................................... 86
The Epic Tradition: The Domains of Athena and Poseidon ............................................. 87
The Youthful Charioteer: Hippolytus ................................................................................ 93
Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes: The Ship of State ..................................................... 105
Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes: The Chariot Ensemble ............................................. 128
Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes: Figurative Interaction .............................................. 140
4 The Developing Political Dialogue: Charioteers and Helmsmen Aeneid 1-6 ........................ 148
Opening Scenes: The Storm ............................................................................................ 149
Juno’s Chariot .................................................................................................................. 156
Juno’s Charioteers: Aeolus and Achilles ......................................................................... 165
Chariots in the Vergilian Underworld ............................................................................. 179
The Ship Race and Communal Pietas ............................................................................. 187
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The Good Helmsman: Palinurus and Aeneas .................................................................. 202
5 Latium, its King and Charioteers: The Beginning of the War ............................................... 225
The Arrival of the Trojans in Latium: Conflicting Signs ................................................ 227
Ocean Storms of Latin War Frenzy ................................................................................. 250
The Latin Catalogue and Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes .......................................... 263
Equine Finale: Virbius, Turnus and Camilla ................................................................... 276
The Heroes’ Shields: Io the Victim, Augustus the Helmsman ........................................ 290
6 The Augustan Helmsman and Despotic Charioteer: Divergence and Unity ......................... 303
Cybele and the Aeneid’s Ship of State ............................................................................ 305
The War Chariot and the Tyrant ...................................................................................... 325
Aeneas Victor and the Latin Charioteers ......................................................................... 336
The Voyage of Turnus ..................................................................................................... 354
7 The Ethos of the Leaders in Public Speech ........................................................................... 361
Aeneas ............................................................................................................................. 363
Turnus .............................................................................................................................. 373
8 The Helmsman and Charioteer in Book 12: Reversal ............................................................ 403
Thracian Turnus .............................................................................................................. 405
The Chariot and the Palace .............................................................................................. 414
The Chariot and the City ................................................................................................. 426
Another Storm and a New Charioteer ............................................................................. 440
The Theban Maidens Worst Fear .................................................................................... 445
The Wild Olive and the Sea ............................................................................................ 452
9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 465
REFERENCES…….. ................................................................................................................................ 476
APPENDICES
A Chariots in the Aeneid ............................................................................................................ 492