The Aeneid: notes

185 Pages·1966·0.86 MB·English

by  Robert J. Milch

title: The Aeneid : Notes
author: McDougall, Richard.
publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (US)
isbn10 | asin:
print isbn13: 9780822001195
ebook isbn13: 9780764572197
language: English
Virgil.--Aeneis, Epic poetry, Latin--History
subject
and criticism.
publication date: 1998
lcc: PA6825.M327 1998eb
ddc: 871
Virgil.--Aeneis, Epic poetry, Latin--History
subject:
and criticism.
Page 1
The Aeneid
Notes
by
Richard McDougall, Ph.D.
including
Life and Background of the Poet
A Historical Introduction
A Brief Synopsis
List of Characters
Map
Critical Commentaries
Critical Essays
Literary Predecessors of the Aeneid
The Aeneid as a National Epic
Review Questions and Essay Topics
Selected Bibliography
INCORPORATED
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 68501
Page 2
Editor
Gary Carey, M.A.
University of Colorado
Consulting Editor
James L. Roberts, Ph.D.
Department of English
University of Nebraska
ISBN 0-8220-0119-5
© Copyright 1998
by
Cliffs Notes, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in U.S.A.
1999 Printing
The Cliffs Notes logo, the names "Cliffs" and "Cliffs Notes," and the
black and yellow diagonal-stripe cover design are all registered
trademarks belonging to Cliffs Notes, Inc., and may not be used in
whole or in part without written permission.
Cliffs Notes, Inc. Lincoln, Nebraska
Page 3
Contents
Life and Background of the Poet 5
A Historical Introduction 10
A Brief Synopsis 14
List of Characters 16
Critical Commentaries 26
Critical Essays
Literary Predecessors of the Aeneid 84
The Aeneid as a National Epic 89
Review Questions and Essay Topics 91
Selected Bibliography 94
Center Spread: The Travels of Aeneas
Page 5
Life and Background of the Poet
Publius Vergilius Maro was born October 15, 70 , in the northern
B.C.
Italian village of Andes, a town just outside the city of Mantovaknown
today as Mantua. Although his name is correctly spelled "Vergil," the
variant "Virgil" is more commonly used. This name derives from the
Latin word virga, meaning "wand," which reflects the belief, prevalent
during the Middle Ages, that a poet is a great magician, with the
power to conjure dead spirits.
The eldest of three sonshis brother Silo died in childbirth, and
Flaccus, his other brother, lived only to young manhoodVirgil came
from a prosperous family. His father, an industrious potter and cattle
farmer, married his landlord's daughter, worked at bee-keeping, and
invested in the lumber industry. An ambitious man, he strove to
provide Virgil with an aristocratic education to prepare him for a law
career.
Virgil attended school in Cremona and then, briefly, in Milan. In 54 or
53 , he went to Rome, where he studied law and rhetoric in the
B.C.
schoolor academyof Epidius. There, he met Octavian a fellow student,
who, as the future emperor Augustus, would become Virgil's patron.
Virgil had intended to become a lawyer as his father wanted him to,
but after arguing his first law case he turned to the study of
philosophy, finding it more congenial to his temperament.
In 49 , the year Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with his
B.C.
legions of soldiers and marched on Rome to seize power, Virgil, to
escape the civil disturbances that Caesar's arrival created, left the city
and moved to Naples. There, he studied with the philosopher Siro. It
is uncertain if a number of minor poems attributed to Virgil, including
"Culex" ("The Gnat"), "Copa" ("The Barmaid''), and

Page 6
"Catalepton" ("Trifles"), were written by him, but if so, some of them
might have been completed at this time.
After Caesar's assassination in 44 , Virgil returned to Mantova,
B.C.
where, a year later, he began the composition of his first important
work, a collection of ten poems known as the Eclogues, or
"Selectionssometimes called the Bucolics, or "Pastoral Poems."
Published in 37 , the Eclogues depict the lives and loves of
B.C.
shepherds in idealized rural settings. However, the first and ninth
Eclogues, which are more realistic than the others, allude to the
politically motivated confiscation of Mantuan farms, which were
awarded to war veterans after the forces of Octavian, Lepidus, and
Mark Antony defeated Brutus' and Cassius' armies at the Battle of
Philippi in 42 When his father's estate was confiscated in 41 ,
B.C. B.C.
Virgil appealed to Octavian for restitution, although there is
considerable uncertainty and disagreement as to the result of this
appeal: The confiscated property might have been regained, or, failing
that, residences in Rome and Naples might have been awarded to him
as compensation for the loss of his patrimony.
With the publication of the Eclogues, Virgil achieved great popular
success. By this time, he had reestablished his friendship with
Octavian and had met Maecenas, the future emperor's wealthy and
powerful advisor, whose house was a gathering place for poets and
other men of letters. This acquaintance no doubt influenced Virgil's
Georgics, which was his second and final important work before he
began writing the Aeneid.
Undertaken not long after the publication of the Eclogues, the
Georgics ("About Farming"), a didactic poem of over two thousand
lines, was completed in 30 B.C. after seven years of labor, during
which time Virgil lived chiefly in Naples, the city he loved most. On
one level, this work, in four books, is about animal husbandry and
agricultural methods, topics that might have been suggested by
Maecenas, to whom the poem is dedicated, and who was interested in
reviving farming as a way of life for war veterans. On a deeper level,
the Georgics celebrates the beauty and power of nature and stresses
the importance of living in harmony with it. There are also references
to the future emperor Augustus and the peace his reign promises after
years of civil war.
The Aeneid, Rome's national epic and one of the literary masterpieces
of Western civilization, was begun in 30 , and all of Rome,
B.C.