Aeneas

‘Augustus’ extraordinary position…is defined in art’ and so his iconography programme should be taken at face value in order to identify key motifs and themes within it and how this supposedly reflected Augustus’ rule. However, nowadays scholars debate about the intricacies of said iconography and try to understand it textually rather than by sight. The importance of iconography was larger in Augustus’ time in comparison now, partly because it is estimated that only 10% of the population was…

From 1.2 onward, Cassius attempts to manipulate Brutus into joining his political conspiracy against Caesar by playing on Brutus fear of Caesar is just too weak mentally and physically to handle rulership thus becoming a tyrant. In order to give Cassius’s words power, Shakespeare uses a storytelling framework to create an image of Caesar as something inhuman by first building him up as untouchable, myth-like god and then breaking him down into something less then human. Shakespeare employs this…

The Greeks and Romans believed in an Underworld as a place where the souls of the dead live. Book six of the Aeneid and book eleven of The Odyssey are two stories that describe the underworld as where all the dead, live. Virgil’s description of the Underworld in Aeneid is a very elaborated setting where there are many different levels an individual can encounter depending on his or her sins in life. While, in book eleven of the Odyssey, Homer’s Greek description of the underworld is a place…

Adonis. Along with the many male partners in her life she also had many children. Her children included Eros, Aeneas, Phobos, Deimos, Eunomia, Harmonia, Eyre, Pothos, Rhode, and many more. She won a beauty contest against Athena and Hera (Aphrodite Facts). The son of Troy chose the winner for the beauty contest, and he chose Aphrodite. During the Trojan War, Aphrodite sided with Paris and Aeneas (theoi). Aphrodite winning the beauty contest was supposedly the reason of why the Trojan War…

Shelley and the ancient Roman text The Aeneid by Vergil. The deer and fire imagery that highlights the disastrous love of Dido and Aeneas is referenced through Victor Frankenstein. Both texts comment on powerful emotions and unavoidable fate. The tragedy itself begins with the realization that love is painful. In the Aeneid, Dido doesn’t realize how strong her feelings for Aeneas are until it’s too late. For her, love is felt as physically and painfully as a weapon to a defenseless animal.…

Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage is based primarily on Book Four Virgil’s The Aeneid and is an exploration of the dangers of female rule and gender identities. Marlowe’s interpretation of Dido’s character is focused on Dido’s struggle to maintain both her ‘masculine’ nature as a ruler and her ‘feminine’ nature as an individual. Marlowe views female rule bearing too many weaknesses, such as a female ruler requiring a marriage to produce a legitimate heir could place the nation under…

“A letter”, shouted the messenger, “from the emperor”. Virgil replies, “What does he want?”. The messenger explains, “He wants you to write another story glorifying his rule and the Roman Empire, and he is willing to pay a large reward.” To himself, Virgil thinks, “I guess my old friend needs me again.” This is a real life event that Publius Vergilius Maro, also known as Virgil or Vergil, experienced numerous times throughout his life. His religion, love for the Roman Empire, and experiences…

It is difficult to choose only three moments that have had an impact in my life. When I am telling the story of my life it might seems to be a little bit dramatic or like I am narrating myth. As well as, Hercules had to travel from town to town fulfilling with the twelve labors, overcoming the obstacles, adversity and difficulties in order to be able to advance, as well, I have had to move out of different countries in order to progress going through situations that for me were my own version of…

What does it mean for us to consume this work in its “traditional” form? And what does it mean for this work to be “traditional” or “canonic”? While we discussed a lot about the nature of tradition and how Dido and Aeneas can or cannot be relevant to our present times, we spent little time discussing the ways in which we can adapt it. Perhaps that is because part of our goal in this class is to discover our own ways to modernize this text and/or make it…

Textual Analysis Purgatory is where “the human spirit purges himself, and climbing to Heaven makes himself worthy”(The World of Dante). In Dante, Purgatory is divided into three sections called Antepurgatory, Purgatory Proper, and Earthly Paradise. Inside purgatory the upper part of the mountain contains seven terraces, each consisting of one of the seven capital sins (The World of Dante). After visiting the first terrace, that of the prideful, Dante the pilgrim and Virgil arrive at the second…