The Aeneid: Books 2-4
Feb. 4th, 2013 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnBook 2: Aeneas describes the fall of Troy to Dido.
Having read the Illiad, I am impressed that he manages to do so without lovingly describing a single gory disemboweling of the sort that Homer put in the Illiad every two pages or so. Romans had their points over the Greeks, I guess... which I suppose is what this whole book is about, but probably not what Virgil expected me to get out of it.
Oh, and Aeneas' wife Creusa gets left behind. At first this really bothered me, and then I thought, well, she's an adult, right? It actually makes sense for Aeneas to worry more about his son and his father and trust that she can take care of herself. But STILL. And then I read book 4 and it irritated me all over again, but we'll get to that!
Favorite lines:
Now Priam, though encircled by the slaughter,
Did not hold back from shouting in his fury: [...]
"Achilles was your father? It's a lie.
This isn't how he fought." [...]
Pyrrhus replied, "Then go tell Peleus' son,
My father, how far short of him I fall.
Be sure he knows what hateful things I did.
Now die."
Book 3: Aeneas describes wandering all over the Mediterranean. The most affecting part is where he comes to a land ruled by Helenus, Priam's son, and they talk to Andromache. (Can someone explain to me how Helenus was Pyrrhus' slave and yet "at his death a portion of [Pyrrhus'] kingdom passed rightfully to Helenus"? I don't understand at all how this is even possible!)
Favorite lines: Andromache to Aeneas' son:
"Take what my hands made and remember me.
Andromache, the wife of Hector, pledges
Her love this way. Receive your family's last gifts.
You are the only image of Astyanax
Left to me -- with his hands and his expressions
And eyes; he'd be at boyhood's end, like you."
Book 4: OH BOOK FOUR. This is the book where the whole Dido-and-Aeneas love story happens. Dido, you'll remember from Book 1, was worked on by Cupid to fall madly in love with Aeneas, who apparently wasn't similarly afflicted, but who is not going to say no to hot sex with hot awesome queen. So, yeah.
I always thought it was a copout that Dido's love was artificially induced, but now I'm glad of it. Because the totally awesome Dido in Book 1, the one who single-handedly led her people to a new place and built a happy working kingdom: that Dido is not the one shown here, who is kind of a shrill jealous harpy -- which by itself, okay, whatever, but also one who isn't very effective or thoughtful, which is definitely out of character for her as she's been presented up till now. Ugh. So now I'm glad the consensus was that it had to have been a god's doing.
And then -- I have known the story for a while, but I didn't know that there was so much politics involved, which I actually really love. It's not just that Dido is lovesick. It's that it has real political consequences: the suitors that she rejected in the past start looking side-eyed at this Trojan refugee lover. She's in a delicate position as a woman ruler, and as a ruler of a relatively powerless kingdom; and there is a bit of a tightrope dance she has to do in that regard, which the love affair pretty much topples.
The breakup scene between Aeneas and Dido is actually kind of hilarious in its high-school nature:
DIDO: The pledge you made, our passion for each other... husband...
AENEAS: Babe, never will I regret your memoryof totally hot sex. A little on the facts, though: ...as for 'husband,' I never made a pact of marriage with you.
DIDO: ...
AENEAS: ...From Jove himself a heavenly emissary (on both our heads, I swear it) brought me orders down through the air.
No, seriously, except for the "babe" and the "totally hot sex," these are all direct quotes. I totally think jerk boyfriends should use the line "See, I have to leave you because from Jove himself a heavenly emissary brought me orders. I swear it!" more often. At least, I would be more amused :)
Meanwhile, as if she didn't have enough to worry about, the gods are totally dissing her by making her offerings of wine turn to blood, as far as I can tell because she is being untrue to her dead husband's memory even though the dude's been dead for years. I would just like to point out here that in Book 2, Aeneas's dead wife appears to him and is all "Hey, husband, feel free to bang any chick you'd like, it's part of your glorious destiny!" WAY TO GO WITH THE DOUBLE STANDARD, GODS. JUST SAYING.
So once Dido has a minute to reflect, she realizes that she is in a huge mess politically. And the gods apparently hate her. And Aeneas doesn't feel That Way about her. And the first two as much as the third are what precipitate her suicide. I'm glad it wasn't just lovesickness, but sucks to be Dido.
I really really want an AU where Dido does not get shafted (ha) by Cupid, doesn't fall in love with Aeneas, and stays her awesome canny politically-savvy totally competent self. Maybe she partners with Aeneas, or better yet, Anna, and they kick some Libyan butt, or hoodwink the gods, or something. WANT.
OH VIRGIL NO line: Be quick and go! A woman is a changing/ And fitful thing.
Oh, Dido.
Tyrians, hound with hatred for all time
The race [Aeneas] founds. My ashes call from you
This service. Let there be no pacts of friendship.
Out of my grave let an avenger rise,
With fire and iron for Dardanian settlers...
My curse is war for Trojans and their children.
Juno, who in the way of gods has been pretty much completely useless throughout this book, finally wakes up when Dido is struggling to die in a tortured way and sends Iris to put Dido out of her misery. THANKS A LOT, JUNO. You were such a huge help when she was finding blood in her wine goblet offerings!
...All living heat
Vanished, and life dissolved into the wind.
Having read the Illiad, I am impressed that he manages to do so without lovingly describing a single gory disemboweling of the sort that Homer put in the Illiad every two pages or so. Romans had their points over the Greeks, I guess... which I suppose is what this whole book is about, but probably not what Virgil expected me to get out of it.
Oh, and Aeneas' wife Creusa gets left behind. At first this really bothered me, and then I thought, well, she's an adult, right? It actually makes sense for Aeneas to worry more about his son and his father and trust that she can take care of herself. But STILL. And then I read book 4 and it irritated me all over again, but we'll get to that!
Favorite lines:
Now Priam, though encircled by the slaughter,
Did not hold back from shouting in his fury: [...]
"Achilles was your father? It's a lie.
This isn't how he fought." [...]
Pyrrhus replied, "Then go tell Peleus' son,
My father, how far short of him I fall.
Be sure he knows what hateful things I did.
Now die."
Book 3: Aeneas describes wandering all over the Mediterranean. The most affecting part is where he comes to a land ruled by Helenus, Priam's son, and they talk to Andromache. (Can someone explain to me how Helenus was Pyrrhus' slave and yet "at his death a portion of [Pyrrhus'] kingdom passed rightfully to Helenus"? I don't understand at all how this is even possible!)
Favorite lines: Andromache to Aeneas' son:
"Take what my hands made and remember me.
Andromache, the wife of Hector, pledges
Her love this way. Receive your family's last gifts.
You are the only image of Astyanax
Left to me -- with his hands and his expressions
And eyes; he'd be at boyhood's end, like you."
Book 4: OH BOOK FOUR. This is the book where the whole Dido-and-Aeneas love story happens. Dido, you'll remember from Book 1, was worked on by Cupid to fall madly in love with Aeneas, who apparently wasn't similarly afflicted, but who is not going to say no to hot sex with hot awesome queen. So, yeah.
I always thought it was a copout that Dido's love was artificially induced, but now I'm glad of it. Because the totally awesome Dido in Book 1, the one who single-handedly led her people to a new place and built a happy working kingdom: that Dido is not the one shown here, who is kind of a shrill jealous harpy -- which by itself, okay, whatever, but also one who isn't very effective or thoughtful, which is definitely out of character for her as she's been presented up till now. Ugh. So now I'm glad the consensus was that it had to have been a god's doing.
And then -- I have known the story for a while, but I didn't know that there was so much politics involved, which I actually really love. It's not just that Dido is lovesick. It's that it has real political consequences: the suitors that she rejected in the past start looking side-eyed at this Trojan refugee lover. She's in a delicate position as a woman ruler, and as a ruler of a relatively powerless kingdom; and there is a bit of a tightrope dance she has to do in that regard, which the love affair pretty much topples.
The breakup scene between Aeneas and Dido is actually kind of hilarious in its high-school nature:
DIDO: The pledge you made, our passion for each other... husband...
AENEAS: Babe, never will I regret your memory
DIDO: ...
AENEAS: ...From Jove himself a heavenly emissary (on both our heads, I swear it) brought me orders down through the air.
No, seriously, except for the "babe" and the "totally hot sex," these are all direct quotes. I totally think jerk boyfriends should use the line "See, I have to leave you because from Jove himself a heavenly emissary brought me orders. I swear it!" more often. At least, I would be more amused :)
Meanwhile, as if she didn't have enough to worry about, the gods are totally dissing her by making her offerings of wine turn to blood, as far as I can tell because she is being untrue to her dead husband's memory even though the dude's been dead for years. I would just like to point out here that in Book 2, Aeneas's dead wife appears to him and is all "Hey, husband, feel free to bang any chick you'd like, it's part of your glorious destiny!" WAY TO GO WITH THE DOUBLE STANDARD, GODS. JUST SAYING.
So once Dido has a minute to reflect, she realizes that she is in a huge mess politically. And the gods apparently hate her. And Aeneas doesn't feel That Way about her. And the first two as much as the third are what precipitate her suicide. I'm glad it wasn't just lovesickness, but sucks to be Dido.
I really really want an AU where Dido does not get shafted (ha) by Cupid, doesn't fall in love with Aeneas, and stays her awesome canny politically-savvy totally competent self. Maybe she partners with Aeneas, or better yet, Anna, and they kick some Libyan butt, or hoodwink the gods, or something. WANT.
OH VIRGIL NO line: Be quick and go! A woman is a changing/ And fitful thing.
Oh, Dido.
Tyrians, hound with hatred for all time
The race [Aeneas] founds. My ashes call from you
This service. Let there be no pacts of friendship.
Out of my grave let an avenger rise,
With fire and iron for Dardanian settlers...
My curse is war for Trojans and their children.
Juno, who in the way of gods has been pretty much completely useless throughout this book, finally wakes up when Dido is struggling to die in a tortured way and sends Iris to put Dido out of her misery. THANKS A LOT, JUNO. You were such a huge help when she was finding blood in her wine goblet offerings!
...All living heat
Vanished, and life dissolved into the wind.
