Condensed Aeneid

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Key themes:

Father/son

  • mezentius "Now you killed my son, you savage, you need not try to frighten me ...  i have come to die" - symphathy for a villainous character
  • Aeneas&Pallas link to Marcelleus and Augustus
  • "Ascanius in an armed embrace and kissed him lightly through his helmet"
  • Leaves Dido bcs Mercury reminds him pof Ascanius' fate
  • Jupiter &Mercury
    • "The relationship between father and don is the closest bond in the Aeneid" (Sowerby)
    • "Father-son relationship and suffering are central to the plot" (Cowan)

Furor

  • Aeneas killing spree= "hot fury" "he was still begging for mercy, he drove the sword to the hilt " and kills "everything that stood before him"
  • venus has to interveen with helken saying "Who are you?"
  • Ignores Turnus' mercy "if any thought to my unhgappy father can touch you, i beg of you"
  • Turnus- "blazing with rage", wearing the "fatal baldrich", "raging and storming and creating havoc", "mad lust for blood" is a juxtaposition for aeneas' piety
  • Symbol of fire- dido (death), ships via women in sciliy
  • mezentius ="scorner of gods"
  • battle corrupts the young "like a young lion driven mad by blood"
  • Juno is "biutter with resentment" for Trojans
  • Dido "overwhelmed by grief and possesed by madness"
    • "Even the most pious anre driven to furor by war" (Gransden)
    • "furor dominatyed the alst four books ... this includes Aeneas' actions" (Gransden)
    • "due to furtor no decision Aeneas made at the end wass conscious" (Buckley)
    • "furor is the most pervasive and destructive force in the Aeneid" (Cowan)

Pietas 

  • Aeneas follows Tiber advice in a dream and makes offering to Juno before the battle
  • "I am Aeneas known for my devotion"
  • Anchises in underworld "I knew your devotion would prevail over the rigor…

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