OCR GCSE Latin Verse Paper
Does anyone have any revision notes or words of wisdom for the latin exam on Aeneid II? I can't do the 10 markers at all, I think I do horribly in them.
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I will put up my notes onto this thread over the next few comments. They are quite long and if you don't manage to revise them all thoroughly, then you can at least look at the commentary to see the sort of stuff that you should focus on. These were given by my teacher by the way, and have been helpful for me.
Aeneid 2 [268-280]
Translation
It was the time at which first sleep begins for sick mortals and most welcome steals over [them] with the gift of the gods. Look, in [my] dreams, before [my] eyes, very sorrowful Hector appeared to me to be there, and to pour out abundant tears, dragged as once by his chariot, black with bloody dust, his swelling feet pierced with thongs. Ah me, what sort of man he was, how greatly changed from that Hector who returned wearing the spoils of Achilles or hurling Trojan fire at the Greek ships. Wearing an unkempt beard, and hair matted with blood and those wounds, those many which he had received around the walls of the homeland. Weeping of my own accord, I myself seemed to address the man and to utter grieving words:
Commentary
In this section of the Aeneid, Aeneas begins to dream, and for the first time he himself comes into his story. The passage is very dramatic, with the contrast of the happy sleep of Aeneas (who believes that the Greeks have gone and that all will be well) and the terse statements of disaster which he receives from Hector’s ghost, while Hector warns him that he must flee.
268-269: there is a lilting softness to these lines and sound effects which mirror the sleep. Note the preponderance and regularity of the ‘s’ on the end of quies mortalibus aegris and gratissima serpit (= zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
aegris: this may be a generalising reference to the human lot or it may be intended to introduce a note of foreboding – the pleasant sleep will not always be so.
prima and incipit emphasise that this is the start of sleep – early in the night, and emphasise perhaps the welcome nature of it.
Note that the sleep is most welcome (gratissima superlative) and it is the gift of the gods (dono divum) for the mortals (mortalibus)
It is also possible to see a further note of foreboding in these lines. serpit is connected with the word for serpent (and the alliteration of the s may also reflect this in addition to the zzzz as above). Earlier in Aeneas’ story twin serpents, also a gift of the gods have destroyed Laocoon, and Virgil may be echoing that passage here.
270 continues at the start with the sleep in somnis, but then abruptly the ecce makes it very immediate emphasising the reality, and this emphasis is continued with ante oculos. Yet the reality and immediacy is actually a dream – his eyes are shut in sleep! Thus this signals the start of the vision. Then we get maestissimus very sorrowful – there is bad news – and finally the identity of the ghost – Hector. He is the greatest warrior on the Trojan side, and his emotion is unexpected. In the Iliad, the heroes like Hector go out and fight. They follow the heroic code which demands that they fight and win glory. If they die in so doing their death is glorious. Yet Hector here is very sorrowful.
271: visus adesse mihi again emphasises the reality – he really did appear to be there, and to pour out many tears (largosque effundere fletus) again emphasising the maestissimus. Note also the alliteration of the f – mimicking the weeping?
In the next lines, Virgil places emphasis on Hector’s appearance: the vocabulary is strong and violent, and evokes pathos for Hector.
raptatus (dragged) is an emotive word and it refers to Hector after his death being dragged behind his chariot by Achilles. In the Iliad this was around Patroclus’ tomb, although post Homeric tradition has Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy. Note the colour and violence: Hector is ater (black) with cruento pulvere (bloody dust); he is traiectus (pierced), his feet swollen (tumentes). Note also the alliteration of the p in pulvere perque pedes (273).
ei mihi (274) is glossed as alas, but note how it actually brings in the me – better translation is something like ‘ah me’: we are taken away from Hector and back to Aeneas momentarily, and then the emphasis is on how Hector was changed ab illo Hectore – from that Hector – almost a different man – and two of Hector’s great achievements are mentioned. The first is when he returns from battle indutus exuvias Achilli. The spoils of Achilles are his armour, worn by Patroclus, whom Hector kills in combat in Iliad 17 (this was the episode which led to Achilles requiring new armour). The verb is in the present tense – possibly this is intended to emphasise Aeneas’ remembrance of the past event side by side with the present vision. The second achievement of Hector is when the Trojans almost burnt the Greek ships in Iliad 15. The contrast between the two opposing sides is emphasised by the juxtaposition of Danaum Phrygios. But then the narrative returns to the appearance of Hector now – the contrast again with the glory days. 277: his beard is squalentem – unkempt, his hair (crines) is matted with blood (concretos sanguine). He is wearing wounds (vulnera gerens) lots of them, plurima, which he received (accepit) around the walls of the homeland (muros patrios). Hector was wounded fighting for his country. Aeneas reacts – weeping too - flens (279). He is upset, not frightened, and in response he addresses Hector – with grieving words (maestas voces).
Aeneid 2 [268-280]
Translation
It was the time at which first sleep begins for sick mortals and most welcome steals over [them] with the gift of the gods. Look, in [my] dreams, before [my] eyes, very sorrowful Hector appeared to me to be there, and to pour out abundant tears, dragged as once by his chariot, black with bloody dust, his swelling feet pierced with thongs. Ah me, what sort of man he was, how greatly changed from that Hector who returned wearing the spoils of Achilles or hurling Trojan fire at the Greek ships. Wearing an unkempt beard, and hair matted with blood and those wounds, those many which he had received around the walls of the homeland. Weeping of my own accord, I myself seemed to address the man and to utter grieving words:
Commentary
In this section of the Aeneid, Aeneas begins to dream, and for the first time he himself comes into his story. The passage is very dramatic, with the contrast of the happy sleep of Aeneas (who believes that the Greeks have gone and that all will be well) and the terse statements of disaster which he receives from Hector’s ghost, while Hector warns him that he must flee.
268-269: there is a lilting softness to these lines and sound effects which mirror the sleep. Note the preponderance and regularity of the ‘s’ on the end of quies mortalibus aegris and gratissima serpit (= zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
aegris: this may be a generalising reference to the human lot or it may be intended to introduce a note of foreboding – the pleasant sleep will not always be so.
prima and incipit emphasise that this is the start of sleep – early in the night, and emphasise perhaps the welcome nature of it.
Note that the sleep is most welcome (gratissima superlative) and it is the gift of the gods (dono divum) for the mortals (mortalibus)
It is also possible to see a further note of foreboding in these lines. serpit is connected with the word for serpent (and the alliteration of the s may also reflect this in addition to the zzzz as above). Earlier in Aeneas’ story twin serpents, also a gift of the gods have destroyed Laocoon, and Virgil may be echoing that passage here.
270 continues at the start with the sleep in somnis, but then abruptly the ecce makes it very immediate emphasising the reality, and this emphasis is continued with ante oculos. Yet the reality and immediacy is actually a dream – his eyes are shut in sleep! Thus this signals the start of the vision. Then we get maestissimus very sorrowful – there is bad news – and finally the identity of the ghost – Hector. He is the greatest warrior on the Trojan side, and his emotion is unexpected. In the Iliad, the heroes like Hector go out and fight. They follow the heroic code which demands that they fight and win glory. If they die in so doing their death is glorious. Yet Hector here is very sorrowful.
271: visus adesse mihi again emphasises the reality – he really did appear to be there, and to pour out many tears (largosque effundere fletus) again emphasising the maestissimus. Note also the alliteration of the f – mimicking the weeping?
In the next lines, Virgil places emphasis on Hector’s appearance: the vocabulary is strong and violent, and evokes pathos for Hector.
raptatus (dragged) is an emotive word and it refers to Hector after his death being dragged behind his chariot by Achilles. In the Iliad this was around Patroclus’ tomb, although post Homeric tradition has Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy. Note the colour and violence: Hector is ater (black) with cruento pulvere (bloody dust); he is traiectus (pierced), his feet swollen (tumentes). Note also the alliteration of the p in pulvere perque pedes (273).
ei mihi (274) is glossed as alas, but note how it actually brings in the me – better translation is something like ‘ah me’: we are taken away from Hector and back to Aeneas momentarily, and then the emphasis is on how Hector was changed ab illo Hectore – from that Hector – almost a different man – and two of Hector’s great achievements are mentioned. The first is when he returns from battle indutus exuvias Achilli. The spoils of Achilles are his armour, worn by Patroclus, whom Hector kills in combat in Iliad 17 (this was the episode which led to Achilles requiring new armour). The verb is in the present tense – possibly this is intended to emphasise Aeneas’ remembrance of the past event side by side with the present vision. The second achievement of Hector is when the Trojans almost burnt the Greek ships in Iliad 15. The contrast between the two opposing sides is emphasised by the juxtaposition of Danaum Phrygios. But then the narrative returns to the appearance of Hector now – the contrast again with the glory days. 277: his beard is squalentem – unkempt, his hair (crines) is matted with blood (concretos sanguine). He is wearing wounds (vulnera gerens) lots of them, plurima, which he received (accepit) around the walls of the homeland (muros patrios). Hector was wounded fighting for his country. Aeneas reacts – weeping too - flens (279). He is upset, not frightened, and in response he addresses Hector – with grieving words (maestas voces).
Aeneid 2 [298-317]
Translation
Meanwhile the city was in a turmoil of grief on every side, and more and more, although my father Anchises’ house was set back, secluded and overshadowed by trees, the sounds grew clear and the horror of weapons advanced threateningly. I was awakened from sleep and I clambered up the gable of the top of the roof by climbing and I stood with my ears upright. Just as when the flames fall upon the crops in the raging south wind, or a rapid torrent from a mountain river flattens the fields, flattens the happy crops and the labours of the oxen and drags the woods headlong, an bewildered shepherd is stunned and the sound reaches him on top of the rock.
Then indeed clear truth and the plots of the Greeks were revealed. The great house of Deiphobus crashed in ruins with the fire god victorious, now next burns Ucagleon’s house; the broad straits of Sigeum glow with fire. There arose the shouting of men and the blast of trumpets. I took up my weapons, out of my mind, nor was there enough thought for arms [i.e. battle plan], but my mind was on fire to mass together a group for war and to rush into the citadel with my comrades. Rage and anger carried away my mind, and my thoughts were of the beauty of death in battle.
Commentary
298: misceri means to be mixed up, and is often used by Virgil to describe confusion. moenia refers to the buildings of the city. Note the word order with diverso and luctu separated at the beginning and end of the line – emphasising the confusion on all sides. luctus (grief) tends to be used by Virgil in a battle context. Note the alliteration of m in miscentur moenia - emphasising the grief??
299: et magis atque magis emphasises the grief and confusion. Suspense mounts with the action delayed by the description of the seclusion of Anchises’ house in 299-300.
301: begins powerfully with the verb as the first word, and its subject following (reversal of the usual Latin word order), and this effect is repeated with ingruit horror at the end of the line. Note that horror has to do with bristling (as at something fearful). The approach of the enemy is portrayed by the sound growing clearer, and the fear of the weapons.
302: begins with the verb for emphasis I was awakened and then in 303 there is lots of assonance of a, alliteration of s and also two elisions: ascensu super(o) atqu(e) arrectis auribus asto . This reflects the excitement and tension of the situation. Note the stress on the height also: Aeneas climbs (supero) to the fastigium (gable) of the top (summi) of the roof (tecti) in ascent (ascensu). Note too the excitement also emphasised by the sustained historic presents.
304: as we anticipate what Aeneas will hear, having pricked up his ears (interesting too that Virgil focuses on his ears – we might have expected the focus to be on what he could see) Virgil launches into a simile, introduced by veluti (just as). The main point of comparison does not come until the end. Virgil begins with it was like when fire descends on the crops: and there is a secondary point of comparison here in that fire is descending on Troy. Then Virgil introduces a second similarity – like a flood of a river in spate. Again Troy will be destroyed like this and flattened –note the repetition of sternit in 306, and then trahit (drags) in 307 emphasising the devastation of the flood and the wholesale destruction. The verb stupet is brought to the start of its clause for emphasis – he is stunned – we have to wait right to the end of 308 to find out who. The so far unidentified stunned man is then inscius – unaware, bewildered, and almost helpless – as he hears the sound (accipiens sonitum) – just like Aeneas is hearing the sound. And this man is sitting on top of a rock, just as Aeneas is on top of the house. Finally he is identified – pastor – he is a shepherd. All that for which he cared is destroyed, just like Aeneas. Some have also seen a further parallel with Aeneas as a carer for his people.
309 tells of Aeneas’ realisation of the Greek plot – note the contrast between fides and insidiae – and then he begins to tell what is happening, with the great house of Deiphobus crashing down. He had married Helen after the death of Paris. The name of the fire god (Vulcan) is used instead of the product which he was responsible for supplying (technically called metonymy – the use of Ucalegon for his house is another example). Ucalegon was one of the friends of Priam, king of Troy, and his house is next. Rather than describe more houses burning, Virgil stands back and refers to the glow across the strait. There are similar descriptions of the night of 14 November 1940 when Coventry was bombed, and the red glow in the sky could be seen up to 150 miles away.
313 again has the verb at the start to emphasise the action; note the pattern and balance clamor virum /clangor tubarum, and the similarly sounding words clamor and clangor. The line stands alone as a complete sentence.
314: Virgil returns to Aeneas and his reaction. He appears to have forgotten all that Hector has told him, and his natural reaction is to fight. We are in the times of the Homeric hero, who must follow the heroic code, and must fight instinctively, without thinking, even if the situation is hopeless. If this leads to death, that is glorious and honourable. Shrinking from fighting is cowardly and disgraceful. The Aeneid as a whole charts a development of the hero for Aeneas, who is given a divine mission to leave a lost cause, and who is to move to become a different kind of more thinking hero: he is to leave behind the Homeric world and its heroic code, and move on, but his success is intermittent and right to the end imperfect. There are key words in these lines which are very important in this development, and which run as themes through the book.
314: amens – out of his mind. The Homeric hero does not apply his mind to fighting – he instinctively does it. Aeneas has been called by Hector to something different, but has temporarily forgotten it. He takes up his weapons – Homeric hero. 314 begins with arma and ends with armis – the stress on weapons and fighting. Note also rationis – not enough thought. This is the rational thinking hero, but Aeneas is still in Homeric mode – both amens and with insufficient ratio. 316: his mind ardent is on fire (as Troy is literally on fire) – but for what? – to fight 315 – to get a group to rush to the citadel (concurrere in arcem) and to fight (bello) . Note again the stress on mind in 316 – animi and mentem. furor and ira are also key words in the development of the hero. furor is a negative quality – rage, which is uncontrolled, and which the developing, thinking hero has to learn to control, as reason and thought need to motivate action. But the beauty of death in action is what is driving him, and concludes the description of him in 314-317 as a Homeric hero – driven by furor, the prospect of a glorious death, the instinctive reaction to fight – note armis again at the end of the line continuing the stress in this section on fighting.
Translation
Meanwhile the city was in a turmoil of grief on every side, and more and more, although my father Anchises’ house was set back, secluded and overshadowed by trees, the sounds grew clear and the horror of weapons advanced threateningly. I was awakened from sleep and I clambered up the gable of the top of the roof by climbing and I stood with my ears upright. Just as when the flames fall upon the crops in the raging south wind, or a rapid torrent from a mountain river flattens the fields, flattens the happy crops and the labours of the oxen and drags the woods headlong, an bewildered shepherd is stunned and the sound reaches him on top of the rock.
Then indeed clear truth and the plots of the Greeks were revealed. The great house of Deiphobus crashed in ruins with the fire god victorious, now next burns Ucagleon’s house; the broad straits of Sigeum glow with fire. There arose the shouting of men and the blast of trumpets. I took up my weapons, out of my mind, nor was there enough thought for arms [i.e. battle plan], but my mind was on fire to mass together a group for war and to rush into the citadel with my comrades. Rage and anger carried away my mind, and my thoughts were of the beauty of death in battle.
Commentary
298: misceri means to be mixed up, and is often used by Virgil to describe confusion. moenia refers to the buildings of the city. Note the word order with diverso and luctu separated at the beginning and end of the line – emphasising the confusion on all sides. luctus (grief) tends to be used by Virgil in a battle context. Note the alliteration of m in miscentur moenia - emphasising the grief??
299: et magis atque magis emphasises the grief and confusion. Suspense mounts with the action delayed by the description of the seclusion of Anchises’ house in 299-300.
301: begins powerfully with the verb as the first word, and its subject following (reversal of the usual Latin word order), and this effect is repeated with ingruit horror at the end of the line. Note that horror has to do with bristling (as at something fearful). The approach of the enemy is portrayed by the sound growing clearer, and the fear of the weapons.
302: begins with the verb for emphasis I was awakened and then in 303 there is lots of assonance of a, alliteration of s and also two elisions: ascensu super(o) atqu(e) arrectis auribus asto . This reflects the excitement and tension of the situation. Note the stress on the height also: Aeneas climbs (supero) to the fastigium (gable) of the top (summi) of the roof (tecti) in ascent (ascensu). Note too the excitement also emphasised by the sustained historic presents.
304: as we anticipate what Aeneas will hear, having pricked up his ears (interesting too that Virgil focuses on his ears – we might have expected the focus to be on what he could see) Virgil launches into a simile, introduced by veluti (just as). The main point of comparison does not come until the end. Virgil begins with it was like when fire descends on the crops: and there is a secondary point of comparison here in that fire is descending on Troy. Then Virgil introduces a second similarity – like a flood of a river in spate. Again Troy will be destroyed like this and flattened –note the repetition of sternit in 306, and then trahit (drags) in 307 emphasising the devastation of the flood and the wholesale destruction. The verb stupet is brought to the start of its clause for emphasis – he is stunned – we have to wait right to the end of 308 to find out who. The so far unidentified stunned man is then inscius – unaware, bewildered, and almost helpless – as he hears the sound (accipiens sonitum) – just like Aeneas is hearing the sound. And this man is sitting on top of a rock, just as Aeneas is on top of the house. Finally he is identified – pastor – he is a shepherd. All that for which he cared is destroyed, just like Aeneas. Some have also seen a further parallel with Aeneas as a carer for his people.
309 tells of Aeneas’ realisation of the Greek plot – note the contrast between fides and insidiae – and then he begins to tell what is happening, with the great house of Deiphobus crashing down. He had married Helen after the death of Paris. The name of the fire god (Vulcan) is used instead of the product which he was responsible for supplying (technically called metonymy – the use of Ucalegon for his house is another example). Ucalegon was one of the friends of Priam, king of Troy, and his house is next. Rather than describe more houses burning, Virgil stands back and refers to the glow across the strait. There are similar descriptions of the night of 14 November 1940 when Coventry was bombed, and the red glow in the sky could be seen up to 150 miles away.
313 again has the verb at the start to emphasise the action; note the pattern and balance clamor virum /clangor tubarum, and the similarly sounding words clamor and clangor. The line stands alone as a complete sentence.
314: Virgil returns to Aeneas and his reaction. He appears to have forgotten all that Hector has told him, and his natural reaction is to fight. We are in the times of the Homeric hero, who must follow the heroic code, and must fight instinctively, without thinking, even if the situation is hopeless. If this leads to death, that is glorious and honourable. Shrinking from fighting is cowardly and disgraceful. The Aeneid as a whole charts a development of the hero for Aeneas, who is given a divine mission to leave a lost cause, and who is to move to become a different kind of more thinking hero: he is to leave behind the Homeric world and its heroic code, and move on, but his success is intermittent and right to the end imperfect. There are key words in these lines which are very important in this development, and which run as themes through the book.
314: amens – out of his mind. The Homeric hero does not apply his mind to fighting – he instinctively does it. Aeneas has been called by Hector to something different, but has temporarily forgotten it. He takes up his weapons – Homeric hero. 314 begins with arma and ends with armis – the stress on weapons and fighting. Note also rationis – not enough thought. This is the rational thinking hero, but Aeneas is still in Homeric mode – both amens and with insufficient ratio. 316: his mind ardent is on fire (as Troy is literally on fire) – but for what? – to fight 315 – to get a group to rush to the citadel (concurrere in arcem) and to fight (bello) . Note again the stress on mind in 316 – animi and mentem. furor and ira are also key words in the development of the hero. furor is a negative quality – rage, which is uncontrolled, and which the developing, thinking hero has to learn to control, as reason and thought need to motivate action. But the beauty of death in action is what is driving him, and concludes the description of him in 314-317 as a Homeric hero – driven by furor, the prospect of a glorious death, the instinctive reaction to fight – note armis again at the end of the line continuing the stress in this section on fighting.
Aeneid 2 [624-654]
Translation
Then indeed the whole of Troy seemed to me to be sinking into flames and Neptune’s Troy to be overturned form the bottom. And just as on the tops of the mountains when an old mountain ash is hacked at with iron and with the frequent blows of the axe by farmers eagerly vying with each other to uproot it, and it continually threatens, and with its foliage trembling, it sways, the top shaken, until gradually overcome by wounds it groaned its last, and torn away from the ridges it dragged down ruin. I descended and with the god leading I made my way among the flame and the enemy. Weapons made way and the flames receded. And when I now reached the threshold of my ancestral home and the ancient house, my father, whom I wanted first to take away to the high mountains, and I was seeking first, refused to prolong his life and endure exile, now that Troy was destroyed. ‘O you, whose blood is untouched by age’ he said, ‘and whose solid strength stands sound in native vigour, you plan your flight. If the gods had wanted me to prolong my life, they would have saved this home for me. It is enough and more than enough that I saw one destruction and survived my city when it was captured. Address me as I now am, as I now am, my body laid out, and leave. I, by myself will find death: the enemy will pity me and will seek the spoils. The loss of a tomb will be easy to bear. For a long time hated by the gods and useless, I have delayed years, from the time when the father of the gods and the king of men blasted me with the winds of his thunderbolt and struck me with lightning. Calling such things to mind he stood firm and remained unmoved. We on the other hand, my wife Creusa, and Ascanius and the whole house, dissolved into tears, (begging him) not as the father to want to overturn everything with him and to add his weight to our threatening fate. He refused and stuck fixed in his intention and in the palace where he was.
Commentary
Troy has now fallen and Aeneas realises that there is nothing he can do to save it. Under divine guidance he is enabled to reach his father’s house.
624: Troy (Ilium) and Neptune’s Troy (Neptunia Troia) are the same place – tautology for emphasis. Neptune had been responsible for assisting with the building of Troy, and favoured the Trojans in the Trojan war.
624-631: the simile of the mountain ash. The fall of Troy – the actual moment of Troy’s destruction - is described by a simile. The simile gives it power, but also a distance and an inevitability to the events which Aeneas has been unable to accept up to now. Like the Homeric hero, he has thought that he should do what he can to prevent the cutting down of the tree of Troy. The simile is based on one in Homer Iliad 4. The key points of comparison are (1) the ash, like Troy is old. Note that the simile begins with the antiquam ornum (although it is grammatically the object of the sentence) to emphasise it. (2) the ash is mighty and lofty, like Troy (3) the ash is living, but then killed (4) the ash has put up a good fight and resisted for some time, but finally succumbs to the frequent blows of the farmers (= the Greeks?) (5) the ash resists right to the very end – it threatens to fall, it sways, and then finally does when it is evicta – conquered (6) it brings great ruin when it finally does fall: the very last word of the simile is ruinam to emphasise it.
Note also the violence of the vocabulary to describe the event – the ash is accisam (hacked at 627) evicta (overcome 630) avulsa (torn away 631); the blows are ferro (with the iron 627) and crebris bipennibus (with frequent blows of the axe 627). The ash is personified – it congemuit (groaned 631) and is overcome by wounds (vulneribus 630). The change in tense in 631 from the present to the perfect is striking – once the moment of destruction has arrived, the verbs go into the perfect to emphasise this.
632-3: Aeneas now descends from the high vantage point he has occupied – we had perhaps imagined him doing this earlier. Note the alliteration of ‘d’ in 632 descendo ac ducente deo – perhaps emphasising the quiet tone after the fall of Troy. Some manuscripts have dea rather than deo, to make it clear that it is a goddess (Venus). Others, reading deo argue that the masculine can be used of the concept and power of deity and hence is appropriate here. Either way, it is Venus who is the divine power protecting Aeneas.
634-5: limina patriae sedis antiquas domos (the threshold of my ancestral home and the ancient house). What seems to be tautology is there for emphasis.
636: the repeated primum is there for emphasis – first, first. Note Aeneas’ enthusiasm to get away. He seems to have broken with the Homeric hero behaviour (but see below) and embraced his mission.
637 has a run of spondees in the middle, perhaps emphasising the obduracy of Anchises’ refusal.
abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia
638-40: Anchises begins with a command – you go note the emphasis on strength – vires, robore, solidae and the alliteration of the ‘s’, and the repeated vos – you. There is an implied contrast with ‘me’ who has a lack of strength and is not young (and is determined to stay behind). Anchises enlarges on these hinted themes below.
640 is a half line. These happen occasionally, and tend to emphasise what is going on because they are unusual and jarring in the run of the verse. Here the emphasis is on the command to go. Anchises does not try to hold Aeneas back.
641: Anchises begins to explain his argument for his refusal to go with Aeneas. Point 1: if the gods had wanted to prolong my life they would not have destroyed Troy. ducere is a metaphor from spinning – as the fates spin, measure and cut the thread of life. Point 2: I have already seen Troy destroyed. This was when Hercules sacked Troy when Laomedon had defrauded him of the reward he had promised for his help in building Troy. The effect of this is to make clear that Anchises is a very old man.
644: note the repetition of sic – in this way, i.e. as I now am. But how is he now?: his corpus is positum – this is the language of the dead – positum = laid out (as of a corpse). Anchises is adopting the attitude that he is already dead, and asks for the final valediction customary at death. Point 3: I am effectively dead already.
645-6: though we might at first think he was contemplating suicide, it is very clear that Anchises imagines that he will find death at the hands of the enemy – like a Homeric hero he will go into battle – and the enemy will seek the spoil. Point 4: I shall quickly meet death in battle. Point 5: the loss of a tomb will not be a problem. This last point for a Roman is very startling – burial was exceptionally important in the ancient world, and not to receive burial was a great loss and a problem (and is explored elsewhere in the Aeneid and also by Homer). One of the responsibilities of the family was to arrange the funeral and ensure burial. Anchises makes light of it – giving it three words only to emphasise its unimportance. Aeneas could not possibly accept this.
647-9: divum pater atque hominum rex (648) is referring to Jupiter. Anchises had an affair with Venus (Aeneas the child of the relationship). He was told by Venus not to boast of this affair or he would be blasted by a thunderbolt from Jupiter. He did boast of it, and Jupiter duly sent the thunderbolt but Venus caused it to swerve, so that Anchises was scorched but not killed. He was as a result physically disabled thereafter. This is the reference in 649 to the thunderbolt and the lightning. Presumably this is why he is invisus (hateful) to the gods (647) and inutilis (useless) (647). Point 6: I am hated by the gods and useless anyway, and have been for some time.
650: the steadfast refusal of Anchises is emphasised by the sentence contained within the line. talia perhaps implies that there were other things too. Note the emphasis on perstabat (stood firm) and fixus (unmoved) by the choice of these words; also manebat. The verbs are also in the imperfect – no historic presents in this line.
651-654: effusi lacrimis literally means ‘we were flooded in tears’ (i.e. we shed floods of tears). Creusa is Aeneas’ wife and mother of their son Ascanius.
vertere 652 has echoes of verti 625; there it was Troy being overturned, now it is everything (especially the hope for the future and the divine command).
l.653 Aeneas now seems to have accepted his fate (fato), but that note that already it is urgenti – threatening, a burden. This will be a key theme in the Aeneid. Anchises’ action is adding weight to it (incumbere).
654: Anchises stubbornly refuses – verbs now in the historic present abnegat and haeret – to emphasise the on-going refusal. Note the choice of words – abnegat he refused and haeret he stuck. Anchises has set out his reasons for staying, and no amount of entreaty will change him. This then provides a difficulty for Aeneas, who having finally embraced his mission, is now unable to leave his father and set out on it.
Translation
Then indeed the whole of Troy seemed to me to be sinking into flames and Neptune’s Troy to be overturned form the bottom. And just as on the tops of the mountains when an old mountain ash is hacked at with iron and with the frequent blows of the axe by farmers eagerly vying with each other to uproot it, and it continually threatens, and with its foliage trembling, it sways, the top shaken, until gradually overcome by wounds it groaned its last, and torn away from the ridges it dragged down ruin. I descended and with the god leading I made my way among the flame and the enemy. Weapons made way and the flames receded. And when I now reached the threshold of my ancestral home and the ancient house, my father, whom I wanted first to take away to the high mountains, and I was seeking first, refused to prolong his life and endure exile, now that Troy was destroyed. ‘O you, whose blood is untouched by age’ he said, ‘and whose solid strength stands sound in native vigour, you plan your flight. If the gods had wanted me to prolong my life, they would have saved this home for me. It is enough and more than enough that I saw one destruction and survived my city when it was captured. Address me as I now am, as I now am, my body laid out, and leave. I, by myself will find death: the enemy will pity me and will seek the spoils. The loss of a tomb will be easy to bear. For a long time hated by the gods and useless, I have delayed years, from the time when the father of the gods and the king of men blasted me with the winds of his thunderbolt and struck me with lightning. Calling such things to mind he stood firm and remained unmoved. We on the other hand, my wife Creusa, and Ascanius and the whole house, dissolved into tears, (begging him) not as the father to want to overturn everything with him and to add his weight to our threatening fate. He refused and stuck fixed in his intention and in the palace where he was.
Commentary
Troy has now fallen and Aeneas realises that there is nothing he can do to save it. Under divine guidance he is enabled to reach his father’s house.
624: Troy (Ilium) and Neptune’s Troy (Neptunia Troia) are the same place – tautology for emphasis. Neptune had been responsible for assisting with the building of Troy, and favoured the Trojans in the Trojan war.
624-631: the simile of the mountain ash. The fall of Troy – the actual moment of Troy’s destruction - is described by a simile. The simile gives it power, but also a distance and an inevitability to the events which Aeneas has been unable to accept up to now. Like the Homeric hero, he has thought that he should do what he can to prevent the cutting down of the tree of Troy. The simile is based on one in Homer Iliad 4. The key points of comparison are (1) the ash, like Troy is old. Note that the simile begins with the antiquam ornum (although it is grammatically the object of the sentence) to emphasise it. (2) the ash is mighty and lofty, like Troy (3) the ash is living, but then killed (4) the ash has put up a good fight and resisted for some time, but finally succumbs to the frequent blows of the farmers (= the Greeks?) (5) the ash resists right to the very end – it threatens to fall, it sways, and then finally does when it is evicta – conquered (6) it brings great ruin when it finally does fall: the very last word of the simile is ruinam to emphasise it.
Note also the violence of the vocabulary to describe the event – the ash is accisam (hacked at 627) evicta (overcome 630) avulsa (torn away 631); the blows are ferro (with the iron 627) and crebris bipennibus (with frequent blows of the axe 627). The ash is personified – it congemuit (groaned 631) and is overcome by wounds (vulneribus 630). The change in tense in 631 from the present to the perfect is striking – once the moment of destruction has arrived, the verbs go into the perfect to emphasise this.
632-3: Aeneas now descends from the high vantage point he has occupied – we had perhaps imagined him doing this earlier. Note the alliteration of ‘d’ in 632 descendo ac ducente deo – perhaps emphasising the quiet tone after the fall of Troy. Some manuscripts have dea rather than deo, to make it clear that it is a goddess (Venus). Others, reading deo argue that the masculine can be used of the concept and power of deity and hence is appropriate here. Either way, it is Venus who is the divine power protecting Aeneas.
634-5: limina patriae sedis antiquas domos (the threshold of my ancestral home and the ancient house). What seems to be tautology is there for emphasis.
636: the repeated primum is there for emphasis – first, first. Note Aeneas’ enthusiasm to get away. He seems to have broken with the Homeric hero behaviour (but see below) and embraced his mission.
637 has a run of spondees in the middle, perhaps emphasising the obduracy of Anchises’ refusal.
abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia
638-40: Anchises begins with a command – you go note the emphasis on strength – vires, robore, solidae and the alliteration of the ‘s’, and the repeated vos – you. There is an implied contrast with ‘me’ who has a lack of strength and is not young (and is determined to stay behind). Anchises enlarges on these hinted themes below.
640 is a half line. These happen occasionally, and tend to emphasise what is going on because they are unusual and jarring in the run of the verse. Here the emphasis is on the command to go. Anchises does not try to hold Aeneas back.
641: Anchises begins to explain his argument for his refusal to go with Aeneas. Point 1: if the gods had wanted to prolong my life they would not have destroyed Troy. ducere is a metaphor from spinning – as the fates spin, measure and cut the thread of life. Point 2: I have already seen Troy destroyed. This was when Hercules sacked Troy when Laomedon had defrauded him of the reward he had promised for his help in building Troy. The effect of this is to make clear that Anchises is a very old man.
644: note the repetition of sic – in this way, i.e. as I now am. But how is he now?: his corpus is positum – this is the language of the dead – positum = laid out (as of a corpse). Anchises is adopting the attitude that he is already dead, and asks for the final valediction customary at death. Point 3: I am effectively dead already.
645-6: though we might at first think he was contemplating suicide, it is very clear that Anchises imagines that he will find death at the hands of the enemy – like a Homeric hero he will go into battle – and the enemy will seek the spoil. Point 4: I shall quickly meet death in battle. Point 5: the loss of a tomb will not be a problem. This last point for a Roman is very startling – burial was exceptionally important in the ancient world, and not to receive burial was a great loss and a problem (and is explored elsewhere in the Aeneid and also by Homer). One of the responsibilities of the family was to arrange the funeral and ensure burial. Anchises makes light of it – giving it three words only to emphasise its unimportance. Aeneas could not possibly accept this.
647-9: divum pater atque hominum rex (648) is referring to Jupiter. Anchises had an affair with Venus (Aeneas the child of the relationship). He was told by Venus not to boast of this affair or he would be blasted by a thunderbolt from Jupiter. He did boast of it, and Jupiter duly sent the thunderbolt but Venus caused it to swerve, so that Anchises was scorched but not killed. He was as a result physically disabled thereafter. This is the reference in 649 to the thunderbolt and the lightning. Presumably this is why he is invisus (hateful) to the gods (647) and inutilis (useless) (647). Point 6: I am hated by the gods and useless anyway, and have been for some time.
650: the steadfast refusal of Anchises is emphasised by the sentence contained within the line. talia perhaps implies that there were other things too. Note the emphasis on perstabat (stood firm) and fixus (unmoved) by the choice of these words; also manebat. The verbs are also in the imperfect – no historic presents in this line.
651-654: effusi lacrimis literally means ‘we were flooded in tears’ (i.e. we shed floods of tears). Creusa is Aeneas’ wife and mother of their son Ascanius.
vertere 652 has echoes of verti 625; there it was Troy being overturned, now it is everything (especially the hope for the future and the divine command).
l.653 Aeneas now seems to have accepted his fate (fato), but that note that already it is urgenti – threatening, a burden. This will be a key theme in the Aeneid. Anchises’ action is adding weight to it (incumbere).
654: Anchises stubbornly refuses – verbs now in the historic present abnegat and haeret – to emphasise the on-going refusal. Note the choice of words – abnegat he refused and haeret he stuck. Anchises has set out his reasons for staying, and no amount of entreaty will change him. This then provides a difficulty for Aeneas, who having finally embraced his mission, is now unable to leave his father and set out on it.
Aeneid 2 [671-716]
Translation
Then I girded myself with my sword again and I was inserting my left hand, fitting it to the shield, and I was making my way outside the house. But look, my wife clung on the threshold, having embraced my feet, and she was holding out little Iulus to his father. ‘If you are going out to die, take us also with you in everything. But if from what you know of the situation you place some hope in resuming arms, keep this home safe first. To whom am I abandoned, once called your wife, to whom (is abandoned) small Iulus, to whom (is abandoned) the father? Speaking thus she was filling the whole house with her groaning when there arose a sudden divine portent, marvellous to relate. For between the hands and the faces of the grieving parents, look a thin tongue of flame seemed to pour its light from the top of the head of Iulus, and flames harmless to the touch to lick his soft hair and to feed around his temples. We were trembling, panic stricken with fear, and shook his flaming hair and extinguished the holy fire with water. But father Anchises, happy, raised his eyes to the stars, and stretched out his arms and voice to the sky: ‘Almighty Jupiter, if you are swayed by any prayers, look at us, just this once, and if we are worthy by our righteousness, then give help, father and confirm these omens.’ Scarcely had the old man spoken these words, and suddenly with a crash there was thunder on the left, and a star led a torch of light, having fallen from the sky through the shadows, and it ran on with much light. We saw it gliding over the very tops of our roofs, clear as it hid itself in the woods of Mt Ida, and lighting up the ways. Then a furrow with a long track gave light and far and wide the places smoked with sulphur. Here indeed the father, convinced, raised (his arms) to the breezes and addressed the gods and worshipped the holy star. ‘Now, now there is no delay; I follow and where you lead I am, gods of our fatherland; save our house, save my grandson. This is your omen, Troy is in your divine power. Indeed I give way, and I do not refuse, my son, to go as your companion.’ He had spoken and now through the city fire was heard more clearly and closer the blaze rolled its heat. ‘Therefore come dear father, put yourself on my neck; I myself will lift you on my shoulders, and that toil will not weigh heavy upon me. However things turn out there will be one common danger, and one way of safety for us both. Small Iulus will be my companion, and my wife will follow my steps at a distance. You, slaves, you pay attention to what I say. As you leave the city there is a mound with an ancient temple of deserted Ceres, and next to it an ancient cypress tree, honoured for many years in the religion of our fathers. From different directions, let us come to this one place.’
Commentary
After Anchises’ stubborn refusal to go on the mission and leave Troy, Aeneas decides to return to the fighting – back to Homeric mode. He takes up his sword and shield, but is then stopped by Creusa his wife on the threshold (limine).
673: ecce autem (but look) is making it vivid. complexa pedes means embracing his feet – difficult practically, but with the obvious impediment to movement. In ancient society if you wanted something from someone you could embrace their knees (not their feet) as an act of supplication – here Creusa is acting as a suppliant to Aeneas. Creusa is appealing to Aeneas as the father (patri) and his paternal affection for his son (parvum Iulum). It is of course Aeneas’ responsibility to his father that has prompted this return to battle. The scene in some ways mirrors a famous one in Iliad 6 where Hector’s wife Andromache holding their baby son begs Hector not to go out to fight; the arguments are broadly similar, though Andromache goes into more detail, and Virgil’s audience would have readily compared the situations. haerebat (stuck) is perhaps an odd word in this context – but emphasizes Creusa’s determination.
677 parvus Iulus: again he is parvus (as in 674): this is important in that he cannot fend for himself etc. as a small child. Iulus is Ascanius – Virgil uses both names. There is some inconsistency in the age of the boy – here he is parvus; at the banquet he sits on Dido’s knee, but in book 4 is able to ride a horse. However some time has elapsed while Aeneas dallies in Carthage. The inconsistency is however irrelevant here. Julius Caesar claimed descent from Iulus (a bogus etymology that the second ‘i’ was included later to make Iulius from Iulus – I and J in Latin are the same letter. There is irony in quondam once your wife: what she means here is that she will soon be his widow, but ironically she will be left behind when Aeneas leaves (she does not know this, but it is a familiar part of the story to the reader)
680: how is the impasse to be relieved? Anchises will not go, Aeneas cannot leave without him, the mission is in jeopardy, we are back (again) to Homeric behaviour and fighting a lost cause……The answer is very important: it is a monstrum (miracle, divine portent); it is sudden (subitum) and it is wonderful to relate (dictu mirabile). Note how these carefully chosen words create excitement and anticipation – what is the portent? Suspense is created by 681 as Virgil creates a precise picture: Creusa is on her knees holding out Ascanius to Aeneas, who puts out his arms to take him. All are grieving. But what about the monstrum?
The immediacy is emphasised by ecce! (look!) – but then Virgil delays telling us what it is – note the word order: look – thin – from the top of head – seemed – of Iulus – to pour – light – tip – and to the touch – harmless – soft – to lick – flame – hair - and around - temples - to feed. There are verbal echoes of a different and more terrible divine portent earlier in the book – the serpents which fed (pasci) on Laocoon’s sons; by contrast the flames are tactu innoxia – harmless to the touch. Note the emphasis on the harmlessness of the flames – they feed around Iulus’ temples and lick his soft hair. Note too the soft (molles) hair: some argue that this enhances the tenderness of the scene; might also be the soft baby curls of the parvus Iulus. Though they try to put out the flames with water, note the acknowledgement of the flames as sanctos (sacred). Interestingly fons is not the standard word for water, but means fountain or spring – often worshipped as in the fons sacer at Bath. There is a variety of subtle alliterative effects in these lines.
685-6: the portent described Virgil immediately moves to the reaction. The verbs are historic infinitives which convey rapid action: translate as imperfects. Note the stress on the initial panic – pavidi (trembling) trepidare (panic stricken) metu (with fear); then the practical action – shaking his hair and pouring water on to put out the flames.
687: at pater Anchises introduces a contrast – and Anchises, who has the gift of interpretation of divine signs (given to him by Venus) immediately sees the spiritual significance. He is now happy (laetus) in response to the sign. The ancients prayed by raising their arms to heaven, palms uplifted. Anchises acknowledges the power of Jupiter (omnipotens) and human weakness, but also human goodness and ability to persuade gods– if you are swayed by prayers… if we have any righteousness: this is the standard pattern of ancient praying. The word pietate (translated righteousness, but the concept is much bigger than that, involving devotion to duty, devotion to the gods etc) is very significant in the Aeneid – and used here as the basis for Anchises’ claim for divine help.
Our text says auxilium (help) in 691. A better reading is augurium (augury). Given that Anchises has seen the spiritual significance of the flames as a sign from the gods (and he is now happy - laetus) why does he pray that Jupiter will send another sign to confirm these omens? The answer is that this he sees the first sign as an augurium oblativum, that is a sign sent spontaneously from the gods, without man’s request. Thinking that you have one of these, it is important to confirm that you have not misread the sign or misunderstood, and so the practice is to ask for a second sign – an augurium imperativum – in confirmation and that is what Anchises is doing here. It is not a sign of not believing the gods – quite the opposite. But there is a greater purpose too – it is vital that the mission which has been given to Aeneas is given the full weight of double augury and there could be no possibility of doubt, or suggestion that Aeneas was wrong to leave Troy.
692-3: the gods answer Anchises’ prayer in two ways: a clap of thunder and a shooting star with a long trail of light behind it. laevum (left) is the favoured side in Roman augury.
693-698: the shooting star: note the number of words for light/brightness in these lines to emphasise this: stella - star, luce – light, claram – bright , signantem – lighting , lucem – light, and the contrast with per umbras (through the darkness) in 693 – the darkness is physical (the night sky) but also metaphorical (the danger to the mission and the difficulty Aeneas is in). Some commentators regard the ‘l’ sounds as being marked, with ‘u’s and ‘c’ also notable. Idaea silva (696) have occurred in a different context earlier in the Aeneid – this was where the wood for the wooden horse was cut. The key picture is of the shooting star with a long trail of light behind it as a divine sign to convince Anchises that this is for real and he should leave Troy. It is described in such detail to leave no room for doubt in Anchises’ or anyone else’s minds, and thus it speaks of the divine origin of Rome. It is possible to apply the features of the star to the Trojan mission and Servius, the ancient commentator on Virgil does this as follows: the direction of the start shows that the Trojans were to rally at Mt Ida; the light signified that under Aeneas they would become illustrious, the trail of scattered sparks that some would remain behind, the length of the path prefiguring the length of the journey to destiny, the furrow the voyage by sea to get there, and the smoke either the death of Anchises or the war in Italy which would follow.
699: Anchises has now moved from happy (laetus 687) to victus – overcome, glossed as convinced. The divine portents have convinced him. se tollit literally means he raised himself – clearly the idea is of flinging his arms wide as an outward expression of his joy.
701-704: in Anchises speech, he addresses the gods and then Aeneas – there is no expression of worship of the star, but as the speech opens there is emphasis on his resolve, determination and immediacy in the repeated iam (now), but this does link to the star – now… (thanks to the star)… now is the idea… there is no delay (nulla mora est). sequor (I follow and adsum (I am there) are in the present tense where we might have expected the future – this further emphasises the immediacy of Anchises’ response. He then asks the gods to save the house – this is in the sense of the line (c.f. the House of Windsor) and a recognition that there is the divine destiny – he does not mean the house at Troy which is destroyed anyway, or about to be. This idea of destiny is further emphasised by the second servate – save my grandson – missing out his son to emphasise that he means descendants and the family line. When he says Troy is in your power (vestroque in numine Troia est) again he is referring to the future of his family – the ‘refounded Troy’, and recognizing that this is part of the divine plan. The final line of the speech addresses his son, beginning cedo – I give way, and I do not refuse recuso. Note how the two verbs frame the line at the beginning and the end.
705-706: clarior ignis: a contrast with the divine fire on Iulus and the star with its flame – this is the real destructive fire which is consuming Troy. First it is heard (auditur) and then its heat (aestus) is felt as it rolls nearer. The destruction of Troy is imminent.
707-711: Aeneas gives practical arrangements for his immediate family. Anchises is to climb on Aeneas’ shoulders: this is necessary as Anchises is disabled (see earlier passage) so will not be able to walk. The picture of Aeneas carrying his disabled father out of Troy became important later, and is an example of his devotion to duty – his pietas. Aeneas says it will not be a burden to carry him thus. Note the outlook of Aeneas – quocumque res cadent – however things fall out: does he have confidence in the divine plan? – unum et commune periculum, una salus ambobus erit – there will be a common danger a safety for us both - we’re in it together. Like Anchises he has seen the portents – indeed he has had Hectors ghost and Venus, but there is a gloom which persists in him. Iulus is to walk beside. Why is Creusa to walk behind longe (at a distance)? This part of Aeneas’ plan leads to disaster, when she gets lost. Presumably what is in Aeneas’ mind is the avoidance of arousing suspicion – perhaps taking his disabled father to a place of safety, while looking after his young son might be acceptable in the Homeric world, whereas obvious whole scale escape with your family is not. In terms of the plot, Creusa has to be lost so that the way is paved first for Dido and then for Lavinia.
712-716: Aeneas gives instructions to the slaves. It is clearly important that everybody does not go all together, but meet up having come from different directions. Aeneas needs to choose an obvious (but not too obvious) landmark and rendezvous point. But it there are interesting features of the one he chooses. First it is a temple (or was) – so they are meeting in a holy place. The temple is very old (vetustum), and the tree by it is antiqua ; the tree is honoured for many years (multos per annos) in the religion of out ancestors (patrum). This antiquity gives reassurance for the new mission which is about to begin, and contrasts with it. But just s Aeneas has spoken of the danger and the safety, so here Ceres (and by transference her temple) is desertae. There are a number of possible reasons for this: (i) the temple is derelict: abandoned by its priest, replaced by another, abandoned because of the war – it is outside the walls (ii) Ceres was worshipped in remote places as the rustic deity of the earth (iii) it refers to Ceres’ loss of Prosperpina which is why she is deserted. The cypress is the tree of mourning, so this last explanation fits well. But although a holy place, it is a deserted place, just as the Aeneas and his family are about to desert Troy. There is hope, but there is difficulty and danger too, just as Aeneas has just said to his father.
Translation
Then I girded myself with my sword again and I was inserting my left hand, fitting it to the shield, and I was making my way outside the house. But look, my wife clung on the threshold, having embraced my feet, and she was holding out little Iulus to his father. ‘If you are going out to die, take us also with you in everything. But if from what you know of the situation you place some hope in resuming arms, keep this home safe first. To whom am I abandoned, once called your wife, to whom (is abandoned) small Iulus, to whom (is abandoned) the father? Speaking thus she was filling the whole house with her groaning when there arose a sudden divine portent, marvellous to relate. For between the hands and the faces of the grieving parents, look a thin tongue of flame seemed to pour its light from the top of the head of Iulus, and flames harmless to the touch to lick his soft hair and to feed around his temples. We were trembling, panic stricken with fear, and shook his flaming hair and extinguished the holy fire with water. But father Anchises, happy, raised his eyes to the stars, and stretched out his arms and voice to the sky: ‘Almighty Jupiter, if you are swayed by any prayers, look at us, just this once, and if we are worthy by our righteousness, then give help, father and confirm these omens.’ Scarcely had the old man spoken these words, and suddenly with a crash there was thunder on the left, and a star led a torch of light, having fallen from the sky through the shadows, and it ran on with much light. We saw it gliding over the very tops of our roofs, clear as it hid itself in the woods of Mt Ida, and lighting up the ways. Then a furrow with a long track gave light and far and wide the places smoked with sulphur. Here indeed the father, convinced, raised (his arms) to the breezes and addressed the gods and worshipped the holy star. ‘Now, now there is no delay; I follow and where you lead I am, gods of our fatherland; save our house, save my grandson. This is your omen, Troy is in your divine power. Indeed I give way, and I do not refuse, my son, to go as your companion.’ He had spoken and now through the city fire was heard more clearly and closer the blaze rolled its heat. ‘Therefore come dear father, put yourself on my neck; I myself will lift you on my shoulders, and that toil will not weigh heavy upon me. However things turn out there will be one common danger, and one way of safety for us both. Small Iulus will be my companion, and my wife will follow my steps at a distance. You, slaves, you pay attention to what I say. As you leave the city there is a mound with an ancient temple of deserted Ceres, and next to it an ancient cypress tree, honoured for many years in the religion of our fathers. From different directions, let us come to this one place.’
Commentary
After Anchises’ stubborn refusal to go on the mission and leave Troy, Aeneas decides to return to the fighting – back to Homeric mode. He takes up his sword and shield, but is then stopped by Creusa his wife on the threshold (limine).
673: ecce autem (but look) is making it vivid. complexa pedes means embracing his feet – difficult practically, but with the obvious impediment to movement. In ancient society if you wanted something from someone you could embrace their knees (not their feet) as an act of supplication – here Creusa is acting as a suppliant to Aeneas. Creusa is appealing to Aeneas as the father (patri) and his paternal affection for his son (parvum Iulum). It is of course Aeneas’ responsibility to his father that has prompted this return to battle. The scene in some ways mirrors a famous one in Iliad 6 where Hector’s wife Andromache holding their baby son begs Hector not to go out to fight; the arguments are broadly similar, though Andromache goes into more detail, and Virgil’s audience would have readily compared the situations. haerebat (stuck) is perhaps an odd word in this context – but emphasizes Creusa’s determination.
677 parvus Iulus: again he is parvus (as in 674): this is important in that he cannot fend for himself etc. as a small child. Iulus is Ascanius – Virgil uses both names. There is some inconsistency in the age of the boy – here he is parvus; at the banquet he sits on Dido’s knee, but in book 4 is able to ride a horse. However some time has elapsed while Aeneas dallies in Carthage. The inconsistency is however irrelevant here. Julius Caesar claimed descent from Iulus (a bogus etymology that the second ‘i’ was included later to make Iulius from Iulus – I and J in Latin are the same letter. There is irony in quondam once your wife: what she means here is that she will soon be his widow, but ironically she will be left behind when Aeneas leaves (she does not know this, but it is a familiar part of the story to the reader)
680: how is the impasse to be relieved? Anchises will not go, Aeneas cannot leave without him, the mission is in jeopardy, we are back (again) to Homeric behaviour and fighting a lost cause……The answer is very important: it is a monstrum (miracle, divine portent); it is sudden (subitum) and it is wonderful to relate (dictu mirabile). Note how these carefully chosen words create excitement and anticipation – what is the portent? Suspense is created by 681 as Virgil creates a precise picture: Creusa is on her knees holding out Ascanius to Aeneas, who puts out his arms to take him. All are grieving. But what about the monstrum?
The immediacy is emphasised by ecce! (look!) – but then Virgil delays telling us what it is – note the word order: look – thin – from the top of head – seemed – of Iulus – to pour – light – tip – and to the touch – harmless – soft – to lick – flame – hair - and around - temples - to feed. There are verbal echoes of a different and more terrible divine portent earlier in the book – the serpents which fed (pasci) on Laocoon’s sons; by contrast the flames are tactu innoxia – harmless to the touch. Note the emphasis on the harmlessness of the flames – they feed around Iulus’ temples and lick his soft hair. Note too the soft (molles) hair: some argue that this enhances the tenderness of the scene; might also be the soft baby curls of the parvus Iulus. Though they try to put out the flames with water, note the acknowledgement of the flames as sanctos (sacred). Interestingly fons is not the standard word for water, but means fountain or spring – often worshipped as in the fons sacer at Bath. There is a variety of subtle alliterative effects in these lines.
685-6: the portent described Virgil immediately moves to the reaction. The verbs are historic infinitives which convey rapid action: translate as imperfects. Note the stress on the initial panic – pavidi (trembling) trepidare (panic stricken) metu (with fear); then the practical action – shaking his hair and pouring water on to put out the flames.
687: at pater Anchises introduces a contrast – and Anchises, who has the gift of interpretation of divine signs (given to him by Venus) immediately sees the spiritual significance. He is now happy (laetus) in response to the sign. The ancients prayed by raising their arms to heaven, palms uplifted. Anchises acknowledges the power of Jupiter (omnipotens) and human weakness, but also human goodness and ability to persuade gods– if you are swayed by prayers… if we have any righteousness: this is the standard pattern of ancient praying. The word pietate (translated righteousness, but the concept is much bigger than that, involving devotion to duty, devotion to the gods etc) is very significant in the Aeneid – and used here as the basis for Anchises’ claim for divine help.
Our text says auxilium (help) in 691. A better reading is augurium (augury). Given that Anchises has seen the spiritual significance of the flames as a sign from the gods (and he is now happy - laetus) why does he pray that Jupiter will send another sign to confirm these omens? The answer is that this he sees the first sign as an augurium oblativum, that is a sign sent spontaneously from the gods, without man’s request. Thinking that you have one of these, it is important to confirm that you have not misread the sign or misunderstood, and so the practice is to ask for a second sign – an augurium imperativum – in confirmation and that is what Anchises is doing here. It is not a sign of not believing the gods – quite the opposite. But there is a greater purpose too – it is vital that the mission which has been given to Aeneas is given the full weight of double augury and there could be no possibility of doubt, or suggestion that Aeneas was wrong to leave Troy.
692-3: the gods answer Anchises’ prayer in two ways: a clap of thunder and a shooting star with a long trail of light behind it. laevum (left) is the favoured side in Roman augury.
693-698: the shooting star: note the number of words for light/brightness in these lines to emphasise this: stella - star, luce – light, claram – bright , signantem – lighting , lucem – light, and the contrast with per umbras (through the darkness) in 693 – the darkness is physical (the night sky) but also metaphorical (the danger to the mission and the difficulty Aeneas is in). Some commentators regard the ‘l’ sounds as being marked, with ‘u’s and ‘c’ also notable. Idaea silva (696) have occurred in a different context earlier in the Aeneid – this was where the wood for the wooden horse was cut. The key picture is of the shooting star with a long trail of light behind it as a divine sign to convince Anchises that this is for real and he should leave Troy. It is described in such detail to leave no room for doubt in Anchises’ or anyone else’s minds, and thus it speaks of the divine origin of Rome. It is possible to apply the features of the star to the Trojan mission and Servius, the ancient commentator on Virgil does this as follows: the direction of the start shows that the Trojans were to rally at Mt Ida; the light signified that under Aeneas they would become illustrious, the trail of scattered sparks that some would remain behind, the length of the path prefiguring the length of the journey to destiny, the furrow the voyage by sea to get there, and the smoke either the death of Anchises or the war in Italy which would follow.
699: Anchises has now moved from happy (laetus 687) to victus – overcome, glossed as convinced. The divine portents have convinced him. se tollit literally means he raised himself – clearly the idea is of flinging his arms wide as an outward expression of his joy.
701-704: in Anchises speech, he addresses the gods and then Aeneas – there is no expression of worship of the star, but as the speech opens there is emphasis on his resolve, determination and immediacy in the repeated iam (now), but this does link to the star – now… (thanks to the star)… now is the idea… there is no delay (nulla mora est). sequor (I follow and adsum (I am there) are in the present tense where we might have expected the future – this further emphasises the immediacy of Anchises’ response. He then asks the gods to save the house – this is in the sense of the line (c.f. the House of Windsor) and a recognition that there is the divine destiny – he does not mean the house at Troy which is destroyed anyway, or about to be. This idea of destiny is further emphasised by the second servate – save my grandson – missing out his son to emphasise that he means descendants and the family line. When he says Troy is in your power (vestroque in numine Troia est) again he is referring to the future of his family – the ‘refounded Troy’, and recognizing that this is part of the divine plan. The final line of the speech addresses his son, beginning cedo – I give way, and I do not refuse recuso. Note how the two verbs frame the line at the beginning and the end.
705-706: clarior ignis: a contrast with the divine fire on Iulus and the star with its flame – this is the real destructive fire which is consuming Troy. First it is heard (auditur) and then its heat (aestus) is felt as it rolls nearer. The destruction of Troy is imminent.
707-711: Aeneas gives practical arrangements for his immediate family. Anchises is to climb on Aeneas’ shoulders: this is necessary as Anchises is disabled (see earlier passage) so will not be able to walk. The picture of Aeneas carrying his disabled father out of Troy became important later, and is an example of his devotion to duty – his pietas. Aeneas says it will not be a burden to carry him thus. Note the outlook of Aeneas – quocumque res cadent – however things fall out: does he have confidence in the divine plan? – unum et commune periculum, una salus ambobus erit – there will be a common danger a safety for us both - we’re in it together. Like Anchises he has seen the portents – indeed he has had Hectors ghost and Venus, but there is a gloom which persists in him. Iulus is to walk beside. Why is Creusa to walk behind longe (at a distance)? This part of Aeneas’ plan leads to disaster, when she gets lost. Presumably what is in Aeneas’ mind is the avoidance of arousing suspicion – perhaps taking his disabled father to a place of safety, while looking after his young son might be acceptable in the Homeric world, whereas obvious whole scale escape with your family is not. In terms of the plot, Creusa has to be lost so that the way is paved first for Dido and then for Lavinia.
712-716: Aeneas gives instructions to the slaves. It is clearly important that everybody does not go all together, but meet up having come from different directions. Aeneas needs to choose an obvious (but not too obvious) landmark and rendezvous point. But it there are interesting features of the one he chooses. First it is a temple (or was) – so they are meeting in a holy place. The temple is very old (vetustum), and the tree by it is antiqua ; the tree is honoured for many years (multos per annos) in the religion of out ancestors (patrum). This antiquity gives reassurance for the new mission which is about to begin, and contrasts with it. But just s Aeneas has spoken of the danger and the safety, so here Ceres (and by transference her temple) is desertae. There are a number of possible reasons for this: (i) the temple is derelict: abandoned by its priest, replaced by another, abandoned because of the war – it is outside the walls (ii) Ceres was worshipped in remote places as the rustic deity of the earth (iii) it refers to Ceres’ loss of Prosperpina which is why she is deserted. The cypress is the tree of mourning, so this last explanation fits well. But although a holy place, it is a deserted place, just as the Aeneas and his family are about to desert Troy. There is hope, but there is difficulty and danger too, just as Aeneas has just said to his father.
Aeneid 2 [768-792]
Translation
What is more I dared to cry out through the darkness, I filled the streets with shouting, and grieving repeating Creusa in vain I called again and again. As I sought and rushed through the buildings of the city without end, the phantom and the unlucky ghost of Creusa herself appeared before my eyes and a spectre larger than the one I knew. I was stupefied, my hair stood on end and my voice stuck in my throat. Then in this way she spoke and removed my concern with these words. ‘Sweet husband, what help is it to indulge so much in an insane grief? These things have not happened without the power of the gods; right does not (allow) you to take Creusa from here as a companion, nor does he, the ruler of Olympus above allow it. There is a long exile for you and a vast expanse of the sea to be ploughed, and you will come to Italy where the Lydian Tiber flows with gentle course through the fertile fields of men. There happy things and a kingdom and a royal wife are secured for you; drive away your tears for your beloved Creusa. I shall not see the proud homes of the Myrmidons or Dolopes or go to be a slave to Greek mothers, a woman of the line of Dardanus and daughter in law of Venus. But the great mother of the gods will detain me on these shores. And now goodbye, and guard the love of our common son.’ When she had said these things, she deserted me, as I was weeping and wanting to say much, and she receded into the tender breezes. Three times there I tried to put my arms around her neck; (792)
{three times the ghost fled, grasped in vain by my hands}.
Commentary
Aeneas has been looking for Creusa in the preceding passage (which you do not have to know). The passage at 768 opens as Aeneas is still frantically looking for Creusa.
768-770: note the stress on the calling out which he dared (ausus 768) to do – risky because the Greeks are occupying the city. voces iactare = cry out, implevi clamore (I filled with shouting) ingeminans (repeating), vocavi (I called) iterumque iterumque (again and again). Note the repeated que to emphasise the repetition, as well as the repeated iterum. Commentators have also seen sound effects and careful word order to emphasise this: (i) repeated u sounds (the cry) (ii) assonance in etiam… umbram… Creusam… nequiquam (iii) clamore enclosed in implevi… vias (iv) echo in quaerenti… ruenti (771). But the cry is nequiquam – in vain; Aeneas is maestus (grieving). All of this very much designed to get the audience sympathy for Aeneas (N.B. he is the one who is giving this account at Dido’s banquet).
771: his search is sine fine – without end – as he quaerenti (seeks) and ruenti (rushes).
772-774: the ghost of Creusa is a simulacrum (phantom), umbra (ghost) and imago (spectre). All of these terms describe the same thing – Creusa herself appearing as a ghost. The use of different words for the same thing (tautology?) is there to emphasise that (i) this is real and (ii) this is of divine origin. Point (ii) is also emphasised by the description of the imago as nota maior (larger than I knew – i.e. larger than life). Why is the phantom infelix?
774: Aeneas’ reaction is traditional: he obstupui (is stupefied) his hair stands on end (steternunt comae) and his voice sticks in his throat (i.e. he can’t speak) (vox faucibus haesit). Note also the elision comae et which helps to convey the breathlessness of Aeneas’ reaction.
775: Creusa addresses Aeneas and removes his concern. Note how her words differ from when she was pleading with him earlier not to go out and fight, just before the divine portents appeared.
776: Creusa addresses him as sweet husband (dulcis coniunx) – touching, and a sign of her love for him – but at the same time ironic, as she is about to tell him that he must go without her (and that effectively therefore she will no longer be his wife). She asks him the rhetorical question what use it is to grieve – and the grief is described as insano – mad. Grief like Aeneas feels is natural, not mad. Yet she is about to re-emphasise the will of the gods and the divine mission, and in that context grief at her loss is mad. These things have not happened without the will of the gods (non haec sine numine divum eveniunt) – assurance that it is all part of the divine plan. Aeneas has been slow to grasp the divine plan in Aeneid 2 since it was first revealed to him by Hector, and Creusa here is effectively repeating what Hector told him – for emphasis perhaps so that we are fully aware of the trials to come, but also the success (Rome in all her glory) which will follow from them. It is not right (fas) for him to take Creusa from here, and Jupiter (regnator Olympi) does not allow it – again effectively tautology for emphasis.
780: his exile will be long – exsilia, by which she is referring to the extensive travelling before he can found a new home, having left the old one – as the next phrase makes clear – he has to plough (arandum) the vast ocean of the sea (vastum maris aequor). Note the metaphor from the land – ploughing (cf arva below). vastum gives the impression not only of size, but also of desolation; maris and aequor mean the same – again tautology for emphasis.
781-2: Hesperia literally means western land, and was commonly applied to Italy. This is the first indication of the new settlement which Hector’s ghost had prophesied (294-5). The Tiber (Thybris) the river on which Rome stands is Lydian because much of its course flowed through the land of the Etruscans, who were thought to have originated in Lydia in Asia Minor. Virgil may here be displaying his erudition (as Roman poets often did, and dropping clues that their educated readers would understand). virum has been variously interpreted. It may refer to the fact that the land is already peopled by Italians (who would make an important contribution to the future race of Rome), or there may be something more subtle and politically charged. Virgil may mean the old yeoman farmers each owning his own farm, rather than the large latufundia worked by large gangs of slaves which were prevalent in his own day. Virgil always demonstrates a strong love of the country, and under Augustus much was made of a return to traditional values. Virgil may be suggesting that Rome’s renewed greatness will be associated with the return to small landowners. arva are literally lands which are ploughed rather than pasture land.
783-4: Creusa assures Aeneas that there will be happy things there (res laetae) together with a kingdom (regnum) and a royal wife (regia coniunx) – this will be Lavinia; it is this wife who assures Aeneas that he will get another one, and tells him to banish his tears for his beloved Creusa (lacrimas dilectae pelle Creusae). Note Creusae gains emphasis from being the last word in the sentence and the line. illic is significant in a later context – Dido will offer to share her kingdom with him and will regard them as married and enjoying happy things in Carthage.
Some see sound effects in the above lines: predomination of ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘y’ and ‘ae’ recur; vastum, arandum, virum, regnum, res, regia all have repeated sounds too.
785-6: Myrmidons were Achilles’ special soldiers, and the Dolopians, also from Thessaly were specially associated with Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. There is no special significance to these groups, who are representative of Greeks in general. The point is that Creusa will not be enslaved (servitum) by them or by Greek mothers (Grais matribus), which was the normal fate of women in a defeated land. Creusa herself has expressed her concern about this earlier (677-678) (c.f. Andromache in Iliad 6).
787-788: having assured Aeneas that these consequences will not follow, she explains what will happen. Dardanis means a woman in the line of Dardanus, who was the founder of Troy; Creusa was the daughter of Priam whose ancestor was Dardanus. It is emphasized by its position at the beginning of the line, and contrasts with the slavery in the previous two lines: ‘I am a true Trojan noble woman’. Not only is she that, but she is also the nurus (daughter in law) of the goddess Venus (divae Veneris) – Aeneas is the son of Venus. Note how this line emphasizes the stature of Creusa. magna deum genetrix (the great mother of the gods) is Cybele who was worshipped on Mount Ida and particularly associated with Troy, and she is keeping Creusa there.
789: a line of great pathos: the final goodbye (vale) from Creusa and her last words to Aeneas to cherish (serva) the love (amorem) of their common (communis) son (nati). communis lays stress on the joint nature of the son, and yet from now on he will only have his father as Creusa is left in Troy.
790-1: note that lacrimantem and volentem refer to Aeneas, not Creusa. He is weeping (lacrimantem) and he wants to say much (volentem dicere) but he cannot – she has the last word. She deseruit (deserted) him now, though he in a sense has deserted her.
792-3: these two are balanced with each beginning ter (three times); in 792 he tries three times to put his arms around Creusa’s neck; in 793 three times in vain (ter frustra), and at the end of the line what fled was the imago (image). NOTE that 793 is not in the prescription.
Translation
What is more I dared to cry out through the darkness, I filled the streets with shouting, and grieving repeating Creusa in vain I called again and again. As I sought and rushed through the buildings of the city without end, the phantom and the unlucky ghost of Creusa herself appeared before my eyes and a spectre larger than the one I knew. I was stupefied, my hair stood on end and my voice stuck in my throat. Then in this way she spoke and removed my concern with these words. ‘Sweet husband, what help is it to indulge so much in an insane grief? These things have not happened without the power of the gods; right does not (allow) you to take Creusa from here as a companion, nor does he, the ruler of Olympus above allow it. There is a long exile for you and a vast expanse of the sea to be ploughed, and you will come to Italy where the Lydian Tiber flows with gentle course through the fertile fields of men. There happy things and a kingdom and a royal wife are secured for you; drive away your tears for your beloved Creusa. I shall not see the proud homes of the Myrmidons or Dolopes or go to be a slave to Greek mothers, a woman of the line of Dardanus and daughter in law of Venus. But the great mother of the gods will detain me on these shores. And now goodbye, and guard the love of our common son.’ When she had said these things, she deserted me, as I was weeping and wanting to say much, and she receded into the tender breezes. Three times there I tried to put my arms around her neck; (792)
{three times the ghost fled, grasped in vain by my hands}.
Commentary
Aeneas has been looking for Creusa in the preceding passage (which you do not have to know). The passage at 768 opens as Aeneas is still frantically looking for Creusa.
768-770: note the stress on the calling out which he dared (ausus 768) to do – risky because the Greeks are occupying the city. voces iactare = cry out, implevi clamore (I filled with shouting) ingeminans (repeating), vocavi (I called) iterumque iterumque (again and again). Note the repeated que to emphasise the repetition, as well as the repeated iterum. Commentators have also seen sound effects and careful word order to emphasise this: (i) repeated u sounds (the cry) (ii) assonance in etiam… umbram… Creusam… nequiquam (iii) clamore enclosed in implevi… vias (iv) echo in quaerenti… ruenti (771). But the cry is nequiquam – in vain; Aeneas is maestus (grieving). All of this very much designed to get the audience sympathy for Aeneas (N.B. he is the one who is giving this account at Dido’s banquet).
771: his search is sine fine – without end – as he quaerenti (seeks) and ruenti (rushes).
772-774: the ghost of Creusa is a simulacrum (phantom), umbra (ghost) and imago (spectre). All of these terms describe the same thing – Creusa herself appearing as a ghost. The use of different words for the same thing (tautology?) is there to emphasise that (i) this is real and (ii) this is of divine origin. Point (ii) is also emphasised by the description of the imago as nota maior (larger than I knew – i.e. larger than life). Why is the phantom infelix?
774: Aeneas’ reaction is traditional: he obstupui (is stupefied) his hair stands on end (steternunt comae) and his voice sticks in his throat (i.e. he can’t speak) (vox faucibus haesit). Note also the elision comae et which helps to convey the breathlessness of Aeneas’ reaction.
775: Creusa addresses Aeneas and removes his concern. Note how her words differ from when she was pleading with him earlier not to go out and fight, just before the divine portents appeared.
776: Creusa addresses him as sweet husband (dulcis coniunx) – touching, and a sign of her love for him – but at the same time ironic, as she is about to tell him that he must go without her (and that effectively therefore she will no longer be his wife). She asks him the rhetorical question what use it is to grieve – and the grief is described as insano – mad. Grief like Aeneas feels is natural, not mad. Yet she is about to re-emphasise the will of the gods and the divine mission, and in that context grief at her loss is mad. These things have not happened without the will of the gods (non haec sine numine divum eveniunt) – assurance that it is all part of the divine plan. Aeneas has been slow to grasp the divine plan in Aeneid 2 since it was first revealed to him by Hector, and Creusa here is effectively repeating what Hector told him – for emphasis perhaps so that we are fully aware of the trials to come, but also the success (Rome in all her glory) which will follow from them. It is not right (fas) for him to take Creusa from here, and Jupiter (regnator Olympi) does not allow it – again effectively tautology for emphasis.
780: his exile will be long – exsilia, by which she is referring to the extensive travelling before he can found a new home, having left the old one – as the next phrase makes clear – he has to plough (arandum) the vast ocean of the sea (vastum maris aequor). Note the metaphor from the land – ploughing (cf arva below). vastum gives the impression not only of size, but also of desolation; maris and aequor mean the same – again tautology for emphasis.
781-2: Hesperia literally means western land, and was commonly applied to Italy. This is the first indication of the new settlement which Hector’s ghost had prophesied (294-5). The Tiber (Thybris) the river on which Rome stands is Lydian because much of its course flowed through the land of the Etruscans, who were thought to have originated in Lydia in Asia Minor. Virgil may here be displaying his erudition (as Roman poets often did, and dropping clues that their educated readers would understand). virum has been variously interpreted. It may refer to the fact that the land is already peopled by Italians (who would make an important contribution to the future race of Rome), or there may be something more subtle and politically charged. Virgil may mean the old yeoman farmers each owning his own farm, rather than the large latufundia worked by large gangs of slaves which were prevalent in his own day. Virgil always demonstrates a strong love of the country, and under Augustus much was made of a return to traditional values. Virgil may be suggesting that Rome’s renewed greatness will be associated with the return to small landowners. arva are literally lands which are ploughed rather than pasture land.
783-4: Creusa assures Aeneas that there will be happy things there (res laetae) together with a kingdom (regnum) and a royal wife (regia coniunx) – this will be Lavinia; it is this wife who assures Aeneas that he will get another one, and tells him to banish his tears for his beloved Creusa (lacrimas dilectae pelle Creusae). Note Creusae gains emphasis from being the last word in the sentence and the line. illic is significant in a later context – Dido will offer to share her kingdom with him and will regard them as married and enjoying happy things in Carthage.
Some see sound effects in the above lines: predomination of ‘l’, ‘i’, ‘y’ and ‘ae’ recur; vastum, arandum, virum, regnum, res, regia all have repeated sounds too.
785-6: Myrmidons were Achilles’ special soldiers, and the Dolopians, also from Thessaly were specially associated with Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. There is no special significance to these groups, who are representative of Greeks in general. The point is that Creusa will not be enslaved (servitum) by them or by Greek mothers (Grais matribus), which was the normal fate of women in a defeated land. Creusa herself has expressed her concern about this earlier (677-678) (c.f. Andromache in Iliad 6).
787-788: having assured Aeneas that these consequences will not follow, she explains what will happen. Dardanis means a woman in the line of Dardanus, who was the founder of Troy; Creusa was the daughter of Priam whose ancestor was Dardanus. It is emphasized by its position at the beginning of the line, and contrasts with the slavery in the previous two lines: ‘I am a true Trojan noble woman’. Not only is she that, but she is also the nurus (daughter in law) of the goddess Venus (divae Veneris) – Aeneas is the son of Venus. Note how this line emphasizes the stature of Creusa. magna deum genetrix (the great mother of the gods) is Cybele who was worshipped on Mount Ida and particularly associated with Troy, and she is keeping Creusa there.
789: a line of great pathos: the final goodbye (vale) from Creusa and her last words to Aeneas to cherish (serva) the love (amorem) of their common (communis) son (nati). communis lays stress on the joint nature of the son, and yet from now on he will only have his father as Creusa is left in Troy.
790-1: note that lacrimantem and volentem refer to Aeneas, not Creusa. He is weeping (lacrimantem) and he wants to say much (volentem dicere) but he cannot – she has the last word. She deseruit (deserted) him now, though he in a sense has deserted her.
792-3: these two are balanced with each beginning ter (three times); in 792 he tries three times to put his arms around Creusa’s neck; in 793 three times in vain (ter frustra), and at the end of the line what fled was the imago (image). NOTE that 793 is not in the prescription.
You might want to copy those onto a Word document and format them to make them a bit easier to read, but that's all the information I think you will need.
In terms of advice for the actual exam, in the ten markers, just write a detailed paragraph on each point given and remember to quote from the Latin. Good luck!
In terms of advice for the actual exam, in the ten markers, just write a detailed paragraph on each point given and remember to quote from the Latin. Good luck!
Original post by 117r
You might want to copy those onto a Word document and format them to make them a bit easier to read, but that's all the information I think you will need.
In terms of advice for the actual exam, in the ten markers, just write a detailed paragraph on each point given and remember to quote from the Latin. Good luck!
In terms of advice for the actual exam, in the ten markers, just write a detailed paragraph on each point given and remember to quote from the Latin. Good luck!
You are a beautiful, beautiful person, you have no idea how much I appreciate this, my teacher hasn't taught us anything,she just told us to learn it all of by heart! You have saved my skin!
Original post by kiiran
Did he descend from the sky or heaven or sumthing? I completely guessed that one.
the roof
either the roof his house or the roof of the citadel, so I just put it as 'the roof' lol :P
Hey guys,
Did anyone do section a and see that 'otium' question
the options were depression, fear, anger and over-excitement, but I'm sure it meant idleness.
All the translating websites and translations of Catullus 51 say the same.
Do you think it was one of those mistakes?
Did anyone do section a and see that 'otium' question
the options were depression, fear, anger and over-excitement, but I'm sure it meant idleness.
All the translating websites and translations of Catullus 51 say the same.
Do you think it was one of those mistakes?
Re OTIUM question:
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
Original post by gandalfsyoungerbro
Re OTIUM question:
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
I know that question was very strange - apparently it was over-excitement so i'm really annoyed because i changed it from that to depression in the last minute!!!!
Original post by gcsejitters
Hey guys,
Did anyone do section a and see that 'otium' question
the options were depression, fear, anger and over-excitement, but I'm sure it meant idleness.
All the translating websites and translations of Catullus 51 say the same.
Do you think it was one of those mistakes?
Did anyone do section a and see that 'otium' question
the options were depression, fear, anger and over-excitement, but I'm sure it meant idleness.
All the translating websites and translations of Catullus 51 say the same.
Do you think it was one of those mistakes?
Original post by gandalfsyoungerbro
Re OTIUM question:
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
Yes I wondered like what is another word for "leisure"/" idleness" out of the four given.
Blimay I still can't get my head round it. They were definitely the four choices I think but maybe my mind is at fault.
Are there any latin boffs /experts (other than me, he, he) who would kindly help us out here please?
I am inclined to think that the question itself was a mistake, but if the answer must be one of those four, "over-excitement" would have been the choice to go with, because "otium" can be interpreted as a description of the lifestyle of someone like Catullus when they are intoxicated by love. At any rate, I put down "over-excitement" - "otium" certainly does not mean "fear" or "anger", although perhaps OCR were looking for "depression", but that requires a negative slant on "otium" which is not strictly correct (but perhaps this is what they wanted because Catullus might have been alluding towards depression).
However, if (as I personally think) the question was a mistake, then it obviously won't make any difference what the real translation of "otium" is, so the answer could well end up being "fear" or "anger".
Thanks Gamegod and missbb for the replies.
It's really bugging me. I remember learning the translation and it was "idleness". I asked my teacher and essentially she "looked through me" and said in all honesty she would have to research what answer it is too - she only got back today so I collared her as soon as I saw her walk through the hall.
I've looked up "otium" on the web and neither "over-excitement or depression" seems anywhere close. That said I accept your explanation Gamegod but I think I could make a case to make each of the words acceptable answers, I personally believe the question is misleading, frustrating and irritating to all those who have studied hard to do their best. Translations I 've looked at - and most have been around for many years- mention none of the four words or even remotely "allude."
I just need to know and I will accept because I thought the word was idleness and had great difficulty selecting a word to match. After all you can be idle and happy, idle and depressed, idle and over excited, idle and fearful.......
Sorry to go on but...
Does anybody know when we could get the OCR view of the answer they expected?
It's really bugging me. I remember learning the translation and it was "idleness". I asked my teacher and essentially she "looked through me" and said in all honesty she would have to research what answer it is too - she only got back today so I collared her as soon as I saw her walk through the hall.
I've looked up "otium" on the web and neither "over-excitement or depression" seems anywhere close. That said I accept your explanation Gamegod but I think I could make a case to make each of the words acceptable answers, I personally believe the question is misleading, frustrating and irritating to all those who have studied hard to do their best. Translations I 've looked at - and most have been around for many years- mention none of the four words or even remotely "allude."
I just need to know and I will accept because I thought the word was idleness and had great difficulty selecting a word to match. After all you can be idle and happy, idle and depressed, idle and over excited, idle and fearful.......
Sorry to go on but...
Does anybody know when we could get the OCR view of the answer they expected?
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by gandalfsyoungerbro
Thanks Gamegod and missbb for the replies.
It's really bugging me. I remember learning the translation and it was "idleness". I asked my teacher and essentially she "looked through me" and said in all honesty she would have to research what answer it is too - she only got back today so I collared her as soon as I saw her walk through the hall.
I've looked up "otium" on the web and neither "over-excitement or depression" seems anywhere close. That said I accept your explanation Gamegod but I think I could make a case to make each of the words acceptable answers, I personally believe the question is misleading, frustrating and irritating to all those who have studied hard to do their best. Translations I 've looked at - and most have been around for many years- mention none of the four words or even remotely "allude."
I just need to know and I will accept because I thought the word was idleness and had great difficulty selecting a word to match. After all you can be idle and happy, idle and depressed, idle and over excited, idle and fearful.......
Sorry to go on but...
Does anybody know when we could get the OCR view of the answer they expected?
It's really bugging me. I remember learning the translation and it was "idleness". I asked my teacher and essentially she "looked through me" and said in all honesty she would have to research what answer it is too - she only got back today so I collared her as soon as I saw her walk through the hall.
I've looked up "otium" on the web and neither "over-excitement or depression" seems anywhere close. That said I accept your explanation Gamegod but I think I could make a case to make each of the words acceptable answers, I personally believe the question is misleading, frustrating and irritating to all those who have studied hard to do their best. Translations I 've looked at - and most have been around for many years- mention none of the four words or even remotely "allude."
I just need to know and I will accept because I thought the word was idleness and had great difficulty selecting a word to match. After all you can be idle and happy, idle and depressed, idle and over excited, idle and fearful.......
Sorry to go on but...
Does anybody know when we could get the OCR view of the answer they expected?
OCR has now admitted that it was a mistake. I am aware that a case could be made for any meaning of "otium" listed there, but I felt that the strongest case could be made for "over-excited", followed closely by "depression", with "fear" and "anger" a long way back. I assume that they will basically mark the paper with one less mark in it.
Original post by GameGod
OCR has now admitted that it was a mistake. I am aware that a case could be made for any meaning of "otium" listed there, but I felt that the strongest case could be made for "over-excited", followed closely by "depression", with "fear" and "anger" a long way back. I assume that they will basically mark the paper with one less mark in it.
Thanks Gamegod,
Just one final question when you say ocr said it is a mistake where have you found this out please ?
I am grateful to you but would appreciate your source and I will go and tell the others (at school) tomorrow.
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