Scripta+7+Latin+1+2015

Salvete, discipuli. Est pagina VII, nova et de condita Italiae.

4/7

imperium sine fine: empire without end ; this is what is promised to Aeneas and his descendants ( descendents? nescio)

nostrum mare: our sea ; how the Romans referred to the Mediterranean Sea; it is a revealing phrase, no?

imperial: that which pertains to an empire or emperor marine: pertaining to the sea

Aeneas is tired, and sad. He has a lot on his shoulders, so, his mother, Venus and Juno, who hates him with a passion, devise a plot to delay him...Venus wants him to rest, and Junowants to create misery. They collude to make Aeneas go to Africa. Why does Juno hate him? Because Carthage, a rich trading nation in Northern Africa( modern day Tunisa) was her very favorite place, and she knew that the nation that Aeneas was destined to establish ( i.e. the Romans) would one day destroy that nation. And, she is ticked off at the Trojans in general because Paris did not pick her for the beauty contest...talk about holding a grudge. So, no founding of the new nation, no destruction of Carthage. Roman ruins in Carthage Map Modern day Tunisa Tunisa on a #|map

[|tunisia] [|tunisia travel video] 4/11

ad captandum vulgus: for the purpose of capturing the crowd/mob; frequently used by politicians, an argument designed to please the crowd.

advocatus diaboli: the devil's advocate; Someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily #|agree with, for the sake of argument.

vulgar; base; common in the sense of crude ( that of the mob)

diabolical: devilish

To stop Aeneas' journey, Juno enlists King Aeolus, the keeper of the winds to unleash the winds from their cave, and crash Aeneas's ships, driving him ashore in none other than Carthage.She bribes him with the promise of a sea nymph for a bride. Francoise Bocher King Aeolus Juno Asking Aeolus to Unleash the Winds

Aeneas remains unaware of the divine ( one might even say diabolical!) machinations that steer his course. While he is in the woods, Venus appears to him in disguise and relates how Dido, aka Elissa, came to be queen of Carthage.

4/21

affidavit = "he swears to"declaration upon oath; a formal sworn statement of fact

in flagrante delicto ="in the blazing crime" in the progressing offence or misdeed: caught in the act of committing an offence: caught red-handed

flagrant: blazingly obvious conflagration: a gigantic fire

Dido was a widow. Her husband, Sychaeus, was murdered by her brother Pygmalion who was motivated by greed. They had lived in t Phoenicia. Phoenicia was an ancient civilization comprised of independent city-states which lay along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretching through what is now Syria, Lebannon and northern Israel. The Phoenicians were a great maritime people. They were great shipbuilders and reknown for making purple dye. They are also given #|credit for creating the Western alphabet, which is pretty important. metropolitian museum phoenician stuff



http://www.ancient.eu.com/phoenicia/

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4/18 ignorantia legis neminem excusat: ignorance of the law excuses no one; a legal premise

ad litem: "to the lawsuit"; for the express purpose of the lawsuit...a guardian ad litem

ignoramus: an ignorant or stupid person litigation: a lawsuit

Back to Africa: So, Aeneas heads out with his faithful companion, Achates. They go to the city, where they marvel at Dido's growing lovely city. Dido had obtained the land form a local African king, Iarbas, and she proved herself a shrewd businesswoman in the process.engineering an empire/carthage They go into a temple, and they see pictures of Troy, and they realize that these people are sympathetic to their plight. They meet some Carthaginians who take them to Dido, who is quite taken with Aeneas, and she invites him and his compadres to a banquet. Her sister, Anna, is very excited and encouraged by the arrival of these people, and she encourages her sister to feel the same way. Meanwhile, Cupid, Venus' son disguises himself as Ascanius, and goes along to work his magic.

4/20 agnosco veteris vestigia flammae: I recognize the tracks of the old flame ( Dido begins to fall in love...like she loved Sychaeus, her dead husband)

Fama volat: Rumor flies agnosticism: is the view that the existence or non-existence of any deity is unknown and possibly unknowable; RECOGNITION of the possibility either way infamous: disgraceful Ascanius/Iulus ( note the Iulius/Julius connection) is Aeneas's young son. Venus disguises Cupid as Ascanius and sends him to this banguet where he shoots Dido with an arrow to make her fall in love with Aeneas. She is then described thus:

Stung to misery, Dido wanders in frenzy all down the city, even as an arrow-stricken deer, whom, far and heedless amid the Cretan woodland, a shepherd archer has pierced and left the flying steel in her unaware; she ranges in flight the Dictaean forest lawns; fast in her side clings the deadly reed.( Bk 4Aeneid)

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let's have a moment of metaphorical musing: In this metaphor: 1) Who is the deer? How does that characterize this person( i.e. when you think of a deer being shot, as opposed to say a grizzly bear, what is the image in your head? What kind of animal is a deer and what does that tell us about this character? ) 2) Who is the shepherd archer? The obvious answer is Cupid, but I don't think so. 3) Whom does the poet describe as "unaware" ? What does that reveal? 4) What is the "flying steel"? 5) What is the "deadly reed" and why is it "deadly"? What does this tell us about the fate of this character?

Poor Dido. She and Aeneas go hunting, and wouldn't you know it they get separated from everyone else and a storm comes up, (hmmm...who could be behind that? I think I detect Venus and Juno, throwing Dido under the proverbial bus) driving them into a cave, all alone, in the dark...one thing leads to another....media type="file" key="11 - Lets Get It On.mp3" width="240" height="20" I think you all know to what I am referring. Poor Dido, she thinks this is a commitment, a marriage, but, Aeneas not so much. media type="file" key="01 - Will You Love Me Tomorrow.mp3" width="240" height="20" Don't misunderstand, he has genuine love and affection for Dido, but his fate is not to be with her. It would have been nice if someone would have let her in on that little tidbit. But no... Fama volat. Fama is rumor/gossip incarnate in a hideous monster: Rumour raced at once through Libya’s great cities, Rumour, compared with whom no other is as swift. She flourishes by speed, and gains strength as she goes: first limited by fear, she soon reaches into the sky, walks on the ground, and hides her head in the clouds. Earth, incited to anger against the gods, so they say, bore her last, a monster, vast and terrible, fleet-winged and swift-footed, sister to Coeus and Enceladus, who for every feather on her body has as many watchful eyes below (marvellous to tell), as many tongues speaking, as many listening ears. She flies, screeching, by night through the shadows between earth and sky, never closing her eyelids in sweet sleep: by day she sits on guard on tall roof-tops or high towers, and scares great cities, as tenacious of lies and evil, as she is messenger of truth. Now in delight she filled the ears of the nations with endless gossip, singing fact and fiction alike: Aeneas has come, born of Trojan blood, a man whom lovely Dido deigns to unite with: now they’re spending the whole winter together in indulgence, forgetting their royalty, trapped by shameless passion. The vile goddess spread this here and there on men’s lips. Immediately she slanted her course towards King Iarbas and inflamed his mind with words and fuelled his anger. [|http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidIV.htm#_Toc342021]

King Iarbus is a son of Jupiter Ammon ( Ammon is an African god, hence the name in Africa). He had courted Dido, and she had rejected him. And now, here is that Trojan upstart, sleeping with her, and everyone knows it! So, he prays to his father, which draws Jupiter's attention to the situation in Carthage, and the fact that Aeneas is not, in fact,moving toward Italy.

4/22

attonitus tanto monitu imperioque deorum: astonished by such a warning and the command of the gods ; Aeneas when Mercury comes to deliver Jupiter's message

varium et mutabile semper femina: a woman is always fickle and changeable: so warns Mercury about Dido

astonished: thunderstruck; dumbfounded mutable: able to be changed easily

So, Jupiter sends Mercury, the messenger god, to do his bidding. Aeneas needs to get on the road, sooner rather than later. Mercury flies down from Olympus and finds Aeneas hard at work building Dido'd kingdom:

Mercury challenged him at once: “For love of a wife are you now building the foundations of high Carthage and a pleasing city? Alas, forgetful of your kingdom and fate! The king of the gods himself, who bends heaven and earth to his will, has sent me down to you from bright Olympus: he commanded me himself to carry these words through the swift breezes. What do you plan? With what hopes do you waste idle hours in Libya’s lands? If you’re not stirred by the glory of destiny, and won’t exert yourself for your own fame, think of your growing Ascanius, and the expectations of him, as Iulus your heir, to whom will be owed the kingdom of Italy, and the Roman lands.”

Aeneas, stupefied at the vision, was struck dumb, and his hair rose in terror, and his voice stuck in his throat. He was eager to be gone, in flight, and leave that sweet land, shocked by the warning and the divine command. Alas! What to do? With what speech dare he tackle the love-sick queen? What opening words should he choose? And he cast his mind back and forth swiftly, considered the issue from every aspect, and turned it every way.

#|Mercury Visits Aeneas Tiepolo But, as we have discussed...who can deceive a lover( (quis fallere possit amantem?)?  Dido senses that something is up, and she confronts him, and it ends really, really badly. They have a big fight, and she accuses him of being faithless and not loving her and reminds him that she has put all her eggs in his basket, so to speak, and he is dropping the basket! Either her brother will kill her, or Iarbus will take her prisoner, or some other African king whom she has offended by choosing Aeneas...what about her?!  Aeneas tries to defend himself, and says that he does not leave because he wants to, but because the gods compel him to. She thinks this is total and complete excrement, and tells him so. She curses him, and becomes so distraught that she is carried away in a sobbing heap by her slaves.  She then begins to plot her suicide. As Aeneas' ships prepare to sail, she tells her sister, Anna, to gather Aeneas" things, that she is going to burn them to rid her home of his presence. Her sister is relieved, and takes this as a sign that Dido is going to be all right. Au contraire, Dido is building her own pyre. As the ships sail, she leaps on the pyre and stabs herself, begging for an avenger to rise from her blood to avenge her:

Then, O Tyrians, pursue my hatred against his whole line and the race to come, and offer it as a tribute to my ashes. Let there be no love or treaties between our peoples. Rise, some unknown avenger, from my dust, who will pursue the Trojan colonists with fire and sword, now, or in time to come, whenever the strength is granted him. I pray that shore be opposed to shore, water to wave, weapon to weapon: let them fight, them and their descendants.” []

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This avenger is said to be Hannibal, the great African general who invaded Italy and terrorized Rome for years and years and years in the Punic Wars. And this is the legendary cause for the hostility between the nations ( Rome and Carthage). []

4/26

dono divum( divorum) gratissima: the most pleasing gift of the gods ( sleep)

Possunt, quia posse videntur: They can because they think they can. []

divine: of the gods ( god) donate: to make a gift; to give

So, the Trojans leave Africa, and a storm comes up ( of course) and drives them to the island of Sicily, to the exact spot where they had buried Anchises the year before ( btw...he died). They have funeral games for Anchises which are described in book 5. While they are on Sicily, Juno further harasses Aeneas by sending Iris;the goddess of the rainbow and Juno's messenger ( she was the one who realeased Dido's soul, mercifully) to rile up the Trojan refugees who were women ( and there are not a lot of them). She desguises herself as one of them, and talls them that Cassandra appeared to her in a dream and told them to burn the ships, so they light them on fire. Aeneas is beside himself. He prays to Jupiter to either strike him dead, or put the fires. Jupiter sends a storm and the rain quenches the fires. All but four ships are saved. After this disturbing incident, Aeneas is confused about what to do. Nantes, a wise old Trojan, suggests that they should leave behind in Sicily the number of people the burned ships would have carried. They can leave the women and the old, who can found a new city in Sicily. Aeneas isn't sure about this, but then, in the sky, he sees an image of Anchises. The image tells him to follow Nantes's plan. It says that a difficult war awaits them in Italy, meaning they should take only their toughest warriors. Also, it says that, upon arriving in Italy, he will first have to visit the Underworld, where he will learn the future of his people. He will also see his father's spirit, which is in Elysium, the abode of the blessed, not Tartarus, the black pit where the souls of evil men go. At this point, Venus, who has been watching everything, turns to Neptune and asks that Aeneas be granted safe passage to Italy. Neptune says that Aeneas will get there safely, only losing one man. Then he calms the sea. That night, after a day of calm sailing, the rowers are relaxing on their benches. Palinurus, the pilot, is still awake, making sure everything is running smoothly. Then, all of a sudden, Somnus, the god of sleep( Greek: Hypnos), descends from the heavens and takes the form of Phorbas, another Trojan. In this disguise, he tries to convince Palinurus to go to sleep. Palinurus says, "No way, I've got to keep my eyes on the road. It's pretty wet, after all." But then the god shakes some dew off the magical bough he carries in his hand. This dew, from the River Lethe in the Underworld, makes Palinurus incredibly sleepy. Finally, Palinurus tumbles overboard, breaking off a piece of the stern and rudder and taking them with him. He calls for help but no one hears him. The ship sails on, and a little while later is passing by the rocks where the Sirens hang out. Aeneas hears the surf breaking off the rocks, and takes the helm. Somnus Jean Bernard Restout 4/28

facilis descensus Averno: the descent to Hell is easy ; // The gates of hell are open night and day; // // Smooth the descent, and easy is the // // way: // // But to return, and view the cheerful skies, // //In this the task and mighty labor lies//.( John Dryden's trans.) []

parcere subiectis et debellare superbos: to spare the conquered, and subdue the proud

facilitate: to make easier(facilis)

subject: one thrown under ( sub+iacio) the Queen's subjects; to throw one under ; do not subject me to this misery

Aeneas must descend to the Underworld. This is symbolic of the conquest of death, and is part of the heroic cycle.
Jan Brueger At the opening of Book VI, Aeneas docks on the coast of Cumae in search of the Sibyl of Cumae, Deiphobe, who will act as his guide in the Underworld. Upon locating the sibyl in her grotto, Aeneas is ordered to sacrifice seven steers. He does so and promises Deiphobe that if the fates allow him to build a city in Italy, he will raise a temple to Apollo and Diana. Finally, the sibyl, possessed by Apollo, makes a prophecy: she tells Aeneas that he will reach the kingdom he seeks, but that the Trojans will suffer through a horrible war over a "foreign bride" (131), and he will have to confront a "new Achilles" (125).

// But the prophetess, not yet brooking the sway of Phoebus, storms wildly in the cavern, if so she may shake the mighty god from her breast; so much the more he tires her raving mouth, tames her wild heart, and moulds her by constraint. And now the hundred mighty mouths of the house have opened of their own will, and bring through the air the seer’s reply: “O you that have at length survived the great perils of the sea – yet by land more grievous woes lie in wait – into the realm of Lavinium the sons of Dardanus shall come, relieve your heart of this care. Yet they shall not also rejoice in their coming. Wars, grim wars I see, and the Tiber foaming with streams of blood. You will not lack a Simois, nor a Xanthus, nor a Doric camp. Even now in Latium a new Achilles has been born, himself a goddess’s son; nor shall Juno anywhere fail to dog the Trojans, while you, a suppliant in your need, what races, what cities of Italy will you not implore! The cause of all this Trojan woe is again an alien bride, again a foreign marriage! . . . Yield not to ills, but go forth all the bolder to face them as far as your destiny will allow! The road to safety, little though you think it, shall first issue from a Grecian city.” //

// [98] In these words the Cumaean Sibyl chants from the shrine her dread enigmas and booms from the cavern, wrapping truth in darkness – so does Apollo shake his reins as she rages, and ply the goad beneath her breast. // http://www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilAeneid6.html

Nearby are the Fields of Mourning, where those who died for love or suicides wander. There, Aeneas sees Dido. Surprised and saddened, he speaks to her, with some regret, claiming that he left her not of his own will. The shade of the dead queen turns away from him toward the shade of her husband, Sychaeus, and Aeneas sheds tears of pity.

// Among them, with wound still fresh, Phoenician Dido was wandering in the great forest, and soon as the Trojan hero stood near and knew her, a dim form amid the shadows – even as, in the early month, one sees or fancies he has seen the moon rise amid the clouds – he shed tears, and spoke to her in tender love: “Unhappy Dido! Was the tale true then that came to me, that you were dead and had sought your doom with the sword? Was I, alas! the cause of your death? By the stars I swear, by the world above, and whatever is sacred in the grave below, unwillingly, queen, I parted from your shores. But the gods’ decrees, which now constrain me to pass through these shades, through lands squalid and forsaken, and through abysmal night, drove me with their behests; nor could I deem my going thence would bring on you distress so deep. Stay your step and withdraw not from our view. Whom do you flee? This is the last word Fate suffers me to say to you.” With these words amid springing tears Aeneas strove to soothe the wrath of the fiery, fierce-eyed queen. She, turning away, kept her looks fixed on the ground and no more changes her countenance as he essays to speak than if she were set in hard flint or Marpesian rock. At length she flung herself away and, still his foe, fled back to the shady grove, where Sychaeus, her lord of former days, responds to her sorrows and gives her love for love. Yet none the less, stricken by her unjust doom, Aeneas attends her with tears afar and pities her as she goes. //

Aeneas continues to the field of war heroes, where he sees many casualties of the Trojan War. The Greeks flee at first sight of him. The Sibyl urges Aeneas onward, and they pass an enormous fortress. Inside the fortress, Rhadamanthus doles out judgments upon the most evil of sinners, and terrible tortures are carried out. Finally, Aeneas and the Sibyl come to the Blessed Groves, where the good wander about in peace and comfort. At last, Aeneas sees his father. Anchises greets him warmly and congratulates him on having made the difficult journey. He gladly answers some of Aeneas’s many questions, regarding such issues as how the dead are dispersed in Dis and how good souls can eventually reach the Fields of Gladness. But with little time at hand, Anchises presses on to the reason for Aeneas’s journey to the underworld—the explication of his lineage in Italy. Anchises describes what will become of the Trojan descendants: Romulus will found Rome, a Caesar will eventually come from the line of Ascanius, and Rome will reach a Golden Age of rule over the world. Finally, Aeneas grasps the profound significance of his long journey to Italy. Anchises accompanies Aeneas out of Dis, and Aeneas returns to his comrades on the beach. At once, they pull up anchor and move out along the coast. [] 5/2 errare humanum est: to err is human; we all make mistakes Dimidium facti qui coepit habet - Half is done when the beginning is done. (Horace)

err: to make a mistake inhumanity: lack of pity, compassion or feeling (as the ability to feel pity and compassion is what seperates us from the beasts)

Finally, finally, finally, Aeneas reaches the shores of Italy. Sailing up the coast of Italy, the Trojans reach the mouth of the Tiber River, near the kingdom of Latium. Virgil, invoking the muse once again to kick off the second half of his epic narrative, describes the political state of affairs in Latium. The king, Latinus, has a single daughter, Lavinia. She is pursued by many suitors, but the great warrior Turnus, lord of a nearby kingdom, appears most eligible for her hand. Worried by a prophet’s prediction that a foreign army will conquer the kingdom, Latinus consults the Oracle of Faunus. A strange voice from the oracle instructs the king that his daughter should marry a foreigner, not a Latin. Meanwhile, Aeneas and his captains are eating on the beach, with fruit spread out on flat, hard loaves of bread. They finish the fruit but are still hungry, so they eat the bread that they have used as tables. Ascanius notes with a laugh that they have indeed eaten their tables, thus fulfilling the Harpies’ curse in a manner less dire than anticipated. Aeneas recognizes that they have arrived at their promised land. The next day, he sends emissaries to King Latinus, requesting a share of the land for the foundation of a new city. Latinus offers territory as well as something extra—mindful of the oracle’s words, he suggests that Aeneas take the hand of Lavinia in matrimony. Latinus recognizes that accepting fate, even if it means that the Trojans will one day rule his kingdom, proves a safer course than resisting destiny.

5/4 viam aut inveniam aut faciam: Either I will find a way or I will make one; Hannibal dux bellorum: a leader of war; a warlord

Parabellum( parare+bellum): type of semi-automatic gun; also called a Luger; proprietary viaduct: a bridge for carrying a road, railroad, etc., over a valley or the like,consisting of a number of short spans.

Juno, however, still has not exhausted her anger against the Trojans. Unable to keep them from Italian shores forever, she vows at least to delay the foundation of their city and to cause them more suffering. She dispatches Allecto, one of the Furies, to Latium to rouse anger on the part of the natives against the Trojans. First, Allecto infects Queen Amata, Latinus’s wife, causing her to oppose the marriage of Lavinia and Aeneas. Virgil describes Allecto’s rousing of Amata’s anger with the metaphor of a snake that twists and winds itself around Amata’s body. Then Allecto approaches Turnus and inflames him with indignation at the idea of losing Lavinia and submitting to a Trojan king. []

Amata tossed and turned with womanly Anxiety and anger. Now [Allecto] Plucked one of the snakes, her gloomy tresses, And tossed it at the woman, sent it down Her bosom to her midriff and her heart, . . . Slipping between her gown and her smooth breasts . . . While the infection first, like dew of poison Fallen on her, pervaded all her senses, Netting her bones in fire. (VII. 474–490)

Snakes! 1. The snakes that ate Laocoon and his sons 2. Pyrrhus leaping into the inner sanctuary in pursuit of Polites whom he murdered in front of Priam, before he killed Priam; described as a renewed snake 3.Now here...Amata's anxiety and anger as a snake infecting her with poison