the origins of the Alban fathers. Now we remember that the Alban kings, like Augustus, are Julians, descended from Iulus. Juno’s last stipulation is the final cleansing of the bloodstock of the Trojans. Rome is to be made mighty by the manly virtue of Italy,
sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago
.
Vir
is the Latin for ‘man’, and
virtute
is the Latin for manly virtue (‘manly courage’ in the text, 827), so this blend of blood will finally erase all trace of Oriental effeminacy from the founders of Rome. ‘Troy has fallen. Let it lie, Troy and the name of Troy’ (828).
‘He who devised mankind and all the world smiled’, and, remarkably, he goes on to remind Juno of their double relationship, brother and sister, husband and wife. He accepts her stipulations and adds his own details. The language of the new people will not be Trojan, but Latin. The overtones of Jupiter’s formulation are important. Latin was superseding the native tongues of Italy as the
lingua franca
of commerce, law and government. When Jupiter says that Ausonia (an ancient name for Italy) will keep the tongue of its fathers, he is suggesting some sort of justification for Latin against the languages which it is supplanting all over Italy. Throughout this dialogue of the gods Virgil is making his legend more plausible by linking it to known contemporary facts.
Jupiter will also provide ritual and modes of worship, another ingenious element. At the fall of Troy, Aeneas had been given a solemn charge to establish the Trojan gods in a new city. But Virgil does not wish to argue that the gods of Augustan Rome came from the East. Nor does he want Aeneas to negotiate away the gods which were his sacred responsibility, and capitulate to the Latins in a matter of such central importance in the
Aeneid
. The ingenuity of Virgil’s solution to this problem lies in the factthat Aeneas capitulates not to any man but to Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans. No one could object to a religious ordinance imposed by Jupiter Best and Greatest. The discussion between Jupiter and Juno ends with his assurance that the Romans will surpass all men in piety and also all gods, a prophecy which is less astonishing than it seems, if we recollect that obedience to just authority is part of
pietas
, and that the gods have not always excelled in that virtue. In particular – his last assurance – no other race will be the equals of the Romans in doing honour to Juno.
Jupiter has the last word. Juno seems to have the last gesture. The Latin, like all Latin, is untranslatable, literally, ‘Rejoicing, she twisted back her mind’ (841). Juno then did in the end change her mind, but clearly, she found it a bitter-sweet experience. The domestic dispute is thus resolved. Turnus will be killed. Aeneas will marry Lavinia and found Lavinium, and world history will proceed according to the decisions of this humorous discussion between a god and his wife.
Divine machinery is an obsolete literary device, but it gives a great sweep of human interest to the
Aeneid
and as a dramatic representation of ordinary human relations and of the unpredictable in life, the place of justice in the world, the limits of human effort and understanding and the inscrutable splendour of the universe, it is not a bad model.
Further Reading
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SURVEY
P. Hardie,
Virgil
, New Surveys in the Classics 28 (Oxford University Press for the Classical Association, 1998)
INTRODUCTORY
W. S. Anderson,
The Art of the
Aeneid (reprinted Bristol Classical Press, 1994)
W. A. Camps,
An Introduction to Virgil’s
Aeneid (Oxford University Press, 1969)
K. W. Gransden,
Virgil’s
Iliad (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
J. Griffin,
Virgil
(Oxford University Press, 1986)
R. Jenkyns,
Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil
(Bristol Classical Press, 1992)
COMPANIONS
N. Horsfall (ed.),
A Companion to the Study of Virgil
(Brill, 1995)
C. Martindale (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Virgil
(Cambridge University
sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago
.
Vir
is the Latin for ‘man’, and
virtute
is the Latin for manly virtue (‘manly courage’ in the text, 827), so this blend of blood will finally erase all trace of Oriental effeminacy from the founders of Rome. ‘Troy has fallen. Let it lie, Troy and the name of Troy’ (828).
‘He who devised mankind and all the world smiled’, and, remarkably, he goes on to remind Juno of their double relationship, brother and sister, husband and wife. He accepts her stipulations and adds his own details. The language of the new people will not be Trojan, but Latin. The overtones of Jupiter’s formulation are important. Latin was superseding the native tongues of Italy as the
lingua franca
of commerce, law and government. When Jupiter says that Ausonia (an ancient name for Italy) will keep the tongue of its fathers, he is suggesting some sort of justification for Latin against the languages which it is supplanting all over Italy. Throughout this dialogue of the gods Virgil is making his legend more plausible by linking it to known contemporary facts.
Jupiter will also provide ritual and modes of worship, another ingenious element. At the fall of Troy, Aeneas had been given a solemn charge to establish the Trojan gods in a new city. But Virgil does not wish to argue that the gods of Augustan Rome came from the East. Nor does he want Aeneas to negotiate away the gods which were his sacred responsibility, and capitulate to the Latins in a matter of such central importance in the
Aeneid
. The ingenuity of Virgil’s solution to this problem lies in the factthat Aeneas capitulates not to any man but to Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans. No one could object to a religious ordinance imposed by Jupiter Best and Greatest. The discussion between Jupiter and Juno ends with his assurance that the Romans will surpass all men in piety and also all gods, a prophecy which is less astonishing than it seems, if we recollect that obedience to just authority is part of
pietas
, and that the gods have not always excelled in that virtue. In particular – his last assurance – no other race will be the equals of the Romans in doing honour to Juno.
Jupiter has the last word. Juno seems to have the last gesture. The Latin, like all Latin, is untranslatable, literally, ‘Rejoicing, she twisted back her mind’ (841). Juno then did in the end change her mind, but clearly, she found it a bitter-sweet experience. The domestic dispute is thus resolved. Turnus will be killed. Aeneas will marry Lavinia and found Lavinium, and world history will proceed according to the decisions of this humorous discussion between a god and his wife.
Divine machinery is an obsolete literary device, but it gives a great sweep of human interest to the
Aeneid
and as a dramatic representation of ordinary human relations and of the unpredictable in life, the place of justice in the world, the limits of human effort and understanding and the inscrutable splendour of the universe, it is not a bad model.
Further Reading
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SURVEY
P. Hardie,
Virgil
, New Surveys in the Classics 28 (Oxford University Press for the Classical Association, 1998)
INTRODUCTORY
W. S. Anderson,
The Art of the
Aeneid (reprinted Bristol Classical Press, 1994)
W. A. Camps,
An Introduction to Virgil’s
Aeneid (Oxford University Press, 1969)
K. W. Gransden,
Virgil’s
Iliad (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
J. Griffin,
Virgil
(Oxford University Press, 1986)
R. Jenkyns,
Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil
(Bristol Classical Press, 1992)
COMPANIONS
N. Horsfall (ed.),
A Companion to the Study of Virgil
(Brill, 1995)
C. Martindale (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Virgil
(Cambridge University
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