Information concerning Aeneid

Although we will not have time to look at Vergil, Aeneid in any depth, you can get some sense of its themes and of Vergil's use and reuse of Homeric patterns from three passages, at the beginning, near the middle, and at the end.

1. The beginning of the Aeneid is Book 1, lines 1-18 in H&P, p. 891. In addition to Mandelbaum's translation, which H&P use, you should also read Dryden's version, as follows:

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome.
O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;
For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began
To persecute so brave, so just a man;
Involv'd his anxious life in endless cares,
Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars!
Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,
Or exercise their spite in human woe?

Dryden's translation may now seem somewhat old-fashioned, but it probably captures the effect of the original better than many more recent translations. In particular, Dryden's opening phrase "Arms, and the man I sing", is an effective rendering of Vergil's "Arma virumque cano".

2. The conclusion of Aeneid, Book 6, in which Aeneas and the Sibyl leave the Underworld by an ivory gate, is highly enigmatic. Nevertheless, it is probably crucial in any treatment of the Aeneid. H&P discuss the passage, pp. 887-888, but they do not actually include it among their excerpts from the Aeneid. (One would expect to find it at H&P, p. 943.) In Dryden's translation , the passage runs as follows:

Thus having said, he [Anchises] led the hero [Aeneas] round
The confines of the blest Elysian ground;
Which when Anchises to his son had shown,
And fir'd his mind to mount the promis'd throne,
He tells the future wars, ordain'd by fate;
The strength and customs of the Latian state;
The prince, and people; and forearms his care
With rules, to push his fortune, or to bear.

Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;
Of polish'd ivory this, that of transparent horn:
True visions thro' transparent horn arise;
Thro' polish'd ivory pass deluding lies.
Of various things discoursing as he pass'd,
Anchises hither bends his steps at last.
Then, thro' the gate of iv'ry, he dismiss'd
His valiant offspring and divining guest.
Straight to the ships Aeneas his way,
Embark'd his men, and skimm'd along the sea,
Still coasting, till he gain'd Cajeta's bay.

Undoubtedly somehow important in the background of Vergil's reference to gates of horn and ivory is Penelope's reference to the same pair of gates in Odyssey , Book 19 (Fitzgerald, p. 371, lines 649-673).

3. Finally, the conclusion of the Aeneid , H&P, pp. 951-952, lines 298-344, rounds out the various themes of the poem.