Myths and Legends

HUM 2051: Civilization IFall 2009

Dr. PerdigaoOctober 14, 2009

The Legacy

• Founding of Rome in 753 BCE

• Legend that it was founded by Romulus and Remus; their parents were killed and they were raised by she-wolf

• 270 BCE—Roman lit began when Greek slave translated The Odyssey from Greek to Latin

• Begins with translation—Greek imitation—essential to formation of Rome, Roman culture

• Only 2 kinds of literature Romans excelled at: lyric and epic

Contextualizing Virgil

• Virgil (70 BCE-19 BCE)• In spirit of imitation and respect but Romans also

alter by enlargement (size and grandeur)• Inheritance, respect, but alteration by change• Virgil was a member of literary and social avant

garde, goal to challenge government• His aim was to trace responses to government

through literature (like Ovid and Catullus) but with new empire of Augustus

• Chaos and order—order as the ascendancy of the power of Augustus

Revisions• Venus• Aphrodite

• Juno• Hera

• Minerva• Athena

• Jupiter• Zeus

• Mercury• Hermes

• Ulysses• Odysseus

• Neptune• Poseidon

Constructing The Aeneid

• Values: –Respect for the past–Personal subordinated for good of family/state–Intense reverence for authority–Stoic self-control (emotions held in check)

• Virgil reimagines Homeric hero while at the same time honoring tradition of Homer’s epic and imitating it

• Virgil spent 12 years on The Aeneid. At the time of his death, he wanted to write for three more years; when he was on his deathbed he told his friends to destroy it because he “hadn’t gotten it right yet”

• But it is considered one of the most “perfected” works

Virgil’s Tradition

• Eclogues (37 BCE) as country vs. city life, pastorals

• Georgics as farmer-animal husbandry—practical compared to idealized country life in Eclogues

• Politics of The Aeneid: idealization of central authoritative political power as best way to organize society

• Beehives—symbol of Georgics—centralized authoritative figure, all subordinated to task for good of the hive

• Beehive—as ideal community, Roman politics

Structure and Form

• The Aeneid—title • Imitates The Iliad—but names the character,

combines 2 works• Invokes muse, begins in medias res, includes epic

similes, Homeric epithets (pious Aeneas, dutiful Aeneas)

• But the change is the focus on founding Rome rather than on personality of Aeneas

• Issue of destiny—as action (unimaginable in Homer’s works)

• Books 1-6=wanderings of Aeneas from Troy, reflection of The Odyssey

• Books 7-12=battles of Aeneas and his troops, reflection of The Iliad