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Title: The Aeneid of Virgil by Allen Mandelbaum, Virgil, Allen Mandlebaum ISBN: 0-553-21041-6 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 September, 1981 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (17 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Aeneid (Story of Aeneas)
Comment: Unlike Homer or many who came before him, Virgil didn't believe in the myths like the ancient Greeks did. So where the "Iliad" was probably based on some real event, the "Aeneid" is completly made up. That dose not mean that it is bad, it isn't. It's like the best parts of "Iliad" and "Odyssey" put into this one poem. Aeneas and a small band of Trojans escape the carnage of Troy and eventually land in what would become Rome. There is adventure, action, drama, and a little romance. It has the makings of a great story, and sometimes it is. Oh, how do you trash a classic? You don't, but still there is too much national pride and propaganda of "future" Roman heros for my taste. Still worth it's reading, if you can get it cheap, or more likely, get it at the library.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Odyliad (Part III)
Comment: What pleased me was Aeneas' journey up the river in search of allies. This whole section struck me as original writing, and was very well done. It also added a twist to the Achilles parallel; because this time our hero was missing for a good, even an important, reason. On this quest for allies the reader gets another chance to watch as Aeneas tells his story. It is now less about "poor me" and more about his people and what he can do for the surrounding kingdoms. He has stopped whining! Not only that, but Aeneas begins to take on some of the characteristics one might expect of a real hero. He picks up a friend, the son of Evander, named Pallas, and is a protective and guiding figure for him. (Every hero needs a sidekick. Achilles had Patroclus, Hercules had Aeolus, and Batman had Robin.) Aeneus return to the camp, with allies, led to the Trojans winning the battle and the enemy retreating.
Then comes the moment we have been awaiting! Virgil becomes original! He takes the Trojans out of their walled camp and has them attack the enemy city. From there ensues a battle that, while similar to The Iliad (as any battle story is bound to be), is made entirely up of original material. From Turnus' nymph sister driving his chariot to the queen hanging herself in her grief it is only Virgil speaking. From this point forward the references to people and things are mostly original, and the trials and situations that the characters go through have few parallels with Homeric poems.
As for Aeneas, we see him in a new light. Gone is "Father Aeneas." Now we have a bloodthirsty Aeneas, who slashes and kills with vigor, and who is referred to as "a giant." Fear not, fans of whiny Aeneas, some part of him is still there. As I mentioned above, Aeneas kills a boy named Lausus, son of the king Mezentius. He then realizes that Lausus might mean as much to Mezentius as his own son does to him. The sorrow over what he has done keeps him from plundering the boy's body, and he says a sort of prayer to Lausus' shade, admitting that allowing the body to remain undefiled is a worthless act to one already dead, but it is the best he can do. And then, like any good hero, he proceeds to kill the father.
If we are going to take a look at the person Aeneas becomes, we need to look at the last scene in the book. Turnus and Aeneas are fighting it out, one on one, and Turnus loses his sword, putting him at Aeneas' mercy. Upon realizing he is beaten, Turnus asks for his life to be spared. He is beaten, and everyone knows it. Killing him, he says, would serve no purpose. Aeneas considers sparing him, and seems about to do it, when he notes a belt taken from his friend Pallas. Then, with hardly another thought, Aeneas strikes him dead, saying, "How can you who wear the spoils of my dear comrade now escape me? It is Pallas who strikes, who sacrifices you, who takes this payment from your shameless blood." (XII:1265-1268)
The question now is: did Aeneas take Turnus' life out of anger, or grief, or did he think it truly the right thing to do, for Pallas? And if he did it for Pallas, was it in the name of some universal justice, or simply to satisfy the ghost of Pallas? To answer this question for sure is impossible, and I am sure Virgil intended it that way. I feel there are few things that one can get from the Aeneid that one couldn't get from Homer's epics, but the thoughts provoked by this question are the most valuable of those few things. In Homer, the hero killed the enemy because that was what was done. Here, though, there is a reason. We aren't sure what the reason is, and that is what we are to meditate on, upon leaving this book.
Conclusion:
They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. If Virgil was trying to emulate Homer, he flattered, but he failed. If he was trying to be original, he also failed. If he was trying to put a new spin on the tales Homer told, he may well have succeeded. I am not at all sure that that is what he was trying to do, but it may be. Regardless, he produced an enjoyable story, even if I had heard it before.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Odyliad (Part II)
Comment: Only when we look beyond the style and technique of the writing can we begin to give Virgil some of the credit he does actually deserve. In building his character, Aeneas, he seems to have been fairly original. Aeneas is different from any of the Greek heroes we have seen thus far in our readings. He is a compassionate character, but he is also whiny, wimpy, and even a little effeminate. In the beginning of the book Aeneas tells everyone he meets just how awful all the things he has gone through were. He meets a goddess in the woods (who, unbeknownst to him, is his mother), and spends the next twenty-five lines telling her or his sorrows, until she gets tired of it. Again, when he meets Dido, he tells of the sorrows he has had to experience. When he approaches the Sibyl to ask her to guide him into hell, he begins by telling of his troubles, and asks her to pity him as her reason to help. Certainly, these are not the qualities of a Homeric hero.
The whining Aeneas has no excuse for, but he is also full of compassion. His father and his son may go a long way to explain this, and in the process clear Virgil of some of the accusations of unoriginality. While Homeric heroes definitely had families, only one of them seemed overly concerned with them. That was Odysseus, and his concern was getting to his family. Aeneas, on the other hand, travels with his family. He is constantly aware of them. Although his father dies in the early stages of the journey, Aeneas continues to commune with his ghost. He places great care in looking after Ascanius, his son. Whenever we see an act of compassion in Aeneas it stems from his familial understanding. When Dido dies, he is saddened because he loved her like a wife. When Pallas falls in battle, Aeneas grieves first for Evander's loss, and then he grieves over for Pallas' death. Again, when he kills Lausus Aeneas' guilt comes when he realizes that Lausus and Mezentius have a relationship similar to his own relationship with his son.
Looking further into the plot, the reader can see a host of examples where Virgil borrowed directly from Homer. In fact, The Aeneid breaks down into two halves. The first half is The Odyssey, and the second is The Iliad. In the Odyssey half the plagiarism is shameful. I have mentioned the Scylla and the Cyclops that Aeneas ran into, but there are more. Aeneas' crew picks up a Greek sailor left behind from Odysseus' crew, who then proceeds to take them along exactly the route that Odysseus took. Then Aeneas lands in a far away land, where a beautiful and powerful woman tempts him to stay there and refuse his fate. Both Calypso and Circe did this to Odysseus. And let us not forget that when he comes to Dido, Aeneas comes in secret hoping to observe whether the people are friendly to him or not. A goddess disguises him so that he can approach unseen. This sounded a little familiar to me when I read it, and it turned out that it was familiar. That is just the way Odysseus came home.
Also, Odysseus went to Hell, so why not have Aeneas go there? It matters little that there is actually no point to his going there, and that the entire chapter about it could be taken out, and no one would know. If Homer wrote a part like that, then so can Virgil.
There is one copied part that, in my mind, is somewhat justified, because Virgil actually uses it to construct something original. The Odyssey contained a chapter full of Olympic-style gaming, which gave Odysseus a chance to tell his story, and which Homer used as a device in which to show growth in Odysseus. Virgil includes in his poem a chapter of games as well. He shows the competitors in these games to be what we would consider brutish and violent, but I don't believe that is what he had in mind. What interpret as violence and disregard for the safety of others I believe Virgil intended to be nobility. That is, putting honor in the eyes of the gods before any concern for self or others. Aeneas was not directly involved in any of the games, and while some would say that this is because he is compassionate and would not do that to another human being, I say that it is because he is not yet a "noble" man. He has yet to attain that.
The second half of the book, which mimics The Iliad rather closely, is where we see both Aeneas and Virgil grow. It is here that Aeneas achieves the nobility we see him suffering for lack of for in the first half. It is also here that Virgil begins to assert some originality.
We begin the second half right away with an innovative idea. Aeneas lands in Italy and is welcomed by the Latins, until the gods interfere. Why is this innovative? Because the gods are the only antagonists. The mortals do nothing wrong, on either side. It is simply that the gods (Juno, specifically) stir up hatred in their hearts, and war ensues.
Sadly from there the originality drops off for a while. Virgil places the Trojans inside a walled camp, being besieged by the enemy. They have heroes, who are fighting well, but their true hero (Aeneas) is missing, and they cannot win without him. This is nothing more than a combination of the situation Troy was originally in and the story of Achilles in The Iliad.
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Title: Metamorphoses (Oxford World's Classics) by Ovid, A. D. Melville, E. J. Kenney ISBN: 019283472X Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) by Saint Augustine, Henry Chadwick ISBN: 0192833723 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox ISBN: 0140268863 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Iliad of Homer by Homer, Richmond Lattimore ISBN: 0226469409 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 1961 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri, Archibald T. MacAllister ISBN: 0451527984 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 12 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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