A level Classical Civilisation Aeneid themes and Scholarship sheer

Theme

Scholarship

Quotes/examples

Fate

Duckworth: “Aeneas, far from being a weak character or a puppet in the hands of fate”

Hardie: he is forced into a  mission by  circumstances beyond his control

Gransden: “fate dominates the Aeneid”

-            Juno plays as an antagonist to fate: persuading Aeolus to use his powers with the wind to sink the trojan’s ships, getting Allecto to begin war between the Latins and trojans, Helping Turnus on the battlefield, even retrieving him from the battlefield by creating a fake Aeneas, Marrying Dido to Aeneas to prevent him from leaving Carthage- tries many times to stop Aeneas achieving what he is fated to do however is not powerful enough to do so cannot change fate.

-            Dido cannot persuade Aeneas to stay in Carthage with her.

-            Even Aeneas tries to resist his own fate but cannot: wishes he had died in troy during the storm brought up by Aeolus, tells Dido he did not wish to leave her, runs back into battle at Troy many times, tries to build his city in the wrong place in book 3.

-            “The destiny of your descendants remains unchanged.”

-            “When from this stock the romans would arise.”

-            Book 6: parade of the future Romans, golden bough resisting Aeneas: fate will not be easy.

-            Turnus: has odds in his favor and still dies, has sword of immortality like Achillies but unluckily drops it and picks the wrong one up.

-            Aeneas must be reminded of his fate: Iulus’ hair lighting on fire symbolizing his bright future, mercury coming to tell Aeneas he needs to think of Rome and Iulus’ future after her kind of marries Juno

-            Gates of Janus described as “stubborn”

Divine intervention/the gods

Braund

"The Aeneid can also be read as the story about wrath of Juno"

Gransden 

"In the Aeneid the gods work through human wills and desires"

Camps

“the gods are only concerned with their own private agenda”

-            Juno getting Aeolus to create a storm intended to sink the Trojan ships because she loves Carthage and hears that the Trojans are going to overthrow it- fated, and Jupiter who is her husband has a pederastic relationship with a Trojan, so she is very angry.

-            Neptune calms the waves and imprisons Aeolus because he did it “without his divine authority”- petty.

-            Venus- afraid of Juno and what kind of hospitality she’s going to make dido have for Aeneas as she loves him, so she takes Iulus and puts him to sleep and sends cupid to take his place and “poison” Dido with love for Aeneas.

-            When Aeneas is going to kill Helen because he is so angry, Venus comes to him to calm him down, she reminds him that the war in no one’s fault but “the cruelty of the gods”, puts blame on Neptune and Juno, and…