CLST 272-001: Heroes and Classical Epics

CLST 272-001: Heroes and Classical Epics

Fall Semester 2015
Dr. Jacqueline Long

Study Guide for Exam III: Vergil, Aeneid

Format

The exam will have three parts; there will be some measure of choice within each part.

cut-and-dried identifications: basic factoidal information (small credit per item, and a small component of the exam)
passages from the Aeneid: identify context, and discuss briefly what the passage shows about the characters, the story, the understanding of history and the cosmic order they imply, and the way Vergil puts them together in his epic (each a medium-small quantum of credit, but adding up to a major component of the exam)
essay: discuss a thematic question, drawing for support of your contentions on specific, concrete evidence from several passages within the Aeneid (the largest single item of credit; a major component of the exam)

Things to study

Terms and items you might be asked to identify include:

major characters in the narrative of the Aeneid: Trojans and Greeks at Troy, fellow-refugees on the voyage and the human and other figures they encounter, Tyrians and natives at and around Carthage, dead people and people yet to be born, Italians and others either friendly or hostile to the Trojan immigrants, gods
talismanic items, such as the Gates of Horn and Ivory, the Golden Bough, spoils, dedicated trophy
major figures in stories evoked by visual representation, such as the temple-doors at Carthage and Cumae, Aeneas's shield, Pallas's belt
places that are centers of significant action, including Troy, Delos, Crete, Epirus, Sicily, Carthage, Cumae, the Underworld, Tiber-mouth, the future site of Rome
technical terms we have used in analyzing the Aeneid, such as aetiology, aristeia, charter-myth, ecphrasis, epic, epithet, narration "in medias res," ring-composition, simile, type-scene
concepts important to the Aeneid, such as alliance, fate, pietas (respect for human, divine, and natural interrelationships), Roman civic values and institutions (e.g., Gates of War, senate), Roman family values

Themes and overarching considerations to consider (both for passages and for the essay; see also the quizzes in Sakai and daily Study Questions:

As you study, identify not only what's important, but also why it's important. Keeping the "big questions" in mind will actually make it easier to remember individual details, because the big questions will help you organize the information you command. It will also sharpen your understanding of the text, which in turn will enable you to make interesting, imporant arguments in your papers and on exams.

As you study, identify specific passages that illustrate important points; on the exam, use those specific passages so as to back up your arguments with concrete evidence. You'll need both to indicate what the passage says and to explain clearly how that information helps demonstrate your point.

Questions you've raised (my paraphrasing and organization of converging questions - but your questions)
- Characterization:
  - Besides the names, how much changes from Homer’s epics to the Aeneid about “the same” figures? (Compare and contrast, e.g., Venus with Aphrodite, Juno with Hera, Aeneas with Aeneas.) How do differences and continuities in characterization reflect differences and continuities between 8c BC Greek and 1c BC Roman society and culture? What significance do the differences and continuities bear for the Aeneid as an epic, by comparison with the Iliad and the Odyssey?
  - Compare and contrast the “heroes” of Vergil’s epic with the “heroes” of Homer’s epics.
  - How does each narrative set up its “heroes” as “heroes”: what characteristics do they imply are involved in the concept of “heroism”? For example, what activities does a “hero” pursue in each narrative? what kind of relationship with fate or with one or more gods distinguishes “heroes” from other figures in the poems? how do other figures view the “heroes”?
  - What other elements make up the characterizations of Vergil’s and Homer’s “heroes”? Besides being “heroic,” what sort of persons are they (e.g., morals, personalities, aptitudes). How do their other character-traits relate to their being “heroes”?
- Literary modeling:
  - Which scenes in the Aeneid are based on scenes from Homer’s epics? What does Vergil do with his poem’s relationship to Homer’s poems: how does it change your ideas about the Aeneid to think about it in relationship with the Iliad and the Odyssey?
  - How does the concept of “home” function in the Aeneid, by comparison with the Iliad and the Odyssey? What expectations are set up by a place’s being one’s “home” – whether one is there or displaced from it? How does the vector of time complicate the Trojans’ conceptions of “home” in the Aeneid?
  - Compare and contrast Vergil’s narrative structure and expression to Homer’s (e.g., repeated speeches, type-scenes, similes). How does authorial style relate to the epics’ story-telling?
- Conceptions of cosmic order, including the activity of gods:
  - Why did Venus “poison” Dido with love for Aeneas if she didn’t want to keep them together as a couple: why wasn’t Jupiter’s word enough for her, when he promised Aeneas would achieve his fate?
  - When Dido dies “a death not fated or deserved,” Juno has to send Iris to “release her spirit”: it takes special divine intervention just to let her die from suicide. How does this episode illuminate conceptions of fate in the Aeneid? Does fate in the Aeneid operate by different principles than fate in the Iliad or the Odyssey?
  - How do Aeneas’s interactions with the gods compare with Odysseus’s? Are the gods more or less direct in the Aeneid than they are in the Iliad and the Odyssey?
- Social concerns:
  - How important is hospitality to Aeneas’s achieving his goals in the Aeneid, by comparison to the importance of this social institution in the Iliad and in the Odyssey?
  - What roles do women and goddesses have in the Aeneid? What social rules govern their activity in the epic? Compare and contrast to women and goddesses in the Iliad and Odyssey. What do the Aeneid’s rules have to do with social expectations Roman women faced in Vergil’s time?
  - What does Vergil do for the Aeneid as an epic when he connects it to contemporary political concerns such as Augustus Caesar’s ascendancy in Roman power or Rome’s hegemony over the Mediterranean world? Is immediacy a virtue or partisanship a flaw in literary artistry, as such?
Instructor's checklist of important topics and ideas
- techniques of epic story-telling, and their literary adaptations by Vergil
- how the Aeneid relates to traditional Greek mythology
- how the Aeneid relates to traditional Italian mythology
- how the Aeneid relates to Roman history, both mythological accounts of the Roman past, and "historical" Roman history
- how the Aeneid relates to real-world places and natural phenomena
- how various kinds of relationships function: what do the members of the relationship do for one another, and why does it matter? how does partnership in the relationship help shape individual identity?
  - relationships of the family: husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, extended kinship ties - also the intimate relationships of lovers
  - relationships of the community: leaders and their peoples, fellow-citizens among themselves (neighbors, fellow-travelers, fellow-warriors), relationships with former fellows now separated
  - short-term and long-term relationships between communities: alliance, war, divine patronage of humans (on various bases), human worship of gods, connections between the dead and the living, connections between humans and animals
- place and distance: how does location connect individuals to themselves, to resources, and to relationships? how does changing location change those connections?
- past, present, and future: how do events and figures of the past relate to ongoing and anticipated concerns of humans and gods? by what means is memory invoked? by what means is the future anticipated? to whom do past and future matter, and why? how does Vergil's audience's knowledge of what is past to them but future to Aeneas affect the way we perceive his story as it unfolds?
- fate and the stability of the cosmic order: what principles do they rest on? what possibilities do they permit to humans and to gods? how does knowledge of fate affect humans' and gods' actions? how does Vergil's audience's knowledge of future outcomes affect the way we perceive his story as it unfolds?
- connections between divinities and mortals: who cares? why? what can they do and not do? how does divine interest relate to human responsibility?
- connections and contrasts between the natural world of organic forces and material realities and the social world of conflict, agreement, alliance, and negotiation
- connections between emotions, actions, and evaluations of actions
- physical being and moral identity: how do things like food and strength or skill relate to a person's worth?
- material goods, identity, and recognition: why do material goods matter to those who own them? to those who give them? to those who make them? to those who take them?
- art (especially visual and poetic art), inspiration, memory, and action: how does Vergil suggest art relates to life and heroic aspirations? compare and contrast to Homer's reflections on art
- human mortality and its consequences
- sexual desire and its consequences
- gender and the possibility of action
- personal affection and its consequences
- memory and identity
- glory and honor
- labor and personal responsibility
- home
- knowledge
- survival
- kindness
- life and hope

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Revised 30 November 2015 by jlong1@luc.edu
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