Stefano Vitrano
Tue, 24 Feb 2004 06:37:47 -0800
I was very pleased to get Martin Hughes? post. He evidenced the two major sources of Dido?s behaviour, Apollonius? Medea and the real character of Cleopatra. In my opinion Virgil was clever to create a good mix between these characters. He managed to create a character who is both sentimental and rational. In fact, according to roman, male chauvinist attitude, a female character rationally stronger than the protagonist would have been unconceivable and, may be, hateful for V?s public. On the contrary a too sentimental character would have been a flat character, nearly a satire of female characters. For this reason Stazius defined V?s style ?paene comicus? when it reaches the top of its sentimentalism. Besides, V couldn?t have done a mere comparison with only one of those characters, because both Medea and Cleopatra find their strength in the ineptitude of their lovers: Jason would be nothing without M?s support, he would never win his trials and, especially in Euripides?s tragedy, his behaviour is hateful for public. Cleopatra, instead, managed to dim her lovers? mind reducing them like beasts and taking the control on them. And, also by Horace?s famous Carmen (I, 37), we know that a great part of Romans were terrified by her presence, seeing her as the ?fatale monstrum? of Roman power. At the same way, Aeneas is not the strong hero of classic epos, a hero of that kind would have been unconceivable with the new, fine Augustan mentality, even Iarba defines him ?semivir?. Ergo V?s great ability was to create a poem without too strong characters, making a complex structure in which every character could have his role and show his intricate behaviour. >-- Messaggio originale -- >Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 17:53:36 +0000 (GMT) >From: M W Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: VIRGIL: RE: VIRGIL teaching Aeneid - inspiring students >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >I share your admiration for the Dido and Aeneas story as treated both by >V and by Purcell, but I think we should be careful about the >Cleopatra/Dido analogy in V. It's clearly there, but what >does it imply? Much, much more than a dig at Antony. > >Dido isn't perfect but the portrait of her (as later with Camilla, >another Beloved Enemy figure) is pretty positive. She is beautiful >despite her cares and exertions, has a strong personality, is fair-minded >enough to see the Trojan side of the story (heretical as this is for one >educated in Junonian teachings), is generous to those in trouble and >loves Aeneas sincerely. One of her political problems is that she cannot >take her own Tyrian people with her in her increasing favour to the >Trojan exiles. She stands in the way of Trojan-Roman destiny, but >unwittingly and with no malevolent intention. > >Damien Neilis (V's Aen. and the Argonautica, 2001) draws attention to the >V/Apollonius links, and Apollonius' Medea is surely one of the models for >V's Dido. Within limits: Dido entirely lacks Medea's ruthlessness, at >least until she is driven to complete despair, and Medea would never have >committed suicide. This model would lead us to expect co-operation between >hero and heroine (who is culturally ambiguous, torn between East and West) >to the point where the interests of the heroine's people are disregarded. >Dido and Cleopatra are alike in not betraying or abandoning their own >country and people, unless one counts putting them on the losing side in >a war. > >All this would show some understanding for the position taken by Antony >and then by Gallus, V's closest friend, in seeking some modus vivendi with >Egypt - perhaps more generally with the peoples and cultures of the East. >Augustus chose to regard both A and G as traitors, but perhaps even he >took a version of their point that the Eastern world should not just be >confronted, but should to some degree be conciliated and find its ideas >taken seriously. V may have contributed something here. > >The overriding message of Aen.IV, presumably representing V's >long-standing convictions, is surely that the day on which the seeds of >genocidal war are sown is a very bad day for all concerned >and for their descendants. However, Augustus' efforts at conciliation >were perhaps directed at the Jews rather than the Egyptians. For the >traditional Eastern figure of a mysterious, fierce and seductive woman, >typified by Cleopatra, he subsituted the mysterious, fierce and >patriarchal figure of Herod the Great. It's hard to think that A never >discussed Egyptian and Jewish cultures with V, who had shown great >interest in both and who must surely have been drawn into the Gallus >problem, whether or not he agreed to remove Laudes Galli from the final >version of Geo. IV. > >V's Dido does surely echo the historical Cleopatra, political and >personal partner of Antony, but the overall effect is not sheer scorn for >Antonian policy but some understanding of why it was plausible, even if >it was, as A and his circle believed it was, entirely mistaken. > >- Martin Hughes > > >On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Helen South wrote: > >> Oh I LOVE the suggestion about the Dido and Aeneas story being a dig at >> Anthony over Cleopatra, that is just SO good. That just made my day. >> It just reminded me of the most amazing, transport-me-to-another-universe >> music that would be a perfect warmup for students who are even a tiny bit >> receptive to classical music - Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, the Kirsten >> Flagstaad - Elizabeth Schwartzkopf (excuse spelling) recording. Play them >> 'When I am Laid in Earth'. Guaranteed to melt the hardest heart. If you >> haven't heard it, go listen to it! >> this webpage has an audio file, I don't know if it works though as my >> computer wouldn't load it: >> http://www.alphamusik-shop.de/2059817.html >> >> best wishes >> Helen >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to >> http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/default.asp >> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >> Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >> "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >> can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub >> >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >"unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub Stefano Vitrano C.E.I. school, Palermo, Italy [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub