Hello!
i'm responding to the questions about Virgil's oak simile. I don't
know any more than you do, but I find it interesting that when Aeneas
finally reaches Italy and obtains the divine armour, Venus hugs him. He's
never been able to touch his mother or the ghost of his father or the
ghost of Creusa, so this is significant. Also, Venus lays his new armour
under an oak tree, as if saying _this is what you're supposed to
protect_, the grandeur of Rome. Also I was wondering why, in the new
Fitzgerald translation, does he translate "the oak simile" as the oak's
roots reaching down into the underworld -- not Tartarus (as it is in the
original Latin), not Hades, not Elysium. What would be a more fitting
place for the roots of Aeneas's/Rome's oak tree and why? I know Tartarus
was deep, twice as deep as the heights of the heavens. It was also held
by pillars which even the gods couldn't break. It held the Titans and
other monsters. Every river was rejuvenated in Tartarus. Yet the essence
of this place seems to be of gloom and primal power.
Perhaps Aeneas's denial of lust (the essence of civilization) needs
to be upheld by such primal power, just as Zeus (the ultimate pious
father) needs his furious dirae. Please help me out!
thanks
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