Dear James Iam glad you are enjoying the Aeneid. I think it depends on what you mean by a work of fiction, remember the great lines in Book 6 ' excudent alii spirantia molius aera, credo equidem vivos ducent de marmore vultus etc' This is more like a mission statement and I feel that the fiction part may have been subsumed into a national epic which became a tract for the times. The Iliad and Odyssey are not I don't think composed with the same end in view as the Aeneid, they are about the 'klea andron' the deeds of men in war and peace, like the early French 'romans'. The Aeneid is policy document which is addressing the Roman people where they are, showing where they have come from and where they are going. The epithet that Aeneas carries around with him'pius' shows that he is part of and subject to the great scheme of destiny which is shaping the people's end - to be the greatest power on earth living under the 'lex et pax romana' All the best Graham W Smith BA.BD. FSA Scot
---------- >From: James Butrica <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: VIRGIL: Hello... >Date: Wed, May 12, 1999, 6:55 am > >>Hey all.. >>i'm new here... i'm an 18 yr old high school student currently taking >>Latin. >>I've been interested in Ancient Rome and Greece for most of my life... >>I'm currently studying book 6 of the Aeneid in Latin... i know the >>guidelines for the list >>prohibits popping in and just asking for information, but i don't plan on >>doing that. >>The project is due a long while from now, and i *do* plan on doing 90% of >>this research myself, but would enjoy discussing some aspects of it. >>One question I do have... when Vergil wrote the Aeneid, did he mean it as >>a work of fiction, or at this time did the general populace of Rome >>believe in this story, like the Odyssey or Iliad? >>thanks! >>ren >> >>----------------------------------------------------------------------- >>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 > > With no-one around to interview, it's hard to say what Virgil "meant" and > hard to say what his contemporaries believed, but I think it would be fair > to say that you could have found the same range of opinions on these myths > as you could find today: some believed absolutely in their truth, some > believed absolutely in their fictionality, and some were in between. A > further complicating factor is the variability of myth in antiquity and the > poet's responsibility to create new versions of myth, as Virgil did again > and again in the Aeneid (most people knew that most myths were represented > in a variety of versions): hence they might see Virgil's version as a > creative response to myths in which they might or might not believe. > > James Lawrence Peter Butrica > Department of Classics > Memorial University > St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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
