actually, the more i think about it, the more interesting it gets. if the gods are seen as personifications of the force of history, then vulcan, who forges the shield, also in some way forges the new aeneas, or at least contributes to the forging.
there is a moving away from one's own name toward becoming a set of arms. perhaps this is an explanation for those mysterious four lines that at some point were the first lines of the poem, where vergil begins by saying who he is, but not in terms of his name, rather in terms of that which his mind has forged... but happy am i that, wherever those lines come from, they have been tossed out. they make the opening ugly. i really wish john milton hadn't thought they were part of vergil's final vision for the poem. interesting also: canto one of dante's inferno, vergil introduces himself not by his name, but by what he has done. -matthewspencer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
