Scholars: If I ran across the name (?) inscription (?)
"REQUITUR" what, if anything, might it signify? Declined from "requiro?" Many thanks. Geo. H. ................................... Agnew Moyer Smith Inc. p: 412.322.6333 f: 412.322.6350 w: http://www.amsite.com e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > From: M W Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 19:02:14 +0100 (BST) > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: VIRGIL: Did Aeneas inhale? > > My suggestion about the Gates of Sleep is that this is a key passage, very > carefully integrated into the whole poem, and that sufficient structural > clues to the real meaning are provided. The theme of drugs provides one > of these clues. > 1. INITIATION-PROPHECY. Aeneas, desceding into the darkness, is initiated > into a religious cult whose members know of certain great prophecies. > 2. CONTROL. Aeneas, the initiate, obeys Anchises, the hierophant. It is > by Anchises' choice that Aeneas uses the Ivory Gate. The linkage of > the initiate with false dreams is actually part of the initiation > ceremony. > 3. HIEROPHANT-POET. The voices of Anchises and of V himself merge: it is V > rather than A who will lay flowers on the new tomb dug for Marcellus, > though A rather than V who can call Marcellus his descendant (884). The > description of the Gates (his dictis) belongs to both of the merged > voices, one talking to Aeneas, one to us. Aeneas is initiated; so are we. > The ideology of the New World Order, based on religion and enlightened > imperial power, is laid before us citizens of the Western world: we have > never forgotten it, though we may have become critical of it. > 4. 'PROSEQUITUR'. Aeneas' partings from Anchises and Dido are > linked by the mutually echoing 'prosequitur' verses (476, 898), implying > that both he and Dido deserve compassion and also that both of > them cherish a false dream. So V and Anchises think of the initiation > rather as a sad necessity than as an unmixed good. The danger of the > fumes of Avernus and the Kill or Cure nature of the whole process has been > made clear all along. > 5. INHALATION/POISON/CONVERSION. Drugs appear frequently, linked in the > poem to processes of persuasion and in philosophy to Epicurean theories (V > always recalls Epi, but never repeats Lucretius' commitment to him) that > mental events are physical events. Palinurus, Latinus and Amata are all > drugged and all influenced profoundly; so, I think, is Turnus, brutally > injected with infernal fumes. Fumes are both benign (Albunea) and > terrifying (Amsanctus) - Albunea and Amsanctus form another pair of Gates. > The very fact that Aeneas 'passes through the Gates of Sleep' means that > he wakes: if he wakes he was in a trance, since he cannot have been > normally asleep. So to some extent this is an Epicurean story of > religious initiation/indoctrination under the suspect influence > of drugs - also of course a post-Epicurean story in which religion turns > out to be utterly unavoidable. > 6. LETTING THE DOGS OUT. The male heroes, Aeneas and Turnus, have both > been indoctrinated by wise (or at least intelligent) women, the Sibyl and > Allecto. One pacifies Cerberus, the other injects madness into the Trojan > hounds. Both maintain the theme of control by drugs, but both the > Albunea/Amsanctus//Sibyl/Allecto pairings reflect better on Aeneas than > on Turnus. > 7. THE GATES OF WAR. The scene at the Gates of Sleep is peaceful and > controlled: the Hierophant keeps control of the situation. The fact that > it is he who sends Aeneas through the Gate of False Dreams implies that > the cult recognises its limitations. The scene at the Gates of War > (VII 607) is correspondingly violent and disordered: Latinus will not act, > and the Gates fly open under the terrific blow delivered by Juno and by > an angry crowd which follows intoxicated leaders, a blow which leaves both > the posts of the Gates and the unwritten constitution of the kingdom > ruptured. Two natural but opposite effects of drug use, serenity and > violence, are seen; two ideologies show something of their colours. The > ideology of Book VI is for educated minds, drawing on history and > philosophy, that of Book VII is for the masses, drawing on and enhancing > natural fears and moral principles about country, family, property. But > the mass ideology has the higher authority: Anchises is a wise spirit, but > his authority is very little compared with that of the Queen of Heaven in > the fulness of her conviction. The only higher authority, that of > Jupiter, has not yet been revealed except in secret to Venus: when Jupiter > at last speaks decisively, he will stop the movement that Juno has started > but will still make concessions to Juno herself. All this surely amounts > to a statement that the Book VI Augustan ideology is somewhat contrived, > the work of an intellectual clique and contrary to many normal intuitions: > but still it must be preferred to any available alternative. > V'S SELF PORTRAIT. Augustus probably knew that the support of V and the > intellectual group/clique around him was worth a few extra legions. V, > merging himself with his character Anchises and the drug-wielding cult for > which Anchises speaks, accepts the terrifying nature of his task: he is an > illusionist and a poisoner; also a philosopher and a doctor whose medicine > the stricken world must accept. So I think that Aeneas did inhale the > toxic fumes and that we, the readers then and now, stand to be intoxicated > by the ideology. > The above is too long and idiosyncratic or worse, but thanks to the many > on whose ideas I've drawn! To go on even longer: in this discussion I > believe we should specially celebrate William Warburton, whose 1738 > publication 'The Divine Legation of Moses' explained that the Katabasis is > an initiation and thereby founded the modern study of Book VI. - Martin > Hughes > > On Sat, 27 Apr 2002, David Wilson-Okamura wrote: > >> At 08:17 PM 4/27/02 +0100, Leofranc Holford-Strevens wrote: >>> (Suppose for instance that the wink theory could >>> somehow be made to stand up, why should Vergil wish to play that game?) >> >> This is a fair question. There are, it seems to me, two reasons to argue >> for the wink theory: >> >> 1. You don't like the alternate, empire-as-nightmare theory but "falsa >> insomnia" sounds sinister so you find a benign way of reading it. >> >> 2. You know that Virgil's contemporaries sometimes resorted to allegory in >> order to rationalize the objectionable bits in Homer: not just the >> immorality of the gods, but the marvellous in general. You think that >> Virgil was trying to write a poem in the Homeric mode, and in this period >> that means allegory. For examples, see the first chapter of Michael Murrin, >> Allegorical Epic (Chicago, 1980). >> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c. >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 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 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
