LITERATURE REVIEWER

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Roman literature and History, Culture, and Religion

Historical Background
*Legend: Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of
war.
- After killing his brother, Romulus became the first king of Rome, which is named for him.

- There are seven legendary kings/rex of Rome: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius,
Ancus Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (Tarquin the Elder), Servius Tullius and Tarquinius
Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud (534-510 B.C.).
- Rome was built on seven hills, known as “the seven hills of Rome”—Esquiline Hill, Palatine
Hill, Aventine Hill, Capitoline Hill, Quirinal Hill, Viminal Hill and Caelian Hill.
Three series of the Punic wars – the war between Rome and Carthage
1. The first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) lasted for over twenty years. Rome won, and to this
period belongs the first flowering of Roman Literature.

2. The second Punic War, despite its defeat, Carthage did not give up. In 217 B.C., the
Carthaginian General Hannibal crossed the Alps from Spain into Italy. The Roman were
defeated at first but won in 201 B.C.

3. In the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the city of
Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a section of northern
Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome also spread its influence to the east,
defeating King Philip V of Macedonia in the Macedonian Wars and turning his kingdom
into another Roman province.
Cultural Context
- Romans are polytheistic, believing in many gods, and their native deities reveal the Roman’s
concern with home, cattle, and agriculture.
- centered in respect for the father or elders.
Romans worshipped:
1. genius – the master and the head of the household
2. manes - is the spirit of dead ancestors
3. penates- the spirits who guard the wealth of the storehouse
4. lares – the spirits who watch over the fields and paths.
5. Vesta - goddess of domestic hearth
6. Janus – guardian of enclosures, looking both ways with his two faces
Religion played central role in the organization of Rome
King of Sacred Rites – leader of religious ceremonies aided by priestly colleges whose members
were patricians (belonging to senatorial class)
Romans worshipped:
1. flamines - burners of offering
2. salii – priest of the war god Mars
3. luperci – the wolf-brotherhood, who on certain holidays ran around the sacred boundary of the
city to drive away evil spirits and assure fertility of women and flocks
4. pontifices – religious and ritual advisers to the king, guardians of religious and civil law
- Romans were obsessed with a correct ritual called ‘instauratio’, beginning a public ceremony
all over again if any detail went wrong.
- Romans view ‘fatum’ or fate as a command or decree to be obeyed
Literary Context
- Roman literature owes a debt to the Greeks
- Romans came to see their own gods as corresponding to Greek gods and adopted some of the
Greek divinities
GREEK GODS AND DESCRIPTION OR TITLE ROMAN GODS AND
GODDESSES GODDESSES
Zeus god of the sky and thunder Jupiter
 Apollo god of archery, healing, and Phoebus
light
Hades god of the underworld Pluto or Dis
Poseidon god of the sea Neptune
Hephaestus god of fire and the forge Vulcan
Hermes messenger (of the) god Mercury

Dionysus god of wine and pleasure Bacchus

Hera goddess of women, marriage, Juno

and childbirth
Aphrodite goddess of love Venus

Athena goddess of war and wisdom; Minerva or Palla

weaving and crafts

Artemis goddess of chastity, moon, Diana

hunting, and wild animals

Persephone goddess of spring, and queen Proserpina

of the underworld
Demeter goddess of agriculture and Ceres
harvest
Eros god of carnal love; love, Cupid
passionate, and physical
desire

Ares god of war Mars

- The Golden Age of Roman poetry (c. 70 BCE – 14 CE) produced such memorable writers as
Virgil, Horace, Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid.
- Augustus' new empire needed a national epic (also patterned from the Greek structure and
style)
AENEID by Virgil
- twelve books of dactylic hexameter
- Virgil, the preeminent poet of the Roman Empire, was born Publius Vergilius Maro on October
15, 70 B.C., near Mantua, a city in northern Italy. The son of a farmer, Virgil studied in
Cremona, then in Milan, and finally in Rome.
- Virgil opens the Aeneid with an invocation calling on the Muse to remind him of why Aeneas,
an exiled hero who survived the destruction of his native Troy, had to suffer so much before he
could find Rome.
- Story begins in medias res (in the middle of the action).

Aeneid
Book I: The wandering of Aeneas
Aeneas on the high seas, about to land safely in Italy when Juno engineers a storm that wrecks
his fleet. He is tossed violently about and lands at last on the African coast not far from Carthage,
a city being erected by Queen Dido. Since the town is destined to become Rome's archenemy in
later times, it is ironic that now Aeneas is welcomed so generously. (Xenia)
Book II: How They Took the City
Fulfilling Dido’s request, Aeneas begins his sorrowful story, adding that retelling it entails re-
experiencing the pain. He takes us back to ten years into the Trojan War: at the moment the tale
begins, the Danaans (Greeks) have constructed a giant wooden horse with a hollow belly. They
secretly hide their best soldiers, fully armed, within the horse, while the rest of the Greek army
lies low some distance from Troy. The sight of a massive horse standing before their gates on an
apparently deserted battlefield baffles the Trojans.
Near the horse, the Trojans find a Greek youth named Sinon. He explains that the Greeks have
wished to flee Troy for some time but were prevented by fierce storms. A prophet told them to
sacrifice one of their own, and Sinon was chosen. But Sinon managed to escape during the
preparations, and the Greeks left him behind. The Trojans show him pity and ask the meaning of
the great horse. Sinon says that it was an offering to the goddess Minerva, who turned against the
Greeks after the desecration of one of her temples by Ulysses. Sinon claims that if any harm
comes to the wooden statue, Troy will be destroyed by Minerva’s wrath, but if the Trojans install
the horse within their city walls, they will rise victorious in war against southern Greece, like a
tidal wave, with Minerva on their side.
They let the horse in, in fear of Minerva's wrath
Aeneas continues his story: after Sinon finishes speaking, two giant serpents rise up from the sea
and devour the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons as punishment for hurling a spear at the
horse. The snakes then slither up to the shrine of Minerva. The Trojans interpret the snakes’
attack as an omen that they must appease Minerva, so they wheel the horse into the city of Troy.
Night falls, and while the city sleeps, Sinon opens the horse’s belly, releasing the Greek warriors.
The warriors kill the Trojan guards and open the gates of the city to the rest of their forces.
Meanwhile, Hector, the fallen leader of the Trojan army, appears to Aeneas in a dream and
informs him that the city has been infiltrated. Climbing to his roof, Aeneas sees fighting
everywhere and Troy in flames. He runs for arms and then heads for the heart of the city, joined
by a few of his men.
Aeneas and his men surprise and kill many Greeks but are too badly outnumbered to make a
difference. Eventually they go to King Priam’s palace, where a battle is brewing. The Greeks, led
by Pyrrhus, break into the palace. Pyrrhus kills Polites, the young son of Priam and Hecuba, and
then slaughters Priam on his own altar.
Aeneas continues relating his story: nearly overcome with grief over this slaughter, he sees
Helen, the cause of the war, hiding. He determines to kill her, but Venus appears and explains
that blame for the war belongs with the gods, not Helen. Venus advises Aeneas to flee Troy at
once, since his fate is elsewhere. Aeneas then proceeds to the house of his father, Anchises, but
Anchises refuses to leave. But after omens appear—first a harmless tongue of flame on
Ascanius’s forehead, then a bright falling star in the sky—Anchises is persuaded to flee the city.
Book IV: The Passion of the Queen
The flame of love for Aeneas that Cupid has lit in Dido’s heart only grows while she listens to
his sorrowful tale. She hesitates, though, because after the death of her husband, Sychaeus, she
swore that she would never marry again. On the other hand, as her sister Anna counsels her, by
marrying Aeneas she would increase the might of Carthage, because many Trojan warriors
follow Aeneas. For the moment, consumed by love, Dido allows the work of city building to fall
by the wayside.
Juno sees Dido’s love for Aeneas as a way to keep Aeneas from going to Italy. Pretending to
make a peace offering, Juno suggests to Venus that they find a way to get Dido and Aeneas alone
together. If they marry, Juno suggests, the Trojans and the Tyrians would be at peace, and she
and Venus would end their feud. Venus knows Juno is just trying to keep the Trojans from Italy
but allows Juno to go ahead anyway.
One day when Dido, her court, and Aeneas are out hunting, Juno brings a storm down upon them
to send the group scrambling for shelter and arrange for Aeneas and Dido to wind up in a cave
by themselves. They make love in the cave and live openly as lovers when they return to
Carthage. Dido considers them to be married though the union has yet to be consecrated in
ceremony. Anxious rumors spread that Dido and Aeneas have surrendered themselves entirely to
lust and have begun to neglect their responsibilities as rulers.
When Jupiter learns of Dido and Aeneas’s affair, he dispatches Mercury to Carthage to remind
Aeneas that his destiny lies elsewhere and that he must leave for Italy. This message shocks
Aeneas—he must obey, but he does not know how to tell Dido of his departure. He tries to
prepare his fleet to set sail in secret, but the queen suspects his ploy and confronts him. In a rage,
she insults him and accuses him of stealing her honor. While Aeneas pities her, he maintains that
he has no choice but to follow the will of the gods: “I sail for Italy not of my own free will”
(IV.499). As a last effort, Dido sends Anna to try to persuade the Trojan hero to stay, but to no
avail.
Dido writhes between fierce love and bitter anger. Suddenly, she appears calm and instructs
Anna to build a great fire in the courtyard. There, Dido says, she can rid Aeneas from her mind
by burning all the clothes and weapons he has left behind and even the bed they slept on. Anna
obeys, not realizing that Dido is in fact planning her own death—by making the fire her own
funeral pyre. As night falls, Dido’s grief leaves her sleepless. Aeneas does sleep, but in his
dreams, Mercury visits him again to tell him that he has delayed too long already and must leave
at once. Aeneas awakens and calls his men to the ships, and they set sail.
Dido sees the fleet leaving and falls into her final despair. She can no longer bear to live.
Running out to the courtyard, she climbs upon the pyre and unsheathes a sword Aeneas has left
behind. She throws herself upon the blade and with her last words curses her absent lover “No
love, No pact must be between our people!”. As Anna and the servants run up to the dying
queen, Juno takes pity on Dido and ends her suffering and her life.

Metamorphoses
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C. -A.D. 18), better known to modern readers as Ovid, was born at
Sulmo, Rome.
Ovid's elegance, both in verse and comportment, hailed as the most brilliant poet of his
generation.
His elegant verses on love appealed to a society being forced into a period of moral reformation
by the emperor, Augustus.
“Metamorphoses” – the “Transformations”, usually from humans to animals, things etc.)
It is a narrative poem, of fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid, completed in the 8th century.
It is an epic (or “mock-epic”) poem describing the creation and history of the world,
incorporating many of the best known and loved stories from Greek mythology, although
centering more on mortal characters than on heroes or the gods.
Verse Narrative: Ovid uses the form of epic, books of verse in the tradition of Homer and Virgil,
who wrote heroic epics.
The stories are all connected by a shared theme, that of changing shapes or metamorphoses.
The purpose of the verse narrative is to interest and entertain the reader.

Pyramus and Thisbe

Setting: was set in a Babylonian society where parents retained absolute legal control of their
children while they were growing up.
For example:
-the fathers and mothers had the right to choose spouses for their sons and daughters
-had the right to sell their children into slavery, although they seldom did so.
Hence, after the parents of the mythical Pyramus and Thisbe forbade a relationship between
them, the only recourse open to the young lovers was to abscond.
Themes:

 All-Consuming Love
The love between Pyramus and Thisbe is so strong that they defy the will of their parents and run
away.
 Mischance
Bad luck (or the power of fate) thwarts the plans of the young lovers when the lioness finds
Thisbe's lost veil and chews at it with jaws stained with the blood of another animal.
Symbols:
 Wall- can be represented as a symbol of hate because it keeps them apart but it can also
be represented as a symbol of love because it brings them together
 Veil - represents the distraught in Pyramus' life. Bad luck (or the power of fate) thwarts
the plans of the young lovers when the lioness finds Thisbe's lost veil and chews at it with
jaws stained with the blood of another animal.
 Lioness represents lost in hope, because the lioness tears up the veil and caused so much
distraught to the two lovers
2 Colors of Mulberry fruit
White – Life; pure innocence and naiveness of their young love
Red – Death; represents lovers’ sacrifice to follow each other even after death; their mournful
and tragic end.
Verse format:
- Ovid wrote in heroic hexameter, the dignified verse format of ancient epic poetry.
- Heroic hexameter consists of unrhymed lines that each contain six feet.
- Each foot is either a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) or a
spondee (two stressed syllables).
- The number of syllables per line varies depending on the number of dactyls and spondees in it
Pyramus and Thisbe are a couple of young Babylonians in love. Unfortunately, their families
totally hate each other. The lovers whisper through a crack in the wall that separates their houses,
until they eventually can't take it anymore and decide to elope. They plan to sneak out of their
houses separately that night and then meet at the tomb of Ninus under a mulberry tree that grows
inside the tomb, but when Thisbe shows up under the mulberry tree where they're supposed to
meet, a bloody-jawed lioness is hanging out there. Thisbe screams and runs, leaving her veil
behind. Pyramus arrives a little while later and finds the bloody lioness ripping apart the veil.
Assuming Thisbe has been devoured, he stabs himself with his sword, his blood getting all over
the fruit. The last thing he sees before he dies is the beautiful face of the undevoured Thisbe.
Later, Thisbe returns, figures out the horrible thing that's happened, and stabs herself with
Pyramus's sword, too. To this day, all mulberries are stained red in honor of the tragic love of
Pyramus and Thisbe.

The Burning of Rome

The historian Tacitus was born in the year 56 or 57 in Rome. He was in Rome during the great
fire. During his lifetime, he wrote several histories chronicling the reigns of the early emperors.
The following eyewitness account comes from his final work The Annals written around the year
116.
Annals are written accounts of events year by year in chronological order. Since events follow
one another in time order, the reader learns how one situation triggers later events.

The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius