THE AENEID (IV)

Women and Epic

ARRIVING IN
ROME
GREAT TIBER
Aeneas […] spots an enormous wood and
running through it,
The Tiber in all its glory, rapids, whirlpools,
Golden with sand and bursting out to sea.
And over it,
Round it, birds, all kinds, haunting the
riverbed and banks,
Entrance the air with the song and flutter
through the trees.
Aeneid 7.32-37
TOWARDS WAR
 The Latins
 Ruled by Latinus
 Father of Lavinia
 The oracle Faunus says she must not marry a
local (a Latin).

 Aenas and the Trojans set up a settlement.

 The fury Allecto is summoned to find war
between the Italians and the Trojans, a war
for Lavinia (new Helen)
TURNUS AND THE SHIELD OF
AENEAS
 Allecto finds Turnus and rouses him:
Lavinia was promised to him.
 Turnus is sent into a frenzy and arms for
war.
 Turnus is a match for both Aeneas and the
Latins
 Aeneas will match his call for war.
 With his ally Evander

 Venus brings to Aeneas a shield made by

her husband Vulcan
 Like the shield of Achilles
 But with the history of Rome.
BESIEGE “with a deafening roar the Trojans all come pouring in t
Through the gates for shelter, mount the ramparts now.
Aeneid 9.44-45
D…  Aeneas’s is styled “best of captains.”

AGAIN
 Orders: do not fight them in open battle
 Guard the camp and ramparts.
 THE NEW ACHILLES?
 King of the Rutilii

 Brashness:
 ”Turnus, brash in arms (9.3)”

 Chaotic
 ”flying on ahead (9.53)

 ”wildly back and forth, Turnus gallops along the wall (9.66-67)

 Barbaric
 Burn down the fort to fight the Trojans in pitch battle.

 Or the ships

 Skilled fighter
 ”I pray you, Calliope – Muses – inspire me as I sing

What carnage and death the sword of Turnus spread

that day.
Aeneid (9.601-602)
THE RUTULIANS ARE ROUTED
 The glory of Euryalus
 No less/bloody Euryalus’ work – the man’s
on fire, storming/down the common ruck
before him, Fadus, Herbesus, Rhoetus,
Abaris, quite unconscious now. Aeneid
(9.397-400)
 Euryalius, however, is so weighed down by
the loot that he gets caught by a cavalry.
 Nisus dies trying to save him.

 Turnus tries to take advantage of the

situation, and is initially quite successful
 But the gods rally the Trojans, and Turnus is
forced to withdraw.
WAR AND THE
RUTILIANS
THE NARRATIVE
 Venus and Juno
 “I beg you, Father,
Give them back their Xanthus and their
Simois
If these luckless Trojans must, once more,
Relive the fall of Troy.
Venus- Aeneid 10.73-76
 Juno argues
 That it’s not wrong for the Italians to defend
themselves
 That she did not cause the fall of Troy
 As with the Iliad, Jupiter won’t make a
distinction and let the fates decide.
AENEAS IS SEEKING ALLIES
 Goes to see Evander
 Who had built a settlement on the Palatine
hill of Rome
 Tarchon, king of the “Tuscans” or
“Etruscans”
 Descriptions of the captains
PALLAS AND THE ARCADIANS
 Pallas kills a number of Rutilii
 “Fighting words, he hurls himself
At the enemy’s massed ranks.”
 Fights with Turnus
 “Now’s my time to win some glory, either
for stripping off a wealth of spoils or dying
a noble death.”
 Prayer to Hercules to ask for Turnus’s body
 Patron deity of his family.
Each man has his day, and the time of life
Is brief for all, and never comes again.
But to lengthen one’s fame with action,
That’s the work of courage. How many sons
of gods
Went down under Troy’s high wall! Why I
lost
A son of my own with all the rest –
Sarpedon.
For Turnus too, his own fate calls, and the
man
Has reached the end of all his days on earth.
Jupiter- Aeneid, 10.553-560
THE VALOR OF THE RUTILII
 Halaesus
 “Ladon he butchers, Pheres, Demodocus, a
flash of his sword and he slices off
Strymonius’s hand just as it clutched his
throat.”
 Lausus
 “won’t let his soliders flinch at Pallas’
carnage.”
 Turnus vs. Pallas
 The impressive sight of Turnus
 “[Pallas] runs his eyes over Turnus’s/enormous
frame, scanning every feature from where he
stood/ and glancing grimly…”
 The strength of Turnus
 Long oakwood spear (Achilles’ Ashen spear)
 “Pallas’s shield, for all its layers of iron and
bronze, its countless layers of oxhide,
rounding it out for strength – still Turnus’
vibrant spear goes shattering through the
shield.”
 The Rage of Aeneas
 THE RAGE OF AENEAS (I)
 Aeneas begins to hunt for Turnus.
 Four sons of Sulmo, and Ufens are killed “to offer Pallas’s
shade.”
 Aeneas kills Magus, Caeculus, Umbro, Tarquitus etc…

 Reversal of roles
 Turnus, the new Achilles becomes Hector
 Pallas fulfills the role of Patroclus
 Precedes the wrath of Achilles for Hector and the latter’s
death

 Juno and Jupiter

 Juno wishes to save Turnus
 Jupiter: saving Turnus won’t change the outcome of the
war.
PEACE AND THE FINAL
BATTLE
 Latinus and Amata beg Turnus to give up the
fight.
 Turnus/Achilles take on the role of Hector
 Avenging Hector?
 Lavinia proposes a single combat for her hand
 Paris vs. Menelaus.
 Notice an inversion of the Iliad paradigm where
Trojans are taking the role of the victorious
Greeks
 Lavinia is able to secure peace between Trojans
and Latins
HEROIC EPIC AND
WOMEN
THE WOMEN HEROES OF THE
EPICS
Story from the perspective of Penelope,
because “the story as told in The
Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are
too many inconsistencies.”

The story of Circe starts from the

premise that Circe’s story needs to be
told, from her birth as daughter of
Helios to her ”exile” in Aeae and of
course her relationship with Odysseus
and its consequences.
WHO?
 Helen of Troy
 Daughter of Zeus and Leda, wife of Menelaus;
capture by Paris.
 Andromache
 Wife of Hector and Neoptolemus.

 Penelope
 Daughter of Icarius of Arcadia, wife of Odysseus

 Dido
 Queen of Carthage, wife of Sychaeus and lover
of Aeneas
 Camilla
 Volscian general, dedicated to Diana and warrior
like an Amazon.
 GENDERED SPACES
 The space of the epic is fundamentally gendered
 Outside  realm of the heroic, of the martial.
 Inside  realm of the home.

 Helen
 Challenges both Paris and Aphrodite
 Paris was beaten by a “real hero.”
 Challenges Paris to become a proper hero.
 Active participant to foil the ploy of Odysseus
 Hostess to Telemachus and Pisistratus
 Recognizes Telemachus first
 Active participant in the banquet (she speaks first,
Menelaus agrees with his wife).
 Participates in the gift exchange with Telemachus.
 GENDERED SPACES II: THE
TROJAN WOMEN
 Active participation in the war
 Continued running households
 Active intercession with the gods.

 Andromache and Hector (… again).

 Transgression of Andromache
 Speaks of war-matters (Il. 6.455-461)
 Hector is quick to remind her of her role and her
space: the home
 Go back to the house now and take care of your work,
the loom and the shuttle, and tell the servants to get on
with their jobs. War is the work of men, of all the
Trojan men, and mine especially (Il. 6.515-518).
BREAKING GENDER ROLES IN
THE AENEID (I): DIDO
 Aeneid allows for breaking gender roles.
 Dido is Queen in her own right
 She built Carthage
 She refused to marry the ”lords of Africa”
 Portrayed as the center of the scenes
 “massed with escorts.”
 Banquet, she takes on the role of Alcinous

 Transgression into “traditional womanhood” as

cause of death?
 Anna: take Aeneas as junior partner
 Dido as “mother” and “wife”
 Holds Ascanius on her lap.
 “Marriage” to Aeneas  loses her role as Queen.
 Where does her transgression lie? In her role as
Queen or in her wish to be a wife and mother?
BREAKING GENDER ROLES IN
THE AENEID (II): CAMILLA
 Warrior
 Wins the glory of Turnus, glory of Achilles
(=death in battle after heroic deeds)
 Death leads to protection by Diana (like
Sarpedon, Hector)
 Transgression, Camilla is a Homeric hero.
 Camilla is dedicated to Diana  she
functions in the outdoor space
 Transformed into an Amazon (but she is not
an Amazon)  special case.
ACTIVE OR PASSIVE:
PENELOPE IN THE ODYSSEY
 Loyalty to her family is unquestionable
 Active character
 Phemius episode serves to demonstrate that Telemachus is ready to take over his household, not
Penelope’s lack of authority.
 Suitors demonstrate her active role in delaying her marriage. She has no interest to remarry but has to
respond to social and familial pressures
 Passive character
 She is passive in terms of her knowledge of Odysseus’s plan or whereabouts.

 Thus:
 Penelope is not a Homeric hero.
 She functions, like Andromache, primarily in the context of the household (she is not seen outside of the
home), a realm she masters.
 She is Odysseus’s counterpoint in her gender-sphere.
THE TRAGEDY OF WOMEN
ROLE?
CONCLUSIONS
LIST OF TERMS
Tiber Latinus Lavinia Allecto Turnus
Pallas Evander Euryalus Camilla
QUESTIONS
 Be able to summarize, in broad strokes what is going on during the war
 How is Turnus a new Achilles?
 How is Turnus’s death functionally the revenge for the death of Hector?

 How are women presented in ancient epic?

 What is their role? Is space gendered? What happens when women transgress their role?
 What is the relationship between women and tragedy?
 How does Penelope fit into all of that?