Aeneid Book 7

Aeneid Book 7

1. Family

   • Latinus has no male heirs
     • Moved by the prospect of marriage for her
   • Amata views Turnus as a Son
   • Lands in Hesperia named after Aeneas' Nurse
   • Turnus' forefathers were foreign

2. Characterisation

   • Turnus
     • Leader of the Rutulians
     • "Handsomest of all"
     • Dismissive of a priestess
       • Perhaps unpious?
     • Not interested in war until Juno/Alecto provokes him
     • Sexist
     • "youthful beauty"
     • "brilliant feats of arms"
     • Ancestors are kings
     • Blamed for the outbreak of war
     • Taller than everyone else
   • Aeneas
     • Trojans = "devout"
   • Latinus
     • Cautious
       • Consults his oracle before making decisions
     • Links to the Divine like Aeneas
     • Peaceful - tries to avoid war
     • Stubborn - "he stood unmoved like a rock in the Ocean
   • Amata
     • Loving Mother - Protects Lavinia from what she feels is a bad Marriage
   • Juno
     • Interfering - Allecto
     • Opens the "Gates of war" against the Trojans
     • "Fierce"
     • Determined - "I shall move Hell"
   • Allecto
     • "bringer of grief"
     • Hated by her father - Pluto
     • "the cruel goddess"
     • "loathsome Fury"
   • Mezentius
     • "cruel"
     • "scorner of the gods"
   • Camilla
     • "warrior maiden of the Volsci"
     • People "wonder" at her
     • Young men, and mothers come out to see her

3. Honour and Reputation

   • If Turnus allows Aeneas to take Lavinia without a fight he will lose his honour and reputation
     • ""your reward is to be laughed at"
   • Ascanius is described as being motivated by a "passionate love of glory"

4. Power of fate

   • Lavinia fated to marry a foreigner
     • Her fate will be great
   • The Latins fated to get in a big war
   • Anchises left Aeneas a "riddle of the fates" about how he would know where to set up his city
   • "commands of divine destiny" have made the trojans seek out Latium

5. Women

   • At first Turnus refuses to listen to Allecto (in disguise) because she is a woman
   • Latinus' position is weakened because he has no sons
     • Lavinia cannot rule she must be married off
   • Camilla is a woman who fights
     • Highly unusual
       • "war is the business of men"
     • She leads men and commands respect
   • Seen as unstable - women rising up against men and going collectively mad in the forest
     • Amata "seething with womanly anger"
     • "passion kindled" - firey imagery
   • Mentions of Circe the "savage goddess" who turns men into beasts
   • Allecto is the worst

6. Role of gods

   • Neptune Stops Aeneas & co landing on Circe's island
   • Juno sends Allecto to make Amata angry and mad
     • Because she has "used every resource of sea and sky"
   • Allecto visits Turnus and tells him to fight, when he refuses she makes him fight
   • Allecto sends Iulius' dogs mad and makes them wound Silvia's stag
   • Jupiter sends down omen of 3 claps of thunder and rays of light
   • The Latins are "saturn's people"

7. Portrayal of War

   • Trojans do not want more war
     • They come "with words of supplication and olive branches"
   • For men - "war is the business of men"
   • "the lust for battle raged within him" (Turnus)
   • Starts easily
     • Ascanius is set upon by villagers for harming Silvia's stag and this starts the war of 5 armies
   • A "mad lust for battle" is seen as unnatural - must be provoked by Allecto
   • The Herdsmen want war so much that they are "wearying Mars"

8. Rome's Imperial destiny

   • Rome observes the Latin custom of of opening the gates of war
   • Rome is "the greatest of the great"
   • Roman families descended from the warriors in the battle

9. Moral Values

   • The Latins are a pious people their palace is a "temple of the gods"
   • The Trojans come in "supplication"
   • Latins give Illioneus gifts to bring back to Aeneas