1 00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:09,361 Let's get started now with Virgil's epic. We'll start the way we did with Homer, 2 00:00:09,361 --> 00:00:13,998 when we looked at the first opening lines of his epic, we'll do a similar kind of 3 00:00:13,998 --> 00:00:17,146 close attention to the opening lines of Virgil's story. 4 00:00:17,146 --> 00:00:21,439 Here they are printed out in Latin, and what I'm going to do is go through the 5 00:00:21,439 --> 00:00:25,446 Latin text keyed to chunks of the translation that are taken from the 6 00:00:25,446 --> 00:00:29,281 Fitzgerald translation, which is the recommended one for this class. 7 00:00:29,281 --> 00:00:33,459 The opening eleven lines give the full panoply of what's about to happen. 8 00:00:33,459 --> 00:00:38,553 The first sentence talks about the whole thing in a, condensed way, and the opening 9 00:00:38,553 --> 00:00:41,848 word, In Virgil's case words also talk about the 10 00:00:41,848 --> 00:00:45,309 whole theme of the epic in a condensed way. 11 00:00:45,534 --> 00:00:50,047 Virgil is going to tell an epic that is about arma uirumque. 12 00:00:50,047 --> 00:00:55,990 He's talking about arms and a man. Arma is a marshal word talking about arms 13 00:00:56,216 --> 00:00:59,450 in a war context. No question about that. 14 00:00:59,450 --> 00:01:05,393 Uirum is the idea of a, of a human male. So Virgil's giving us now an epic, by 15 00:01:05,393 --> 00:01:11,486 these first two words which is going to do not only the Odyssey, as he tells us with 16 00:01:11,486 --> 00:01:14,837 uirum but also. What's going to do the Iliad. 17 00:01:14,837 --> 00:01:20,555 We made mention in the class about how the Iliad begins with this war for, word for 18 00:01:20,555 --> 00:01:26,685 war rage and it talks about that sets the tone for this as being an epic about war. 19 00:01:26,685 --> 00:01:31,101 Well, Virgil, in his way, is going to queue up for us that he's going to do both 20 00:01:31,101 --> 00:01:33,920 these things. He's going to create for us, right before 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,288 our very eyes, an Iliad and an Odyssey. For this part of our class, we're just 22 00:01:38,288 --> 00:01:40,886 going to read books one through six of the Aeneid. 23 00:01:40,886 --> 00:01:43,761 It's recommended that you read the rest as you like. 24 00:01:43,927 --> 00:01:46,746 We have to trim down somewhere. It's a huge past. 25 00:01:46,746 --> 00:01:51,003 We need to focus on what we can focus on. So we're going to be looking at the 26 00:01:51,003 --> 00:01:53,657 Odysseyan part of the story, the first six books. 27 00:01:53,657 --> 00:01:56,532 The more Iliadic part is in the second six books. 28 00:01:56,532 --> 00:01:59,020 It doesn't break down quite so neatly, though. 29 00:01:59,020 --> 00:02:04,528 There's pieces of the Odyssey style oh, or Odysseyan themes that carry on through the 30 00:02:04,528 --> 00:02:08,280 rest of the epic, and there's also Iliadic things that show up early on. 31 00:02:08,439 --> 00:02:11,927 We'll flag these as, as needed. But mostly we're going to focus on the 32 00:02:11,927 --> 00:02:15,785 Odyssey parts of the background. Now, look at the very beginning of Aeneas 33 00:02:15,785 --> 00:02:18,427 or of Virgil's story here. Yes, Arms and the Man. 34 00:02:18,427 --> 00:02:20,700 And then we have this Latin word, [foreign]. 35 00:02:20,700 --> 00:02:25,985 That's very distinctive environment means I, first person singular, am doing the 36 00:02:25,985 --> 00:02:29,073 same. Virgil then carries forward a Homeric 37 00:02:29,073 --> 00:02:33,956 tradition of talking about a song that's going to be coming out of his mouth, but 38 00:02:33,956 --> 00:02:38,400 rather than the way Homer does, saying muses, use me as a voice, and sing. 39 00:02:38,595 --> 00:02:43,938 The story that I want to have sung, using me as a mouthpiece Virgil tosses that 40 00:02:43,938 --> 00:02:46,935 aside. He now, as a first person singular human 41 00:02:46,935 --> 00:02:50,388 being, is going to sing a tale for us, as the audience. 42 00:02:50,388 --> 00:02:55,796 We're no longer in a mystified, mythic realm, where we can talk about muses using 43 00:02:55,796 --> 00:02:59,509 us as mouthpieces. Instead, Virgil's coming to us, saying I 44 00:02:59,509 --> 00:03:04,005 am a human being, and I am gonig to be doing the singing about this past. 45 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:09,869 We'll see that the muse comes up in a bit, but Virgil wants to say in the very first 46 00:03:09,869 --> 00:03:15,904 line, he is the one doing the singing. From the sea coast of Troy in early days, 47 00:03:15,904 --> 00:03:22,003 he came to Italy by destiny. To our Livinian western shore, a fugitive. 48 00:03:22,268 --> 00:03:28,721 That term, [foreign], in Latin, by destiny, is an important one for us. 49 00:03:28,986 --> 00:03:33,443 The idea of fate such as we've seen it up until now in the Greek materials, 50 00:03:33,443 --> 00:03:37,706 typically is very much backward looking. There is something that happened in the 51 00:03:37,706 --> 00:03:41,916 past that's anchoring you to that past. And from which you're not going to be able 52 00:03:41,916 --> 00:03:45,860 to escape, no matter how hard you try. Think about how it worked in Oedipus. 53 00:03:46,020 --> 00:03:49,430 Fate is constantly trapping us in some, awfulness of the past. 54 00:03:49,430 --> 00:03:53,481 Instead, in Virgil, we're going to see a different idea of fate that gets pulled 55 00:03:53,481 --> 00:03:55,932 out. It's much more closely linked to the idea 56 00:03:55,932 --> 00:03:59,822 of destiny, in the English term. It's a forward looking concept that talks 57 00:03:59,822 --> 00:04:03,340 about no matter what you do, the future is laid out and by destiny. 58 00:04:03,340 --> 00:04:08,893 You're going to get to that future point. Virgil's story, through Aeneas, is very 59 00:04:08,893 --> 00:04:14,244 much a story drawn along by large, arc tectonic forces of the universe, that are 60 00:04:14,244 --> 00:04:19,391 pushing it forward, forward, forward. The destiny that's going to bring Virgil 61 00:04:19,594 --> 00:04:25,419 to his home base, and bring Aeneas along to his home base is what's going to propel 62 00:04:25,419 --> 00:04:28,196 us. He's going to move from the sea coast of 63 00:04:28,196 --> 00:04:33,547 Troy in early days, so we're talking about some very early time, this Trojan war. 64 00:04:33,750 --> 00:04:39,014 He's moving from the sea coast of Troy, over to Italy to the Lavinian western 65 00:04:39,014 --> 00:04:42,294 shore, and we Romans know he's talking about us. 66 00:04:42,503 --> 00:04:46,760 Vergil is, has our character on his way to found a city. 67 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,415 That we know. He's buffeted cruelly on land as on the 68 00:04:50,415 --> 00:04:55,794 sea by blows from powers of the air, behind them baleful Juno, in her sleepless 69 00:04:55,794 --> 00:04:58,760 rage. Now, Juno is going to appear in this epic 70 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:02,346 as a very strong force that is pushing against fate. 71 00:05:02,346 --> 00:05:07,794 Fate is going to be drawing us forward into the future that is Rome and the glory 72 00:05:07,794 --> 00:05:12,484 that's coming, Juno is going to be a force that pulls backward. 73 00:05:12,691 --> 00:05:17,863 At Virgil's epic, is one, sure it's very much driven by this forward-looking 74 00:05:17,863 --> 00:05:20,760 destiny, but it's anything but some simple. 75 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,048 Rosy, we're on rails to a bright future kind of destiny. 76 00:05:24,048 --> 00:05:28,017 It's a destiny that's going to be achieved, but it's going to be achieved 77 00:05:28,017 --> 00:05:32,042 with great pain and suffering. Virgil does not whitewash this at all. 78 00:05:32,042 --> 00:05:36,748 The founding of Rome is a complex thing. It involves, the, the overrunning of lots 79 00:05:36,748 --> 00:05:40,349 of people. Individuals are going to get steam torn up 80 00:05:40,349 --> 00:05:45,447 in the, in the machinaries of history. And all of it is going to lead towards 81 00:05:45,447 --> 00:05:50,415 something, but in the, on the way there we're going to look at lots of vectors 82 00:05:50,415 --> 00:05:54,996 that are pushing it backward. Juno is the, M is the emblem of these 83 00:05:55,190 --> 00:05:59,449 backward pushing vectors. She is constantly retarding the progress 84 00:05:59,642 --> 00:06:04,288 that Aneas might like to make. Aneas will have friends pushing him 85 00:06:04,288 --> 00:06:08,160 forward, and he will also Juno constantly pushing back. 86 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:14,389 And cool losses were his lot in war till he could found a city and bring home his 87 00:06:14,389 --> 00:06:20,162 gods to Latium, land of the Latin race, the Alban lords and the high walls of 88 00:06:20,162 --> 00:06:23,656 Rome. Now, the future toward which Aeneas is 89 00:06:23,656 --> 00:06:28,062 being pulled, is one that will lead him to build something. 90 00:06:28,062 --> 00:06:34,140 He's going to build a city, found it, get it started, build walls, he's going to 91 00:06:34,140 --> 00:06:41,902 make order out of something chaotic there will be lots of confusion along the way. 92 00:06:41,902 --> 00:06:47,617 There'll be things that get mixed up. But the end state here as a nicely 93 00:06:47,617 --> 00:06:52,935 ordered, well drawn city, that's put together with a careful plan. 94 00:06:52,935 --> 00:06:56,665 That orders that has laws that organize people. 95 00:06:56,903 --> 00:07:01,507 The, the, the enemy here is disorder and, confusion. 96 00:07:01,507 --> 00:07:08,332 And the friend, to our victory here is going to be, clarity and conciseness. 97 00:07:08,332 --> 00:07:13,730 We're going to show forth the clear straight lines of what it is to be. 98 00:07:13,730 --> 00:07:17,776 Roman the walls of Rome. We're going to see Aeneas consistently 99 00:07:17,776 --> 00:07:22,273 trying to build those things. Building of walls is something he has 100 00:07:22,273 --> 00:07:26,679 anchored to in his own heroic expression. Now our muse shows up. 101 00:07:26,679 --> 00:07:31,419 Tell me the causes now, o muse. Here Aeneas, Virgil is building in a 102 00:07:31,419 --> 00:07:34,579 reference to this mythic, epic past of Homer. 103 00:07:34,579 --> 00:07:39,247 He's not just overtaking and saying, I'm the one singing the song. 104 00:07:39,247 --> 00:07:44,992 He's talking about being inspired by a muse surely and the muse is a part of it. 105 00:07:44,992 --> 00:07:48,080 But not the first line, interestingly, Right? 106 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,030 It gets moved down a little bit in the order of events. 107 00:07:52,030 --> 00:07:59,532 How galled in her pride, and how sore at heart, and from her old wound the queen of 108 00:07:59,532 --> 00:08:05,975 gods compelled him, a man apart, devoted to his mission, to undergo so many 109 00:08:05,975 --> 00:08:09,682 perilous days, and enter on so many trials. 110 00:08:09,682 --> 00:08:14,942 Now Aeneas is a character that we're going to get to know quite well. 111 00:08:15,157 --> 00:08:21,085 He's being pushed around by this old wound that the queen of the gods has, as she's 112 00:08:21,300 --> 00:08:26,514 as she's pushing him around. But he himself is a man apart and devoted 113 00:08:26,514 --> 00:08:30,514 to his mission. The Latin here that the Fitzgerald is 114 00:08:30,514 --> 00:08:36,014 using to translate, insignum pie, pietae, pietaerium a man marked by his pietas. 115 00:08:36,014 --> 00:08:40,371 We're going to spend a lot of time talking about what pietas is. 116 00:08:40,371 --> 00:08:44,300 There is a English equivalent in the term piety, that's. 117 00:08:44,300 --> 00:08:48,139 Important. But this idea of devotion, utterly devoted 118 00:08:48,139 --> 00:08:53,515 to his mission is what is being brought out rightfully in Fitzgerald's 119 00:08:53,515 --> 00:08:57,354 translation. We've got a hero whose now motivated by 120 00:08:57,354 --> 00:09:01,961 something closer to duty. Then we have with, very different kinds of 121 00:09:01,961 --> 00:09:06,158 heroes, in our Greek past. A Roman hero is going to be motivated, 122 00:09:06,158 --> 00:09:11,054 especially and anchored by duty. He's going to in pursuing this great good 123 00:09:11,054 --> 00:09:16,205 of, of Romanness he's going to suffer. Terrible things he's going to go through, 124 00:09:16,396 --> 00:09:21,420 that same kind of a way that Odysseus did, well, Aeneas kind of suffered as well. 125 00:09:21,420 --> 00:09:26,388 Then query at the end of this opening lines. 126 00:09:26,598 --> 00:09:29,536 As Virgil is wondering to himself. My gosh. 127 00:09:29,746 --> 00:09:33,104 Juno. And just how awfully, outraged, she is. 128 00:09:33,104 --> 00:09:36,602 And how much outrage she brings to bear on Aeneas. 129 00:09:36,602 --> 00:09:40,240 Can anger black as this prey on the minds of heaven? 130 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:46,256 How is it that the divinities become so, warped in their anger, and visit such 131 00:09:46,256 --> 00:09:50,873 nasty things on our hero? Yes, indeed, Juno is going to have some 132 00:09:50,873 --> 00:09:56,470 awful things that come Aeneas' way. He'll stand up to them, he's got some time 133 00:09:56,470 --> 00:10:00,816 left He's just going to take him some time, though to find his feet and work his 134 00:10:00,816 --> 00:10:03,499 way through the challenges that are coming his way. 135 00:10:03,657 --> 00:10:07,760 We're going to look at them in the coming six books, as we read it very carefully 136 00:10:07,918 --> 00:10:12,390 starting off with some discussion about Book one and then moving quickly into the 137 00:10:12,390 --> 00:10:16,200 count, account of the Trojan War that Virgil gives us in book two.