1 00:00:04,780 --> 00:00:09,783 Leaving behind Book four of the Aeneid, and all that nasty business with Dido we 2 00:00:09,783 --> 00:00:13,700 take quite a turn in the, in the events of our story in Book five. 3 00:00:13,701 --> 00:00:18,404 We have our hero, Aeneas, moving from the northern coast of Africa, and Carthage, 4 00:00:18,404 --> 00:00:22,503 And this background that he sees in Dido, and her civilization. 5 00:00:22,503 --> 00:00:27,868 And the, the, the dangers of maybe getting implicated in there, and his escape from 6 00:00:27,868 --> 00:00:28,652 there. We now. 7 00:00:28,652 --> 00:00:31,184 Are going to move on to the future, literally. 8 00:00:31,184 --> 00:00:34,379 We're moving on to Rome and what's going to happen next. 9 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:39,893 Sicily provides a kind of perfect medial space in between those two locations, 10 00:00:39,893 --> 00:00:43,822 Northern Africa and Italy. It's in the middle in terms of geography. 11 00:00:43,822 --> 00:00:47,163 It's right there. It's also an island, so it's somewhat 12 00:00:47,163 --> 00:00:51,267 separate from the rest of the world. It also recalls, interestingly, the, 13 00:00:51,267 --> 00:00:55,430 another island that we know from our mythic background of Scheria where 14 00:00:55,430 --> 00:00:59,710 Odysseus had a engagement in a similar kind ofactivity that we see most 15 00:00:59,710 --> 00:01:04,694 characteristic in Book five, That is the games in honor of in the case, in honor of 16 00:01:04,694 --> 00:01:08,426 Anchises. These athletic games that Virgil positions 17 00:01:08,426 --> 00:01:12,790 in his epic right at this point, have really interesting connections with the 18 00:01:12,790 --> 00:01:17,550 athletic games that show up, especially in Book eight in the Odyssey, and allow us to 19 00:01:17,550 --> 00:01:19,986 make some interesting kinds of connections. 20 00:01:20,156 --> 00:01:24,406 The differences are as profound and interesting as the similarities, but, 21 00:01:24,406 --> 00:01:28,713 there are ways in which these things are have bear some comparison. 22 00:01:28,713 --> 00:01:33,020 Remember, in Odysseus's case, he is finding a way to reintegrate himself back 23 00:01:33,020 --> 00:01:36,136 into society. He has been isolated and alone for a long 24 00:01:36,136 --> 00:01:39,650 time in the story. He has been far away on the island of, 25 00:01:39,650 --> 00:01:44,780 Ogygia, and trying to find his way back to his own home, the island of Scheria gives 26 00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:49,023 him a, a medial position in which he can rest, rejuvenate, recover his strength, 27 00:01:49,023 --> 00:01:51,944 and move forward. It also give him a way to, in a, in a 28 00:01:51,944 --> 00:01:56,539 final sense, recover the fullness of his identity and recall in Book five through, 29 00:01:56,539 --> 00:02:00,099 through seven, he's starting to recover that sense of who he is. 30 00:02:00,265 --> 00:02:05,389 He gets back some of his strength and it, it starts to show wits about him and then 31 00:02:05,389 --> 00:02:09,743 he recovers that and, and displays that physical strength through these funeral 32 00:02:09,743 --> 00:02:12,388 games. This is a, another piece in him piecing 33 00:02:12,388 --> 00:02:16,137 himself back together such that in Books nine through twelve, he can take over as, 34 00:02:16,137 --> 00:02:20,971 as captain of the, of the poem and carry forward in the narrative and move things 35 00:02:20,971 --> 00:02:25,137 forward for us there. Now, for Aeneas, the medial position is 36 00:02:25,137 --> 00:02:28,360 very much similar. He's moving from a state of having been 37 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,860 in, in a state of wandering and not quite sure where he's going into a state of much 38 00:02:32,860 --> 00:02:36,082 strong surety. As he moves to the coast of, of Italy via 39 00:02:36,082 --> 00:02:39,137 Sicily, he's going to enter in, into a new part of the epic. 40 00:02:39,137 --> 00:02:43,526 We're going to close a look at Book six, which is him going into the underworld of 41 00:02:43,526 --> 00:02:46,748 further detour. But this spot in Boom five is a transition 42 00:02:46,748 --> 00:02:50,716 time as he's moving to Italy. And in Book seven and four, Over the part 43 00:02:50,716 --> 00:02:56,042 that we're not reading for this for this part of the course Aeneas' action takes 44 00:02:56,042 --> 00:03:00,571 place as it's a militaristic conquest of territory, very definite, definite task 45 00:03:00,571 --> 00:03:06,815 that takes courage and strength but it is have more definitive perimeters around it. 46 00:03:06,815 --> 00:03:11,283 Up till now, it's been a lot of wandering and moving around, and unclarity, 47 00:03:11,283 --> 00:03:14,894 incertainty, uncertainty as Aeneas tries to find his way. 48 00:03:14,894 --> 00:03:19,914 So, the games are a transitionws into a time when Aeneas is now going to become a, 49 00:03:19,914 --> 00:03:24,372 a more powerful figure in his own right. Now, there are structural ties in this 50 00:03:24,372 --> 00:03:28,299 book to the rest of the story, they're quite interesting to note. 51 00:03:28,467 --> 00:03:31,890 There are ominous fires that bookend both sides of the games. 52 00:03:31,890 --> 00:03:35,873 Remember, Dido's funeral pyre? Just before we get on to the games, we can 53 00:03:35,873 --> 00:03:39,464 see that far off the coast. And then, after the games, we have the 54 00:03:39,464 --> 00:03:44,009 fires of the ships that are being burned. That, the Trojan women set them under 55 00:03:44,009 --> 00:03:46,870 Juno's encouragement, and, and we see those fires. 56 00:03:46,870 --> 00:03:50,461 They closed the games. Both of these have ominous, portentious 57 00:03:50,461 --> 00:03:53,920 kinds of meanings to them. There's a storm that we see at the 58 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:58,720 beginning that drives the fleet to Sicily. And another storm at the end puts out the 59 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,034 flames on the burning ships. We have this figure Palinurus. 60 00:04:02,034 --> 00:04:06,891 He shows up at the beginning of the book as the ship gets through the storm to 61 00:04:06,891 --> 00:04:10,034 Sicily. He's the steersman that gets it carefully 62 00:04:10,034 --> 00:04:14,091 through that treacherous path. And then, Palinurus appears at the end of 63 00:04:14,091 --> 00:04:17,462 the story as he falls off the ship. We're going to meet him. 64 00:04:17,805 --> 00:04:21,805 Who knew that there was a dead colleague that fell off of our ship. 65 00:04:21,977 --> 00:04:32,780 We're going to find out in the underworld interestingly another harkening back into 66 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:32,780 interesting theme in Odyssey. We're going to meet up with Palinurus 67 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:32,780 again, at least, we'll hear about them again. 68 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:38,621 Now, the games that get worked out in Book five show us lots of pieces of Aeneas' 69 00:04:38,621 --> 00:04:43,675 character coming to the form. There are in the games a boat race, a foot 70 00:04:43,675 --> 00:04:48,467 race, boxing, archery, and the equestrian maneuver of the Lusus Troiae. 71 00:04:48,664 --> 00:04:52,536 These are different than what we see in the Greek games. 72 00:04:52,733 --> 00:04:58,247 There's some similarities but also some distinctive Romanesque that's built into 73 00:04:58,247 --> 00:05:01,135 these. We see people in the games who are 74 00:05:01,332 --> 00:05:05,598 constantly cutting corners. They're making mistakes, they're being 75 00:05:05,598 --> 00:05:09,023 greedy they're not living up to their to their potential, 76 00:05:09,023 --> 00:05:11,814 They're whining. Those who are engaged in the games are 77 00:05:11,814 --> 00:05:14,844 doing all kinds of things that require correcting. 78 00:05:14,844 --> 00:05:20,510 Well, as these events show themselves, who's the correcter and chief who shows 79 00:05:20,510 --> 00:05:23,344 up? It's Aeneas. He starts to step into his 80 00:05:23,344 --> 00:05:28,606 role now, as a strong commander with, a, a, strong hand on the tiller of his ship 81 00:05:28,808 --> 00:05:31,979 guiding his people through, difficult conflicts. 82 00:05:32,181 --> 00:05:37,915 As was the case when we look back at the Odyssey we see important pieces of 83 00:05:37,915 --> 00:05:43,514 Odysseus' character being put on display there well, here, we see Aeneas growing 84 00:05:43,514 --> 00:05:48,978 into important pieces of his character, that are going to be central for him as he 85 00:05:48,978 --> 00:05:52,149 moves forward. He gives a chance to display a, a, a new 86 00:05:52,149 --> 00:05:56,616 kind of prowess that he has. In that sense, there's a parallelism with 87 00:05:56,616 --> 00:06:00,046 Telemachus, as much as there is with Odysseus as well. 88 00:06:00,046 --> 00:06:04,448 His father is now gone, sadly but with that figure out of the way, 89 00:06:04,448 --> 00:06:10,609 And he is now, is, is his own, steps into his own as being a prominent and powerful 90 00:06:10,785 --> 00:06:16,902 person at the height of his of his of his own capabilities in Book five. 91 00:06:16,903 --> 00:06:21,609 We see him settle disputes, he's very good at this as people engage in the games, 92 00:06:21,609 --> 00:06:25,609 there are conflicts that arise. Aeneas finds ways to settle disputes. 93 00:06:25,609 --> 00:06:28,903 He has judgement and fairness that he brings to bear. 94 00:06:28,903 --> 00:06:33,609 He has good offices that he's earned through surviving these awful toils and 95 00:06:33,609 --> 00:06:38,197 bringing his people through all this nasty stuff that they've been through. 96 00:06:38,197 --> 00:06:42,668 And now, he puts them to use in finding ways for people to move forward, even 97 00:06:42,668 --> 00:06:47,781 through conflict and to settle disputes. He's, he's steps right into the center of 98 00:06:47,781 --> 00:06:52,380 that and takes over in order to help make things work out right for society. 99 00:06:52,380 --> 00:06:56,867 One of the markers I think of taking responsibility is another way of saying 100 00:06:56,867 --> 00:07:02,027 solving other people's problems and Aeneas is stepping right up and doing that kind 101 00:07:02,027 --> 00:07:07,019 of thing in through, throughout this book. There's after he intervenes and solves 102 00:07:07,019 --> 00:07:12,067 things, we see lots of goodwill that shows up, there are prizes all around and Aeneas 103 00:07:12,067 --> 00:07:16,273 is very generous, he puts them all, all over, he makes people feel good about 104 00:07:16,273 --> 00:07:22,935 themselves and in each of these situations the epithet that gets put out more and 105 00:07:22,935 --> 00:07:27,079 more frequently with Aeneas. In this book, and then forward from here 106 00:07:27,079 --> 00:07:31,588 in the epic, is Father Aeneas. He starts to be referred to in these games 107 00:07:31,588 --> 00:07:35,183 as Father Aeneas, More so than any other book in the, in the 108 00:07:35,183 --> 00:07:38,168 epic. In fact Book five is where he shows this 109 00:07:38,168 --> 00:07:41,459 epithet of himself and shows himself having earned it. 110 00:07:41,641 --> 00:07:46,638 Aeneas is now making a transition from this time of wandering and difficulty such 111 00:07:46,638 --> 00:07:51,512 as we see in the, the, the journeys and all the turmoil, turmoil that came with 112 00:07:51,512 --> 00:07:55,900 those from Carthage and forward, And now making a turn to Italy. 113 00:07:55,900 --> 00:08:00,301 That he does this via Sicily, on a final historical note, is important. 114 00:08:00,492 --> 00:08:05,277 We have talked already about the Carthaginians and the important role that 115 00:08:05,277 --> 00:08:10,125 they played in Roman history. Sicily was a critical piece of the whole 116 00:08:10,125 --> 00:08:14,590 Carthaginian struggle. The struggle against the role of Carthage. 117 00:08:14,590 --> 00:08:20,203 So, the connection there would have been deeply engraved in Roman minds of Sicily 118 00:08:20,203 --> 00:08:25,179 as a pathway between Carthage and Rome. And now, being backtracked by Aeneas 119 00:08:25,179 --> 00:08:30,549 himself, as he is bringing from Carthage this, determination to found a new city 120 00:08:30,765 --> 00:08:36,751 that will eventually make Dido's funeral pyre go far away and distant and 121 00:08:36,751 --> 00:08:41,800 eventually flicker out as Rome comes to dominate the Mediterranean.