The Aeneid - Blog Posts

pussy so good he forgets about his gods-given quest

I WAS TRANSLATING THE AENEID AND GOT TO NIMBŌ AND I WAS LIKE BRANDON IS THAT YOU???

haec rursus patienda manent, hoc ordine belli ibitur, hic stabit civilibus exitus armis [lucan, pharsalia], or alternatively titled, Aeneas Kills Turnus

there’s a million and seven things that went on in the ‘dialogue’ of figuring this painting out, but it’ll take like, literally 15 pages to explain, so instead I’ll pull together a thread of quotes that rattled around in my head while I made this and hope that the dots are all connectable

the aeneid, tr. fagles

the iliad, tr. fagles

blood in the arena, alison futrell

@thoodleoo​‘s tags on this post

the epodes: horace’s archilochus?, lindsay watson

the memory of philippi in horace and the interpretation of the epistle 1.20.23,  mario citroni (you know, because philippi is where the republic dies, and functions as a spectacle, funeral, and foundational sacrifice for empire, which circles back to—)

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i just want to work in a small museum in italy where i translate latin manuscripts and talk to college kids about the ancient world before walking to my little apartment by the sea to drink tea and watch the sunset while chopin plays in the background. is that too much to ask?

Can’t lie Dido’s suicide is the best thing to happen to both Dido and (kinda) Aeneas. Cuss like listen okay Dido lusting over Aeneas is not his fault! It was the Gods work and then Dido’s sister that convinced her to act on her divine feelings.

Is Aeneas still kind of an ass? Yes. He still took her univera status from her, allowed her kingdom to collapse since she was following him like a duck, and then go on to denounce their (tbf unofficial) marriage . These aren’t great things but they also wouldn’t have happened without Juno, Venus and Cupid.

Anyway the reason why it’s good is cuss Dido gets to be with her husband- her one *true* love. The person she swore off men for. The person who even in death she craves to be in his arms! Like sorry but her suicide is what allowed her to return to him. Not to mention it’s what broke cupids spell AND brought her so much sympathy from Juno (who yes… is to blame) that she sent Iris to cut her life thread short. Ya know. BREAKING FATE! Her death is horrible but it’s also the kindest fate she could ever have once the Gods caught sight of her.

For Aeneas it’s not so much her suicide but the leaving, he does it for his son! It’s not even for himself he doesn’t care, mercury ‘manipulates’ Aeneas using his fatherhood and leader role against him to not only force him out of Carthage but to leave THEN and there. I mean come on, Aeneas isn’t pleased with Didos death, in book 6 he uselessly reached out to talk to her and in book 11 he buries his surrogate son, Pallas, in robes SHE gifted. He doesn’t forget her. Her last mention is with the son that he could never truly have. The family he could never have *because* of Rome. It’s depressing.

But it’s better than loving a man because the Gods forced you. It’s better than watching your kingdom slowly crumble around you and you not having the ability to care. It’s better than failing as a father and the carrier of your cultures future. It’s better than ignoring the call of the Gods.

love reading the aeneid when i'm having a bad day because no matter what kind of day i'm having aeneas is having a worse one

idk if this is anything but you can kind of view aeneas as a man that's unstuck from time. he sees the ghost of hector. he takes his eyes off his wife and she's now a ghost. he finds carthage, a city that won't be founded for hundreds of years. he carries the future of rome, he sees people not yet born when he's in the underworld. and so forth

keeps pace with tripping steps

anus and dildo situationship lore goes crazy

Draw nigh, come through the press to grips with me, so shall ye learn what might wells up in breasts of Amazons. With my blood is mingled war!

Queen Penthesilea, in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ The Fall of Troy

Quoted in Wonder Woman: Warbringer

Oh boy can’t wait to start the Aeneid by virgin my favorite forgotten boy

Reflections: The Aeneid by Virgil - Chapters 1&2

Hello! I’m currently reading the Aeneid with the subreddit AYearOfMythology on reddit. I decided to post up my responses here on my blog as well as on the subreddit. Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! (And I’m totally not procrastinating on doing the reflection questions of Dante’s The Divine Comedy 😛) I’m using the Robert Fagles translation. Question 1 – There are at least two events…

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If I got a cent for every devastatingly tragic love story (any kind of love) I'm obsessed with where the two are so painfully sweet yet so incredibly doomed by the narrative at the same time and one of them dies leaving the other alone and utterly destroyed by their grief bc they've lost their only reason for living (bonus point if the soul of the died one literally haunts the other, whose only wish is to join them) I'd be filthy rich and it's not even funny. im crying. it's not damn funny at all actually don't even talk to me im going to curl up in my small little corner sobbing. bye

im pregnant with the empire and its yours

Read The Aeneid (Vergil, translated Shadi Bartsch

Bartsch's translation is fantastic, vivid, and enthralling even when entrenched in the dregs of violence. My first time reading since achieving any real form of political sapience, and the window that Aeneas gives into the colonialist mindset is completely fascinating.

The primary action of the poem that I was interested in this reading is the transformation from a national identity defined by victimhood to the colonialist violence in the second half. Aeneas' piety appears to me to be largely a vehicle for his entitlement. It serves to justify his promised rewards, but he uses these promises and prophecies to deflect from his own culpability in betrayal and violence. This turn to childish arrogance first became apparent to me as our hero abandons the home he has found for his people in Carthage. Besides his personal betrayal of Dido, here it becomes clear that it is not safety or comfort he is looking for, but a particular imperial rulership, as he excuses himself to Dido saying "My father's troubled ghost alarms me in my dreams. He says I've harmed my dear son Ascanius by robbing him of western rule and fated fields" (IV.352-4). Here, Aeneas completely removes blame from himself, relying on his piety to his father and imagined nation as an excuse for his selfish, deadly actions.

The most exceptional occurrence of this blame-shifting entitlement, however, is one in which even the excuse of piety strains belief. When Aeneas murders Turnus, his entitlement has already been established: "Our rites owe me Turnus" (XII.37). He is joyful during the duel, but at the end, even his deep belief in his violence as utterly justified begins to falter. Turnus appeals to his piety, to his love of his father and his son, and Aeneas begins to feel the conflict between his hate and his love: "Turnus' words began to move him and he hesitated" (XII.940-1). That is, until he finds a way out. He sees Pallas' belt, a symbol of his victimhood, of violence committed against one of his compatriots, and deals the fatal blow. Crucially, he refuses agency here: although this act is not ordained, the gods have not ordered him to murder Turnus, it is not essential for his rule to be secured, he finds a way to shift responsibility: "Pallas sacrifices you, Pallas punishes your profane blood" (XII.948-9). Bartsch completes her last mission as a translator, and uses her final note (so often a halter of the momentum of an ending) to leave us with a final observation on the shifting of victimhood: "Turnus' knees buckled with chill: As do Aeneas' knees the first time we meet him in the epic, I.92. These are the only two times this phrase is used: Turnus is now the victim that Aeneas once was" (Note to XII.951).