129–172: The Hunting Party

Steve Jenkin

November 29, 2012

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 105.     129–72 recount the events that Juno had anticipated in 117–27: compare and contrast the divine plan with how it unfolds.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 106.     Who is the goddess Aurora (129: Oceanum interea surgens Aurora reliquit) and where else does Virgil mention her in Aeneid 4? Do the various instances add up to a pattern?

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 107.     What are the formal means Virgil uses in lines 130–32 to enhance the sense of excitement felt by the party setting out for the hunt?

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 108.     The rest of the hunting party is ready to go, but everyone is waiting for dallying Dido (133–35: reginam … cunctantem): what is taking her so long?

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 109.     Why is the phrase stat sonipes (135; of Dido’s horse) paradoxical and potentially funny?

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 110.     Compare and contrast Dido’s entry at 4.136–37: tandem progreditur magna stipante caterua/ Sidoniam picto chlamydem circumdata limbo with her earlier entry at 1.496–97: regina ad templum, forma pulcherrima Dido,/ incessit, magna iuuenum stipante caterua (‘The queen, Dido, of surpassing beauty, approached the temple, with a larger throng of youths crowding around her’).

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 111.     In lines 138–39, Virgil uses ‘gold’ or ‘golden’ three times: ex auro, in aurum, aurea … fibula. How do you call the figure of speech, in which the same word recurs in different cases? What are the thematic implications of Virgil’s use of the device here?

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 112.     140: nec non—what is this rhetorical device called?

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 113.     Why does Virgil underscore the outstanding beauty of Aeneas (141–42: ante alios pulcherrimus omnis … Aeneas)?

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 114.     What are the points of contact between the simile of Apollo (143–49) and the surrounding narrative?

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 115.     Apollo is depicted as leaving Lycia in winter (143–44: hibernam Lyciam … deserit). Why might the indication of the season be significant? Who else is on the move during this time of the year?

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 116.     Lines 145–46 feature four –que (mixtique, Cretesque, Dryopesque, pictique): what words do they link, respectively?

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 117.     Apollo seems to care a lot about his hair (147–48: mollique fluentem/ fronde premit crinem fingens atque implicat auro). Try to draw his hairdo—and ponder the gender-connotations of Virgil’s idiom.

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 118.     Line 149 (tela sonant umeris) introduces a sharp shift in tone, from the cosmetic obsession with hair to Apollo’s deadly weaponry. To what extent does the ‘soft/ tough’ image of Apollo in the simile match the character and the role of Aeneas?

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 119.     What type of ablative is illo (149)?

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 120.     Identify the three elisions in line 151: postquam altos uentum in montis atque inuia lustra. Why are they thematically appropriate?

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 121.     Analyse the balance of symmetry and movement that Virgil has built into the syntactical and metrical design of 152–53: ferae saxi deiectae uertice caprae/ decurrere iugis.

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 122.     Scan lines 153b–55 and relate meter to theme:

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 alia de parte patentis

¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 transmittunt cursu campos atque agmina cerui

¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 puluerulenta fuga glomerant montisque relinquunt.

¶ 22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 123.     Identify the main features in the character-portrayal of Ascanius built into lines 156–59.

¶ 23 Leave a comment on paragraph 23 0 124.     Analyse the ‘sound-picture’ Virgil generates in lines 160–61: Interea magno misceri murmure caelum/ incipit, insequitur commixta grandine nimbus.

¶ 24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 125.     How does Virgil’s word order reflect the impact of the storm on the hunting party in lines 162–64?

¶ 25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 126.     What happens in the cave (166–68)? Do Dido and Aeneas emerge as a married couple? Does Virgil describe a wedding ritual or the parody of a wedding ritual? And if they did not get married, how would you describe their relationship?

¶ 26 Leave a comment on paragraph 26 0 127.     Compare and contrast Dido’s and Aeneas’ encounter in the cave with that of Jason and Medea in Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1128–69:

¶ 27 Leave a comment on paragraph 27 0 Immediately they prepared a mixing-bowl of wine for the blessed gods, as is proper, and following correct ritual procedure led sheep to the altar. On that very night they made ready a bridal bed for the girl in the sacred cave where Macris once lived … Here, then, they prepared the great bed; over it they threw the gleaming golden fleece, so that the wedding night should be honoured and become the subject of song. And for them the nymphs gathered flowers of many colours and brought them cradled in their white breasts. … Some were called daughters of the river Aegaeus, others haunted the peaks of mount Melite, and others were woodland nymphs from the plains. Hera herself, Zeus’ wife, urged them to come in Jason’s honour. To this day that holy cave is called the Cave of Medea, where the nymphs spread out fragrant linen and brought the marriage of the couple to fulfilment. … The crew … to the pure accompaniment of Orpheus’ lyre, sang the wedding song at the entrance of the bridal chamber. It was not in Alcinous’ domain that the heroic son of Aeson [Jason], had wished to marry, but in the halls of his father after his retun to Iolcus; and Medea also had the same intention, but necessity led them to make love at that time. But so it is: we tribes of woe-stricken humans never enter upon delight wholeheartedly, but always some bitter pain marches alongside our joy. Thus, though they melted in sweet love-making, both were fearful whether Alcinous’ sentence would be brought to fruition.

¶ 28 Leave a comment on paragraph 28 0 128.     Why is the day in which Dido and Aeneas meet in the cave the cause of death and evils (169–70): ille dies primus leti primusque malorum/ causa fuit)?

¶ 29 Leave a comment on paragraph 29 0 129.     What does Dido’s culpa (172) consist in?

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