Caroline Lee schrieb: > In Book VI, Aeneaus descends to the underworld. At the end of Book VI, we > are told that there are two gates through which dreams and ghosts ascend to > the world above: true ones pass through the gates of horn, false ones > through the gates of ivory. After his visit to the realm of the dead, we > are told, Aeneas and the Sibyl return to the world above through the gates > of ivory. I am stumped by the implications for what Aeneas has just > witnessed and the future of his epic.
Sehr gut beobachtet! a real problem. Eduard Norden: "P.Vergilius Maro, Aeneis Buch VI" (Teubner, Leipzig/Stuttgart 1927/1995) page 348 f about verse 893 ff: "... Die richtige Deutung gab W.Everett, Class. review XIV (1900) 153 f. Es war ein weit verbreiteter Glaube, daß die falschen Träume vor und die wahren nach Mitternacht kämen (...), eine von Vergil selbst bei den von ihm erzählten Traumerscheinungen befolgte Vorstellung (z.B. 8,26.67). Wenn Aeneas also durch das Tor der falschen Träume entlassen wird, so liegt darin nichts weiter als die Zeitbestimmung 'vor Mitternacht'. Die katabasis begann bei Morgengrauen (255); 535 ff ist es Nachmittag geworden und die Sibylle drängt, das datum tempus auszunutzen; vor Mitternacht, d.h. der Stunde, zu der die Toten die Oberwelt besuchen dürfen (vgl. 5,719-39), muß die anabasis des Lebenden vollzogen sein." in my bad English (please excuse my mistakes, maybe your German is better): "... W.Everett, Class. review XIV (1900) 153 f gave the right interpretation. It was a common belief that false dreams would come before midnight and true dreams after midnight (...); Vergil himself follows this idea in those dream-tales, which are told by himself, (for example 8,26.67). That Aeneas leaves through the portal for false dreams means nothing else than: the point of time is situated "before midnight". His katabasis began in the early dawn (255); 535 ff it has become afternoon and Sibylla forces him to take the chance of the "datum tempus"; before midnight - that means before the hour in which the dead are allowed to visit their living relatives in the upper world (compare 5,719-39) - the anabasis has to be done by the living person (by living Aeneas)." grusz, hansz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
