On Erato: extremely notable, I think, that Apollonius began the second half of the Argonautica (which I think has just as much influence on Aeneid as Homer does) in exactly the same way
On Venus: I agree with you class - there must be a link. Virgil knew De natura rerum so well (esp for Georgics). All your reasons are right, and together make a fairly compelling motive for Virgil's extensive use. In addition, how about the possibility that Venus was simply more interesting, in a literary way - she provided more possibilities and the chance for some rather 'fun' encounters, such as that in book1. I can imagine our poet being coaxed by such an opportunity. Dan King ----- Original Message ----- From: David Wilson-Okamura <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 9:31 PM Subject: VIRGIL: why Venus? > A couple weeks ago I asked my epic students why Virgil asked Erato > (sometimes identified as the muse of love poetry) to preside over the > second half of the Aeneid. We came up with the usual answer (Turnus is > fighting in order to obtain Lavinia as his bride), but I'm still not > entirely satisfied on this point. > > Having said that, it seems to me there's an even more important, and more > obvious, question to be asked on this subject: why does is Venus (of all > people, I mean, goddesses) so prominent in the Aeneid? Some explanations: > > - Julius Caesar thought he had a special relationship with Venus, as did Rome. > > - She is Aeneas's mother; there's not much Virgil can do to change this > > Still, why does she have to show up so often in the poem? After all, Virgil > deviates from the historical tradition in lots of other places. Wouldn't > Apollo (Octavian's patron deity) have been more appropriate? > > One explanation which occurred to me while I was reading an old article on > Botticelli's Venus (as she appears in Primavera) is that Virgil's Venus is > the goddess of concord and propagation addressed by Lucretius at the > beginning of De rerum natura. I tried this out in class, and got what I > took to be a positive response, but then they're mostly English majors; as > such they're TRAINED to look for connections. > > And of course no one wants to say the teacher's idea is stupid. So I bring > the question to you: what think the mantovani? > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c. > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
