<< message forwarded by listowner >> From: "ddavis-henry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 18:18:55 -0500
I have always thought that the manipulating, duplicitous character of Venus was Vergil's indirect way of villifying the Julio-Claudians: Venus who is the ancestress of the Julian clan will pretty much do any thing she needs to further her own ends in the Aeneid. Isn't this what Julius Caesar and Octavian were guilty of? Vergil has been accused of being Augustus' 'lap dog' but I think he is much shrewder than that. He puts Venus in an unflattering light time and again (her switch of Ascanius with Cupid for example) because he uses her to reveal the flaws of her descendents. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
