<< message forwarded by listowner, David Wilson-Okamura >> From: "Timothy Mallon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 10:22:36 PST
It is interesting that the _Iliad_ ends with a reflection: the last element of the last word "-damos" is an adjective related to _damazein_ a word frequently used in the sense of "slay" (literally: subdue/overcome/tame). So the horse tamer is himself the "tamed". But as Achilles knows, he too is fated to die (and so informed). The _Iliad_'s implications are more death and disaster, some of which is incorporated into the _Aeneid_. The _Odyssey_ follows a trajectory whose completion is a kind of rest; reunion and restored order. The _Aeneid_ can't end on either of these. There is no rest for Aeneas or for Italy (and indeed the Odyssean part of the _Aeneid_ ends only to launch the Iliadic); nor perhaps would Virgil wish to taint his vision of Rome with the _Iliad_'s insistence on the almost vegetative cyclicity of human life, rot and decay. He wants to initiate and imply a grand sweep rather than a cycle. But the pessimism of the Iliadic vision which informs the end of the _Aeneid_ undercuts this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
