At this point in the work, aeneas has left troy emotionally, although not physically- and Creusa is not part of that departure. She will stay in Troy, destined to die so that Aeneas can marry another, which again is simplistic. However, i would suggest it should be viewed in terms of Venus' appearance.
Hope that helps- and I'd be curious about what others think....
Jim Stewart
She then
reminds him of his responsibility to protect his own home first and
poignantly asks 'to whom will little Iulus be left, to whom will Anchises be
left' and finally she asks in 1st person 'TO WHOM AM I WHO WAS ONCE CALLED
YOU WIFE TO BE LEFT?'
The good omens of Iulus' fiery hair and the comet ending on Mt. Ida follow.
Then at 706 and following, our hero states his strategy for escaping the
burning city and rendezvousing at the
temple of Ceres. Anchises will be on his shoulders, Iulus will be his
companion and as for Creusa,
"et longe servet vestigia conjunx" : " and let my wife observe our
footprints from afar!" It's hard to imagine that Creusa, who moments before
had exploded with emotion at being left by Aeneas, now tacitly agrees to be
parted from her husband and her only son and to make her way at a distance
from them through a night filled with murder and mayhem! The scene makes me
uncomfortable with Aeneas once again: though he goes through hell to find
her once he realizes she is lost, his concern for her came too late. It
would be great to hear what others think about this scene.
D.D-Henry, Columbus, Ohio ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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