R.O.A.M. Lyne discusses Amata in 'Words and the Poet' (1989) and more substantially in 'Further Voices in V's Aeneid' (1987). He stresses the way in which Allecto imitates and parodies the role of lover, besieging the threshold, in her approach to Amata. D. Nelis in 'V's Aeneid and the Argonautica of Apollonius R' (2000) draws attention to the analogy between Amata and Medea, love's arrow becoming Amata's snake. On the snake, Servius' comment that it is, from Allecto's point of view, 'pars sui', an element of herself, is for my money very perceptive. The loveable Amata is physically penetrated by the hate-filled Allecto. There are brief remarks in Jenkyns' 'V's experience'(2000), drawing attention to the ambiguity in Amata's position: is she agent or victim? Jenkyns shows how V makes it difficult to assign blame. I would think that this difficulty is meant to extend from Amata personally to the political system and to the whole question of Warguilt. (Perhaps V would have been critical of the Treaty of Versailles.) The queen/snake imagery makes a reference to Cleopatra and the warguilt of Egypt.
(All books mentioned are from Oxford UP, exc. for Nelis' book, which is from Francis Cairns). To my mind, Aen.VII offers a brilliant analysis of the personal becoming the political, of the erotic becoming the warlike, of the rapid indoctrination of a whole people in a moment of crisis. Juno, the strategist, is always in control but never fully shows herself. Allecto, the agitator, moves secretly and fast, disappearing altogether when the time comes. The accumulating effects are shown through the series of images of incrasingly violent movement, the top, the boiling cauldron, the raging sea. For someone interested in Epicurean philosophy, as V was, the references to violent physical movement are not merely metaphors: perhaps we are just physical things and violent poltical unrest (terrorism?) is in our nature just as storms are in the nature of the sea? The other thread of physical imagery in Book VII is of drugs, parallel to Aeneas' 'indoctrination amid inhalation' of Book VI. Allecto drugs or envenoms Amata, Turnus and the hounds. Political agitation/indoctrination has all the power of the strongest venom. Aen.VII is also a study of intercultural conflict and imperial ventures, as Apollonius' work had been. The picture on the whole is of Furor among the Latins/Rutulians and of Pietas, the contrasting quality, among the Trojans/Arcadians/Etruscans for Civil Rights. But I'd say that this is not a simple 'all the fault on one side' story. The Trojans are indeed a religious and rational people, in their way clearly 'superior' to the Latins who do not yet understand the rule of law. Confident in themselves, they embark rather thoughtlessly on a hunting party under an inexperienced leader who can't shoot straight. They never think what they might be doing to the sensitivities of the local people and to their uncodified ideas of private property - Silvia's stag being hers, not theirs. Without this careless behaviour - and I would think that variations on this story have been played out for real countless times when different peoples have met each other - all Allecto's schemes might have been in vain. Again, Allecto does have the mandate of Juno, and Juno has an authority that no one can altogether ignore: those obeying her must have some kind of moral point. I'd say that this was a story about the accumulation of rage, about the personal and the political, even about the physical and the spiritual - and it is a meditation on political indoctrination and the horrifying complexity of guilt. Amata is one of a series - herself, Turnus, Ascanius' hounds, the masses of Latium. I wouldn't in the end read the story as entirely full of Epicurean pessimism: it's worth studying history and taking care. Tacitus, I suppose, takes up the themes both of noble savagery vs. corrupt civilisation and also of individuals of vivid character driven to Furor in a form which becomes political as well as personal. - Martin Hughes On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Jim O'Hara wrote: > J. L. P. B. mentions Alison Keith; the title: > > Keith, A.M. , Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic, Cambridge (2000) > http://www.cup.org/titles/catalogue.asp?isbn=052155621X ($US19.00 paperback) > see index s.v. Amata > > also: > On Amata and Allecto see Feeney D.C. (1991) The Gods in Epic: Poets and > Critics of the Classical Tradition. Oxford > > There is an important new commentray on Aeneid 7: Horsfall, Nicholas, > Virgil, Aeneid 7: a commentary. Mnemosyne Suppl. 198 (Leiden 2000) > (disagreeing with Feeney on the top) > > not much on art in any of these > > James Butrica wrote: > > > > >I'm working on tacitus' use of furor in relation to Messalina (Claudius' > > >wife) and I remembered the Aeneid passage with Amata raging out of control > > >(like a top) in Aeneid 7. I seem to recall reading it as an undergrad over > > >20 years ago. Does anyone have any current thoughts on the role of Amata > > >and > > >her madness (or, better yet, any images of it in medieval or modern art)? > > >Seems a peculiarly feminist topic, although Tacitus certainly uses it to > > >refer to the madness of soldiers fairly frequently (Hist. 1,63, 1.81, 2.46 > > >and 4.27, as well as Annals 1.49. It is used for women in Annals 14.32, > > >where he describes the causes of the Boudican revolt in Britain. > > > Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. > > > > > >Cheers, > > >Dr. James Stewart > > >Southern Illinois University > > > > > > > Is there anything relevant in Alison Keith's fairly recent book on women in > > epic ("Gendering Epic" I think was the title)? > > > > James L. P. Butrica > -- > Jim O'Hara > Paddison Professor of Latin > Director of Graduate Studies > 206B Howell Hall > phone: (919) 962-7649 > fax: (919) 962-4036 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www: http://www.unc.edu/~oharaj > surface mail: > James J. O'Hara > Department of Classics > CB# 3145, 101 Howell Hall > The University of North Carolina > Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3145 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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
