Another point - by being both Aeneas's mother and an important tutelary
goddess, she can combine the functions of Thetis in the Iliad and Athena
in the Odyssey, opening up lots of possibilities for Homeric
parallels/tensions.
Caroline Butler
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<< 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 cl
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 ag
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
