Chapter 23 Lecture Two of Two The Legend of Aeneas ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Legend of Aeneas Augustus sponsored the arts to solidify his new age and to make it appear to be a continuation of the old Republic Sponsored poets and historians – Livy – Vergil ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE LEGEND OF AENEAS Vergil and the Aeneid ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Vergil and the Aeneid To rival the Homeric epics Tells the story of the founding of the Roman people in Italy after the Trojan war Aeneas – Son of Anchises and Aphrodite – His story begins in the Iliad – Saved by Poseidon ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Fig Aeneas escapes with Anchises and Ascanius/Iulus. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Vergil and the Aeneid Aeneas’s adventures along the way Son Iulus – Augustus’s clan, the Julians, claimed ancestry to Aeneas through Iulus Aeneas founded Alba Long – Romulus and Remus would found Rome later – Aeneas, the paterfamilias of all of Rome ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

OBSERVATIONS An Epic of National Rebirth ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Epic of National Rebirth Structure of the Aeneid – First half like the wanderings of the Odyssey – Second half like the war epic of the Iliad But the Aeneid painstakingly written; the Homeric epics more fluid and improvised – Aeneid is purposeful propaganda for a national cause – Characters have a deeper internal life ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Epic of National Rebirth The old numina couldn’t express the new conditions The Aeneid based on the Stoic philosophy of universal destiny and a guiding intelligence in the cosmos – The Stoic logos – The new order of Rome is fated, and Roman imperial rule is divine will ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Epic of National Rebirth Aeneas’s adventures have a purpose, to prepare him to the be pater of the new nation Some can be included in the new nation, others must be left behind or eliminated ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

PERSPECTIVE 23 Aeneas, Augustus, Mussolini ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Aeneas, Augustus, Mussolini The ara pacis Augustae, discovered and displayed by Mussolini, got caught up in fascist Italy's myth about itself. As Augustus renewed Rome, so Mussolini fancied himself doing the same for modern Italy. Mussolini had planned for the construction of a bronze statue of himself as Hercules, but the project was never realized. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Fig. 23a Scene from the ara pacis Augustae ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. Photo Dagli Orti from Kobal Collection, New York

Fig Italian Stamp ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

End ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.