Book 6

• Aeneas weeps becuase at the end of book 5 his helmsman, Palinurus, fell overboard and drowned
• Aeneas and his Trojan comrades reach Italy and Aeneas goes to the Sibyl’s cave at Cumae
• The sibyl was a prophetess, who uttered the prophecies of Apollo
• The temple of Apollo was built by Daedelus

  • the pictures on the doors of the temple included the Minotaur

  Daedeulus was too upset to depict the death of his son Icarus
• On the instructions of the Sibyl (called Deiphobus), Aeneas sacrifices 7 bullocks and 7 seep
• Outside her cave the Sibyl, in a trance, speaks to Aeneas
• Sibyls changes and goes into a wild frenzy when Apollo takes possession of her
• Aeneas prays that they don’t have to carry the reputation of Troy anymore, that the Sibyl has mercy on them and that he wants to settle in Latium where he will dedicate a temple to Apollo and establish an oracle
• Sibyl’s prophesies


  they will get to Latium

  War - caused by marriage and Juno plays a part

  New Achilles = Turnus
• What does Aeneas have to do to get to the underworld?

  Burry Misenus, dead crew member,
• The underorld is easy to enter but hard to leave

  • the door of black dis is always open
  • but to get out he has to get the golden foliage and fruit from a golden bough and take it to Prosepina
• How did Misenus die?

  Challenges Gods to play a sea shell as well as he could

  Triton caught him up and drowned him
• How does Aeneas find the golden bough?

  Venus sent 2 doves to guide him and follows them to the tree where the golden foliage was
• Why is Aeneas alarmed when he enters the underwordl?


  Sees scary monsters

  • shades and spirits
• Book 6 is in many ways a focal point of the Aeneid

  • it bridges the gap between pre and post Italy events
• Aeneas has arrived in Italy

  • so his travelling are over but he’s yet to begin the series of events which are due to happen there. These events for the first time are linked together for Aeneas as his fate and he finally realises his own significance in the great order of things
• Book 6 is important for 3 reasons

  Reliugion

  • a lot of Virgil’s narrative is richly coloured mythology
  • Anchises speech is tied with roman religious belief
  • the importance of ritual and omens in Roman religious life is emphasised and Virgil has given himself a setting for the exposition of his religious thought

  Overt patriotism

  • One of the Key Roman passages
  • Allusions to contemporary roman ideas

  development of Aeneas’ character

  • removal of remaining concerns about his future and destiny
• For Virgil this is an exercise in poetic vision as much as anything else

  • religion is very orthodoxically Roman and there’s suspicion of Virgil presenting it as he thinks it should be there not as he sincerely believes it
• Roman religion is a very trendy and complex subject with masses written about it but there is an issue with the extent the Romans genuinely believed it
• It’s a form of allusion to Augustus who made a big deal about restoring temples

  • allusions to Augustus
• Aeneas performing so many standard Roman rituals reaffirms him as a founder of these customs
• Doors to the temple

  The Minotaur story is important for the symbolism of Daedalus’ labyrinth

  • representing the mysterious path which Aeneas must take through the underworld
• Prophetic frenzy of the Sibyl

  As she spoke in front of the doors her face transfigured, couloir changed, hair fell in disorder and she stood there with heaving breast and wild heart burning with ecstasy
• Likely more about poetic colour than genuine religious sentiment

  • abrupt and contrived feeling
  • clearly Virgil thinks that this was a genuine oracular response looked like but whether he actually believed them is controversial
• Aeneas’ ritual prayers and formal requests 


  very official, just like a Roman would do it
• The Sibyl’s response continues to develop the mood of awe and mystery in 3 ways:

  Difficulty and special character needed

  • emphasises the superhuman qualities required for this journey

  Golden bough

  • symbolises light in darkness, survival in destruction, life in the midst of death.
  • Virgil compares it to mistletoe in a simile
  • also a symbol of mystery

  Misenus’ death

  • keeps focus on religious theme
  • makes the point that Aeneas going to the underworld and returning is a special concession because of aeneas’ special qualities and importance of his mission
• Pathos


  Misenus’ death and burial reminds us about the nature of mortality and imminence of death in life

  • The elaborate funeral rites reinforce this botion and maintain the general mood for just before Aeneas goes into the underworld
• Patriotism


  Sibyls prophecy
• The rest of the Aeneid will consist of war between the Trojans and Rutullians lead by Turnus (incited by Juno to oppose Aeneas) over the hand of Lavinia


  The sibyl’s response alludes to this

  • re-enforcing a parallelism between the war fought between the Greeks and war about to come

  Re-enforces idea that Rome was fates as was Troys fall

  • Rivers of Troy and Italy
  • Rutulians and Greeks
  • Aeneas and Turnus / Hector and Achilles
• Contemporary allusions


  Aeneas’ promises refer to events in Rome which would happen:

  • vestal days for Apollo predict the Ludicrous Apollinares, during the second Punic war
  • The marble temple refers to the new temple built in honour of Apollo by Augustus on the Palatine
  • Aeneas’ references to the Sibyl’s responses are important since the Sibylline books and priests assigned to them were transferred to the temple of Apollo during Augustus’ time
• The clever way Augustus’ accomplishments are tied in with general accomplishments of the Romans

  • Virgil’s point is surely that it’s not blatant flattery of Augustus but Augustus’ achievements should be associated with Rome’s good generally and so we see Augustus as he wants us to see him (as one of the positive aspects of Rome’s history)
• Aeneas’ character


  Aeneas’ ritual prayers and formal requests

  • very Roman
  • constant reinforcement of his piety

  He dutifully does what he’s told all the way through
• Virgo invokes the gods of underworld to permit him to tell the tale

  • mean g yet another aura of mystery is cast over the story
• Virgil paints graphically poetic pictures of traditional Roman and Greek religious mythological ideas:

  • Long lists of standard monster and personifications of death, sleep, old age etc.
  • Charon is typically amusing and indignant becuase he was punished las time the living cam over and caused trouble
• Sibyl replies to Charon sarcastically and shows him the bough to deflate him and his objections

  • the scene ends with a comic scene of Aeneas among the weightless ghosts, almost sinking the ship and conning the ferocious beast from literature with a drugged cake
• The unhappy dead


  Intense pathos subtly built up to Dido’s appearance
• The 3 classes: infants, unjustly condemned and suicides are given no particular significance

  • unnamed and no emphasis

  but pathos building up and atmosphere of sorrow and bewilderment is taken to further heights
• Random heroines


  The next people to appear are a series of random heroines who aren’t relevant to the Aeneid

  • purpose of bringing them in is to heighten pathos of Dido’s appearance which happens very suddenly and abruptly in the wake of people who’ve caused us no emotional cost at all
• Dido’s appearance


  Reminds us of her miserable and undeserved plight

  Aeneas attempt to explain his actions wre due to his obligations but she isn’t interested

  She runs back to Sychaeus
• we are happy that she won’t suffer for eternity in the same way she suffered alive