war and peace

• Virgil had seen Italy torn apart by civil war
• this theme is reflected by images of the peaceful world of trees and rivers being destroyed by storms and raging torrents
• when the Latins are rushing to fight, 'the trees shivered at the noise, and the whole forest rang to its very depths'
• book 2 - a simile about the felling of an ash tree is used to evoke to the destruction of Troy
• a river flowing past shady woodlands portrays the idyllic picture of a peaceful beginning in a new land
• Creusa tells Aeneas: 'the river Thybris flows with smooth advance through a rich land of brave warriors'
• rivers in spate represent the fury of war against which man is powerless
• Pyrrhus rushing into the palace is like a river which has burst its banks
• Virgil uses winds and storms as well as rivers to express the destruction of peace
• book 1 - the image of winds brawling, howling, chained and bridled, and full of angry passions, conveys well their destructive force
• passions are conveyed too through images from Greek tragedy
• Dido rushes through the streets like a Bacchant when she has been hit by a Cupid's arrow
• when Aeneas is leaving, she rages like Penthouse, or Orestes pursued by Furies
• both Helen and Amata are describing as pretending to be Bacchants, and Rumour runs raving like a Bacchant with the news of Dido's death