09-24-2012, 09:45 AM | #46 | |||
languorous autodidact ✦
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44667380
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I also think it's interesting how sympathetic Virgil is to Dido. He wants to use this whole section to foreshadow why the Romans and Carthage fought yet he seems taken in by Dido's story himself and can't help making her tragic and sympathetic to the point that it makes his argument for why Rome eventually fights against Carthage less convincing; one comes away more with the sense that Carthage itself has a tragic and undeserved fate. Perhaps that's what Virgil really felt anyway but couldn't write explicitly. Dido is a fascinating character though. To survive all of what she did prior, to escape and found a city in a foreign hostile land and be its leader, and then to go mad over this and commit suicide. Really quite a life. |
|||
09-24-2012, 05:42 PM | #47 | ||
Nameless Being
|
Quote:
Virgil does seem to actually start following the Odyssey in Book VI though in that Aeneas journeys to the underworld to speak with his dead father and receive prophecies about the future as did Ulysses in the Odyssey. I found it interesting that the underworld is divided into Elysium and Tartarus, essentially corresponding to heaven and hell, respectively, in Abrahamic religions, and that Aeneas encounters his father Anchises in Elysium and Agamemnon in Tartarus. Definitely a Trojan point of view there? Quote:
I also found the portrayal of Queen Dido as a neurotic who becomes unhinged at being abandoned by Aeneas a bit odd. Her history depicts a competent and tough lady who overcomes the treachery of her brother, including the murder of her first husband Sychaeus (who the Aeneid reveals remains the true love of her life), and founds the successful city of Carthage. It is made clear as well though that Queen Dido had before the arrival of Aeneas put off aggressive suitors among the rulers of local Libyan tribes. Having first succumbed to Aeneas and then been abandoned by him she fears that such advances will be renewed with vigor that can't be resisted so this contributes also to here thoughts of suicide? |
||
Advert | |
|
09-24-2012, 05:53 PM | #48 | |
Snoozing in the sun
Posts: 10,137
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
|
Quote:
They were a pretty tough lot of gods to have around. The things humans saddle themselves with! |
|
09-24-2012, 06:09 PM | #49 | |
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,331
Karma: 223032092
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
Quote:
The games, while a time-killer, cracked me up. So much cheating and poor sportsmanship! |
|
09-24-2012, 06:41 PM | #50 |
Snoozing in the sun
Posts: 10,137
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
|
You would think that as a queen, Dido could do as she pleased, but I suppose it was the usual double standard in operation.
I am a bit behind where I should be, and am just part way through the funeral games. I keep wondering how large the ships must be to have all those goodies stowed away ready to give as gifts and prizes. They seem to have everything but the proverbial kitchen sink! |
Advert | |
|
09-28-2012, 11:07 AM | #51 |
languorous autodidact ✦
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44667380
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
|
I finished! A bit early, but I still have a long introduction to read (which I saved for after).
I think my favourite little segment from the Aeneid may be Nisus, Euryalus and Euryalus' mother. So tragic! I'll save what else I may have to say until Monday. Last edited by sun surfer; 09-29-2012 at 09:08 AM. Reason: misspelling...how did i not catch that when i first wrote it? :p |
09-29-2012, 08:07 AM | #52 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,832
Karma: 5843878
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: UK
Device: Pocketbook Pro 903, (beloved Pocketbook 360 RIP), Kobo Mini, Kobo Aura
|
|
09-29-2012, 12:21 PM | #53 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,988
Karma: 18343081
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
|
I was really enjoying it until Book 6 (the visit to the underworld). That kind of put the brakes on my enthusiasm, but I'm determined to finish it this weekend. It helps to know that sun surfer found her(?) favourite part further in the story yet.
|
09-29-2012, 12:32 PM | #54 | |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Quote:
Most modern readers enjoy the first half of the Aeneid more than the second half, but the opposite was true in the ancient world: the first 6 books were considered to be good, but the second 6 books the true work of genius. |
|
09-29-2012, 02:28 PM | #55 | |
Wizard
Posts: 2,988
Karma: 18343081
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
|
Quote:
|
|
10-01-2012, 10:14 PM | #56 |
Snoozing in the sun
Posts: 10,137
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
|
I have just finished and like others, I found the final books a hard slog. I felt I was wading through rivers of blood and some of the descriptions were pretty gruesome. At the same time, I didn't get the sense of its being violence for its own sake, as some (many?) films seem to be these days, for example. In Book 12, lines 584-9, Virgil says (Fagles translation):
"Now what god can unfold for me so many terrors? Who can make a song of slaughter in all its forms - the deaths of captains down the entire field, dealt now by Turnus, now by Aeneas, kill for kill? Did it please you so, great Jove, to see the world at war, the peoples clash that would later live in everlasting peace?" I found Fagles' Translator's Postscript very interesting. For example, in terms of the two voices - "the public 'official' voice of imperial triumph ... and the muted, intimate voice of loss and suffering". (page 398) And given our earlier discussion about things such as the scenes from the Trojan War that Aeneas sees in Carthage, and also the scenes of later events in Roman history on Aeneas' shield, on page 391 there is a comment about this and Virgil's use of the historic present through the poem. I liked Fagles' reference to T S Eliot's "Burnt Norton" which fits the situation perfectly: "Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past." All in all, a thought-provoking experience to have read this extraordinary work, even if not as polished as Virgil would have liked it to be. We are indebted to Augustus for saving it from being destroyed. Thanks for encouraging us to take the journey, issybird. |
10-02-2012, 08:31 PM | #57 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,988
Karma: 18343081
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
|
I finished it last night, but unlike others, I found the second half to be thrilling. It must be a guy thing. I don't usually go in for war fiction, but I found the characterizations to make the action more natural. As literature, I especially liked Virgil's use of similes throughout the book. They made the descriptions more succinct as well as poetic.
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
KT "Ghost covers/files" again at 670 books, "stale" image entries in firmware | VirgoGirl | Kobo Reader | 4 | 04-06-2012 02:10 PM |
"ipad is the best option on the market for heavy duty pdf work" - do you agree? | jojoba | Which one should I buy? | 29 | 11-22-2011 12:42 PM |
6" ain't big enough. | Barty | General Discussions | 33 | 08-06-2011 02:40 PM |
Feature Request: configurable space setting for "Insert blank line" in "Look & Feel" | therealjoeblow | Calibre | 15 | 07-25-2011 03:14 PM |