Table of Contents
Symbols
Flames: Fire plays an important role in the play. It is symbolic not only of erotic love or desire, but also of destruction and ruin. Under the imagery of flames, Virgil is able to explain how one relates to the other, and how both are connected. The desire the Paris has for Helen is what essentially causes the fires of the battle of Troy. When Dido confides in her sister that she is in love with Aeneas, she says “I recognize the signs of the old flame, of old desire.”
The Golden Bough: The priestess of Apollo, Sibyl, states that the golden bough is a symbol that Aeneas is required to carry in order to descend to the underworld. Since mortals are not often permitted to the underworld, the golden bough alerts others that he is privileged.
The Gates of War: The opening of the gates signifies the start of the war. This is a custom the Virgil would have seen in his own lifetime. The fact that Juno, rather than a king or another mortal, opens the gates symbolizes how the gods use men to settle fight their battles. The gates are said to be symbolic of the chaos and destruction in the world.
Quotes
“I sing of warfare and a man at war:
From the sea-cost of Troy in early days
He came to Italy by destiny,
To our Lavinian western shore,
A fugitive, this captain, buffeted.
Till her could found a city and bring home
His gods to Laetium, land of the Latin race,
The Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome.
Tell me the causes now. O Muse, how galled.
From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled him”
These are the infamous opening passages from the poem. In the first half of the poem, Aeneas wanders in search of a new home and in the second half, he fights to establish his new found homeland.
“Did you suppose, my father,
That I could tear myself away and leave you?
Unthinkable; how could a father say it?
Now if it pleases the powers about that nothing
Stand of this great city; if your heart
Is set on adding your own death and ours
To that of Troy, the doors wide open for it.”
(II.857-863)
Taken from book 2, this quote precedes the fleeing of Troy, while Aeneas carries his father on his back. It is now that readers recognize Aeneas’s piety and his sense of commitment to his father. Aeneas reaffirms to his father that he is patriarch of those remaining and should he resign himself to death, he would be sealing the fate of all of those who stood beside him. It is these words that pull the elder from his pit of self-loathing and convince him to resume his rightful role as a leader. Even after death, Anchises is called upon to guide and mentor his son.
