#20470 - Commentary Aeneid 2.752 794 - Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 2.752-94

Write a commentary on the passage: Book 2, Lines 752-794

Horsfall claims that ‘Book 2 is the first extended epic/tragic sequence, and the first large-scale narrative whole that he has attempted’ (Horsfall, Virgil Aeneid 2: A Commentary, 2008, pg. xiii). Whilst this is true generally, the peak of tragedy occurs in this passage at the dénouement of the book as Aeneas realises the loss of his wife Creusa, before being met by her ghost. This consequently creates a sense of liminality as although the men have left Troy and are pursuing a new ‘Promised Land’, Virgil describes Aeneas’ return into the falling city, retracing his steps as an inversion of a heroic journey and return to the land he has been forced to leave behind.

The passage begins with a description of Aeneas’ return through his now-destroyed city, starting with significant emphasis on the darkness in the use of vocabulary such as ‘obscuraque’, ‘dark’, and ‘per noctem’, ‘through the night’ (Aen. 2.752). Though this obscurity should allow for the escape to become easier as the Trojans would be less visible, Virgil creates a sense of irony as it has instead allowed for the easier loss of Creusa, resulting in a greater difficulty for Aeneas to return and find her. This irony is intensified in the repeated noun ‘vestigia’, ‘footsteps’ (Aen. 2.753). Whilst this was previously used as Aeneas ordered Creusa to ‘follow in my footsteps at a distance’ (Aen. 2.711), he now appears to be relying on the same steps by which she was taken in an attempt to recover her. Moreover, he further shows the struggle Aeneas faces in the relative clause referring to the route ‘by which I had left the city’, ‘qua gressum extuleram’ (Aen. 2.753). As such, Virgil reminds the readers that Aeneas has already had to escape from the city once and creates an element of foreboding as it is uncertain as to whether he will be able to do so again.

Virgil then proceeds to provide a more distanced perspective, focusing on the damage done and the enemy themself instead of Aeneas and his own personal journey. Some critics such as Tiberius Claudius Donatus believe this theme of destruction is introduced through ‘lumine’, often poetically meaning ‘eye’ or ‘life’, as a metaphorical reference to the fires still ablaze throughout the city (Donatus, Interpretationes Vergilianae, C4^thAD), though others such as Horsfall rebuke this idea. Nevertheless this theme continues as Virgil draws a parallel between ‘horror’ and ‘Danai’, ‘the Greeks’ (Aen. 2.757): horror is ‘ubique’, ‘everywhere’, and the Greeks are synonymously ‘omne’, proving that all-consuming terrors have invaded Aeneas’ home as well as the whole city. Additionally, Virgil states that ‘the silence itself is terrifying’, ‘ipsa silentia terrent’ (Aen. 2.755). This idea has also been coined within Homer’s Iliad as discussed in Porphyry’s Homeric Questions on the Iliad.

This is followed by a return to fire imagery. Virgil describes Aeneas’ arrival as flames begin ‘rolling to the top of the roof’, ‘ignis edax summa ad fastigia… volvitur’ (Aen. 2.757), increasing pathos for the readers as he is forced to watch not only the fall of Troy, but also of his own house. This is similar to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the former, having turned back to ensure his love is following, is forced to watch her be snatched away from him back to the Underworld. There is also significance in the phrase ‘ignis edax’, ‘consuming flames’ (Aen. 2.758), popularised by Virgil but originally referenced in Homer’s Iliad as ‘πυρ εσθιει’ (Il. 23.182), as it conjures a metaphor for the power of love as an eternal flame. Thereby, the physical deterioration of his house reflects that of his relationship with Creusa. Paratore also claims that the alliteration of ‘vento / volvitur’, ‘rolled by the wind’, is intended as onomatopoeia to incur the sound of flames, yet this is evidently not a popular argument (Horsfall, 2008, pg. 527).

Virgil returns to a more extended view with a physical account of the surrounding ‘palace of Priam’, ‘sedes Priami’ (Aen. 2.760), where Priam himself died just moments before, as well as the ‘empty porticoes’, ‘porticibus vacuis’, where the king’s son, Polites, has also just died. These portrayals are consequent reminders of Aeneas’ recent grief, also demonstrating the heroism of his character as he dares to return to the location of such trauma. The tone is then changed slightly from a scene of despair and anguish to one of bitterness, as Virgil references ‘the shrine of Juno’, ‘Junonis asylo’ (Aen. 2.761). This leaves a nasty residue as it reminds the reader – and the internal characters listening to Aeneas’ recounts of these events – that Juno is the enemy of the Trojans, thus this would be a fitting location for the Greek sanctuary. However, this shrine of Juno is seemingly not referenced elsewhere, therefore causing question as to whether this was truly an aspect of the story, or simply for poetic effect. Additionally to these descriptors of physical elements within the palace, Virgil explains that ‘children and frightened mothers stand around in long lines’, ‘pueri et pavidae longo ordine matres stant circum’ (Aen. 2.766). This again creates pathos as it proves that the innocent are also subject to violence. As Williams explains, boys are also seen to be sexually abused within other famous instances such as in Sallust’s War with Cataline, in which he describes the effects of the Macedonian War (Williams, Roman Homosexuality, 1999, pg. 104-107).

A contrast is then created between this chaotic portrayal of a public war and Aeneas’ intimate pleas for the return of his wife as ‘I called her name ‘Creusa’ again and again, but in vain’, ‘Creusam / nequiquam ingeminans iterumque iterumque vocavi’ (Aen. 2.770). Horsfall suggests that this could be an echo of Virgil’s Georgics, in which ‘the voice alone, the ice-cold tongue, with ebbing breath, cried out: ‘Eurydice, ah poor Eurydice!’, ‘Eurydicen vox ipse et frigida lingua/ a! miseram Eurydicen... vocabat’ (Georg. 4.525). As well as this apparent intention to invoke similarities with this myth, Virgil makes use of the phrase ‘iterumque iterumque’, ‘again and again, which is unseen among Classical prose, yet a ‘generally epic pattern’ (Wills, Repetition in Latin Poetry: Figures of Allusion, 1996, pg. 116) found within Ovid and other poets. Through this, he is able to further enhance the tragedy of the narrative, allowing for heightened emotion throughout. Virgil continues this with the following semantic field of death and shadows: ‘umbra’, ‘shadow’; ‘simulacrum’, ‘ghost’; ‘imago’, ‘image’. Although Virgil has not explicitly announced Creusa’s death, Horsfall states that her ‘disappearance from the realm of the living is sufficiently death-like’ (Horsfall, 2008, pg. 533), meaning that these references would be simply metaphorical.

Nevertheless, the presence of this image is what permits Aeneas to be confronted by a speech which is simultaneously a goodbye, a prophecy, an encouragement, and a consolation (Highet, the Speeches in Virgil’s Aeneid, 1972). This also allows for a more human portrayal of the protagonist as Creusa addresses him as ‘o sweet husband’, ‘o dulcis coniunx’. Through this vocative address, her tenderness and care for him is evident, proving his roundedness as a domestic, family-based character, as well as a martial figure. This furthermore proves that his act of losing Creusa was not intentional but merely an act of human error, causing him to become a more relatable hero. Virgil resumes this positive portrayal as he approaches the theme of fate, claiming that ‘these things do not happen without the approval of the gods’, ‘non haec sine numine divum / eveniunt’ (Aen. 2.777). This sentiment, likewise a prevalent theme throughout Homer’s works, removes Aeneas of any accountability for the negative events which may occur in the future.

Creusa reinforces this as her speech progresses, gaining the role of a prophet and divine mediator whereby she appears to continue the role previously held by Venus, who appears to Aeneas whilst disguised as a young girl (Aen. 1.321) and Hector, who advises him within dreams (Aen. 2.269)....