Virgil...

Virgil and the Aeneid

This week we are blogging and having our test over the Epics in one assignment. Explain and discuss who Virgil is and why he wrote the epic poem The Aeneid. Be sure to discuss the historical importance of the work. This was the question that I was given to answer. Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro, he was unquestionably one of the greatest poets born near Mantua in what was then the province of Gaul. Virgil's childhood experiences on his family's farm marked his outlook on a profound permanent way. When he was eleven years old, Julius Caesar came to govern the city of Gaul, when he arrived it opened Virgil's eyes and gave him a different world from his father's farm in a backwater town. Virgil then traveled to study around to many places, including Rome. He had also taken courses in rhetoric-the construction and delivery of speeches that was important for young Romans to be trained for public affairs. Virgil was actually trained as a lawyer but ended up never pursuing the legal career. 
Virgil wrote the Aeneid between 29 and 19 BC. It tells a legendary story about Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the Ancestor of the Romans. The Aeneid was composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell about Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latin's, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The first six books are the Journey to Italy and the second set of six is the War in Italy. 
The Aeneid was in fact written in a time of major political and social changes in Rome. Despite the polished and complex nature of the Aeneid, the legend is said to be that Virgil only took time to write three lines of the poem each day, so therefore it would be in the making for a long period of time, there were half complete lines, abrupt endings were generally seen throughout and that was shown to be evidence that Virgil had died before he could finish his piece. The Aeneid is more complex than most classical epics because it was composed and preserved in writing rather than orally. Some legends that have been stated that Virgil had actually feared that he would die before he could finish the piece, so therefore he went to his friends and the emperor at the time, Augustus, and asked them to burn what he had done upon his death. Augustus and his friends didn't comply with his wishes and some few minor modifications were made to the Aeneid, and it was then published.

-Photo Courtesy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid#History
-Photo Courtesy - goodreads.com


































My reaction to the RWLD was that the opera based on Dido and Aeneas was really confusing and hard to understand because opera music is not modern day music one bit.  I get the meaning that she was depressed because Aeneas was leaving her to go conquer Rome but she was shot by Cupid's arrow then she was in love with Aeneas and could never love anyone else again. So when Aeneas left her to conquer Rome, she stabbed herself and the opera was based on that scene. The art isn't what you see around today, it was very unique and individual. It was pretty interesting and if I enjoyed art as much as some people, I would be interested in pursuing to do more research.