417 ~ 449: underworld scenery
417: Cerberus
Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci
personat adverso recubans immanis in antro.
cui vates horrere videns iam colla colubris
melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam
obicit. ille fame rabida tria guttura pandens
corripit obiectam, atque immania terga resolvit
fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro.
occupat Aeneas aditum custode sepulto
evaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undae.
- Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci
- haec → regna
- personat adverso recubans immanis in antro.
- cui vates horrere videns iam colla colubris
- melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam
- obicit. ille fame rabida tria guttura pandens
- corripit obiectam, atque immania terga resolvit
- fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro.
- occupat Aeneas aditum custode sepulto
- evaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undae.
Aeneas
- mock heroic
- military language: occupat, evadit
- vs what he actually do which is go past a sleeping dog
FIX THIS BIT!!!
Large Cerberus makes these kingdoms resound with three-throated barking, lying, vast, in the opposite cave. The prophet trembled, seeing its necks [with] snakes, and tossed a morsel made sleepy with honey and medicinal fruits. It, hungrily extending three rabid throats, snatched the exposed thing, and, lying at ease on the earth, loosened the enormous backs and the big [body] was stretched throughout the whole cave.
Aeneas springs upon the entrance, with the guardian buried in sleep, and quickly escapes from the riverbank of the water of no return.
vigenette
- cerberus
- how does Vergil sketch this brief vignette of cerberus?
- size
- lexical chain
- ingens
- immanis
- toto...antro
- auditority loud
- personat
- latratu
- yk how roman animal sounds actually sound like the animals yeah this is one of them
- lexical chain
- savagery
- fame rabida
- corripit
- unpleasantness, unnaturalness
- snakes: horrere...colla colubris
- three heads: "trifauci", "tria guttura"
- size
- how does Vergil sketch this brief vignette of cerberus?
426: infants & wrongful executions
Continuo auditae voces vagitus et ingens
infantumque animae flentes, in limine primo
quos dulcis vitae exsortis et ab ubere raptos
abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo;
hos iuxta falso damnati crimine mortis.
nec vero hae sine sorte datae, sine iudice, sedes:
quaesitor Minos urnam movet; ille silentum
consiliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit.
-
Continuo auditae voces vagitus et ingens
-
infantumque animae flentes, in limine primo
-
quos dulcis vitae exsortis et ab ubere raptos
-
abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo;
-
hos iuxta falso damnati crimine mortis.
-
nec vero hae sine sorte datae, sine iudice, sedes:
- vero adv ... (as a postpositive) but
-
quaesitor Minos urnam movet; ille silentum
- silentum genitive
- silens, silentis adj still, silent, MS PL the dead
- silentum genitive
-
consiliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit.
- consilium -i -ii NT council
//
continuo ... voces ... flentes: supply est
limine primo: the first threshold of life (just after birth)
crimine mortis
subjective genitive: mors crimine dicit - the
death making allegations
or
allegations making death
mortis: genitive, discribing crimine. they're not being accused of murder, it's just that the accusation is a false allegation
crimine = the verba not the gesta (the allegation/accusation, not the deed/crime it self)
falso damnati
//
immediately [there were the] heard cries and the loud wails of infants and the cries of young minds—in the first threshold, a black day stole them and immersed them in premature death, those free from the sweet life, and who were snatched from the breast; close to these [are] the ones condemned by a false allegation to death.
The grounds of these presented without truth, without chance, without justice: [WRONG]
But their seats are not given out without lots being drawn, without a jury:
Quaestor Minos shakes an urn; he calls the council of the silent and examines their lives and allegations.
//
A syllabus outcome is being able to explain the mythical and religious references.
good to be on top of who is who in the text, e.g. who is Minos? the human king of crete, who was made judge of the underworld
431: suicides
proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum
insontes peperere manu lucemque perosi
proiecere animas. quam vellent aethere in alto
nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores!
Next the innocent miserable held the closest places, [the miserable], caused destruction to themselves by their own hand and, hating the light, discarded their souls, how they would now endure poverty and hard work in the high air.
quam = how??????????
quam + x{subjunctive}
- how x!
like an exclamation/statement?????
//
fas obstat, tristisque palus inamabilis undae
alligat et novies Styx interfusa coercet.
- fas obstat, tristisque palus inamabilis undae
- tristis and inamabilis could go with either palus or undae. since there is an ambiguity, the adjectives have a sense of describing both words. but it's 1:1 bc Vergilian symmetry
- alligat et novies Styx interfusa coercet.
divine will stands in the way, and the unloveable pool of sad waves ties up the suicides, and the Styx, lying in between, represses [the suicides] nine times.
commentary:
- vergil is talking about 3 groups of people
dictionary tip: if you can't find a word that has a prefix, e.g. "interfusus", and you can't find the actual verb because it's a PPP, try getting rid of the prefix, because it's more likely that the dictionary has a symlink fusus -> fundo than interfusus -> interfundo
commentary
Vergil's creation of pathos
- authorial comment 'quam vellent ... preferre labores' describing the souls' desire to be alive rather than be dead emphasises their regret for their actions to evoke pity in the audience.
- if "creating pathos" sounds too shallow/repetitive, specify more which emotion it evokes
- emotive language "tristis... inamabilis" pathetic fallace describing the glominess of swamp and the physical location that binds the dead people
- verb choice referring to restriction "obstat... alligat ... coercet"
Mr Brophy doesn't like the words "reveals", "exposes" because it feels like a "pervert at the park" lmao time to use exclusively "reveals" and "exposes". He did say that you won't get marked down for repetition of a verb. so... muahahahaha
- highlight
- emphasises
- creates
- portrays
don't make judgements on the author's skill. e.g. no "Cicero effectively creates...." "Vergil skilfully depicts..." "unparallelled" because they so much better than u kiddie