tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post5705143407540895788..comments2024-03-18T19:05:39.072-07:00Comments on Morphosis: Aeneid 13Adam Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-59066713634851067162018-04-21T12:04:02.750-07:002018-04-21T12:04:02.750-07:00Thanks! I agree with you that it's a little in...Thanks! I agree with you that it's a <em>little</em> inconsequential, especially compared with some of the actual Vergilian books. But I grew to like it more, as I translated it.<br /><br />The flame coming off Lavinia's head is very odd, I agree. Odder, it's a retread: <em>Aeneid</em> 7:73f describes an earlier mystic flame burning on (the then virgin) Lavinia's head: her Da goes to an augur who interprets the sign as meaning she must not be allowed to marry any Italian prince, because Fate had reserved her for a notable foreigner.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-18157170478759338822018-04-21T11:40:08.721-07:002018-04-21T11:40:08.721-07:00Thank you. I'd never heard of this, and I was...Thank you. I'd never heard of this, and I was extremely interested to read it, even if it does seem a bit superfluous. I like the part where flames shoot out of Lavinia's head; that's a very strange image. I wonder how <i>she</i> felt about it.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-33561095633717989742018-04-21T02:05:42.130-07:002018-04-21T02:05:42.130-07:00A brief footnote: Vegio takes much of the detail o...A brief footnote: Vegio takes much of the detail of his poem from Ovid's <em>Metamorphoses</em> XIV:566-608. The name of the city Ardea does mean <em>heron</em>, as at line 236; and a local legend suggested that this type of bird was originally born from Ardea’s ruins. The name of the constellation mentioned at the end, <em>Indiges</em> means ‘native’, or at a stretch, ‘native god’. Here is <a href="http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Ovhome.htm#askline" rel="nofollow">A S Kline's translation</a> of the relevant bit of Ovid:<br /><br />"At length Turnus fell, and Venus saw her son’s weapons victorious. Ardea fell, spoken of as a power while Turnus lived. After the savage fires had destroyed it, and warm ashes buried its houses, a bird flew from the ruins, one now seen for the first time, and beat at the embers with flapping wings. Its cry, its leanness, its pallor, everything that fitted the captured city, even its name, ardea, the heron, survived in the bird: and in the beating of its wings, Ardea mourns itself.<br /><br />Aeneas’s virtues had compelled all the gods, even Juno herself, to bring to an end their ancient feud, and since his young son Julus’s fortunes were firmly founded, Cytherea’s heroic son was ripe for heaven. Venus had sought the opinion of the gods, and throwing her arms round her father’s neck, had said ‘You have never been harsh to me, father, now be kindest of all, I beg you. Grant my Aeneas, who claims you as his grandfather through my bloodline, some divinity, however little -- you choose -- so long as you grant him something! It is enough that he once gazed on the hateful kingdom, once crossed the steams of Styx.’ The gods agreed, and Juno, the royal consort, did not display her severe expression, but consented peacefully. Then Jupiter said: ‘You are worthy of this divine gift, you who ask, as is he for whom you ask it: my daughter, possess what you desire!’<br /><br />The word was spoken: with joy she thanked her father, and drawn by her team of doves through the clear air, she came to the coast of Laurentum, where the waters of the River Numicius, hidden by reeds, wind down to the neighbouring sea. She ordered the river-god to cleanse Aeneas, of whatever was subject to death, and bear it away, in his silent course, into the depths of the ocean. The horned god executed Venus’s orders, and purged Aeneas of whatever was mortal, and dispersed it on the water: what was best in him remained. Once purified, his mother anointed his body with divine perfume, touched his lips with a mixture of sweet nectar and ambrosia, and made him a god, whom the Romans named Indiges, admitting him to their temples and altars." [Ovid, <em>Metamorphoses</em> XIV:566-608]Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.com