"Book II: The Final Hours of Troy" of the Aeneid, by Virgil, is Aeneas's recount of the fall of his great city, from the "departure" of the Greeks to the hero's tragic escape. This section, as you may well imagine, is brimming with moments of intense action and pathos. The bits about Priam's death and Creusa's disappearance are positively heartrending. The passage below, however, are the words of Venus, as relayed by Aeneas, referring to the destruction of Troy at the hands of the gods themselves.
"'There,yes, where you see the massive ramparts shattered,blocks wrenched from blocks, the billowing smoke and ash--it's Neptune himself, prising loose with his giant tridentthe foundation-stones of Troy, he's making the walls quake,ripping up the entire city by her roots."'There's Juno,cruelest in fury, first to commandeer the Scaean Gates,sword at her hip and mustering comrades, shock troopsstreaming out of the ships."'Already up on the heights--turn around and look--there's Pallas holding the fortress,flaming out of the clouds, her savage Gorgon glaring.Even Father himself, he's filling the Greek heartswith courage, stamina--Jove in person spurring the godsto fight the Trojan armies!'" (II.752-765)
Through the reader-response lens, these few lines provide stunning imagery--one can almost see Neptune uprooting entire buildings, Juno charging the Greeks on, Minerva making mincemeat of the helpless Trojans. Through the formalist lens, the parallelism was particularly striking: "'"There..., it's Neptune.... There's Juno... there's Pallas."'" This, coupled with the often disjunct rhythm of the sentence and clause organization, makes a dynamic and fast-paced read.
I definitely have to agree with you Lucas, this is a very intense action packed book, also my favorite part of the book thus-far. I like how you bring out the imagery in the book, it is amazing how Virgil describes Neptune's destruction. When you said "one can almost see Neptune uprooting entire buildings" you can clearly see the picture that the poet is trying to describe in the book.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost as if Virgil is describing the scene as it is happening, like narrating a movie or something, it really does increase the pace. Something i have noticed as we are translating in class is that Virgil and Ovid both will switch to the present tense in fast-paced times like this and return to the perfect when it is a slower part in the story
ReplyDeleteI saw this scene differently than you Lucas. I saw a giant hurricane tearing apart the city, instead of a real human Poseidon. I also think that this passage could work with the social power lens, by showing that Venus was standing up against all of the other gods, the social power, to help her son. I don't know, maybe that a stretch, maybe not...
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