The primacy of vision in virgils aeneid

the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK n the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid n Riggs Alden Smith university of texas press austin copyright © 2005 by the university of texas press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2005 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, P.O Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713–7819 The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper) library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Smith, Alden The primacy of vision in Virgil’s Aeneid / Riggs Alden Smith.— 1st ed p cm Includes bibliographical references and index isbn 0-292-70657-x (alk paper) Virgil Aeneis Aeneas (Legendary character) in literature Epic poetry, Latin—History and criticism Visual perception in literature Art and literature—Rome Visions in literature Rome—In literature Vision in literature I Title pa6825.s63 2005 873'.01—dc22 2004028381 n Dianae, meae uitae, forsan et haec olim meminisse iuuabit THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Contents n preface and acknowledgments ix text and art acknowledgments xiii abbreviations xv chapter Prophaenomena ad Vergilium Theory Theoria Ante ora patrum 12 The Scope of the Argument 21 chapter Ruse and Revelation: Visions of the Divine and the Telos of Narrative 24 Seen/Unseen 26 Gods Revealed 36 A God in the Midst 51 chapter Vision Past and Future 60 Hector and the Penates 61 Hindsight to Foresight: Andromache and Aeneas 71 Imago Creusae 77 Vision and Temporal Modality in Aeneas’ Katabasis 82 Site/Sight of Rome 90 Conclusion 95 chapter Hic amor: Love, Vision, and Destiny 97 Aliud genus officii: Vision and the Second Favor 98 vii the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid Viewpoints of Departure: Deception, Vision, and the Separation of Dido and Aeneas 106 Fixos Oculos 115 Lauiniaque uenit 121 Conclusion 126 chapter Vidi, Vici: Vision’s Victory and the Telos of Narrative 128 Failure of Rhetoric (Part 1): Effete oratores 133 Drances and Turnus: Opposing Visions 139 Hercules and Cacus: Light, Darkness, and Diction 147 Failure of Rhetoric (Part 2): The Futility of Battlefield Entreaty in Books 10–12 152 Failure of Rhetoric (Part 3): Sight Makes Right and the Aeneid’s Finale 159 chapter Conclusion: Ante ora parentum 176 notes 183 bibliography 223 subject index 237 index locorum 247 viii Preface and Acknowledgments n My desire to consider vision in the Aeneid is in part derived from an interest in ancient art that I first cultivated at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, a program that I attended as an undergraduate under Mary Sturgeon and Fred Albertson My own research about ecphrasis, which I considered in my first book, also influenced my consideration of the topic of vision in the Aeneid Based on my preliminary studies, I gave papers at Princeton, Yale, Wesleyan, Columbia, Notre Dame of Maryland, Austin College, Texas Tech, Monmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Vermont, and later, at Penn and Colorado While only a little of the specific content of any of these lectures has come into this book, the development of my methodology is owed to them, and I wish to thank each of those departments for a warm reception and lively discussion To Denis Feeney, David Quint, Jim O’Hara, Gareth Williams, Sister Thérèse Dougherty, Robert Cape, Edward George, Karl Galinsky, Tom Sienkewicz, Phil Ambrose, Joe Farrell, and Peter Knox, and all their colleagues, I express my gratitude here I wish to thank the committees for research grants and sabbaticals at Baylor University, for without a respite from my duties at Baylor and without adequate financial support I could not have undertaken this project; special thanks to Wallace Daniel, Thomas Hibbs, David Jeffrey, Donald Schmeltekopf, and Robert Sloan for support, encouragement, and vision I would also like to thank Tommye Lou Davis for taking over as acting chair of the department in my absence I wrote this book in Philadelphia, where I used the resources of the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library I wish to thank the kind librarians there, as well as those of Moody Library at Baylor and of the Classics Library ix ... terminology Words for vision in Latin and in English have a wide range of meaning Vision can suggest in English a hope for the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid the future as well as the act of. .. Aristotle conceives of vision with regard to information gathering In the Aeneid, as in the opening of the Metaphysics, vision is conjoined with action The Roman Epicureans of the first-century bc... of coordinating the power of past events with the promise of the future Further, bonds of love in the Aeneid are both strengthened and ruptured through vision Analysis of Dido’s and Aeneas’ vision