M8 Reading Assignment and Reading Guide

Read the following pages in The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Shorter Fourth Edition, Volume 1. Answer the questions below as you read. "Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Literature: Rome" 13-17 "Virgil" 473-77 The Aeneid Book I lines 1-41 and 881-908 The Aeneid Book II In the essay on Rome, what is the definition of pietas? What was the beginning of Latin literature? On whose work did Virgil base The Aeneid? In the essay on Virgil, The Aeneid is described as a "twelve-book poem about doing" what? What did Augustus want The Aeneid to be? According to The Aeneid, the origins of Rome are in the destruction of what city? The Aeneid combines the themes of what two great Greek works? How is Odysseus, now known as "Ulysses," presented in The Aeneid? What does pietas connote? In Book I of The Aeneid, which goddess is the enemy of Aeneas? Which city did Juno love most of all? What insult to her beauty made Juno the enemy of the Trojans? In Book II of The Aeneid, Aeneas begins to tell the story of the fall of Troy to his Carthaginian hostess, Dido. How does he describe Ulysses? Minerva is the Roman name for Athena. According to Aeneas, what does Minerva help the Greeks to build? What does Capys suggest the Trojans do with the wooden horse? What does Laocoon say about the wooden horse? What does he do to the horse? What is Sinon's goal, lines 76--80? Who does Sinon say he swore revenge against, making this man Sinon's enemy among the Greeks? Sinon says he was chosen to be sacrificed due to which man's threats? Who does Sinon say he fears will pay the price for his escape from the Greeks? Who commands that Sinon be released from his ropes? Sinon claims that the Greeks stole the statue of Pallas Athena (Pallas is another name for Athena, as is Minerva) from Troy. He claims that the statue did what supernatural things? Sinon claims that the wooden horse was built to atone for what? What does Sinon say will happen to the Trojans if they violate the horse? What does he say will happen if they take the horse into their city? What comes ashore from the ocean to attack the sons of Laocoon? After attacking his sons, whom do these creatures kill? Where do they go next? How do these actions by these creatures convince the Trojans that Sinon was telling the truth? The Trojans "breach our own ramparts" to bring the horse inside. What does this mean? Aeneas dreams that night of which dead Trojan hero? What does this dead Trojan hero tell Aeneas to do? Although he’s been told by Hector in a dream to flee Troy, upon awakening, Aeneas decides to do what? How does he hope to die? How do Aeneas and his group disguise themselves in the battle? Who is Pyrrhus? He is described as being like what animal? What does Priam put on as the Greeks ravage his castle? What is his wife, Hecuba’s, response? What does she advise him will shelter them? Where is Polites killed and by whom? How does Priam insult Pyrrhus’s identity? How does Priam physically attack Pyrrhus? What is Pyrrhus’s answer? To what does he drag Priam before killing him? Whom does Aeneas remember when he sees Priam die? Who are Creusa and Iulus? Who is Aeneas’s mother? What does she reveal to him about the forces at work destroying Troy? What does she tell him to do? When Aeneas tries to flee with Anchises, what is his father’s first answer? When Anchises refuses to flee, what does Aeneas decide to do? Why doesn’t Aeneas run away, as his mother Venus told him to do? What does Creusa tell Aeneas is his duty if he is going to fight? In the midst of this dramatic scene, what happens to Iulus? How do his parents react? How does Anchises react, and what does he ask for? What happens in response? Whom does Aeneas carry on his back out of Troy? Whose hand does he hold while fleeing? How is this an image of pietas? Once outside the city, who does Aeneas realize is missing? What does he do? Whose ghost appears to Aeneas, and what does she tell him to do? How does Book II end?