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lines 199-202 are a great example of do ut des ('I give so that you give'), an important component of Roman (and Greek) religion; Iarbas has set up all these temples, etc. to Juppiter, so Juppiter should have his back in this situation. The description of what Iarbas has done leads right into Iarbas' appeal to Juppiter. Iarbas takes it for granted that Juppiter should back him over Aeneas as a potential husband for Dido, simply because he has done so much for Juppiter.
Vergil builds the tension nicely leading into the speech by delaying the expected complementary infinitive with dicitur (orasse) for a full line and a half, going so far as to add somewhat superfluous phrases in the middle such as media inter numina divum, which is fairly redundant after ante oras.
Throughout this whole episode, I find the character of Juppiter quite interesting. First of all, it seems odd that he knows nothing about what is going on; while Venus and Juno watch Aeneas and his situation like hawks, Juppiter is completely oblivious, having to find out through Iarbas' prayer. In the Iliad, when various gods want to help the Greeks without the permission of Zeus, Hera has to seduce him and lull him to sleep; here, no distraction has been necessary - he's just not paying attention.
Interesting, too, is that no reply or reference is made to Iarbas' plea; Aeneas must leave because his fate lies in Italy and, therefore, Dido is the wrong woman for him. Iarbas' plea seems to be little more than a plot device to alert Juppiter, especially since Venus' feigned agreement with Juno's plan would keep her from complaining to Juppiter.
We find in Juppiter's speech the threefold task/reward/fate of Aeneas (229-231) - to rule Italy, found a new race from Trojan blood, and submit the entire world under their laws. Of course, the first of these Aeneas only partly accomplishes - he will defeat the Latins and establish a kingdom in Italy, but it will be nearly 800 years before the Romans actually rule all Italy; the last of them is certainly an accomplishment of the later Romans, and may even be meant to refer specifically to Augustus, who had certainly expanded the already significant Roman dominions. The lines, especially with the mention of Ascanius about to come, seem to foreshadow the conversation of Aeneas and Anchises in Book 6 in the underworld, when the future greatness of Rome is described, along with its own task - to spare the humble and war down the proud.
2 comments:
We talked a lot about Jupiter and his omnipotence or lack there of in class today. It's hard to believe that the god of gods is so unaware of such a pivotal event. Maybe Vergil is making a statement about the gods. He might not have been as devout as his character Aeneas. He could have used his writing as a means to express himself in a time when it was difficult to deviate from the norm without consequence. Now, I actually know nothing about Vergil or his views on gods, religion, society etc. and if they correlate with this idea, but many authors do use their work as a vehicle to express their opinion.
That's an interesting point; Roman feelings about religion in Vergil's time are very complicated, at least as far as I understand them. My gut feeling (and I don't really have anything specific to back this up) is that they generally feel it is good and morally productive to go through all the religious formalities/ceremonies, etc. (and they have a lot of them which they observe very strictly; Augustus in particular restores a lot of old temples, as well), BUT a lot of them (especially the more educated ones) are fairly skeptical of the gods' involvement in human affairs (and to some extent their existence in the first place). So perhaps this is Vergil carefully balancing those two in some way - expressing his own skepticism, as you suggest, within a story that by its nature (since its written under the very moralistic Augustus) has to reflect Roman religious ideals.
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