Is the end of the Aeneid so unsatisfactory that, as some critics maintain, it
must be another indication of the poem’s incomplete state? Why does the
ending pose problems of interpretation for the work as a whole?
Introduction
- Satisfying as meaning with closure, not always happy; desired result for
the reader
- Not necessarily how Virgil meant it to be finished as his friends are the
ones who published the poem after his death (similarly to Odyssey,
which scholars argue may have been intended to finish in 23)
- Complex narratives are difficult to provide closure on, it is mostly
inevitable that everything would conclude satisfactory – likely that
there would be something which does not please the reader
- Also modelled on Homer’s epics, neither of which had complicated
endings
- Important to note level of satisfaction and completion with regards to
the divine realm and Turnus’ death, specifically concerning the moral
concerns regarding Aeneas and the purpose and consequences of the
death itself
Divine realm
1. Jupiter weighing scales
- Proves fate is fate no matter what despite Juno’s best attempts – this
is the moment that makes it clear that one of the two characters will
win, and the other must die for this to happen
- ‘Jupiter himself lifted up a pair of scales with the tongue centred and
put the lives of the two men in them to decide who would be
condemned in the ordeal of battle, and with whose weight death
would descend’, ‘Iuppiter ipse duas aequato examine lances /
sustinet et fata imponit diversa duorum, / quem damnet labor et quo
vergat pondere letum’ (Aen. 12.725)
- Doesn’t have a result, still ambiguous – tension throughout, therefore
slightly satisfactory that Turnus’ death finally answers this question
of whose fate is weightier and whose death is inevitable
2. Jupiter/Juno scene, her withdrawal
- Theme of delay ends, as well as the involvement of the mortal realm
allowing the human ending to be entirely up to the mortal characters
- Setting up of the future race which is never actually revealed,
established in the proem of Aeneid and expected of a ktistic poem –
this could be disappointing for the reader
- No conclusion to anger about Carthage (further incited in book IV by
Dido’s death), only Troy: ‘Troy has fallen, allow it to remain fallen
along with its name’, ‘occidit, occideritque sinas cum nomine Troia’
(Aen. 12.828)
- Some critics believe this isn’t the end of her anger and she returns
after the ending – she is also presented as the antagonist in the
Hannibalic War as shown in Ennian tradition (Woodruff,
Reminiscences of Ennius in Silius Italicus), thus if Virgil appears to be
must be another indication of the poem’s incomplete state? Why does the
ending pose problems of interpretation for the work as a whole?
Introduction
- Satisfying as meaning with closure, not always happy; desired result for
the reader
- Not necessarily how Virgil meant it to be finished as his friends are the
ones who published the poem after his death (similarly to Odyssey,
which scholars argue may have been intended to finish in 23)
- Complex narratives are difficult to provide closure on, it is mostly
inevitable that everything would conclude satisfactory – likely that
there would be something which does not please the reader
- Also modelled on Homer’s epics, neither of which had complicated
endings
- Important to note level of satisfaction and completion with regards to
the divine realm and Turnus’ death, specifically concerning the moral
concerns regarding Aeneas and the purpose and consequences of the
death itself
Divine realm
1. Jupiter weighing scales
- Proves fate is fate no matter what despite Juno’s best attempts – this
is the moment that makes it clear that one of the two characters will
win, and the other must die for this to happen
- ‘Jupiter himself lifted up a pair of scales with the tongue centred and
put the lives of the two men in them to decide who would be
condemned in the ordeal of battle, and with whose weight death
would descend’, ‘Iuppiter ipse duas aequato examine lances /
sustinet et fata imponit diversa duorum, / quem damnet labor et quo
vergat pondere letum’ (Aen. 12.725)
- Doesn’t have a result, still ambiguous – tension throughout, therefore
slightly satisfactory that Turnus’ death finally answers this question
of whose fate is weightier and whose death is inevitable
2. Jupiter/Juno scene, her withdrawal
- Theme of delay ends, as well as the involvement of the mortal realm
allowing the human ending to be entirely up to the mortal characters
- Setting up of the future race which is never actually revealed,
established in the proem of Aeneid and expected of a ktistic poem –
this could be disappointing for the reader
- No conclusion to anger about Carthage (further incited in book IV by
Dido’s death), only Troy: ‘Troy has fallen, allow it to remain fallen
along with its name’, ‘occidit, occideritque sinas cum nomine Troia’
(Aen. 12.828)
- Some critics believe this isn’t the end of her anger and she returns
after the ending – she is also presented as the antagonist in the
Hannibalic War as shown in Ennian tradition (Woodruff,
Reminiscences of Ennius in Silius Italicus), thus if Virgil appears to be
