AP Latin

Even though I love teaching Vergil’s Aenied, I do have one major complaint with the AP approved course syllabus. While the curriculum does suggest that students have some familiarity with the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, it tends to use these texts to establish the epic tradition in which Vergil is writing and then simply to place them as mere background information for the Aeneid. In other words, knowing the basic elements essential to epic poetry and learning a few characters and events, for the purposes of the AP exam, can replace the reading of the Homer, which it absolutely cannot. This is not to say that one can’t read and enjoy the Aeneid independently from its predecessors. Quite to the contrary, it is a beautifully written work with well developed characters and exciting narrative. Nevertheless, Vergil was writing for an audience that had grown-up with, and had been educated by, the Homeric epics. Therefore they knew these poems inside and out. It was this intimate knowledge of the Iliad and the Odyssey, on which Vergil would rely when he would virtually transpose Greek passages from these epics into his Latin text, but with a twist on character, circumstance or context. What might strike a modern reader as copy write infringement was an ancient poet’s way of shouting out to his audience, telling them to compare his text to those that came before, and to use theses intra-textual connections to enhance the meaning of his work.


In AP Latin we recently worked with dialogue between Juno and Aeolus, king of the winds. In the conversation, Juno, the queen of the gods, approaches Aeolus, a lesser god, and asks for a favor - that he release the winds to create a storm on the sea that will destroy Aeneas and the Trojan fleet. We looked at the structure and language of Juno’s speech, which begins with flattery, slides in the “ask” and then finishes with a bribe - a beautiful nymph as a new bride for Aeolus. Juno’s supplicating demeanor and the bribe, in particular, strike not only the reader, but even Aeolus as little odd and unnecessary. In fact, Aeolus basically responds, “you don’t have to do anything for me. I have to carry out whatever you order,” and proceeds to unleash the fury of the winds. Yet this scene is not so awkward, when viewed along side a scene from Book XV of the Iliad, in which the god of sleep, Hypnos, refuses Hera’s (the Greek Juno) request to put Zeus to sleep while the other gods rejoin the fighting in the Trojan War. Fearing Zeus’ reprisal, Hypnos rebuffs Hera, until he realizes that she has something he wants - one of the graces as his wife. When Hera agrees to this quid pro quo arrangement, Hypnos, puts Zeus to sleep. Regardless of whether Juno in the Aeneid really feels that she has to take this deferential tone with Aeolus or whether she just wants to cut to the chase, skip the ensuing negation similar to the one she had in past (the Iliad) and thus hurry the Trojan destruction; Aeolus does not react as she expects and she only expects a particular reaction because of the scene in the Iliad. In fact, it is not clear if Aeolus ever takes her up on her offer. He simply obeys.

~Maureen Beabout
Latin Instructor