{"id":123,"date":"2017-05-17T15:59:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/?p=123"},"modified":"2018-05-17T15:27:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T15:27:41","slug":"reading-vergil-creusas-farewell-aeneid-2-776-789","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/2017\/05\/17\/reading-vergil-creusas-farewell-aeneid-2-776-789\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast: Creusa’s Farewell (Aeneid 2.776-789)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michelle Hoffer discusses Creusa’s farewell speech to Aeneas near the end of Book 2 of Vergil’s Aeneid<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Creusa<\/a>
Creusa Appearing to Aeneas (print published in London in 1781, after a painting by Maria Cosway). Aeneas, in armour, staring up on the right, stepping forward to the left and throwing his arms out to try and embrace Creusa, who floats in mid-air, naked holding a veil billowing around her and looking down to the right at him, in the background, Troy burns. Source: The British Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘Quid tantum \u012bns\u0101n\u014d iuvat indulg\u0113re dol\u014dr\u012b,
\n\u014d dulcis coni\u016bnx? N\u014dn haec sine n\u016bmine d\u012bvum
\n\u0113veniunt; nec t\u0113 comitem hinc port\u0101re Cre\u01d6sam
\nf\u0101s, aut ille sinit super\u012b r\u0113gn\u0101tor Olymp\u012b.
\nLonga tibi exsilia et v\u0101stum maris aequor arandum, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 780
\net terram Hesperiam veni\u0113s, ubi L\u0233dius arva
\ninter op\u012bma virum l\u0113n\u012b fluit agmine Thybris.
\nIll\u012bc r\u0113s laetae r\u0113gnumque et r\u0113gia coni\u016bnx
\nparta tib\u012b; lacrim\u0101s d\u012bl\u0113ctae pelle Cre\u01d6sae.
\nN\u014dn ego Myrmidonum s\u0113d\u0113s Dolopumve superb\u0101s \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 785
\naspiciam aut Gr\u0101\u012bs serv\u012btum m\u0101tribus \u012bb\u014d,
\nDardanis et d\u012bvae Veneris nurus;
\nsed m\u0113 magna deum genetr\u012bx h\u012bs d\u0113tinet \u014dr\u012bs.
\nIamque val\u0113 et n\u0101t\u012b serv\u0101 comm\u016bnis am\u014drem.’<\/p>\n

Did she trip and fall over burning wood and lose sight of him? Was she grabbed from behind by a Greek and stabbed through the heart? Did she cry out his name as he became smaller in the distance? Did the blazing walls of a nearby house collapse on her as she fled? Or could she simply just not keep up? These are questions that we will never have the answers to, because as Aeneas and his family fled the burning Troy he told his wife to follow him \u201cat a distance\u201d and never looked back to make sure she was safe until it was too late. For this, he bears not only the guilt he takes on himself, but the blame of generations of readers who cannot understand why he did not protect her, why he did not let her go in front, why he did not look back.<\/p>\n

However, this is not the reputation he deserves, at least not in Creusa\u2019s eyes. If you look closely at the words she chooses in her farewell speech, like dulcis, comitem, dilectae <\/em>and nati communis amorem<\/em>, it becomes clear that these two shatter the stereotype of Roman husbands being tyrants over their wives. These two were in love. That much is clear through her words. There is a deep emotional connection embedded in this speech and it paints a picture for the reader of the love they shared, helping us to feel the pain of his loss.<\/p>\n

Creusa, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, was Aeneas\u2019 Trojan wife whom he loses as he flees the burning city with his father and son, asking her to follow them long\u0113 <\/em>or \u201cat a distance\u201d (2.711). Aeneas only realizes that he has lost her when he arrives at the meeting point outside the city, and immediately rushes back, only to be confronted by her shade, who delivers a moving and prophetic speech before her spirit disappears from sight. While Creusa\u2019s final speech is the only real window we have into her character, we are provided a telling glimpse into who she was as a wife, mother, and catalyst for Aeneas\u2019 fateful journey.<\/p>\n

While Vergil is well known for modeling his works on those of his great predecessor Homer, Homer himself \u201cdoes not have any character named Creusa, nor does he include any mention of a wife of Aeneas\u201d (Cassali, 312). In fact the \u201cname Creusa for the wife of Aeneas is not attested before the Augustan age\u201d, in which both Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Livy mention her in their respective works (ibid.). In some of the earliest versions of the myth, Aeneas\u2019 wife is named Eurydica, but \u201cperhaps feeling that the name could not be dissociated from the Orpheus legend, Vergil accepted the account that her name was Creusa\u201d (Briggs, 43). However, while Vergil may have accepted this origin, there are many textual clues that suggest the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was not far from his mind.<\/p>\n

Through both his word choice and his thematic parallels, it is clear that Vergil borrowed the template of a lost wife from the Orpheus and Eurydice episode in the Georgics<\/em> (4.453\u2013527). Both Aeneas and Orpheus attempt to save their wives from dire situations, and in their attempted escape both men tell their wives to follow behind them. Ultimately, both fail. Both wives appear to their husbands after they are lost and are afforded one final speech. Perhaps the most interesting difference is that \u201cOrpheus loses Eurydice for \u2018looking back\u2019 at her, while Aeneas loses Creusa for \u2018not looking back\u2019 at her.\u201d (Casali, 312). Whether this is meant to speak anything to the quality of a husband Aeneas was to Creusa is widely debated. (Grillo 2010 is a fascinating discussion on what Aeneas\u2019 loss of Creusa says about his pietas<\/em>, arguing that he should not be absolved of all guilt, as he was knowingly and intentionally neglectful of his wife.)<\/p>\n

Although Aeneas seems, at least on the surface, to be to blame for Creusa\u2019s death, it is apparent in her speech that she does not see it this way, as she speaks gently and without resentment to her dulcis coniunx <\/em>(2.776). She not only tries to soothe his guilt by reminding him that \u201cthese things did not happen without divine will\u201d (non haec sine numine divum eveniunt, <\/em>2.776) but also by revealing that through her death she escaped becoming a slave to the Greeks, and instead now rests in the company of the gods. While he will move on, \u201cshe will remain in her homeland Troy\u201d (Khan 2001, 909), and seems to be at peace with that. She is not resentful of his future happiness, but instead seems to take comfort in knowing that he will find happiness in the terram Hesperiam <\/em>(2.781). <\/em>In this way, her speech \u201cis a combination of farewell, consolatio <\/em>to assuage Aeneas\u2019 guilt (not sharpen or prolong it), and divinatio<\/em>, to point his way ahead\u201d (Jones, 291).<\/p>\n

She concludes her speech with the same gentleness with which it began, asking Aeneas to \u201cpreserve your love for our son\u201d (2.789). <\/em>She knows that the road ahead for her husband is a difficult one, but even still, \u201cshe ends by telling him not to fail in his love for their son\u201d (Jones, 291), as she knows he will soon enough be taking a new wife. In her final words, Vergil shows us that above all else, she was a concerned mother, putting her son\u2019s life and future at the forefront of both her and her husband\u2019s mind. She also uses the word communis <\/em>(2.789) meaning \u201ccommon\u201d or \u201cshared,\u201d perhaps in an attempt to remind him that part of her will forever live on in this person they created together, and that to preserve his love for their son is to preserve his love for her also.<\/p>\n

Vergil puts his stamp on this speech through the imagery in his words and the themes he so seamlessly weaves in. Creusa depicts the flowing Tiber with \u201cthe limpid sounds of l <\/em>and y<\/em>\u201d which \u201cbegin to give the new land certain charm\u201d (Jones, 291), as if the words themselves are flowing gently through the fields. Vergil goes on to use \u201ca strong but not excessive alliteration of the letter r<\/em>\u201d (ibid.) with res laetae regnumque et regia coniunx<\/em> in line 783, before falling back into the gentle sounds of l <\/em>and y<\/em> as she begs him not to cry for her saying lacrimas dilectae pelle Creusae<\/em> (2.784). However, Vergilian themes are certainly present as well, the most prominent of which is the future founding of Rome. This is the first true foreshadowing of that future to Aeneas, and while Creusa admits that the journey will be difficult, it will nevertheless be a worthwhile endeavor. He will not only begin his life anew, but will also fulfil the numen divum <\/em>(2.786) or \u201cdivine will.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many would consider Creusa to be a minor character of the epic, I feel that she is the catalyst for the journey ahead. She needs to die so that Aeneas can fulfill his preordained destiny, and he must be forced to confront her shade so that he knows unequivocally that he has her blessing to move on without her, that he can go on knowing that she is not in pain, but in the company of the divine. She is able to put him at peace, a beloved voice telling him that perils await, but joy is inevitable. It is only through her encouragement that he is able to leave his burning city to pursue the numen divum.<\/em><\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Briggs, Ward W. \u201cEurydice, Venus, and Creusa: A Note on Structure in Vergil.\u201d Vergilius <\/em>25 (1979): 43\u201345.<\/p>\n

Casali, Sergio. \u201cCreusa.\u201d In Richard Thomas and Jan M. Ziolkowski, eds., The Vergil Encyclopedia<\/em>, 3 vols. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 312\u201313.<\/p>\n

Grillo, Luca. \u201cLeaving Troy and Creusa: Reflections on Aeneas\u2019 Flight.\u201d Classical Journal<\/em> 106 (2010): 43\u201368.<\/p>\n

Jones, Peter. Reading Vergil: Aeneid I and II<\/em>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.<\/p>\n

Khan, H. Akbar. \u201cExile and the Kingdom: Creusa\u2019s Revelations and Aeneas\u2019 Departure from Troy.\u201d Latomus<\/em> 60 (2001): 906\u201315.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Hoffer discusses Creusa’s farewell speech to Aeneas near the end of Book 2 of Vergil’s Aeneid. ‘Quid tantum \u012bns\u0101n\u014d iuvat indulg\u0113re dol\u014dr\u012b, \u014d dulcis coni\u016bnx? N\u014dn haec sine n\u016bmine d\u012bvum \u0113veniunt; nec t\u0113 comitem hinc port\u0101re Cre\u01d6sam f\u0101s, aut ille sinit super\u012b r\u0113gn\u0101tor Olymp\u012b. Longa tibi exsilia et v\u0101stum maris aequor arandum, \u00a0 \u00a0 … Continue reading Podcast: Creusa’s Farewell (Aeneid 2.776-789)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2573,138297],"tags":[5514,138300,138299,138297,5513],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcasts","category-reading-vergil","tag-aeneid","tag-creusa","tag-michelle-hoffer","tag-reading-vergil","tag-vergil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}