Cultural history is a problem for high school students and students taking the world history exam.
It's ideal to read everything, but no matter how you think about it, you don't have that much time. So, this time, I will explain the synopsis of "Aeneid", which is said to be the epic of the greatest masterpiece of ancient Rome, so that you can understand it in 5 minutes!
Synopsis of Aeneid in 5 minutes
It may be good to know about the "Trojan War" to understand the synopsis of Aeneid.
The "Trojan War" is an indispensable event for learning Greek and Roman literature, and the famous books "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by the Greek poet "Homer" also talk about the Trojan War.
Originally a story of a system of Greek mythology, the hero Achilles famous for the Achilles tendon and the famous Trojan horse are also stories that appear in this Trojan War.
I will give a synopsis about "Trojan War" in another article, but "Aeneas", the main character of "Aeneas" that I will talk about this time, was also the name of the general who was active in this Trojan War and was hostile to Greece. He was a Trojan general.
Aeneas, who succeeded in escaping from the Trojan that was destroyed by the Trojan horse operation, got angry with the goddess Juno (in Greek mythology, the wife of Zeus, the main god in Hera), and the ship was wrecked and drifted to Carthage as it was.
By the way, Aeneas's father is a direct descendant of the main god Jupiter (Zeus, the main god of Greek mythology), and his mother is the son of Venus (Aphrodina in Greek mythology, Venus in English).
As I will explain later, the area around it becomes very important. Including why the main character of this story had to be Aeneas.
Now, Aeneas, who arrives at Carthage, is protected by Queen Dido, but every time she gets disturbed by Yuno.
By the way, this Yuno is said to be a god of jealousy and is almost always angry. The reason she is angry is her husband's affair. For example, Greek heroes Perseus and Heracles are children who were born as a result of Zeus's flirtation. In Greek mythology, God often has children with people. Anyone familiar with Greek mythology knows that it was Hera (Juno) who killed Heracles.
Women's jealousy is scary ...
One day when Dido and Aeneas went hunting, Yuno's anger caused heavy rain. The two will then be hidden in a cave.
Aeneas had a peaceful day, but Zeus led him to a land called Latium.
During this time, Dido commits suicide, but Aeneas is loved by the King of Latium and marries her daughter.
There is a man named Tulus who was aiming for the daughter of the king, and Yuno tempted them to duel, but after a duel against Tulus who received Yuno's blessing, Aeneas won with the king of Latium. By the way, this story was to end.
This Latium was later "Rome", and later Aeneas had two children. Romulus and Remus. Latium takes the name of Romulus and becomes "Rome", and it is a story that builds the history after that.
I will write this part later, but I needed a story that Rome is a venerable country following the Okami Yupiteru if it traces its origins.
By the way, although Aeneas feels rather ruthless, the King of Latium has received the oracle of Delphi, which was absolute in the Greek world at that time.
Although the Greek world has a strong democratic image, the theocracy is at the root of it, and it never goes against the will of God.
Aeneid itself is unfinished because Vergilius died on the way, and no one knows what the future story should have been.
In addition, the meaning of the title "Aeneas" means the song of Aeneas. Very confusing and difficult to remember ...
What kind of person is Vergilius who wrote Aeneid?
A person who was active from the end of the republican era to the beginning of the imperial era, and is sometimes said to be one of the three major poets along with Ovid and Horace. Let's go.
The influence on the posterity of Vergilius was great, and Dante, a representative artist of the Renaissance, has great respect for Vergilius and made Vergilius appear in his masterpiece "Divine Comedy".
By the way, "Aeneas" is an epic composed of verses, not prose, so be careful.
Japanese feature-length literature is written in prose, including the Genji Monogatari, and although there are no feature-length epics, Western European literature is often epic. Like Goethe's Faust.
Background of the times when Aeneid was written
It is said that Vergilius did not want to bring Aeneid to the world. He was a perfectionist by nature, and he didn't want to go out unfinished.
It was Augustus, the first Roman emperor Octavianus, who wanted to bring Aeneid to the world, and he needed to raise the authority of imperial Rome and claim its legitimacy.
In fact, Augustus's aim was perfect, and Aeneid was said to be the masterpiece of Latin literature, making a name for himself in history and having a great influence on posterity.