Snatching up fire from hearths, despoiling altars, Wrought to a frenzy, all cried out together, Now truly wrought upon by signs and wonders, The goddess on strong wings went up to the sky Only when Iris reveals herself is their indecision resolved, in favor of burning the ships: The women are undecided, torn between comfort and hope. She urges them to burn the ships, forcing the Trojan refugees to remain in Sicily, but is quickly found out by Pyrgo, who recognizes that she is a goddess and not the true Beroë, who is ill: “Just observe / What traits she has of more than mortal beauty, / Her blazing eyes, her audacity, her face, / Her voice, her stride” (V.837-40). (For more on this episode see this post). When Juno sends Iris to convince the Trojan women to burn the ships, Iris disguises herself as an old Trojan woman, Beroë. Why may we not join hands and speak and hearīook V. Why tease your son so often with disguises? Knowing her for his mother, he called out
Her nape shone, her ambrosial hair exhaledĭivine perfume, her gown rippled full length,Īnd by her stride she showed herself a goddess. Only when she leaves does she reveal her true identity: Aeneas entirely ignores her denial (I.510), and Venus lets the matter drop. She denies the charge (“Be sure I am not fit / For any such devotion” I.456-57) and proceeds to tell him Dido’s backstory. Aeneas immediately spots her divinity (though not her identity): “Your look’s not mortal, / Neither has your accent a mortal ring. Aeneas, having landed at Carthage, encounters his mother, Venus, “wearing a girl’s shape and a girl’s gear” (I.426). I ask because, based on the evidence of the Aeneid, the strategy is ineffective, at least at a first glance. As creator of the sion of Christabel also occurs in the context conditions that result in Leoline’s accusation of sleep (Book 7, lines 524–5).When the gods speak to us, they often change their faces, divesting themselves of obvious divinity in favor of a more familiar human form. Geraldine’s posses- the transgressor and avenger. ‘possessed’ in her ‘vital parts’ by Alecto’s According to this reading, Geraldine is both snake, which causes rage. As Amata Christabel has transgressed the laws of hospi- awakes and tries to persuade her husband tality by asking him to send away the to fight against Aeneas, Virgil describes her as distressed daughter of his former best friend. deep child, / And all his hospitality / To th’insulted within Amata’s heart’, and ‘the fiery serpent daughter of his friend / By more than woman’s skims / Betwixt her linen and her naked jealousy, / Brought thus to a disgraceful limbs / His baleful breath inspiring, as he end. Dishonour’d by his only Amata, she throws ‘the poisonous dart. When Alecto approaches the sleeping rage and pain. Notes and Queries Oxford University Press Ĥ74 NOTES AND QUERIES December 2005 Geraldine away, he becomes ‘swell’d sleeping. For Christabel, of his daughter, Geraldine situates herself as the moment of infection occurs when As creator of the sion of Christabel also occurs in the context conditions that result in Leoline’s accusation of sleep (Book 7, lines 524–5).
Thackeray in ‘Pattledom’ Thackeray in ‘Pattledom’Ĥ74 NOTES AND QUERIES December 2005 Geraldine away, he becomes ‘swell’d sleeping.