Only a few more weeks to spring
Welcome Fellow Nerds, Book Geeks and Tarot Lovers
FYI: TRIVIUM RESEARCH TIDBITS ON ROMAN MYTHOLOGIES
Once a month, I'll focus on Roman mythologies that gives my Trivium World authenticity and depth. Do read the novel beforehand. All FYI sections contain SPOILERS.
The Aeneid: Focus for winter 2021
Aeneas and the Golden Bough
When Billie noses around Finn's front parlor, she notices an ornate secretariat used as a working desk, stacked with books and ledger-sized notepads. Unable to resist, she reads a selection from Finn's notes, not quite understanding the purpose or origin of his scholarship. The names listed in his notes, however, resonate, and she remembers hearing them during the aggressive conversation between Finn and her mother in the office she and Lucia share. They relate in some obscure way to her mother's blasted painting.
Finn speaks of Dido and Venus, two aspects of the goddess Diana mentioned by Virgil in his epic poem, The Aeneid.
The Aeneid is to the Romans what the Iliad and Odyssey was to the Greeks.
Basically, Aeneas is a Trojan prince fleeing the burning city of Troy with a group of fellow survivors.The Aeneid provides an account of a monumental journey that takes him through stormy seas, exposes him to love and forces him to travel to the Land of the Dead. The vengeful goddess and Queen of the Heavens, Juno, torments each leg of his adventure wanting him to fail. But… like all heroes, he triumphs, reaching the promised land of Italy where after a serious of bloody trials, he founds the Roman people.
Finn will reference the Aeneid in a talk he's scheduled to give at Tulane as a guest lecturer. His planned discourse focuses on the religious temperament of Virgil's Rome and how such publicly common beliefs influenced the poet's patriotic myth of the Eternal City's prehistory. When Billie reads his notes, she comes across a reference to a tree bearing the Golden Bough and assumes Finn is pondering the meaning of the tree vision she saw in Fascination's healing room the afternoon of the energy healing demonstration. He explains that he doesn't relate the tree in his lecture notes to the tree in her sending at all and goes on to summarize for her Book Six of the Aeneid.
A Summary of Book Six of the Aeneid
Don't knock Classics Illustrated Comics for providing a synopsis of great literature. The photo on the right is from my personal collection. I am not a snob when it comes to using any tool in my arsenal to coax my comprehension. Besides, graphic novels like Classic Illustrated introduced me to great books and prompted me to seek out the originals.
Book Six
Once Aeneas arrives on the shores of Italy, he makes for the Temple of Apollo in Cumae, near modern-day Naples. The Sibyl, Deiophobe, of the Cumae shrine, already an old woman of nearly 700 years, meets him. After he prays to Apollo to allow the surviving Trojans a settlement in Latium, the Sibyl warns him of more Juno-instigated trials awaiting him in Italy before his prayers are answered. Aeneas asks the Sibyl if he may confer with his father's spirit and is informed that to enter the Underworld with any hope of returning he must first receive a sign from the gods that such action is pleasing. He must first find a golden branch in the nearby forest to present to Prosperina, the queen of Pluto, king of the Underworld. If the bough breaks off the tree easily, the Sibyl tells him, it means fate calls Aeneas to the Underworld. If Aeneas is not meant to travel to the Underworld, the bough will remain on the tree.
As Aeneas enters the forest (the forest happens to be the goddess Diana's sacred grove), his mother Venus sends him a pair of doves. They guide him to the sacred oak tree where he sees the shimmering golden leaves growing on the Golden Bough. He attempts to remove the branch from the tree, but it resists. He yanks it off and returns to the Sibyl. Together, they head toward the gate leading to the underworld.
The Sibyl shows the Golden bough to Charon the ferryman who only then allows them to board his boat. He takes them across the Stygian River. Once on the opposite bank, the Sibyl throws the three-headed dog Cerberus a drugged honey cake. The dog swallows it and falls asleep. At Pluto's palace, Aeneas places the Golden Bough on the arched door and then passes through to the Elysian Fields--the place where those who led a just and fruitful life abide. There, he finds his father Anchises. Anchises tells Aeneas about the nearby river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Beyond the river, a multitude of spirits wait to be born to Earth--some of these will become the descendants of Aeneas--those who will live in the future Roman Empire that Aeneas will found. Anchises advises his son and then leads him to the ivory gate by which Aeneas and the Sibyl return to earth.
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