Tagged: Virgil

Uber reviews for Charon, boatman of Hades

The taxi service Uber is taking Boston by force. With its mixed reviews in the media, riders wonder about their drivers as well as what services are offered outside Beantown. Lucky for us at the Core office, Professor Hamill left a copy of the New Yorker open to an article providing Uber  reviews for Charon, […]

How should Aeneas have dumped Dido?

According to Prof. Pat Johnson (in yesterday’s CC102 lecture), “any BU undergraduate could have found a better way to dump Dido than Aeneas did in Book IV of the Aeneid”: She was the first to speak and charge Aeneas: “You even hope to keep me in the dark as to this outrage, did you, two-faced […]

Dana Gioa on Epic

No epic survived the welter of history unless both its language and story were unforgettable. From a plot posterity demands both immediate pleasure and enduring moral significance. An epic narrative must vividly and unforgettably embody the central values of a civilization — be they military valor or spiritual redemption. Only a few poets at a […]

From Nelson’s lecture on Virgil’s Aeneid

At yesterday’s CC102 lecture, Prof. Stephanie Nelson spoke about the two stories in Virgil’s Aeneid — the one being the story of the founding of Rome, and the other a tale of ‘pious Aeneas’, who fled his destroyed home in search of another. For the benefit of those who couldn’t attend the lecture, here are […]

Analects of the Core: Virgil on Euryalus’ death

“Euryalus, Poor fellow, where did I lose you? Where shall I Hunt for you? Back all the winding way, That maze of woodland?” – Virgil, The Aeneid (Boox IX, 551-554)

Analects of the Core: Virgil on Aeneas’ last words to Dido

“Dido, do forlorn, The story then that came to me was true, That you were out of life, had met your end By your own hand. Was I, was I the cause? I swear by heaven’s stars, by the high gods, By any certainty below the earth, I left your land against my will, my […]

Analects of the Core: Virgil on Greek gifts

‘Men of Troy, what madness has come over you? can you believe the enemy truly gone? A gift from the Danaans, and no ruse? Is that Ulysses’ way, as you have known him? Achaens must be hiding in this timber, Or it was built to butt against our walls, Peer over them into our houses, […]