Great Books #8: The Poetry of Empire

We conclude Virgil's the Iliad today and as we've discussed Virgil is very much the anti Homer and so what the Iliad is It's really a response to the Iliad and the Odyssey remember Homer believes that love is the unifying force of the universe There's a center is what gives you life. It's what gives you purpose and hope for Virgil What matters is the idea of piety or? obedience to the gods and to your father and As we discussed Virgil sets up a very stark contrast between love and piety Where they are competing forces? you cannot love and be pious at the same time and Piety is ultimately the man the main Centralizing force of the universe if you are pious if you obey the gods then the world will be right Because the gods have a divine plan for the world and in the case of the Iliad It is the founding of the Empire

of Rome, which is Ineos's mission and purpose and So our role our responsibility our duty in life is just to follow this path of the gods And then the world will be perfect Okay, um This will the the Iliad will create the Roman Empire which will then become the Catholic Church And the Catholic Church will rule for over a thousand years. Okay, the Millennium and during this thousand years. It is a time of Conformity of stagnation and it is because in this time What is often referred to as a dark ages? Virgil becomes the god of the Catholic Church the central organizing force. Why because every children, sorry every child of the elite memorizes the in the app and so every child perceives the world for the lens of the in the app and so what happened is to destroy this Empire a Man will emerge to liberate the human imagination and this name of

course is Dante Okay, and thought they will destroy the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church with his Masterpiece the divine comedy we will spend the rest of the semester Reading the divine comedy. It's not something you can read by yourself. There's actually no point You know if I just give it to you and say go read it It will make no sense to you We have to go through line by line word by word for you to understand the right comedy because not only is it poetry but philosophy and What poets will tell you is that a poem is this truth? told with as few beautiful words as possible So it could just be a few lines But it could take you a lifetime to fully understand the true meaning of these Lines and that is what the divine comedy is. It's a very It's an epic poem, but each paragraph each sent each Each line is a truth an eternal truth unto itself.

Okay, so we read the my comedy line by line And we'll try to really understand it but again, the point of this class is not to Tell you what the book great books are the entire point of the class is to get you excited about Entering their journey. That's great books. Don't that will take you a tired lifetime, okay it would take you an hour lifetime to appreciate the genius of these great books and And this class is meant to be a starting point. So do not think at the end of this class, oh, I've read Homer, I've read Virgil, I've read Dante, so I know the great books. No, okay? This is just the beginning. All right, so where we are in the story of the Aeneid is that Aeneas gets shipwrecked and he becomes a guest of Dido, the queen of Carthage. And the two fall in love.

Dido falls in love with the fact that Aeneas is not just a great warrior and very handsome, but also because he's a great storyteller. He tells her the story of the fall of Troy. And the two fall in love and Dido has this burning passion for Aeneas. And the gods, basically Juno wants to thwart the possibility of the rise of the Roman Empire. And so she conspires to have Dido and Aeneas consummate their passion for each other and then they get married. But then Jove, the King of the gods, finds out about this and says, no, no, no, this is not part of the plan. Aeneas gets married. not supposed to fall in love with Ditto, stay in Carthage, and build the Carthaginian Empire. He's supposed to go to Rome. So he sends Mercury, the messenger of the gods, down to Aeneas and tells him, hey man, what are you doing?

This is not your duty. Do your duty. So this is where we are in the story. So let us read. Ivory, can you read please?

Mercury lashes out at once. You, so now you lay foundation stones for the soaring walls of Carthage, building her gorgeous city, doting on your wife, blind to your own realm, oblivious to your fate. The king of the gods, whose power you have, the king of the gods, whose power sways earth and sky. He is the one who sends me down from brilliant Olympus, bearing commands for you through the racing winds. What are you plotting now? Wasting time in Libya. What hope misleads you so? If such a glorious destiny cannot fire your spirit, if you will not shoulder the task for your own fame, at least remember Ascanius rising into his prime. The hopes you lodge in Aeneas, your only heir.

Okay, all right. So Ascanius, of course, is... Aeneas' father, and Aeneas is the son, okay, who will inherit the legacy.

You owe him Italy's realm, the land of Rome. There's order still on his lips, the god vanished from sight into empty air. Then Aeneas was truly overwhelmed by the vision, stunned, his hackles bristle with fear, his voice chokes in his throat. He yearns to be gone, to desert this land he loves, thunderstruck by the warnings Jupiter's commands. But what can he do? What can he dare say now to the queen in all her fury and win her over? Where to begin? What opening? Thoughts racing, here, there, probing his options, turning to this plan, that plan, torn in two until, at his wit's end, this answer seems the best.

Okay, so again, Virgil is the anti -Homer. And what I mean by that is that if Homer were Aeneas, then what Homer would emphasize is how emotionally conflicted Aeneas is, because he loves Dido. He does not want to go. For Homer, love is above the gods. And what a human is, is someone who aspires to love. And when we read Divine Comedy, what we will discover is, the reason why is because God is love. Okay. And there's an aspect of God in us, a candle, that strives to return to the light. And so we seek love. And so for Homer, given a choice between going to Rome and finding a great empire or staying in Carthage and being with Dido, obviously you choose Dido, because that is the path to God. Right? And that's what happened in the Odyssey, where Odysseus had an opportunity to stay with Calypso. And live forever. But he chooses to return to Penelope.

And when he returns to Penelope, Penelope asks him, will you ever leave me again? And he says, never again will I leave you, because this is my home. Love is where my heart is. Okay? So this is the... But what the conflict is in Aeneas is, okay, I want to get the hell out of here. I'm risen with fear because... What I fear most is the anger of the gods. What I must do is be loyal to the gods and heed their command. So screw love. I don't need this. But there's a problem, which is how do I actually tell Dido? All right? That's a conflict. Not should I leave Dido, but like how do I get out of here without her bitching at me? All right? And so what does he decide to do? He decides, I won't tell her. Yeah. That's it. I'll pretend this didn't happen. And then at night, I will just sneak away.

And then, well, who cares what happens afterwards? All right? So this is... So the thing to notice is this is not human. Okay? There is nothing human about Aeneas. What he is, is he's like a walking phallus, almost. He's like James Bond, man. You know? He goes around. He goes around. Does his mission. Sleeps with a lot of girls, and then runs off. All right? So let us continue. Avery.

He summons Netheus, Sir Maestas, staunch Cerestas gives them mortars. Fit out the fleet, but not a word, mushered accrues on shore, all tackle set to sail. But the cause for our new course you keep it secret. Get he himself since Dido... It's intense I have an institution up here. means the world to him knows nothing never dreaming such a powerful love could be uprooted he will try to approach her find a moment to break the news gently a way to soften the blow that he must leave all shipmates snap to command glad to do his orders true but queen who can delude a lover soon caught wind of a plot of foot the first ascends the trojans are on the move she fears everything now even with all secure rumor vicious as ever brings her word already distraught

the trojans sorry sorry um you know what uh sorry

are rigging out their galleys gearing to set sail she rages in and she rages in helpless frenzy blazing through the entire city raving like some may may not driven wild when the women shake the sacred emblem when the cyclic orgy shouts of bacchus fire her on and

sitharon echoes round with maddened midnight cries okay all right so certain things to notice okay um bacchus is the god of creativity of um god of creativity for the greeks so there's actually two gods of creativity in the greek world there's apollo and there's dionysius bacchus okay apollo is the god of logical creativity where you sit down calmly and then you write down your thoughts okay that's apollo and you have bacchus who's the god of emotional rapturous creativity where you get drunk you have a lot of sex and then you express yourself okay and for the greeks these are two aspects of creativity that you both need in order to fully achieve your your creativity these human potential. Yes, you need to be engaged in meditation, in rational analysis, but you also need to fully explore the possibilities of your emotions, to just let go, to be crazy, to be frenzied, okay?

And what Virgil is saying is that we must, the backest aspect is actually the worst type of emotion, because it leads you into madness, okay? All right, so, um, can we have a reading, Ivory?

I laughed she assails Aeneas before he said a word. So, you traitor, you really believed you'd keep this a secret, this great outrage. Steal away in silence from my shores. Can nothing hold you back? Not our love, not the pledge when sealed with our right hands. Not even the thought of ditto doomed to a cruel death.

Okay, stop, okay, all right. So, this line, not the pledge when sealed with our right hands, this is an allusion, of course, to, um, right here, okay? This is an allusion, of course, to the Odyssey, where Odysseus and Penelope meet again for the first time in 20 years. And Penelope basically says to Odysseus, convince me that you've actually... know my husband. And Odysseus says, well, because of this, uh, ornament that Penelope gave to Odysseus, right? And that ornament, of course, is the pledge sealed with their love for each other. And this pledge, this memory, this bond is what carries them for eternity. So that even though they are a great distance from each other, their hearts are still conjoined together. And so what ditto says is, does this pledge mean nothing to you, Aeneas? And Aeneas, of course, is like, it's a word, it's nothing, all right? What matters is your oath to the gods.

What matters is your loyalty to the gods. All right, all right, keep going.

Why labor to rigor fleet when the winter's raw, to risk the deep wind north winds closing in? You crawl, heartless. Even if you were not pursuing alien fields and unknown homes, even if ancient Troy were still standing, still, who'd sail for Troy across such heaving seas? You're running away from me? Oh, I pray you by these tears, by the faith in your right hand. What else have I left myself in all my pain? By our wedding vows, the marriage we began, if I deserve some decency from you now, if anything mine has ever won your heart, pity a great house about to fall, I pray you. If prayers have any place, reject this scheme of yours. Thanks to you, the African tribes, Nubian warlords hate me. Even my own tyrants rise against me. Thanks to you, my sense of honor is gone, my one and only pathway to the stars, the renown I once held dear.

In whose hands, my guest, do you leave me here to meet my death?

All right, okay, so two things to remember, okay? The first thing is that in the Odyssey, the journey where it ends, the destination, is towards home, to be with Penelope again, to be a family again, okay? And that is the end of this epic journey. But in the India, it's the reverse, where you start off with a relationship, with love, and then you have to abandon love in order to go on this epic journey to found the empire of Rome, okay? So you see how it's inverse now. In the Odyssey, the entire purpose of your life is to return home and to be in love, to find love, okay? But in the Imian, love is what you have to abandon in order to fully fulfill your destiny, okay? That's number one. Number two is this, what, um, um, Dido was saying is, thanks to you I've lost everything, okay? Okay? So love, my love for you, means I have to abandon my pride, my reputation, my own people.

Without love, sorry, because of my love for you, I become nothing. Okay? And this inverses, the inversion, of what happened in the Odyssey where, because Odysseus sought glory and fame in war, he became traumatized with PTSD. He saw the horrors of war where innocent people, innocent families were destroyed because of war, and that traumatized him. And what allowed him to resurrect himself, what allowed him to escape his trauma and rebuild his sense of identity is going home and finding love again. And this love is able to resurrect his worldview and give him the courage and the power to fight on, okay? So this is the opposite message of the Odyssey, okay? All right, so now, okay, so Ditto is saying to Aeneas, you abandoned me, you tricked me, I fell in love with you, and now you're abandoning me. And this is Aeneas' response.

And the human thing to do would be, to show pity, right? And say to Ditto, Ditto, I'm really sorry for what happened, but let's go together. Or maybe, Ditto, I'll come back for you, okay? Instead, he says the worst thing possible, all right? Can you read it?

Guest, that's all that remains of husband now. But why do I linger on, until my brother Pygmalion batters down my walls, or Erebus drags me off? His slave? If only you'd left a baby in my arms, our child, before you deserted me. Some little Aeneas playing about our halls, whose features, at least, would bring you back to me, in spite of all, I would not feel so totally devastated, so destroyed. The queen stopped, but he, warned by Jupiter now, his gaze held steady, fought to master the torment in his heart. At last, he ventured -

The torment in his heart is not sadness, but anger, okay? Keep on going.

At last, he ventured a few words. I, you could have done me so many kindnesses, and you could count them all. I shall never deny what you deserve, my queen, never regret my memories of Ditto, not while I can recall myself and draw the breath of life.

Okay, keep on going.

I'll state my case in a few words. I never dreamed I'd keep my flight a secret. Don't imagine that, nor did I once extend a bridegroom's torch, or enter into a marriage pact with you.

Okay, so what he's saying is, I'm not a bridegroom. I, we didn't, we did not have a marriage pact, okay? We're not married. This is not true. They consummate their relationship, and everyone witnesses it, so they are married. But he's saying, we're not really married. Keep on going.

If the face had let me free to live my life, to arrange my own affairs of my own free will, Troy is the city, first of all, that I'd safeguard, Troy and all that's left of my people whom I cherish. The grand palace of Priam would stand once more, with my own hands, I would fortify a second Troy, to house my Trojans in defeat. But not now. Grignion Apollo's Oracle says that I must seize on Italy's noble land. His listening lots say, Italy. There lies my love, there lies my homeland now. If you, a Phoenician, fix your eyes on Carthage, a Libyan stronghold, tell me, why do you grudge the Trojans their new homes on Italian soil? What is the crime, if we seek far -off kingdoms too?

All right, so what he's saying is this. Ditto. If it were up to me, I wouldn't say it would be, I wouldn't say it would be either, okay? If it were up to me, I would be back in Troy, dying and fighting and dying for what I truly love, which is the city of Troy. Now that I've lost Troy, I must build an empire. You have your own empire, Carthage. Why stop me from, build my own empire in Italy? Okay, so what matters is not love, what matters is power. That's why we live, that's why we exist, to seek more power. Love gets in the way, and therefore love must be discarded. You, Ditto, I do love you, but you're in my way. Therefore, get out of my way, all right? All right, so now Ditto is distraught. She fell in love with Aeneas. She fell in love with Aeneas. And broke her vow to her former husband, Sychaeus.

And now she knows her people don't respect her anymore. And she knows that the neighboring warlords have contempt for her. And they might even attack her, because previously she rebuffed their advances, so they feel insulted. But at the same time, she's still desperate in love with Aeneas. And she knows he hates her, but she still loves him. She can't stop him from leaving for Italy. And so she decides eventually that her only solution is suicide. But she has a sister, Anna, who will keep watch over her. Okay, so she develops a very elaborate ploy to kill herself, right? Can you read, Ivory?

And now, what shall I do? Make a mockery of myself. Go back to my old suitors. Tempt them to try again. Beg the Numidian's, grovel, plead for a husband though time and again I score into what they're like would then trill the Trojan ships bend to the Trojans every last demand so pleased are they with all the help the relief I lend them once and memory of my service past stands firm in grateful minds and even if I were willing would the Trojans allow me to bore their proud ships a woman they hate poor lossful can't you sense it grasp it yet the treachery of Lamedon spread breathe what now do I take flight alone consorting with crews of Trojan oarsmen in their triumph or follow them out with all my troops of sirens throwing the decks yes hard as it was to uproot them once from tire how can I force them back to

see once more command them to spread their sails to the winds no no die you deserve it and your pain with the sword you my sister you were the first one over by my tears to pile these sorrows on my shoulders mad as I was to throw me into my enemy's arms if only I'd been free to live my life untested in marriage free of guilt as some wild beasts untouched by pangs like these I broke the faith I soar to the ashes of Zacchaeus

okay so again the idea here is for Homer love is what gives you strength love is what allows you to resurrect yourself okay so the metaphor is love is the the whole of Odysseus right where this bow or this has I've touched for 20 years but the moment he touches it it gives him renewed string and he's able to assemble it very quickly and then shoot the target okay that's the power of love but here in the Iniac love is simply opposite of love. where by falling in love, you disintegrate as a person. So when we first meet Ditto, she's a proud queen. And now, she is a complete mess. She is emotionally falling apart. She's being driven into madness. She's like, should I go and beg the Trojans to let me on their ship and be a slave girl, okay? So it is a complete fall of a queen. Okay, from a queen to essentially to a slave girl.

She's seriously considering being a slave girl if it just means being near Aeneas. And ultimately, she decides, no, my only option is to die, okay? All right. So she is contemplating killing herself. And the gods know this, and so what they do is, they tell Aeneas, in a dream, get out of here, because we don't want you seeing Ditto kill herself, okay? Can you read? I'll read.

Such terrible grief kept breaking from her heart as Aeneas slept in peace on his ship's high stern.

Okay, so Aeneas slept in peace, meaning he doesn't care. Do you understand? He was never in love with her. She was just a plaything. Keep on going.

Bent on departing now, all tackles set to sail. And now in his dreams, it came again, the god, his phantom, the same features shining clear. Like mercury head to foot, the voice, the glow, the golden hair, the bloom of youth on his limbs, and his voice rang out with warnings once again. Son of the goddess, how can you sleep so soundly in such a crisis? Can't you see the dangers closing around you now? Madman, can't you hear the west wind ruffling to speed you on? That woman spawns her plots, mulling over some desperate outrage in her heart, lashing her surging range. She's bent on death. Why not flee headlong? Flee headlong while you can. You'll soon see the waves, a chaos of ships, lethal torches flaring, the whole coast ablaze, if now a new dawn breaks and finds you still malingering on these shores. Up with you now. Enough delay. Woman's a thing that's always changing, shifting like the wind.

With that, he vanished into the black night.

Alright, so Aeneas is running away. Okay? And Dido has resolved to kill herself. And this is her speech right before she kills herself. Okay? Can you read it out for me?

You, sun, whose fires scan all works of the earth. And you, Juno, the witness, midwife to my agonies. He came greeted by nightly shrieks at city crossroads. And you, you avenging furies and gods of dying Dido. Hear me. Turn your power my way. Attend my sorrows. I deserve your mercy. Hear my prayers. If that curse of the earth must reach his haven, labor on to landfall. If Joes and the Fates command and the boundary stone is fixed, still, let him be plagued in war by a nation proud in arms, torn from his borders, wrenched from Aeneas' embrace. Let him grovel for help and watch his people die a shameful death. And then, once he has bowed down to an unjust peace, may he never enjoy his realm and the light he yearns for. Never. Let him die before his day, unburied on some desolate beach. That is my prayer, my final cry. I pour it out with my own lifeblood.

And you, my Tyrians, harry with hatred all his line, his race to come. Make that offering to my ashes. Send it down below. No love between our peoples. Ever. No Pax Apis. Come rising up from my bones, you avengers still unknown, to stalk those Trojan settlers, hunt with fire and iron. Now or in time to come, whenever the power is yours. Shore clash with shore, sea against sea, and sword against sword. This is my curse. War between all our peoples, all their children, endless war.

Okay, endless war. Alright, so the Aeneid is first and foremost political propaganda. Alright? And so, Rome's epic war is with Carthage. Rome and Carthage fought for about a hundred years for control of the Mediterranean. Ultimately, Rome will triumph over Carthage. And they will destroy Carthage as a civilization. They will burn Carthage down. And today we have no memory of Carthage because so complete was the destruction. And Virgil is trying to explain to us why this had to happen. And it had to happen because Dido put a curse on Rome and forced her people to go to war with Rome. So it's not that Rome was vicious and savage in destroying Carthage. It was like the Carthaginians had a curse. They had a mission to avenge Dido. Okay? So let me explain to you how this propaganda works. In Carthage's understanding of Dido, she's the founder. She's the queen of Carthage. What happened was that, you know, her husband was killed in Phoenicia.

So she and some refugees sought refuge in Northern Africa. So they found the city of Carthage. And they worked really hard to build the city. And she was very attractive. So she won the attention of some local warlords. And they demanded her hand in marriage. And her response was to kill herself. And by killing herself, her sacrifice emboldened her people to build a great city. But also, it won the respect of the local warlords as well. And from then on, everyone understood the Carthaginians as a free and proud people who would rather die for their liberty than become a slave. Okay? So that's the Carthaginian understanding of Dido. Here in the Aeneid, it is almost the reverse. Where Dido's love for Aeneas becomes a poison. It poisons her soul. And it leads her to poison her people as well. And rather than give them freedom, she enslaves them into a mission to avenge her.

Okay? So it's basically inversion. So that's what the Aeneid is doing. It's inverting Homer, but it's also inverting history to serve the political purposes of Rome.

Alright.

Alright. So we come to the ending of the Aeneid. So with the story of Dido, what Virgil is doing is inverting the story of the Odyssey. Now we come to the ending of the Aeneid. And here, Virgil is going to invert the story of the Iliad. Okay? Remember, recall what happened in the Iliad where Achilles tricks Patroclus into sacrificing himself. And this allows Achilles an excuse to enter the battlefield against Hector. He kills Hector. And he believes that this is the height, the apex of his glory. But instead, it causes him to fall into a deep depression. And it's really Priam, Prime's willingness to forgive him because of his love for Hector that frees Achilles from his guilt. And the two, Achilles and Priam, cry together and they become friends because of this. Okay? So the Iliad is fundamentally a story of the curse of power, the evil power, and the ability of love to both redeem and to save.

What Virgil is going to do is take the story of the Iliad and invert it. Okay? So it ends actually with an analogy to the battle between Achilles and Hector. Okay? So in the Iliad, it's between Achilles and Hector. But here, it's going to be between Aeneas and Tarnas. Okay? So what happened is that Aeneas lands in Italy and the Latin tribes see Aeneas as this great hero. And the king there, Latinus, marries Aeneas. He marries his daughter to Aeneas. But the wife, for whatever reason, like the woman in the Iliad, all the villains. The wife, the queen, has already promised her daughter to Tarnas, who is another warlord. And so it starts off a war between the Trojans and Tarnas. Okay? And ultimately, this leads to a final conflict. A great battle between Aeneas and Tarnas. Okay? So this is the very ending of the Aenea. Okay?

Can you read? I'll read.

As he hangs back, the fatal spear of Aeneas streaks on, spotting a lucky opening he had flung from a distance, all his might and main. Rocks heaved by a catapult, pounding city ramparts never storm so loudly, never such a shadowing bolt of thunder crashing forth. Like a black whirlwind churning on, that spear flies on with its weight of iron death to pierce the wall of the round shield with its seven plies and right at the thick of Tarnas's thigh it whizzes through. It strikes home, and the blow drops great Tarnas down to the ground, battered down on his bent knees. The Ritulians spring up with a groan, and the hillsides round groan back, and the tall groves far and wide resound with the long -drawn moan. Tarnas lowered his eyes and reached with his right hand and begged, a suppliant, I deserve it all. No mercy, please, Tarnas pleaded. Seize your moment now, or if

some care for a parent's grief can touch you still, I pray you, you had such a father in old Antris, pity Adonis in his old age and send me back to my own people, or if you would prefer, send them my dead body stripped of life. Here, the victor and vanquished, I stretch my hands to you, so the men in Latium have seen me in defeat. Lavinia is your bride. Go no further down the road of hatred.

Okay, alright. Alright, okay. So, again, this is rewriting of the battle between Hector and Achilles. But in this battle, it is Hector who wins, and Achilles is basically begging for mercy. And what's really interesting is that to beg for mercy, Tarnas basically uses the words of Priam from the Iliad, right? Remember what Priam says to Achilles is, I've kissed your hand. Have mercy for me. Look at my face. Remember of your father, Achilles. Remember your father, Peleus, okay? Same exact words, right? Care for a parent's grief, okay? And I stretch my hands to you. Alright, so basically, Virgil is plagiarizing Homer. But he's plagiarizing in a way as to invert and subvert Homer, okay? So, at this point, Aeneas is drawn to pity, right? Because his great enemy, Tarnas, has submitted himself before him. So, in his heart, he's like, you know what? I've defeated him. He's been destroyed. He's lost face. He's lost credibility.

I can let him go. I've won, okay? And that's what he wants to do. He just wants to let him go. But this is the very ending, okay? This is the very ending of the Iliad. And the ending is surprising because for many scholars, they read this, they're like, this is not an ending. This is too abrupt. And they think that Virgil was not able to finish the Iliad. But what I will show you is that, no, you're reading the Iliad improperly, incorrectly, if you do not believe this is the full ending, okay? This is not the ending, okay? Can you read? I read? Okay.

Aeneas, ferocious in armor, stood there, still, shifting his gaze, and held his sword arm back, holding himself back, too, as Tarnas's words began to sway him more and more, when all at once he caught sight of the faithful sword belt of Pallas swept over Tarnas's shoulder, gleaming with shining studs, Aeneas knew by heart.

Wait, sorry, Pallas, Pallas is the version of Patroclus. Remember how Patroclus died and that enraged Achilles. Well, Pallas is a friend of Aeneas who fell in battle to Tarnas. And Tarnas, to celebrate his victory over Pallas, stole the sword belt of Pallas, okay? So, and Aeneas recognizes this. Keep on going.

Young Pallas, whom Tarnas had overpowered, taken down with a wound, and now his shoulder flaunted his enemy's battle emblem like a trophy. Aeneas soon has his eyes drank in that plunder, keepsake of his own savage grief. Flaring up in fury, terrible in his rage, he cries, decked in the spoils you stripped from when I loved, escape my clutches. Never. Pallas strikes this blow. Pallas sacrifices you now, makes you pay the price with your own guilty blood. In the same breath, blazing with wrath, he plants his iron sword held deep into his enemy's heart. Tarnas's limbs wince limp in the chill of death. His light breath fled with a groan of outrage down to the shades below.

And that's it. This is the ending of the Aenead. And again, scholars are confused by this. Like, how could the epic end like this? It's a very long epic, 24 books, and it ends with the death of Tarnas and nothing more. And it's confusing because scholars and literary critics are taught to believe that a good book has an epiphany and a catharsis, okay? Epiphany, catharsis, and a resolution. Basically, a character recognizes himself and changes for the better. It's almost like a death and letting go of the past. And so scholars read this and like they're completely confused. Where is the epiphany? Where's the catharsis? Where's the resolution? And the answer is because you're misreading the Aenead. First and foremost, it is a work of political propaganda. So how has Aeneas changed as a person? Well, the change is this. Previously, whenever Aeneas has a doubt, okay? Okay? Like for example, he is changing his emotions.

Each time this happened previously, the gods had to intervene, right? So remember how Aeneas is back in Troy and he's witnessed the killing of his king Priam, and he's really angry. And then he sees Helen and he wants to kill Helen because he understands that Helen is the cause of all the death and destruction in Troy. And he wants to like just kill her. And then what happens? His mother Venus intervenes and says, no, Aeneas, you must stop. There's a mission for you. Go complete your mission. And then Aeneas is like, fine, mother, I'll go home. And then when he goes home and he sees her, his son, Aelius, he wants to return and fight the Greeks because he doesn't, he wants to protect himself. He wants to protect the city. And then Aelius, there's a sign from the gods, Aelius, his hair is on fire, okay? It's an image. And this tells Aeneas, no, your son is destined for great things.

You must fulfill the mission. Again, when Aeneas is with Dido, he just wants to stay with Dido and build up Carthage. And so Jupiter has to send a messenger, Mercury, to tell him, no, Aeneas, no. Go to Italy, okay? So each time that Aeneas went off mission or he has his own ideas, the gods have to intervene. What makes this an epiphany, a Carthaginian revolution is the fact that here when Aeneas wants to show mercy, when in his heart he's like, this is a pitiful man. It gives me no pleasure to kill him. It gives me no glory and honor to kill this pathetic man. He recognizes, no, I must kill him because it is a duty. It is the will of the gods. Now he has become fully pious. And that is the epiphany, okay? I must abandon all pity. I must abandon all emotions. I must abandon my own soul if I am to serve the gods.

He is now the perfect soldier. And that's why Virgil wrote the Aenead. Because it is a piece of propaganda. It's a piece of brainwashing, indoctrination, where you read it and you go on the same journey as Aeneas. And step by step you let go of everything that makes you weak. Your humanity, your willingness, your desire to love someone, throw it out. Your pity, your sense of decency, get rid of it, okay? And once you do, once you have cleansed yourself of all human emotions, then you can serve the gods completely. You are now fully pious. And as such, you can now complete your mission. All right? So that's the power of the Aenead. You may know what's happening, but as you memorize it, because back then, the way to educate yourself was just to memorize the poetry. You became Aeneas himself, okay? You transform yourself from someone who was a human to someone who is now basically a robot.

Okay? Does that make sense? Any questions? Yeah? Can you, yeah?

Yeah, I think it's true that like Aeneas, he didn't fail and proceed towards Ternus because he killed him later. But I mean, I think that is still because like he loved Pallas, his friend, who was killed by Ternus. So that's also kind of feeling, right? It's an emotion and that contributes to Ternus' death. So isn't that different from what you said about maybe Aeneas being a robot and fulfilling his fate?

Okay, yeah. All right. That's a good point, okay? So, your point is, well, Aeneas loves his friend, Pallas. And as a result, it's his love for Pallas that drives Aeneas to kill Ternus, right? That's fine. That makes sense. But go back to the Iliad, right? Where Achilles is saddened and angered by the death of Patroclus and he kills Hector, right? But then what happens? He falls into a deep depression because in his heart, he recognizes that you don't avenge someone you love by killing someone. That's not how the universe works. If you truly love someone, you do not turn the memory of that person into hatred and violence. You celebrate the person's life by being open and generous with others. Okay? This is something that Dante will explain. This is a very hard idea to understand, okay? But if you truly love someone, love means that you cannot do something evil. Love is pure good.

If you do something evil, it means you actually don't want to love that person. Okay? Does that make sense to you? If you truly love Patroclus as a person, you would not use him as an excuse to kill someone. All right? Same thing with the Iliad where Achilles thought he loved Patroclus, but he was actually using Patroclus as an excuse to kill Hector. In his heart, he knows that. All right? This is really confusing to understand, but when we read the Divine Comedy, it will make sense to you. All right? Okay? All right. Any other questions, guys? Okay. Yeah. So that's a great question, and it shows you how basically in this world, this is a world of anti -love because you've received an education in utility, right? Obedience, compliance. But what you have not received is an education in love. What is love? How do we know we're in love? What draws us to love?

Okay? And that's what the great books are about. The great books, even Homer and Dante, they really think deeply about what love is because in love is where God is. All right? Okay? So again, by asking this question, what you're really doing is revealing the sort of education you've received when your mind, you think that what is right is one of utility and one of compliance. If Papalus, my best friend, died, then I need to seek vengeance against the person who killed him. Okay? But I know it's hard to understand, but that is, but you've been brainwashed to think that. That's not actually true. If your best friend were to be killed someone else, to demonstrate love to your best friend, you would actually forgive that person. Okay? And I know this is a hard idea to understand, but when we read the Divine Comedy, it'll become more obvious. Okay? Okay. Any more questions, guys?

All right. So let me explain the plan for the Divine Comedy, which we will end the semester with. Okay? So there'll be four lectures on the Divine Comedy. So I'll be doing a lecture every two weeks. All right? And then for the other classes, we'll just be reading the Divine Comedy line by line by line. All right? Okay? All right. So we start the Divine Comedy on Friday. All right? Very good. Do you understand? Okay. It's very hard idea to understand. Okay? But it's hard idea to understand just because, I hate to say this, but you've been brainwashed.