The Anti-Homer

Concepts in this lecture

Consent to Coercion Eros Greek Tragedy Imperial Formation Monotheism Myth Making Poet-Prophet Power as Alchemy School as State Power Status Games

Outline

[0:00] Thesis: The Aeneid is Augustus Caesar's propaganda masterpiece designed to corrupt Homer's values and establish a new Roman civilization based on piety (obedience to the gods and tradition) rather than the Greek ideals of arete (excellence) and eudaimonia (flourishing through love and human connection).
[0:00] Homer as the cultural foundation of Greek civilization

All educated Greeks memorize the Iliad and Odyssey
Oral tradition: Greeks speak and listen rather than read and write
Homer's works form the mental infrastructure of Greek worldview
Greek values: arete (excellence, being the best at one's craft) and eudaimonia (human flourishing achieved through excellence)
Example: Odysseus's arete is rhetoric; he uses speech to fulfill his destiny and save his family

[2:00] Roman values fundamentally opposed to Greek ideals

Romans value piety: obedience to fathers, history, tradition
Romans are conservative but excel at warfare, enabling empire-building
Despite military conquest of Greece, Romans are spiritually conquered by Greek culture
Well-educated Romans drift toward Greek culture, viewed as corruption of Roman soul

[4:00] Augustus Caesar's solution: The Aeneid as anti-Homer

Recognition: In the long term, spiritually the Greeks will conquer the Romans
Cannot destroy Homer through book-burning (books are scarce, Homer memorized)
Solution: Corrupt Homer by creating an inversion of Homer's values
The Aeneid becomes the "Bible of the Roman Empire," mandatory memorization for Roman schoolboys learning Latin
Authorship: Augustus Caesar wrote the framework; Virgil composed it into Latin poetry

[4:00] Structural replication of Homer with inverted values

Aeneid is 24 books: first 12 model the Odyssey; last 12 model the Iliad
Story: Aeneas, survivor of Troy's fall, sails to the Italian Peninsula to found Rome as prophesied by the gods
Gods destroyed Troy to enable Rome's creation

[6:01] Aeneas and Dido: love as seduction and doom

Aeneas shipwrecks in Carthage and meets Queen Dido
Dido is hospitable; Aeneas seduces her through his poetry and storytelling
Aeneas tells the story of Troy's fall to demonstrate Greek deception

[8:03] The Trojan Horse: Greek culture as the true weapon

Reading: excerpt depicting the captured Greek soldier's deception
The soldier is trained in theater, philosophy, and rhetoric
He manipulates the Trojans through emotional rhetoric and lies
Core message: Greek culture, philosophy, theater, and rhetoric are tools of deception
The real threat to Rome is not military but cultural corruption
"The real Trojan horse is Greek culture"—cannot allow it into Rome or it will poison the empire from within

[10:03] Manipulation through emotion: The Greek soldier's craft

Claims to be a sacrificial victim fleeing Odysseus's plot
Persuades through weeping, appeals to pity, emotional vulnerability
Tells the horse is a gift to the gods (appealing to religious piety)
Convinces King Priam to spare and welcome the horse

[14:03] Inversion of the Iliad's moral lesson through Priam's death

Iliad lesson: Priam's generosity and forgiveness of Achilles leads to friendship and peace
Aeneid revision: Priam's trust and generosity are foolish; they lead to his destruction
Pyrrhus (also called Neoptolemus), son of Achilles, kills Priam at the altar
Priam tries to convince Pyrrhus of his father Achilles' virtue; Pyrrhus murders him anyway
Message reversed: Forgiveness is weakness; trusting an enemy is fatal

[20:04] Roman versus Greek aesthetics: violence replaces catharsis

Greeks watch tragic theater to cry together and rejuvenate their humanity
Romans watch gladiatorial fights in the Colosseum; they desire blood and violence
Aeneid is depicted as nearly pornographic in its violence
Appeals to Roman bloodlust, fundamentally different from Greek civilization's values

[22:05] Love as evil, not redemptive: inverting the Odyssey's core message

Aeneas witnesses Troy's destruction and sees Helen
He blames Helen for Troy's fall and desires revenge
Aeneid message: Love is the source of evil, destroyer of civilization and family
[24:07] Odyssey message (reversed): Love is the redemptive force; Penelope and Odysseus reunite through love, healed by their bond
Fundamental inversion of Homer's moral universe

[26:10] Roman family hierarchy and the disposability of women

Aeneas escapes with his father on his back, his son in his arms, wife following
Priority order: patriarch (father) > son (heir to inherit) > wife (servant)
Wife's role is to serve, not be equal
Creusa (Aeneas's wife) kills herself rather than become a burden or enslaved
She recognizes her husband is destined for greatness (founding Rome) and must be free to marry into a royal lineage
Wifely duty: self-sacrifice if you cannot serve your husband's destiny

[28:12] Piety (obedience to the gods) as the ultimate good

Creusa's ghost explains the separation as the will of the gods
Jupiter forbids Creusa from accompanying Aeneas
Divine will (prophecy) overrides human love and connection
[30:13] Contrast to Odyssey: gods will Penelope and Odysseus's reunion through love; in Aeneid, gods will their separation through piety
Good is obedience to divine prophecy, not love or human connection

[30:13] Conclusion: Poisoning Homer across a millennium

The Aeneid inverts Homer's core lessons: forgiveness becomes foolishness; love becomes evil; hierarchy and obedience replace equality and connection
As the cultural foundation of Roman civilization, these values shape Roman society for centuries
This corruption persists through the Middle Ages until Dante emerges to create an antidote with the Divine Comedy
"The Aeneid will create the Dark Ages—about a thousand years when Western creativity ends"

Sources & References

Homer — Ancient Greek poet; author of the Iliad and Odyssey; foundation of Greek civilization and the values the Aeneid inverts
The Iliad — Homer's epic poem; establishes Greek values of arete and forgiveness; depicts Priam and Achilles's reconciliation; the Aeneid models its last 12 books on this work
The Odyssey — Homer's epic poem; depicts love as redemptive force; Odysseus and Penelope reunite through love; the Aeneid models its first 12 books on this work while inverting its moral lesson
Virgil — Roman poet who composed the Aeneid into Latin poetry under Augustus Caesar's direction; allegedly wanted to burn the work near his death
Augustus Caesar — First emperor of Rome (ruled 27 BCE – 14 CE); architect of the Aeneid as propaganda to corrupt Homer and establish Roman values of piety and obedience
The Aeneid — 24-book Latin epic poem; described as the "anti-Homer" and "Bible of the Roman Empire"; inverts Homer's values by depicting generosity as weakness, love as evil, and obedience to the gods as the ultimate good
Dante Alighieri — Referenced as the antidote to the Aeneid; his Divine Comedy is presented as liberating the human soul from the poison of the Aeneid
The Divine Comedy — Dante's work; positioned as the redemptive response to the Aeneid's inversion of Homer's values
Key historical figures referenced:

Aeneas — Trojan survivor, protagonist of the Aeneid; destined by prophecy to found Rome
Priam — King of Troy; his death in the Aeneid inverts his reconciliation with Achilles in the Iliad
Achilles — Greek warrior of the Iliad; contrasted with his son Pyrrhus
Pyrrhus/Neoptolemus — Son of Achilles; kills Priam in the Aeneid
Helen of Troy — Blamed by Aeneas for Troy's destruction; symbol of love's destructiveness

Key concepts:

Arete (ἀρετή) — Greek concept of excellence; achieving one's highest potential
Eudaimonia (εὐδαιμονία) — Greek concept of human flourishing; happiness achieved through arete
Piety — Roman concept of obedience to fathers, tradition, history, and divine will; presented as the good in the Aeneid

No specific secondary texts, scholarly works, or other books were cited by title in this lecture.

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0:00We've read the Iliad and the Odyssey. So, Homer becomes the basis for Greek civilization. Meaning that all educated Greeks they memorize the Iliad and the Odyssey. They don't They don't read read and write now at this point. They speak and they listen in front of an audience. And so, Homer becomes basically the infrastructure of their mental worldview. And this leads to the greatest civilization in human history. But eventually, the Romans will conquer the Greeks. The Romans will conquer the entire Mediterranean and they will create the Roman Empire. The Romans are nothing like the Greeks. The Greeks are very open, very curious. They believe in the idea of arete. Sorry. Um arete and eudaimonia. Arete means excellence. To be the best at what you can. Eudaimonia means flourishing. You can only achieve human happiness if you achieve your arete. Okay? You become your arete. So, think of Odysseus who was great speaker. That is his arete. Um and he uses his speech in order to fulfill his destiny and to save his family. Okay? And that achieves eudaimonia. The Romans are very different. The Romans believe in the idea of piety. Okay? And piety just means obedience to your fathers,

2:00to history, and to tradition. And so, the Romans are extremely conservative people. But, they're very good at fighting wars, and that's why they become the empire. Um, but after the empire is established, what the Romans recognize is that Greek culture is vastly superior. And many well-educated Romans begin to drift towards Greek culture, which in the Roman perspective leads to the corruption of the Roman soul. And so, Augustus Caesar, who is really considered the first emperor of Rome, he recognizes that in the long term, even though the Romans have conquered the Greeks physically, spiritually, the Greeks will conquer the the Romans. And the main issue is Homer. So, his solution is to destroy Homer. You can't burn books because uh there aren't that there aren't that many books, and also people have memorized Homer. So, you need to corrupt Homer. And the solution that he devises is called the Aeneid. And we can consider the Aeneid as the anti-Homer, okay, or the inversion of Homer. Taking the ideas of Homer and inverting them. Okay? So, um this becomes the Bible of the Roman Empire, meaning that if you're a schoolboy, you have to memorize the Aeneid. And this is the main way that you learn Latin, the official language of the um Roman Empire. And so, whereas Homer will give us Greek civilization and the birth

4:00of Western civilization, the Aeneid will create the Dark Ages. A about a thousand years when Western creativity um ends. And then someone will emerge who will recognize the evil that is the Aeneid. And he will create a antidote to the poison that is the Aeneid. And this person, of course, is called Dante. Okay? And so, what we'll do is we will read the Aeneid for next 2 weeks and understand how it poisons and corrupts Homer. And then this will lead us to the Divine Comedy, which is really the liberation of the human soul from the poison that is the Aeneid. Okay? All right. So, um some basic background about the Aeneid. So, the Aeneid, what it does is it replicates both the Odyssey and the Iliad. Uh the Aeneid is 12 It's 24 books. The first 12 books models off the Odyssey. The last 12 books models off the Iliad. So, uh the story begins when Aeneas, he um is one of the survivors of the fall of Troy. Okay? And so, he takes his father and his child to go off to the Italian Peninsula because the gods have told him that he he is fated he is destined to found the Roman Empire. And that's why the gods had to destroy Troy in order to create the Roman Empire. But as he um sails to the Italian Peninsula, uh there's a shipwreck and he lands in Carthage. Okay? Carthage. And there he meets the queen, Dido. And the Carthaginians and Dido are extremely hospitable to Aeneas. And so they have this huge banquet and Aeneas is telling her of the story of the fall of Troy, how Troy fell.

6:01Remember remember that Homer doesn't actually discuss the fall of Troy, but Aeneas will discuss the fall of Troy. And by discussing the fall of Troy, his main purpose is to show how duplicitous, manipulative, deceptive the Greeks are. Okay? He's he's also going to tell us um why the values of Homer are evil, why love is evil, why love will lead you into tragedy. And then by telling the story, what will happen is that uh Aeneas will seduce Dido. Dido will fall in love with him. Not Not only is he brave and handsome, but he's also a great poet. He's able to tell the story in a beautiful manner. And so they fall in love, okay? All right. So this is the beginning of the in in uh uh uh Aeneid. And so what what what we're going to read first is Aeneas's story of the fall of Troy. It begins when the Greeks pretend to leave the beaches of Troy and they leave behind a wooden horse, okay? And there's a huge debate among the Trojans as to what to do with this horse. And they decide basically, you know, we can't take a risk. Let's just destroy the this horse, throw throw it uh into the sea. And then what happens is that a Greek soldier emerges. And he's a prisoner. He's He was caught by some shepherds and he tells the story of the Trojan horse and why it's really not a threat to the Trojans. In fact, it's a gift from the Greeks to the gods. So, because it's a gift to the gods, you cannot destroy it because then you piss off the gods. Okay? And what this is going to show us is that the Greek culture, philosophy, theater, rhetoric, it's all one of

8:03deception. The real Trojan horse is Greek culture. You cannot let Greek culture into Rome because then it will corrupt and poison the empire from within. Okay? So, that that So, again, this is propaganda. So, it's very blatant what they're doing, okay? It's very blatant what Virgil um is doing. And okay, something I I need to explain is that Virgil is considered the poet who composed the uh Aeneid. But, it was actually Augustus Caesar who wrote this. Basically, Augustus Caesar was the one who provided Virgil with a framework, and then Virgil um uh composed it into Latin poetry. And actually, at the end of his life, Virgil actually wanted to burn this down. Burn this. And the reason why is that if you're a poet, what you believe is that your gift comes from the gods. And so, you represent the gods. But, if you actually work for the empire, you actually use your gift for the emperor, then maybe the gods will punish you. Right? So, Virgil Virgil was very much afraid and wanted to like burn the uh Aeneid, um but Augustus Caesar would not let him. And so, this became the Bible of the Roman Empire. It is a evil, evil piece of work, okay? And it is the anti-Homer. So, we're going to study it um because it's going to shape Western civilization throughout the Middle Ages until the coming of Dante, okay? So, all right. So, I mean, can you read, please? Yeah. Suddenly, in the thick of it all, a young soldier, hands shackled behind his back, with much shouting, Trojan shepherds were hauling him toward the king. He'd come on demand by chance, a total stranger. He'd given himself up with one goal in mind, to open Troy to the Greeks and lay her waste. He trusted to

10:03courage, nerved for either end, to weave his lies or face a certain death. Young Trojan recruits, keen to have a look, came scurrying up from all sides, crowding round, outdoing each other to make a mockery of the captive. Now, hear the treachery of the Greeks and learn from a single crime the nature of the beast. Haggard, helpless, there in our midst he stood. All eyes riveted on him now, and turning a wary glance at the lions of the of Trojan troops, he groaned and spoke, "Where can I find some refuge, where on land, on sea? What's left for me now, a man of so much misery? Nothing among the Greeks, no place at all. And worse, I see my Trojan enemies crying for my blood." His groans convince us, cutting all our show of violence short. Okay, so at this time in history, and this this about um about 30 BCE, um, Greek theater is very, very popular. The Romans love Greek theater. And Greek theater is really, um, the very paragon of Greek civilization. And what this is telling us is that, no, Greek theater is evil. It's meant to deceive us, okay? So, this soldier, this Greek soldier, he is trained in theater, he's trained in philosophy, he's trained in rhetoric, and he's using all his craft, all his skills, in order to ultimately deceive the good, but but naive Trojans, okay? All right. So, he tells the story of how he came to be left behind in Troy. And the story is that he pissed off Odysseus. Odysseus plotted against him. So, so when it came time for the Greeks to leave Troy and sail home, they need they need to sacrifice a person. And that person was this guy. But somehow this guy ran off, okay? Can you Can you read Ivory? The day of infamy soon came. The sacred rites were all performed for the victim. The salted meal strewn, the bands tied

12:03around my head. But I broke free of death, I tell you. Burst my shackles. Yes, and hid all night in the reeds of a marshy lake, waiting for them to sail. If only they would sail. Well, no hope now of seeing the land where I was born or my sweet children, the father I longed for all these years. Maybe they'll wring from them the price of for my escape. Avenge my guilt with my loved one's blood. Poor things. I beg I beg you, king. By the powers who know the truth. By any trust still uncorrupt in the world of men, pity a man whose torment knows no bounds. Pity me in my pain. I know in my soul I don't deserve to suffer. He wept and won his life our pity, too. Priam takes command, has him freed from the ropes and chains that bind him fast, and hails him warmly. Whoever you are, from now on, you've lost the Greeks. Put them out of your mind and you'll be one of us. But answer my questions. Tell me the whole truth. Why did they raise up this giant monstrous horse? Who conceived it? What's it for? Its purpose? A gift to the gods? A great engine of battle? Okay, so again, this reminds us of the Iliad, where Priam, the king of the Trojans, is known for being a very generous, magnanimous, uh sorry, um benevolent um open person. But, this will lead to the doom of Troy. So, remember in the Iliad, it is because of Priam's generosity, his ability to forgive Achilles, that leads to the great friendship between Priam and Achilles, okay? And again, Virgil sort of reverses and he's trying to show us that, "No, you think that generosity will lead to goodness. No, generosity will lead to evil." You see how Priam is too trusting, too generous. And so, he

14:03believes this Greek, uh, soldier, and then he will allow the Trojans to bring the horse into Troy. And at night, the the Greek soldiers will escape from the horse, open the gates of Troy, and now the Greeks are rushing in to kill everyone, okay? And Aeneas hears this, um, slaughter, and he tries to save as many people as he can. And his first thought is, "Where is my king? How do I save my king?" Okay? So, as the Greeks are ravaging the city, killing as many people as they can, Aeneas is rushing to save his king, Priam. All right? All right. So, can you read, uh, all right? Perhaps you wonder how Priam met his end. When he saw his city stormed and seized, his gates wrenched apart, the enemy camped in his palace that The old man donned his armor long unused. He clasps it round his shoulders, shaking with age, and all for nothing, straps his useless sword to his hip, then makes for the thick of battle, out to meet his death. At the heart of the house, an ample altar stood, naked under the skies, an ancient laurel bending over the shrine, embracing our household gods within its shade. Here, flocking the altar, Hecuba and her daughters huddled, blown headlong down like doves by a black storm, clutching, all for nothing, the figures of their gods. Seeing Priam decked in the arms he'd worn as a young man, "Are you insane?" he she cries. "Poor husband, what impels you to strap that sword on now? Where are you rushing? Too late for such defense, such help. Not even to my for my own Not even my own Hector, if he came to the rescue now. Come to me, Priam. This altar will shield us all, or else you'll die with us." With those words, drawing him towards her there, she made a place for the old man beside the holy shrine. Okay, let's continue.

16:04Suddenly, look, a son of Priam, Polites, just just escaped from slaughter at Pyrrhus's hands. Okay, so Pyrrhus is a son of Achilles, okay? So, this is a rewriting of the ending of the Iliad, where Priam and Achilles have this great emotional battle, where they forgive each other. And Priam's love for Hector and Achilles' love for his father unifies their soul, okay? This is going to be a rewriting of that battle. So, Achilles is dead, and now his son is seeking to kill Priam. You want to keep on going? Comes racing through spears, through enemy fighters, fleeing down the long arcades and deserted hallways. Badly wounded, Pyrrhus hot on his heels, a weapon poised for the kill, about to seize him, about to run him through, and pressing home as Polites reaches his parents and collapses, vomiting out his lifeblood before their eyes. At that Okay, so again, this is a rewriting of the Iliad, where now Polites becomes Hector, right? If you remember, um Achilles kills Hector at the gates of Troy, and Priam and Hecuba are on the walls watching this. And then Achilles commits a war crime by basically tying Hector to his chariot and then um um dragging Hector all around the wall the walls of Troy. Okay, so this is a re- re-imagining of that scene. Okay, keep keep on going. At that Priam traps in a group group of death, not holding back, not checking his words, his rage. "You," he cries, "you and your vicious crimes. If any power on high recoils at such an outrage, let the gods repay you for all your reckless work, grant you the thanks, the rich rewards you the richer rewards you've earned. You've made me see my son's death with my own eyes, defiled the father's sight

18:04with a son's lifeblood. You say you're Achilles' son? You lie. Achilles never treated his enemy Priam so. No, he honored a suppliant's right. He blushed to betray my my trust. He restored my Hector's bloodless corpse for for burial, sent me safely home to the land I rule." Okay, so again he is reminding us of the ending of the Iliad where in this great war peace and love come to universe when Achilles and Priam are able to become friends. Okay? And he's saying "Your father, you've you've destroyed the legacy of your father. You've destroyed the friendship between us. Okay?" All right, keep on reading. With that and with all his might the old man flings his spear, but too important now to pierce, it merely grazes Pyrrhus's brazen shield that blocks his way and clings there, dangling limp from the boss, all for nothing. Pyrrhus shouts back, "Well then, down you go, a messenger to my father, Peleus' son. Tell him about my vicious work, how Neo Neoptolemus degrades his father's Neoptolemus is actually another name for pirates, okay? It's the same person. Keep on going. degrades his father's name, don't you forget. Now, die. That said, he drags the old man straight to the altar, quaking, slithering on through slicks of his son's blood, and twisting Priam's hair in his left hand. His right hand sweeping forth his sword, a flash of steel. He buries his hilt deep in the king's flank. Such was the fate of of Priam, his death, his lot on Earth, with Troy blazing before his eyes, her ramparts down, the monarch who once had ruled in all his glory, the many lands of Asia, Asia's many tribes. A powerful trunk is lying on the shore.

20:04The head wrenched from the shoulders, a corpse without a name. Okay, so there's a difference between the Greeks and the Romans, okay? The Greeks are very cultured people. They enjoy going to theater and watching a tragedy and crying together to rejuvenate their sense of humanity, okay? That was the Greek culture. The Romans go to the Colosseum and watch gladiatorial fights, okay? They like blood. They like violence. And so, the Aeneid is extremely violent uh poetry. In fact, you can say all it's almost pornographic in the violence that it depicts. All right? And the Romans just love this because they are a bloodthirsty people. All right? All right. So, Priam is dead, and with its death, what it is doing is negating the um moral lesson of the Iliad, to forgive one's enemy. Okay? So, the Romans read this and they remember reading the Iliad and saying, "Oh my god, I was wrong to think that Priam was heroic in forgiving Achilles." What I should be really thinking is, "What a foolish old man who deserves to die for thinking that his enemy should be forgiven. That for for thinking that his enemy has a good soul in him." Okay? So, again, this is negating the Iliad. It's actually poisoning and corrupting the Iliad. All right? So, um Now, Aeneas is talking about his reaction watching his king die. Okay? Uh keep on reading, Ivory. Then, for the first time, the full horror came home at came home to me at last. I froze. The thought of my own dear father filled filled my mind when I saw

22:05the old king gasping out his life with that raw raw wound. Both men were the same age and the thought of my Creusa alone, abandoned, our house plundered, our little Iulus's fate. I looked back. What forces still stood by me? None. Totally spent in war, they'd all deserted. Down from the roofs, they flung themselves to earth or hold their broken bodies in the flames. So, at just that moment, I was the one man left and then I saw her clinging to Vesta's threshold, hiding in silence, tucked away, Helen of Argos. Glare of the fires lit my view as I looked down, scanning the city left and right, and there she was. Terrified of the Trojans' hate, now Troy was overpowered, terrified of the Greeks' revenge, her deserted husband's rage, that universal fury occurred to Troy and her native land. And here she lurked, skulking, a thing of of loathing, cowering at the altar, Helen. Out it flared, the fire inside my soul, my rage ablaze to avenge our fall our fallen country. Pay Helen back, crime for crime. Okay. So, Aeneas is watching his entire civilization being destroyed, and he knows that his family will be destroyed as well. And he is taken aback. He's sort of like paralyzed by his anger and his hatred and his fear. And then he sees Helen, and he's like, "This is her fault, okay? This is why we are we are destroyed as a civilization because of this okay?" And so, this is telling us what? That this the lesson from this is that love is a source of evil in the world. Okay? Love is a source of evil in this world.

24:07Remember the Odyssey. What is the What is the um main lesson of the Odyssey? Love is the redemptive force of the world, right? If you are shattered as a person, it is love that will lead you home and heal you as a person. And what the Aeneid is saying instead is that love is what destroys civilization. Love is what corrupts you. Love is what leads you to hell, okay? All right. So, he wants to kill Helen as revenge for destruction of Troy, but then what happens is that Aeneas's mother, Venus, okay? So, Venus is his mother, steps in, appears before him, says, "No, you can't do this. You have to go home and save your wife and your child." Okay? So, Aeneas goes home and what he does is he say he takes his family and takes them to the ship to escape Troy. But, as they are running through the streets of Troy what Aeneas does is he puts his father on his back. Okay? And he holds his son, his young son Iulus. And the and Creusa, the wife has to follow them. Okay? So, that that's the Roman priority. Okay? The most important person in a family is the patriarch, the father. Then is the son who inherits. And the wife is just someone who follows. Okay? But her job is to serve rather than be an equal in the relationship. And this is again is very different from the Odyssey where in many ways Penelope and Odysseus are equal to each other. Okay? All right. So, what happens is that Aeneas gets to the ship and he and he puts his father and his son on the ship ready to escape. But he recognizes at the at the very last minute his wife is missing. So, he goes back and tries to save

26:10his wife. But his wife is dead. And why she dead? Because she killed herself. Why did she kill herself? Because it is her duty not to burden her husband. Because her husband is destined for great things. He's destined to found an empire. So, he must marry into a new lineage, a new royal family. And therefore, she has to kill herself to free him. But not only that, but if she were to become a slave to the Greeks, it would cause him embarrassment for the rest of his life, right? Okay? So, that is the Roman perception of a wifely duty. Okay? If you're not useful to your husband, just kill yourself. Okay. Uh can you read? Creusa, nothing, no reply. And again, Creusa. But then, as I madly rushed from house to house, no one in sight, abruptly, right before my eyes, I saw her stricken ghost, my own Creusa's shade. But larger than life, the life I'd known so well. I froze. My hackles bristled, voice choked in my throat. And my wife spoke out to ease me of my anguish. "My dear husband, why so eager to give yourselves to such mad flights of grief? Is not without the will of the gods that these things have come to pass. But the gods forbid you to take Creusa with you, bound from Troy together. The king of lofty Olympus won't allow it. A long exile is your fate. The vast plains of the sea are yours to plow when you reach Hesperian land, where Lydian Tiber flows with a smooth march through rich and loamy fields, a land of hardy people. There, great joy and a kingdom are yours to claim, and a queen to make your wife. Dispel your tears for a Creusa whom you loved. I will never behold the high and mighty pride of their palaces, the Myrmidons, the Dolopians, or go as a slave to to some Greek matron. No, not

28:12I, daughter of Dardanus that I am, the wife of Venus's son. The great mother of gods detains me on these shores. And now, farewell. Hold dear the son we share, we loved together." Again, this is very different from the Odyssey, where the Odyssey is really about a journey of two people, Penelope and Odysseus, to find each other again, because love is the greatest force in the universe. Okay? Love is what compels the two to reunite, and to find each other amidst all the chaos um surrounding them. In the Aeneid, the idea is that love is hell. So, what is heaven, okay? If love is hell, what is heaven? Heaven is piety. Piety just means obedience to the prophecy of the gods, right? It is the will of gods that Troy be destroyed so that Rome can be created. It's a It is the prophecy of the gods that Aeneas will be the one to lead the Trojans to found this Rome. And therefore, what is good, what is divine, is obedience to this prophecy, okay? So, a long exile is your fate. All right? The king of my lofty Olympus won't allow. Zeus, okay, or Jupiter, demands this of us. If Jupiter demands us to sacrifice ourselves, then we must do so, okay? And so, this reverses the Odyssey, right? Where the gods will it that Penelope and Odysseus reunite. But here, the gods will it that Creusa and Aeneas separate. All right?

30:13Okay? So, from our eyes, this doesn't sound that influential. But the reality is, remember, this becomes the basis of Roman civilization. All right? And what is civilization but a set of values, a set of ideas that guide you in your life? Okay? And what this is doing is inverting Homer, poisoning and corrupting Homer. All right? Okay, any questions, guys? Okay, so we'll we'll continue this next week, okay?