UM Honors Blog 2020-2021

Love is dangerous and often forbidden, as the classic tale of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet shows with drama and scandal. While the love between Aeneas and Dido is not particularly forbidden, there is an air of deception in their love as the gods and goddesses meddle once more with human affairs. Venus shows a disregard for fate by making Dido fall for Aeneas, despite the fact that Dido refuses to love another, saying she would never want to betray Sychaeus' memory (Dido's first husband). Virgil describes Dido's love for Aeneas with somewhat violent descriptors: "With longing that her heart's blood fed, a wound or inward fire eating her away." (95). His description of Dido's love for Aeneas foreshadows her dark fate that awaits her, when she takes her own life in despair over Aeneas leaving. Once again the gods continue to interfere in the affairs of humanity, because as Aeneas is leaving, Anna, Dido's sister, begs him to stay to avoid the treache...

  In the Oxford Dictionary, “fate” is defined as “the things, especially bad things, that will happen or have happened to somebody/something” and these things “cannot be stopped or changed”. In The Iliad and in The Aeneid fate is constantly altered by the gods. Aeneas is distracted, by love for Dido, from his destiny and rumors spread of how he has become a “prisoner of lust.” (Virgil 102).   King Iarbas receives the news and compares Aeneas to “Sir Paris” (103). Aeneas’ destiny is to find Italy and build up Rome, though if this is his destiny, it is strange that he can "waste days" and find a new "fate" entirely. Eventually though, Mercury persuades Aeneas to leave Dido and go searching for Italy. Mercury refers to Aeneas' love as “…wasting your days in Libya” (Virgil 105) and urges him to find Rome for “the future, his honor, and his heir, Ascanius”. Aeneas “burned” to leave Carthage and continue his journey, just like Dido did... too soon? Most people can re...

     I swear so often the statement when Christians break up is something along the lines of, "Oh, I just don't think it is God's will for us to be together." First of all, why would you even begin a relationship as a Christian if you didn't think it was God's will. Secondly, I see a very similar set of statements from Aeneus to Dido. "The gods' interpreter... has brought Commands down through the racing winds!... I sail for Italy not of my own free will." - (Aeneid, 108) It seems as though breakups don't change even from thousands of years ago. The party that is being broken up with often responds with, "Am I not good enough?" or "What about the promises we made to each other?" or even "you're breaking my heart!" Dido responds in the same way, "If I ever did well and you were grateful Or found some sweetness in a gift from me, ... Because of you, I lost my integrity" - (Aeneid, 107) "Can our ...

I completely forgot how tragic the relationship between Dido and Aeneas was. The thought that Venus originally caused Dido to fall in love with Aeneas through Cupid for no other reason than to just provide Aeneas and his troops' safety is so aggravating. Venus used Dido and her resources at the ultimate and unfortunate expense of her life. She did not naturally fall in love with him, and she wasn't supposed to in the first place. Everyone knows that Aeneas and the Trojans have to make it to Italy to make their new city/empire, and this most assuredly means that they would not be able to stay in Carthage.  I also think that Juno is to blame for a lot of it, however, because the caused her and Aeneas to end up alone in a cave during a storm. You would think that if Juno cared so much for Carthage that she would not have caused/helped cause the death of the city's queen. This was just overall very unfortunate in all aspects. What are your thoughts and opinions? P.S. I commente...

             Book IV of The Aeneid is giving me major middle school flashbacks. Dido's "inward fire" (Virgil, line 3)  of love for Aeneas reminds me of the days when my friends and I would obsess over boys and truly believe what we felt was love. Now, I'm not saying Dido was not in love, I just think Virgil did a great job showing us the fierce impact of Cupid's arrow by describing Dido's emotions in such an overly intense way. For example, in line 5, we are told that Aeneas' words "remained with her to haunt her mind." Again, I can't help but think back to the time when all my preteen friends and I could ever seem to talk about was some boy or who had a crush and the question of whether or not that crush liked them back.                Another scene in Book IV that causes me to reminisce on those awkward years begins on line 130, when Juno conjures up a plan to marry Dido and Aeneas. She hope...

 Ask anyone that knows me: I do not actively look for, listen to, or obsess over the romantic genre. I will admit (Caroline) that I do like these kinds of things once someone shows them to me, like Pride and Prejudice or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society .   I think the appeal for me in these genres lies in the non-romantic areas of the story, like EVERY SINGLE TIME Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth exchange insults, or the tragic undertones of the fate of poor Elizabeth Maugery in Guernsey . Lucky for me, the "romance" of Dido and Aeneas have both of these lovely aspects! After hearing the apology of Aeneas for accidentally leading her on, Dido delivers simultaneously the most heartbreaking line and the sickest burn to the most bewildered man:                     "Go, / Go after Italy on the sailing winds,                      Look for your kingdo...

 Book 4 was one big coffee-fueled dumpster fire Wattpad rollercoaster of a read. So thanks to Juno, Aeneas and Dido get into an affair. It's so open and vulgar that everyone knows about it, as "Rumor flies through Libya's great cities// Rumor swiftest of all the evils in the world." (Book IV, lines 219-220) Rumor really does fly fast, especially when the tea is as hot as Aeneas and Dido's is. Dido feels guilty about it though and immediately begins calling it a marriage, even though they were never declared husband and wife. It kind of reminds me of those middle school relationships where precisely 12 hours after a boy asks a girl to be his girlfriend, their names will be drawn with a heart on every notebook and locker their hands can find, and they're convinced that they'll marry each other after high school is over. Obviously Aeneas and Dido's relationship is deeper than that, but Dido pretending like this is an official, forever thing when she reall...

So when I read Book IV, I loved how Virgil described Rumor. And I’ll be honest, it took me a minute to figure out that Virgil was referring to the goddess Rumor. I’ve never had the misfortune of people telling rumors about me (knock on wood) so I can’t say for certain exactly how it feels because different people take things differently. Virgil says that Rumor “ thrives on motion, stronger for the running, lowly at first through fear, then rearing high, she treads the land and hides her head in cloud.” (Aeneid, p 102, lines 242-244) Rumors always start out slow, then gain momentum and basically play a large-scale form of the game Telephone. Rumor never sleeps, she broods in the daytime, “harping on lies and slander evenhandedly with truth.” (p 102, lines 257-258) It seems that rumors usually have at least a small basis in truth and then everything gets exaggerated from there.  I commented on Jamie’s and Haley Riddle’s posts.

Virgil is kind of a misogynist. I mean, I get it. In his time, men and women were not viewed as equal, so it makes sense that his story would reflect that, but that doesn't mean I can't critique it.  Virgil's misogyny seeps into his description's of Juno and Dido. The most obvious is when he writes, "...Woman's a thing/Forever fitful and forever changing," which is said by Mercury during Aeneas' dream (Virgil 116). Virgil depicts the fight between Jupiter and Juno as a domestic quarrel between husband and wife. Keep in mind this is depicted before an audience that knows Jupiter is superior. He has the power.      If that isn't enough, Virgil does something similar with Dido and Aeneas. He portrays Dido as the one who is less responsible. She is portrayed in a "Juliet-like" role in which she kills herself for love, meaning she has left her city without a leader. In contrast, Aeneas is portrayed as one bound to his duty to find I...

  The Romans had a very structured idea of what the underworld looked like. It seems that for them, the cause of death and honor of the body played a major role in determining one's eternal destination. There are separate places for the souls of different people. Their locations seem to progress (digress? since we're in the underworld) in order of how noble the Romans saw the death. First, Aeneas encounters the crowds of those who were not given a proper burial. They are doomed to be stranded on the other side of the river Styx until their bodies are buried. This is the least noble way to die; no recognition; no honor. Next encountered, are the souls of children, those condemned by judge and jury, and those who commit suicide. Past this place, are the Fields of Mourning where wander the souls of those whose passionate love was rejected. Here, Aeneas encounters Dido.  I find it intriguing that Aeneas does not find Dido in the place for those souls who took their own lives. Inst...

 It seems like the Romans and Greeks agreed on a common theme when it came to writing: where love goes, tragedy follows.  The Greek point of view has a shorter summary. Paris chose Aphrodite, and it was all downhill from there. Because Paris 'loved' Helen so much, he had to steal her from her husband. This, of course, leads to the fall of Troy- after an absurd amount of drama. Helen is hated for being the kind of beautiful that causes cities to be destroyed. Troy being destroyed leads to the Roman point of view, where Aeneas leaves Troy and meets Dido. Venus sends Cupid to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas, and she becomes a Roman-day fangirl. Like most fangirls, Dido falls in love with the tragic backstory of her foreign hero, and she cannot stop thinking about his "courage" and "words" (Virgil, Book IV, lines 1-3). Finding a friend or family member to vent to is the next stage in being a fangirl. Dido's victim is Anna, her sister (Book IV, line 8). Di...

As great as it was listening to Anchises spoil the entirety of Roman history for his son, I was much more interested and personally invested in figuring out how on earth this boy is going to get himself out of the Underworld. My boy really said, "Peace out, y'all!" I guess Aeneas just doesn't realize that once you head to the Underworld, you stay in the Underworld. At least, that's the general idea . . . Unless you're Orpheus, of course! I'm really curios to see how this is all going to play out. Maybe it's just me, but Aeneas could totally bring his wife or even Dido back with him. Granted, this is an incredibly difficult task to pull off as only Orpheus was able to do it successfully. Still, I feel as though this would be a fun plot device to just, I don't know, spice things up a bit. What do you guys think? Do you think Aeneas will try to bring someone back with him or will he merely leave the Underworld himself? Edit - Replied to Isabelle Fergu...

      I am not a big fan of romance novels or soap opera stories or anything of that nature. While reading through book IV that was all that I saw. It took everything I had to get through it. I got to thinking about the Punic Wars for some reason while reading, and I came up with an interesting thought, what if the problems that came about from Dido and Aeneas is what caused the rivalry between Rome and Carthage.     I don't think it is that far fetched because Dido is the founder of Carthage and Aeneas the founder of Rome. Also Dido and Aeneas were very romantically involved with each other, and Dido's entire life seemed to revolve around Aeneas. So naturally when she found out that Aeneas was leaving her to go start Rome in Italy, she was heart broken, and, we saw in her reaction to Aeneas leaving on pages 108-109, she became very bitter and probably started to hold a grudge on Aeneas. Aeneas does leave despite of Dido wanting him to stay. Dido, as a result, k...

 On pages 170 and 171, Aeneas is questioning why some souls have not crossed over and the answer is simple. They have yet to be buried. evidently, they must either be buried or roam for a century before being permitted to cross. Imagine how torturous that would be. Imagine having to roam and wander for a hundred years because no one found you in order to bury you or no one cared. That would be such a sad way to spend the first hundred years of the afterlife. On that note, imagine how horrid it would be to be wandering and seeing people you knew crossing before you simply because they got a proper burial. I just can't imagine the pain that one would go through. Aeneas even sees two men that he recognizes who did not receive an honorable death or burial and he feels disheartened and he feels for them. He realizes how painful it must be to watch people pass on while you are stuck to roam aimlessly. I think he almost begins to feel bad because he will be crossing over, and they are stu...

 I have to say that I did not understand everything that was going on. But, some of the things that happened were very intriguing. I loved the way Virgil illustrates things and describes why things are the way they are. The symbols and similes were very interesting and made me excited. One of my favorite lines was when Aeneas first enters the underworld and Virgil describes the reason the infant shades are wailing by saying “At the door / Of the sweet life they were to have no part in” (Virgil, VI.576,577). This single line holds so much emotion, thought, and meaning, which is the reason I like this line so much. While I find all of this very interesting, I want to focus on something else for this post. One thing I noticed was the occurrence of the number 3. While this seems a little strange, there is a reasonable explanation. The first time this happens is in book II. When we see Aeneas after talking to the ghost of his wife narrates how he tried to hug her saying, “three times / ...

  Book Four definitely brought something to my attention, and that is the fact that aside from the goddesses the females in the Aeneid just aren't that special. Excluding Juno and Venus, who both play major roles moving the writing forward, the women are very dull characters that are only there for a scene or two. To put this into explanation, Creusa would serve as a great example. She's only there for a few seconds in Book II to clarify the existence of the son, and her purpose is to merely die so that Aeneas's character can be strengthened. With all this in mind, can you really blame me for getting excited when Dido is introduced? It's even more interesting once readers realize that she's one of the few characters with enough gall to defy fate and the gods themselves. Despite it being set in stone that Aeneas is leaving for Carthage to start a new empire, Dido doesn't care to object against the will of the gods; her love for him surpasses her fear of the gods....

 Roman mythology overall seems to have been set up as a solid mythical world with all types of stories that could be told in the world's setting. However, this does not exclude the fact that by including predestination in describing the nature of the soul, poets like Homer and Virgil have royally screwed themselves out of creating any suspense about the outcome of the hero's journey. Let me explain in further detail; in Book VI of The Aeneid , Aeneas' journey throughout the underworld highlights a specific passage that just blatantly reveals Aeneas' future descendants: "Turn your two eyes This way and see this people, your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the line of Iulus, All who shall one day pass under the dome Of the great sky: this is the man, this one, Of whom you have heard the promise, Caesar Augustus, son of the deified, Who shall bring once again an Age of Gold To Latium. . . Numa, the king, Who will build early Rome on a base of laws . . . After him ...

Have you ever heard of a plant dripping dark red blood? Neither had I, until I read book 3 of Virgil's Aeneid. At the start of the book, Aeneas is continuing to share his stories with Dido, and talks of the time when he and his fleet traveled to Thrace. After landing, Aeneas prepares a sacrifice, and spots a green mound with plants growing from it. He goes to uproot a sprout and it spurts dark blood, which obviously frightens Aeneas (I would be RUNNING). This is how he puts it: "There I had sight of a greusome prodigy beyond description: when the first stalk came torn out of the earth, and the root network burst, dark blood dripped down to soak and foul the soil. Shuddering took me, my heart's blood ran slow and chill with fear."  It turns out to be the corpse of Polydorus, a man Priam had sent away from Troy in case the city fell to the Greeks. Polydorus had been killed by the Thracian king upon landing, and the spears that had pierced his body had sprouted into the ...

  One thing I found humorous in the Aeneid was Jupiter himself. While all the other gods and goddesses were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to sway particular humans into siding with their cause, Jupiter is the only one who actually can force humans into his will but ultimately decides not to each time. When Venus suggests that he assist her with the Trojans, he merely says that the destiny of her son is set, and that nothing can stop the Trojans from becoming the strongest empire, reaffirming her that "it is decreed/that there the realm of Troy will rise again." (lines 287-288) The only situation he really interferes with the human world is when one of the goddesses inappropriately injures a mortal. Something about his role in our reading makes me chuckle. It is like he's the peacemaker on a middle school playground that referees fights and picks up the broken pieces of everyone afterwards. He doesn't really get in the middle of anything ...

 "he knew himself fallen among enemies" (Virgil 47) This sentence absolutely caught all of my attention and it took me a good while to figure out why. I still don't know if it's just my inner poet, but the sheer wording struck a chord within me. Granted, he turned and fled like a child in the face of a bee, but the admittance of defeat before the actual fight was so incredibly heartbreaking. He looked over his people, trying to spur motivation and all he received was defeat and shame. Imagine how earth-shattering it would be to try and motivate your comrades and be responded to with absolute defeat before even going into battle. Additionally, I think that the comparison of him to someone who nearly steps on a snake in a briar patch was excellent. I personally am a big fan of similes and metaphors and this was one of the best examples of a comparison that I have ever read. I commented on Abbie and Caroline's posts

As I was reading Virgil's Aneid, I couldn't help but compare the story to the Iliad. Here we have two great epics that recount the actions of the gods and the actions of humans in relation to the gods. I was interested to see the differences in how the authors depicted their gods. Instead of focusing on the details of the story itself, I took a step back and looked at the big picture. One of the main differences I noticed between Virgil's and Homer's works is the style of storytelling. Homer throws the reader right into the action of the story. One is immediately caught up in the middle of the events. There seemed to be a presupposition that Homer's readers would know the background of the story. Virgil's writing is different. In the Aeneid, the reader is not immediately thrown into the middle of the story, instead, they are led into it by an introduction of sorts. This introduction gives the reader a window into the background of the story, but it also builds t...

    Communication is such a vital aspect of decision making. We are instructed as children not to base our decisions on brash emotional impulses. Listening to the council of the experienced often benefits us in better outcomes. Unfortunately, Troy and Priam did not accept the admonishing from Capys and suffered the results of a misdirected decision.      "Capys opposed him; so did the wiser heads: 'into the sea with it,' they said, 'or burn it, Build up a bonfire under it, This trick of the Greeks, a gift no one can trust, Or cut it open, search the hollow belly!" - (Aeneid 34)     We know the importance of heeding the wise counsel. In American culture past presidents still receive information on current events in order to council presidents that are currently serving their term/terms. In general, the Trojans seem to have come to a decision to destroy the massive horse but no-no-no. Input Virgil's ADD. A captured soldier of deception proceeds to tell ...

It should be painfully obvious at this point but, I love irony. I honestly have no clue why, I just do. I guess that's why I liked the situation with Sinon so much. The Trojans showed him mercy, and yet, he was the reason why they eventually get invaded by the Greeks. The irony is just incredible. I mean, I should probably feel bad that the Trojans ended up getting slaughtered for showing one of their enemies mercy, but yet, I still find myself laughing because of the irony of the whole situation. Even more ironic is the fact that they believed that bringing the horse into the city would bring them victory, but instead only brought them bitter defeat. This whole thing makes me really appreciate the story of the Trojan Horse much more. I never knew about Sinon's existence, but now that I know, I really appreciate the irony. His presence in the Trojan Horse story made me love the story that much more. Edit: Commented on Clabo's and Ian Blair's posts

I know I should have remembered this from when we read Paradise Lost, but I keep forgetting that every epic has a call to or invocation of the Muse. It's how The Iliad, Paradise Lost, The Aeneid, and even O Brother Where Art Thou all begin. As someone who dabbles in writing, it's very interesting to me that these writers all began the same way to tell vastly different stories. It's even more interesting that this call to the Muse vastly differs across these stories. My theory is that this invocation shows more than one would at first expect. In The Iliad, the invocation begins at the very first two words:  "Rage - Goddess." Homer is invoking the indignance of the immortals, asking them to rage over injustice and turmoil. It sounds personal, as one would ask something of their mother. However, in the Aeneid, the call to the Muse feels more like a formality than a humble request. Virgil writes, "Wars and a man I sing..." While Homer was asking the Muse to ...

Look, I know that we have already talked about this in class, but the Romans literally took everything that made Greece great, skewed it, and made it about them ( let's be honest, this is certainly not unheard of, but it should be noted that the Romans did it first! ). For example, lets look at the example of Odysseus. In The Iliad, Odysseus is, by far, the most strategic and wisest friend of Achilles and a fantastic leader of Greek forces. When Virgil decides to write a new epic, he takes this Odysseus, throws him in the trash, and creates Ulysses. Ulysses was a hated person by all of the sons of Ilium, often described as a "ruffian", full of "guile and envy" (Virgil 2.10, 122). Aeneas never mentions Ulysses' hand in the idea of the Trojan Horse (discussed in The Odyssey , I believe), thus reducing his character even more. I will grant that Ulysses' many adventures in The Odyssey  make a surprise guest appearance when the Teucrians meet one of his forme...

Man, what an opening story, and I don't mean that lightly. Aeneas' recollection of the night the city of Troy was practically deleted from existence and burned off the map is pretty keen considering the adrenaline that must have been coursing through his veins. I want to bring your attention to a particular example of symbolism that I couldn't help noticing: The way that Priam's life ends is eerily similar to the way his City falls. Whenever King Priam is confronting Pyrrhus about killing his son Polites, Priam is enraged and angry at the killer, but is too weak to actually fight back or do anything against his aggressor. It becomes evident pretty quickly that this is the case:  "With this, To the altar step itself he dragged him trembling, Slipping in the pooled blood of his son, And took him by the hair with his left hand. The sword flashed in his right; up to the hilt He thrust it in his body." (Virgil, 52).  Priam's death would have been swept into the...

 I have to say I was very concerned as I read the first book. I was having a hard time understanding anything that was going on. Thank the Lord for online explanations. Sometimes reading an explanation after reading a passage is very helpful to understanding the meaning behind things. Thankfully, by the third book I was able to grasp what I was reading without any help. That is the goal!  There is a lot to be said of the three books we were assigned to read. At one point, I had an epiphany, and had to run get my copy of the Iliad to confirm my suspicions. As soon I saw the name Andromache in book III, I had to stop and think “Is that not Hector’s wife?”. I ran and grabbed the Iliad  and realized that I was correct. You have no idea how excited I was that one of my favorite characters to write on is in the Aeneid and survived the violence that was definitely around her.  My excited feeling slowly dissipated as I realized that she remarried. After some thought, I ...

               "My life was one of hardship and forced wandering/Like your own, till in this land at length/Fortune would have me rest. Through pain I've learned to comfort suffering men" (Virgil 26).        Some of the kindest, most compassionate people are those who have gone through the most suffering. Queen Dido allows Aeneas and his men into her home and care because she knows what it's like to have been in a situation similar to their own. I would argue that if she hadn't gone through something similar to the suffering they are going through, she would be much more hesitant to allow them into her home and care. This is not to say that those who are more fortunate and who have always been more fortunate cannot be very kind and compassionate people, but going through suffering gives you the ability to understand and be empathatic to others going through the same. It brings me comfort to know this. God uses all things for Hi...

Let’s talk about Dido for a minute. This woman fled for her life to escape her brother who murdered her husband. She then went to North Africa and was told she could have as much land as she wanted as long as it was within the size of a bull’s hide. So does she just place the hide down? Absolutely not. This woman cuts the hide into one long strip and places it down on the ground, getting a huge plot of land that she builds the city Carthage. Dido is a very strong woman but because this is mythology, the gods get involved. Specifically, Venus, the goddess of love, and her son Amor, get involved. Dido goes from this strong, “independent woman who don’t need no man”, to love-sick puppy eyes within the span of one night. It seems kind of strange to me. When Dido first meets Aeneas, she is in awe of him not because of his beauty, but because of what she has heard of him. But as the night of feasting continues, Amor works his magic and fades Dido’s husband away and stirs her feelings for Aen...

         "Some day, perhaps, even remembering this will be a pleasure" (Virgil). Aeneas' speech in Book I of The Aeneid stood out to me. He reminds his men of the challenges they had already conquered and encourages them to "call back your courage."      Before the Coronavirus I was striving to finish my high school career, struggling through a break-up, and trying to find a genuine friend. At that time I thought things were hard enough. When things finally started looking up, my school announced that it would be virtual for the rest of the year. Aeneas' speech is still applicable and inspiring now, in my opinion. Of course, none of us have faced a cyclops or the rage of a Greek god, but still. In this time of uncertainty, words like that are encouraging. Someday when we find ourselves in difficult situations we can look back and say we made it through a global pandemic, so that's something, right?     On another note, can you imagine ho...

Might I just begin by saying how it is highly ironic that the three oldest epics ( The Iliad , The Odyssey , and The Aeneid) are truly just one large trilogy taking place within the same cinematic universe? I mean, Marvel may be great and all, but Homer and Virgil really had it going on! Each of these epics is bound together in time by one very specific event, the Trojan War. While The Iliad is a story that takes place during the war and The Odyssey is a tale about returning home from the war, The Aeneid is about fleeing the destruction of the war. Isn't it just wonderful when a series comes full circle like that? It just makes my heart so happy! As someone who never had to read The Aeneid in high school, I always assumed that this epic was merely a boring rehashing of Roman history. While it is true that this work is a Netflix-style illustration of the Roman Empire's coming-of-age story, it is not nearly as dull as I had assumed. Books one through three really gave me Od...

Throughout all of the ancient epics, the Aeneid has always been my favorite. I have always found Aeneas to be a virtuous warrior, and I was even reminded of this fact within the first three books. The main point that stands out to me is when Aeneas sees Helen hiding during the fall of Troy. He is overcome with anger and wants to kill her because she is one of the main reasons that the war started in the first place. However, he is patient and listens to his mother, Venus, and just decides to leave. I feel that if Achilles was placed in that same position, a goddess would not have even had the time to approach him before he had already killed her. Another thing that find impressive in Aeneas's character is the fact that is always slow to act whether it be in listening to the gods advice or even letting a Greek straggler on to his ship. Aeneas, to me, is the perfect example of a man who pursues virtue instead of glory.   This is just my opinion. What are your thoughts? P.S. I co...

     When I was reading the Iliad , I was waiting to get to the end to read about the Trojan Horse. When I finally got to the end, I was let down on how the story just ended in the middle of the action. I was very disappointed that there was no Trojan Horse. I was beginning to wonder where the story of Troy's fall was since it was not in the book about the Trojan War. I know I could have easily went to the Internet and look it up, but I didn't care enough to.      Since we moved into Roman literature for class, I thought we were done with anything that had to do with Greece. I did not really realize or understand completely how large of an influence Greece had on the world. So naturally I was shocked to find the Trojan War picking up where it left off in the Iliad  in the Aeneid . I thought that this Roman book would be about Rome. This just goes to show how ignorant I am of ancient Greek and Roman texts.      Despite of my ignorance, I ...

 In Livy's History of Rome, we are brought into the middle of a struggle for equal rights. We have two classes of people; upper and lower; Patricians and Plebeians. These are people with different cultural heritages; one pure, one not so much (according to the upper class). The lower class rises up against injustice and demands equality with the higher class. Haven't we heard this somewhere before?  Reading this passage from Livy's History of Rome, I am reminded of a letter written by Matin Luther King Jr. from his Birmingham jail cell in 1963. In the midst of the civil rights movement we see people of different races coming against each other in a battle for equality. King had come to Birmingham to advocate for civil rights by peacefully protesting when he was arrested. He wrote a letter to the clergymen of the Birmingham community in response to their outrage at his stirring up trouble. In his letter, King outlines the correct way to approach injustice. He begins by outli...

In my Honors Philosophy class, we have just started to read the book Just Mercy. As I was reading the selections from Livy, I could not help but think about how the segregation of the Plebeians and the Patricians closely resembled many of the accounts within Just Mercy. The specific case that I happen to be thinking of is that of the case of Walter McMillian. While McMillian was married, he was known for being a man to constantly cheat on his wife. However, this was not the main issue until he cheated with a white woman named Karen Kelly. Even though she was already about to get a divorce, when their relationship became public the people became outraged at McMillian for participating in an interracial relationship. This is what caused the connection in my mind between African-American and white people and the Patrician and Plebeian people. Both people in places of higher power did nothing to earn their position than be born, and the same goes along with the white Americans being born i...

  While reading Livy and Cicero, my brain was screaming at me “Civil Rights Movement! It’s right there in the speech!” There’s a racial hierarchy in America. During the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were the plebeians: no place in government, regarded in lower esteem than Caucasians, expected to treat Caucasians with “the highest form of respect,” and interracial relationships were not allowed (and that’s putting it lightly). “Now, however, it is perfectly obvious, seeing how bitter an opposition they have raised to our proposed laws. For what is our purpose in framing them except to remind them that we are their fellow-citizens, and though we do not possess the same power, we still inhabit the same country...” (Livy, pg. 2). The Civil Rights Movement was about being able to vote people into office that represented African Americans, because, although they lived in the same country, Caucasians and African Americans were not near equal. The plebeians rose up in the same w...