4. Vergil’s Works
Eclogues (~39-38 BCE) - in which he
discussed Octavian’s land confiscations in his
home region around Mantua, displaying interest
in his rustic roots in Etruria
Georgics (29 BCE) - based in large part on
Greek models
5. Do you think that Vergil was only
interested in Rome when he wrote
the Aeneid?
If not, what other cultures may have
been of interest to him?
6. Katabasis (a Descent)
Aeneas descends into the
Underworld, as have many
heroes in Greek myth, seeking
guidance
His Katabasis can be
fruitfully paired with
Odysseus’s, since the
Odyssey is the model for the
first half of the Aeneid
7. Aeneas vs. Odysseus
founding a new home vs. ???
a journey through the Underworld vs. ???
meets with a wronged comrade (Dido) vs. ???
Underworld is a temporary place of purification
(peaceful) vs. ???
8. Vergil’s Underworld
A remaking of Homer’s “domos Aidos”
(House of Hades) based on Roman
households
Clients await their patron at the vestibulum
just as newly-dead souls await entry
Aeneas moves through the house of Pluto,
through Tartarus (location of punishment)
To a static place of limbo (where Dido
resides)
And eventually to Elysium (where souls are
purified before returning to the world of the
living)
9. Charon
Ferryman of the spirits of the dead, who carries
them over the rivers Styx or Acheron in his boat
Paid by a coin placed in the mouth of the deceased
and refuses passage to those who fail to pay
Depiction varies but usually is old, filthy, diligent,
terrifying, or unnatural to varying degrees
10. Charon and the Underworld
Review your passage in groups and think about
the questions
11. Passage
[295] Hinc via est quae ad undās Acherontis Tartareī
fert.
[296] Hīc gurges turbidus et caenō et vorāgine vastā
aestuat, atque omnem harēnam Cōcȳtō ērūctat.
[298] Portitor squālōre terribilī, Charōn, hās aquās
horrendus et flūmina servat. Charontī cānitiēs plūrima
inculta mentō Charontis iacet.
12. Passage (Continued)
[300] Lūmina cum flammā stant et amictus sordidus nōdō
ex umerīs dēpendet.
[302] Ipse ratem contō subigit et vēlīs ministrat et corpora
cumbā ferrūgineā subvectat.
[304] Iam senior est, sed senectūs crūda deō viridis est.
Hūc omnis turba ad rīpās ruēbat.
[315] Sed nāvita trīstis nunc hōs nunc illōs accipit, ast
aliōs summōtōs longē harenā arcet.
13. Homework!
Examine thoroughly the pictures or read
thoroughly the passages on your worksheet.
Follow the instructions on your worksheet to
analyze these sources and to compare them to
the Charon passage!
15. Classical Reception
Classical Reception is the study of later
interpretations of Greece and Rome over time
Particularly how interpretations change, how
stories are retold, how ancient themes relate to
later historical contexts
Can you think of any examples of reception?
16. Groupwork!
In groups, review what you came up with for
homework, and compare Vergil’s Charon and his
quarter of the Underworld with your source.
We’ll share our findings with the class
19. Group 3 (Greek Literature)
"But sail upon the wind of lamentation, my friends,
and about your head row with your hands' rapid
stroke in conveyance of the dead, that stroke which
always causes the sacred slack-sailed, black-clothed
ship [of Kharon] to pass over Akheron to the unseen
land here Apollon does not walk, the sunless land that
receives all men.”
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, 854 ff.
20. Group 3 (Greek Literature)
"Alkestis: I see him there at the oars of his little boat
in the lake, the ferryman of the dead, Kharon, with his
hand upon the oar and he calls me now. `What keeps
you? Hurry, you hold us back.' He is urging me on in
angry impatience.”
Euripides, Alcestis, 252 ff.
21. Group 3 (Greek Literature)
Herakles : A parlous voyage that, for first you'll come to an enormous lake of
fathomless depth.
Dionysos : And how am I to cross?
Herakles : An ancient mariner will row you over in a wee boat, so big. The fare's
two obols.
…
Kharon (to Dionysos) : Sit to the oar. (calling) Who else for the boat? Be quick.
(to Dionysos) Hi! What are you doing?
Dionysos : What am I doing? Sitting on to the oar. You told me to, yourself.
Kharon : Now sit you there, you little Potgut.
Dionysos : Now stretch your arms full length before you.
Kharon : Come, don't keep fooling; plant your feet. Pull with a will.
…
Kharon : Stop! Easy! Take the oar and push her to. Now pay your fare and go.
Dionysos: Here ‘tis: two obols.
Aristophanes, Frogs, 180 ff.
22. Group 4 (Latin Literature)
“A rock funereal o’erhangs the slothful shoals, where the
waves are sluggish, and the dull mere is numbed. This
stream an old man tends, clad in foul garb and to the sight
abhorrent, and ferries over the quaking shades. His beard
hangs down unkempt; a knot ties his robe’s misshapen
folds; haggard his sunken cheeks; himself his own
boatman, with a long pole he directs his craft. Now,
having discharged his load, he is turning his boat towards
the bank, seeking the ghosts again; Alcides demands
passage, while the crowd draws back.”
Seneca, Hercules Furens, 762 ff.
23. Group 4 (Latin Literature)
"Dark Mors, death opens wide … and the boatman
[Kharon] who plies the troubled stream with roomy
skiff, tough hardy in his vigorous old age, can scarce
draw back his arms wearied with constant poling,
worn out with ferrying the fresh throng o’er.”
Seneca, Oedipus, 164 ff.
24. Group 4 (Latin Literature)
"Hither [to Haides] all shall come … all must assuage
the three heads of the barking guard-dog [Kerberos]
and embark on the grisly greybeard’s [Kharon’s] boat
that no one misses.”
Propertius, Elegies, 3.18 ff.
25. Group 4 (Latin Literature)
"His [Oidipous’] grey hair and beard are filthy and
matted with ancient gore, and locks congealed with
blood veil his fury-haunted head; deep-sunken are his
cheeks and eyes, and foul the traces of the sight’s
uprooting . . . ’Tis even as though the furrower of
sluggish Avernus [Kharon who the elderly Oidipous
now resembles] through loathing of the Manes
(Shades) should leave his bark and come up to the
world above…”
Statius, Thebaid, 11.587 ff.
26. So, was Vergil inspired by
earlier depictions of Charon?
27. Recent Representations
Charon has remained popular continuously since
Antiquity. Let’s evaluate some depictions of
Charon and determine how faithful they are to
the ancient sources we’ve examined today!
28. Charon as depicted by Michelangelo in his fresco The Last
Judgment (1536-1541) in the Sistine Chapel
32. So, did Vergil inspire later literary
and artistic depictions of Charon?
33. Draw and Present!
In groups, using the description given in Vergil’s
Aeneid (and incorporating other depictions if
you’d like), sketch Charon the Ferryman.
Write a few sentences explaining the details you
included and why.
34. Homework
Tonight, please translate the lines of the second
adapted passage, and consider the questions!
Pay attention to the depiction of the three-
headed guard dog of Tartarus, Cerberus!
37. Passage
[385-387] Nāvita Sibyllam et Aenēān increpat:
[392-396] “Vērō Alcīdēn euntem lacū accēpisse nōn
laetātus sum. Ille manū Tartareum custōdem in vincla
petīvit et trementem ā soliō rēgis ipsius trāxit.”
[398-401] Contrā quae Amphrȳsia vātēs breviter fāta
est: “Licet ut iānitor ingēns lātrāns aeternum antrō
umbrās exsanguēs terreat.”
38. Passage (Continued)
[417-418] Cerberus ingēns immānis, recubāns in antrō,
lātrātū trifaucī haec rēgna personat.
[418-421] Cui vātēs, vidēns colla horrēre colubrīs, melle
et sopōrātam offam medicatīs frūgibus obicit.
[421-423] Famē rabidā, ille, pandēns tria guttura,
obiectam corripit, atque terga immānia resolvit, atque
ingēns humī tōtō antrō extenditur.
[423-424] Custōde sepultō, Aenēās aditum occupat.
39. Can you think of any more
recent depictions of Cerberus
or similar creatures?
40. Fluffy from Harry Potter!
Watch this scene from The Sorcerer’s Stone,
and think of how Fluffy resembles Cerberus
41. Cerberus and Fluffy
Look at our adapted passage, and find words describing
Cerberus that would also describe Fluffy.
Compare their functions in their stories. Any similarities?
42. Bibliography
Atsma, Aaron. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. 2000-2011. <http://www.theoi.com> and
<http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Kharon.html>
Boyd, Barbara Weiden. Vergil’s Aeneid: Selected Readings from Books 1, 2, 4, and 6. Mundelein, Illinois: Bolchazy-
Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2012.
Johnston, Patricia A. “Aeneid 6.” In Vergil: Aeneid: Books 1-6, edited by Randall T. Ganiban, 413-462.
Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2012.
LaFleur, Richard A. and Alexander G. McKay, Ed. A Song of War: Readings from Vergil’s Aeneid. Boston: Pearson,
2013.
Leach, Eleanor Winsor. “Viewing the Spectacula of Aeneid 6.” In Reading Vergil’s Aeneid: An Interpretive Guide,
edited by Christine Perkell, 111-127. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 4th ed. Edited by Simon Hornblower et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Wellard, James. “The Search for the Etruscans. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1973. Accessed at
<http://www.maravot.com/Translation_ShortScripts_a.html>
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org> (images only)
Williams, R. D. “The Sixth Book of the ‘Aeneid.’” Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 11 No. 1 (Mar. 1964):
48-63.
