- How does Amata's maternal pietas conflict with her pietas towards the gods? What is the result here in book 7 of this tension? (You may need to read a bit further in the text.)
- How does Vergil draw a comparison between Amata and Dido? What would you predict will happen given this comparison? What deeper message do you think Vergil may be trying to give to you as the reader by drawing this comparison?
Vergil and the Muses
2nd Century Carthaginian Mosaic (lonestar.texas.net/~robison/visual_trivia.html)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Is Lavinia's mom, Amata, crazy or what?!
King Latinus' wife, Amata, is non too happy with the oracle and decision of her husband to promise Lavinia to Aeneas rather than Turnus. Read the following passages (7.56-59, p. 141; 7.342-399, pp. 151-152) and then thoughtfully answer these questions:
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11 comments:
Amata's maternal pietas directly conflicts with pietas towards the gods for several reasons. First, she fears that her daughter will be forced to wander more with Aeneas. She does not understand the entirety of Aeneas fate, as in he will remain in Italy. Second, this fate is for the greater good of the entire world, Rome ends up being rather important.
Next, Vergil draws direct comparisons between Amata and Dido. First, they are both driven to madness by Aeneas over love, Dido for Aeneas and Amata for her daughter. Second, they both do all in their power to go against the fates and protect their love. It is easy to predict that Amata will befall a similar fate as Dido. There are several deeper messages that could be woven into this character but it is hard to access all of them with so little reading. However I think that these deaths show the innocent people that must die in order for a great good to be realized.
-Erik
It seems to me that Amata is rather selfish, and displays furor when she does not want her daughter to be married to Aeneas. She is uninformed, and is definitely not aware of the importance of Aeneas' destiny. She has absolutely no idea how important Rome will end up being, but she should simply place her trust in the gods and believe that Fate will make everything turn out alright.
Amata does express furor, but i also believe the interference of Allecto is similar to Cupid's interference between Aeneas and Dido. Allecto puts poisons into Amata to bring forth the furor hidden beneath the pietas of Amata. Cupid did a similar action in book1-4 to Dido by touching her heart to madly fall in love with Aeneas. Both episodes result in a person giving into to furor; thus, clouding their mind to commit unforgivable actions. Even though Amata was ill informed about Aeneas' destiny, placed her beliefs in gods, and believed in a positive outcome of fate, the Gods set the dominoes falling.
I am not sure if Amata's maternal pietas is pietas at all, or simply just furor against the gods. She is being stubborn and only looking at the momment and not realizing that her daughter is going to be part of something alot larger that if she marries Turnus. If Amata has more pietas toward the gods, instead of her current furor, she would have faith that her daughter would be safe with the man fated to found Rome, regardless of his tremendous hardships. Amata and Dido are compared because both make attempts to defy the gods, even though they know it will not work, and the both are tied into Aeneas love life. It seems as if Aeneas love life causes more bad than good for him and hopefully he will be able to setting with Lavinia. Vergil may being trying to convey the message that Amata will make a rash decision and kill herself like Dido.
Amata does not know of Aeneas' destiny so she does have good reason to be upset, although this does conflict with the pietas towards the gods. VIrgil draws a comparison between Amata and Dido because they are both victims of Aeneas' love and fate. Love because Amata is looking out for her daughter, fate because she is unaware. Dido is a victim because she loved Aeneas, Aeneas didnt love her, and Dido refused to accept Aeneas' destiny.
I agree with Rob that Amata does come off as very selfish. In this respect she is very similar to Juno; she puts her own personal wants ( who she wants her daughter to marry) ahead of the orders of the gods. This is what Juno tires to do; Juno does not want to see Carthage destroyed so she tries to stop the will of the gods.
Amata's maternal protectiveness (pietas) causes her to directly defy the gods and fates. The gods declare that her daughter Lavinia will marry Aeneas, but Amata is set on Lavinia's marriage to Turnus. As a result of this conflict, Amata gets many fellow women to follow her.
Clearly, both Amata and Dido show feminine protectiveness, irrationality, and certain disrespect of the fates. Taking into account Dido's suicide, Amata may attempt suicide. Or, she has already committed a kind of 'suicide' by disrespecting the gods and going completely crazy. By presenting this comparison, I think Virgil is trying to underline the neccessity and importance of pietas. I also think the situation with Dido is different than the situation with Lavinia. Aeneas's relationship wih Dido was of Aeneas's own volition; it went against the fates. However, Aeneas's relationship with Dido is decreed by the fates, and Aeneas is not to blame for Amata's ensuing insanity (he is to blame for Dido's insanity). This shows how Aeneas has matured as a leader. Vergil also shows that Aeneas will never have any easy journey, whether he is practicing pietas or not.
Amata is an interesting character that displays a weak pietas. A pietas that can actually be classified as furor because it is controlling every emotion of Amata in an irrational way. In addition, her comparison to Dido implies that she is not in the correct state of mind. Virgil compares Dido to Amata because both share two things among each other: attached to Aeneas' love life, and irrational thinking. Both led Dido to suicide herself, and like my fellow peers have said I believe Amata will do the same.
Amata's maternal pietas reveals itself through her protectiveness towards Lavinia. She wants to keep her daughter safe and within reach (so to speak) which is practically guaranteed should she marry Turnus. Aeneas, on the other hand, has been wandering for many years. He cannot show Amata any proof that he intends to settle in Italy, and she has no reason to simply take his word. What's more, Amata associates Aeneas with his countryman Paris--a decidedly negative perception given all the chaos caused by the Trojan War. When the commands of the gods run so opposite to her own wishes, Amata fools herself into believing she is under the possession and service of Bacchus. This way she can pretend to commit pietas both on a maternal and divine level, though in truth she displays only furor in regards to the latter.
Vergil draws a comparison between Amata and Dido not only in their ravings and false pledges to Bacchus, but also in the escapades through their respective cities and the serpent/fire imagery when they are maddened under divine influence. I suspect that this will not only doom them to furor, but may possibly lead to similar ends as well. In any case, the message I think Vergil is sending is that the gods ruin mortals when they attempt to intervene directly. Perhaps he is advocating the importance of free-will along with fate.
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