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Here - Academics - College of the Holy Cross

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As a result, Allecto’s involvement promises to<br />

result in consequences beyond those seen in <strong>the</strong> Bacchae.<br />

Where Euripides had Dionysus concentrate his wrath for<br />

<strong>the</strong> most part on <strong>the</strong> individuals who had provoked him,<br />

Vergil instead has Juno give Allecto free reign to inflame<br />

war between <strong>the</strong> Trojans and Italians. What was a family<br />

conflict in <strong>the</strong> Bacchae becomes a war reminiscent <strong>of</strong> civil<br />

war in <strong>the</strong> Aeneid. With this understanding, <strong>the</strong> line “with<br />

<strong>the</strong> divine will <strong>of</strong> Bacchus simulated” (simulato numine<br />

Bacchi 7.385) and <strong>the</strong> line immediately after it,<br />

“approaching a greater crime and beginning a greater fury”<br />

(maius adorta nefas maioremque orsa furorem, 7.386),<br />

make sense. Amata’s wicked deed is greater and<br />

foreshadows worse things because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> different gods<br />

involved and <strong>the</strong>ir different goals. Dionysus seeks<br />

something that he can certainly achieve in a matter <strong>of</strong> time:<br />

penalty for maligning Semele’s name and<br />

acknowledgement for himself as a god. Allecto, however,<br />

only causes destruction; Juno, who released her, is<br />

prevented by fate from achieving her desire and instead<br />

settles for prolonging warfare. There is no end<br />

immediately in sight, and Allecto and Juno do not even<br />

limit <strong>the</strong>ir wrath to <strong>the</strong> Trojans alone.<br />

47

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