Here - Academics - College of the Holy Cross
Here - Academics - College of the Holy Cross
Here - Academics - College of the Holy Cross
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
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