The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid

Chapter 3: Vision Past and Future

chapter 3 Vision Past and Future n Sic pater Anchises, atque haec mirantibus addit: ‘aspice . . .’ virgil, Aen. 6.854–855 Methought I saw my late epousèd saint, Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove’s Great Son to her sad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint, Mine as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint, Purification in the Old Law did save, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in heaven, without restraint, Come vested all in white, pure as her mind: Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear, as in no face with more delight. But O as to embrace me she inclined I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. john milton, ‘‘Sonnet XXIII’’ In the twenty-third sonnet of John Milton, past, present, and future are brought into a harmonic balance through Milton’s vision of his late wife. 60 Vision Past and Future The poet constructs the narrative around her apparition as she comes to him ‘‘like Alcestis from the grave.’’ Vision brokers between temporal modes: in the present, Milton’s persona sees his past wife in anticipation of a complete and future vision of her (7–8). To use terminology by now familiar,1 he plays the role of a voyant-visible who transcends time. As the poem ends, the persona of the husband, the heir of Virgil’s Orpheus or Aeneas, wakes to darkness in a powerful closing brushstroke emphasizing the harsh reality of Milton’s blind existence outside the world of poetry. In the Aeneid, the sequence of events that make up time is at the service of, or at least moderated by, vision. As in Milton’s sonnet, vision can be a liaison between temporal modes.Visions from the past deepen a character’s understanding of the present and can even anticipate that character’s vision of the future. Visions of the past tend to point toward the future just as future-oriented vision is often an aspect of a view from the past. Such visions, whether future in past or past in future, consistently provide a rationale for Rome’s existence and for the actions that anticipate or preserve that existence. Accordingly , future vision is sometimes aetiological, other times cosmological, and is often ultimately associated with Rome’s foundation. Several examples to be considered in this chapter reveal these aspects of future and past vision: Aeneas’ view of Hector in Book 2 and of the Penates in Book 3, Andromache’s vision of a bygone Troy (also in Book 3), Aeneas’ viewing of the Underworld’s denizens in Book 6, and his beholding of the future site of Rome in Book 8. Each of these anticipates Rome’s destiny, providing a justification for its foundation and existence. Hector’s apparition in Aeneid 2, contrasting with the injunction that the Penates later issue to Aeneas, offers a point of departure. hector and the penates Complex temporal sequencing closes the second book and opens the third. Aeneas is in the midst of explaining, before Dido and her court, his eyewitness account of the Trojan past, an account laced with visions pertaining to his calling or Rome’s future destiny. Accordingly, while the visions that Aeneas presents form part of his own city’s past, the details of Trojan history anticipate and expound a future vision of Rome. Two complementary examples from Aeneas’ account, namely, those of Hector and the Penates, offer Aeneas an explanation of his mission. In each case, vision surpasses words, pointing toward the hero’s destiny and the telos of Rome’s foundation. In Delos, Aeneas and his men consult the oracle for instructions about 61 the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid their future. As they approach the oracle, they feel the earth shake and hear the voice of the god: summissi petimus terram et uox fertur ad auris: ‘Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto accipiet reduces. antiquam exquirite matrem. hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis.’ Aen. 3.94–98 [We bow low upon the ground. A voice is carried to us: ‘‘O iron sons of Dardanus, the land that gave you birth, the land of your ancestors, will welcome you again, returned to her generous breast. Seek...