A Needle in a Hay Stack By Joshua Evers
What only feels like five minutes into Book VI and Aeneas is tasked to find a golden "bough", which I'm assuming is a tree branch or plant. However, this task is absolutely absurd and beyond difficult, much like my seven year-old self searching for a four leaf clover in the grass, not a patch of clovers, but grass. I really wanted to see Aeneas in this predicament for a longer time, sympathizing with his failure, but I quickly understood why this obstacle must be conquered quickly.
"He wondered, studying the unmeasured forest,
And fell to prayer:
'If only the golden bough
Might shine for us in such a wilderness!
As all the prophetess foretold was true-
Misenus, in your case only too true.'" (Lines 266-271)
Aeneas is tasked with a seemingly impossible feat, and he even gives up on finding it by his own means. Instead, he prays for guidance in this task, and passively admits his inability. Lo and behold, right after he utters the prayer two birds casually fly down and show him the way. Aeneas had to depend on the gods as well as destiny in bringing him to simply start his journey into this interesting underworld. Now, if I were a Roman reader, you better believe that I plan to follow my destiny. If Aeneas can find a golden bough in the woods, then I can certainly contribute to the government. Aeneas would never have found that branch if it weren't for the gods. He completely depended on destiny to even detach the bough and gain entrance into the underworld. Virgil is sly in bringing such subtle implications into lines of poetry. He has conveyed that, no matter how impossible a feat appears, destiny will prevail.
I must say, this is very enticing to a government that finds itself able to define destiny to its own preference. Simply pushing propaganda that praises Roman success as the highest honor can easily brainwash a citizen to thinking that their only purpose is to better Rome.
Yes, I literally found a golden tree branch/plant thingy/bough this interesting. I have never won anything with extremely low odds and personally found this trial as the most difficult thing Aeneas has came across. No encounter or fight has such insane chance as this. The pure idea of destiny pierced my jealous mind after discovering the only reason Aeneas didn't fail as I did in my search for a clover was fate.
I commented on the posts of Moriah and Will
First off, your last line is really nice. Like quotable nice, put on a piece of wood and hang up in my room. But you are absolutely right that pushing propaganda can make a citizen do or become something else then who they are meant to be. Brainwashing tends to be effective when it comes to changing human behavior (not speaking from personal experience).
ReplyDelete-Phillip Vo
I really enjoy your argument and seriously think you should consider writing a paper on this. I think that this is a very interesting subject to discuss on, especially it being considered such a small little detail in this book. Whether we like it or not, there are small details in every book that actually turn into major turning points. They make for a rather interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteIt is a smart part of propaganda to make sure that the people keep on worshiping the gods. It makes everyone believe that in their hour of need the gods will come through. Also small coincidences kept the people worshiping the gods regardless of the fact that it was mere chance that it happened and not any of the gods.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in modern times, going off what Katie said above, critics and readers have taken passages such as this one and labeled them propaganda for the Augustan regime. This criticism is valid, but when the values of a regime are expressed by a poet who shares those values, the line between art and propaganda becomes blurry.
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