MacLachlan - Women in ancient Rome: a sourcebook

Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook

Bonnie MacLachlan

Greek and Roman Sexualities: A Sourcebook

Jennifer Larson

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The written record of Romes earliest historical period is a legendary one. While we cannot be sure of the degree to which these tales were based in historical reality we can be confident that in their retelling they shaped, reflected and reinforced the attitudes of the people telling and hearing them. The cultural patterns that were sustained in this way included those governing the interactions between women and men.

This story of the foundation of Rome reflected an attempt to link the Roman world to Greeces heroic past. Vergils great Latin epic The Aeneid, disseminated at the end of the last century BCE and in the early decades of the first century CE, forged a mythical link between the Roman Empire and the Trojan War. Aeneas, a Trojan prince who escaped the destruction of his city, turned his back on this chapter of his life, driven by destiny to establish a new kingdom on the Italian peninsula. Vergil describes Aeneas development as a Romanized hero in two emotional vignettes in which he detaches himself from women with whom he has had an intimate relationship but who cannot be part of his Roman destiny.

The first is his Trojan wife Creusa. With the city conquered and in flames Aeneas cries out for her, running through the streets. Startled suddenly, he sees her ghost coming out of the shadows. She explains to him that the gods have decreed that his Roman destiny does not include her.

What good is there in giving yourself over to such insane grief,

my dear husband? These things have not come to pass without the will of the gods.

Nor is it permitted for you to take your companion Creusa away from here;

not even the ruler of Olympus on high permits it.

There will be a long period of exile for you, and you must plow the vast expanse of sea

before you come to the Hesperian (Western) land, where the Lydian Tiber

flows through the fertile fields of men with a gentle swerve.

There good fortune and a kingdom and a royal wife

have been prepared for you. Banish your tears for your beloved Creusa.

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Creusa assured him that she would not be led away into slavery by the Greeks, for the gods had willed it that she not leave Trojan soil. After asking him to take care of their young son, she disappeared into the air. Three times Aeneas tried to clasp her, and three times her image disappeared, as Vergil says, like a fleeting dream. Aeneas departed with their son Ascanius, his aged father and a band of Trojan followers.

En route to Italy, Aeneas was blown off-course by a storm and stopped at Carthage, a city on the north coast of Africa that had been founded by the Queen Dido of Sidon, who gave him unexpected and exceptional hospitality. The heros mother, the love-goddess Venus, had arranged a passionate encounter between the two, and the relationship continued for a year until Jupiter sent a divine emissary with the directive that Aeneas depart.