VevgiI's EIsiun and lIe OvpIic-FlIagovean Ideas oJ AJlev-LiJe

AulIov|s) Uvania MoIviali-Toplsis

Bevieved vovI|s)
Souvce Mnenosne, FouvlI Sevies, VoI. 47, Fasc. 1 |FeI., 1994), pp. 33-46
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Mnemosyne,
Vol.
XLVII,
Fase. 1
(1994),
? E.
J. Brill,
Leiden
VERGIL'S ELYSIUM AND THE
ORPHIC-PYTHAGOREAN IDEAS OF AFTER-LIFE
BY
URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
In book
five,
the
apparition
of Anchises bids Aeneas to visit the
underworld to meet his father in
Elysium,
in the concilia
piorum
(5.731-35):
Ditis tarnen ante
infermas accede domos et Auerna
per
alta
congressus pete, nate,
meos. non me
impia namque
Tartara
habent,
tristes
umbrae,
sed amoena
piorum
concilia
Elysiumque
colo.
Following
the
apparition's instructions,
Aeneas with the
Sibyl
as his
guide
tours the different
regions
of the
underworld,
to arrive
finally
at
Elysium.
The first station of Aeneas and the
Sibyl
is the sedes
beatae
(6.639),
the
place
where the souls of
Orpheus, Musaeus,
the
heroes of the
golden age,
the
pious priests, prophets/poets l)
and
individuals
distinguished
for their services to their
country
and
humanity
abide
(645,
660-64,
667).
From the sedes beatae
they
are
directed to the nitentes
campi (677),
where Aeneas meets his
father,
Anchises.
Strikingly,
what the reader learns about the souls that
dwell in these areas comes neither from the mouth of the
Sibyl
nor
from
Aeneas,
but from the
poet/narrator
who in the
beginning
of
the catabasis asked for divine
permission
to
proceed
to his revelation
about after-life
(264-67):
Di, quibus Imperium
est
animarum,
umbraeque
silentes
et Chaos et
Phlegethon,
loca nocte tacentia
late,
sit mihi fas audita
loqui,
sit numine uestro
pandere
res alta terra et
caligine
mersas.
1)
See M. M.
Winkler, Tuque Optime
Vates: Musaeus in book six
of
the
Aeneid, AJP
10
(1987), 655-60, esp.
658.
34 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
The account of
Elysium, therefore,
bears the
authority
of an hieros
logos, which,
on the one
hand,
describes what Aeneas and the
Sibyl
eye-witness, and,
on the
other,
imparts
information
regarding
the
souls that dwell there accessible
only
to the reader.
To date little attention has been
paid
to the
topographical
details
(6.637-715),
and the concilia
piorum (5.734-35)
of
Elysium.
Scholars
who have discussed the underworld and the classification of the
souls have
suggested
that
Elysium
is the
permanent
abode of the
blessed
spirits2).
As
early
as A. Dieterich's
Nekyia3)
and E.
Norden's
commentary
on the sixth book of the
Aeneid,
Elysium
was
equated
with the sedes beatae
(639)4). Nevertheless,
the
poet
takes
pains
to
emphasize
that Anchises lives in a
separate
area from the
sedes
beatae,
the nitentes
campi5);
there,
he
appears
to review a
group
of souls
which,
the
poet
tells
us,
are destined to be reborn
(inclusas
animas
superumque
ad lumen ituras
680);
there is no mention that either
Anchises or the new
group
of souls wear the same white fillets that
crown the heads of the inhabitants of the sedes beatae
(omnibus
his
niuea
cinguntur tempora
uitta
665).
What is the
purpose
of such a
distinction? Who are the inclusae animate Who are the souls of the
concilia
piorum*
2)
This
assumption
was
accepted by
C.
Murley,
F.
Solmsen,
R.D. Williams
and most
recently
E.
Henry
and Th. Habinek. See: C.
Murley,
The
Classification
of
Souls in the Sixth
Aeneid, Vergilius
37
(1938-40),
17-27: He claims that Anchises
is
among
the
eternally
blessed
(23);
F.
Solmsen,
Greek Ideas
of
the
Hereafter
in
Vergil's
Roman
Epic,
PAPhS 112
(1968), 8-14,
and The World
of
the Dead in Book 6
of
the
Aeneid,
CPh 67
(1972),
31-41;
G.
Stegen, Virgile
et la
Metempsychose (Aen. VI,
724-
51),
AC 36
(1967),
144-158: He
suggests
that Anchises is found
by
the river of
Lethe
(156); RJ.
Clark,
The "Wheel" and
Vergil's Eschatology
in Aeneid
6,
SO 50
(1975),
121-41: Clark
distinguishes
between
Elysium
and Lethe and
suggests
that
Elysium
is Anchises'
permanent home; J. Sheehan,
Catholic Ideas
of
Death as Found
in Aeneid
VI,
Classical Folia 15-16
(1961-62),
87-109;
R.D.
Williams,
The Sixth
Book
of
the Aeneid G&R n.s. 11
(1964),
48-63;
B.
Otis,
Three Problems
of
Aeneid
6,
HSCPh 90
(1959),
165-79;
P.F.
Burke,
Jr.,
Roman Rites
for
the dead and Aeneid
6,
CJ
74
(1978-79),
220-28;
FJ. Miller,
The
Philosophic Vergil, Vergilian Society
37
(1938), 9-26;
E.
Henry,
The
Vigour of Prophecy.
A
Study of Vergil's
Aeneid
(Illinois
1989),
135
ff.;
Th.N.
Habinek,
Science and tradition in Aeneid
6,
HSCPh 92
(1989),
223-54, esp.
230-31 ff.
3) Nekyia (Leipzig 1913),
154-60.
4)
E.
Norden,
P.
Vergilius
Maro Aeneis Buch VI
(Stuttgart 1976).
5)
F. Solmsen observes that Anchises "has his
place
somewhat
apart
from the
other
heroes",
but he dismisses it
by observing
that "we have not
passed
outside
the confines of
Elysium":
see Solmsen
(1972),
36-37.
vergil's elysium 35
In this
paper,
I
suggest that, first,
Vergil
has divided
Elysium
into different locations as he has done with other
regions
of the
underworld,
such as
Orcus,
or the
Styx
and even
Tartarus; and,
secondly
and most
interestingly, Vergil, using
the Homeric
Elysium
as a base of his
account, develops
it
according
to the more
sophisticated
and
systematic Orphic-Pythagorean
ideas of after-
life6).
He
presents
it as a
larger region containing
two different
abodes of reward for
morally pure
souls: the sedes beatae
(639)
populated by
semi-divine souls which have
escaped
the
cycle
of
rebirth;
and the nitentes
campi (677) containing
the souls destined to
transmigrate
to new bodies
(inclusas
animas
superumque
ad lumen ituras
680).
The Lethaean
valley (domi placidae 705)
is the final destination
of these souls which drink from the waters of
forgetfulness (713-15)
and are reborn.
Vergil's
account shares common traits with
descriptions
of the abodes of reward found in such texts as Pindar's
Olympian 2.61-72, Aristophanes' Frogs,
Plato's
myths
of after-life
and the Gold Leaves
Al-A4,
which stem from the
Orphic-
Pythagorean
milieu.
At the
beginning
of the catabasis
Vergil
states that Aeneas and the
Sibyl
will
journey through
the
empty
domi and
regna
of Dis
(268-69).
Accordingly,
the reader is
presented
with a
geography
of Dis which
contains different
regions
for different
categories
of souls. Each
region
is divided into smaller areas
populated by
different sub-
categories
of souls.
Thus,
Orcus
(273), Styx (417)
and Tartarus
(566) appear
to be
larger
areas of Dis:
regna1).
Orcus is the abode
of the evil
personifications
which are found to
occupy specific
loca-
tions in it. In the vestibulum abide
Luctus, Morbi, Senectus, Metus,
Fames, Egestas, Sopor
and the mala Gaudia
(273-79);
in the
opposite
side of the vestibule dwell Bellum and Discordia
(279-80);
in the mid-
dle of the vestibule is the tree of the vain dreams
(in
medio ramos
annosaque
bracchia
panditl
ulmus
opaca, ingens, quam
sedem Somnia
uulgol
uana tenere
ferunt
...
282-84); by
the doors
(in foribus 286),
which
6)
In
other, also,
sections of the underworld
Vergil
follows
Orphic-Pythagorean
ideas;
see for Tartarus
James
E.G.
Zetzel, ROMANE,
MEMENTO:
Justice
and
Judgment
in Aeneid
6,
TAPhA 119
(1989),
263-84.
7)
Minos is in
charge
of
Styx
and
Rhadamanthys
of Tartarus.
36 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
separate
Orcus from the banks of
Acheron,
abide the
Centaurs,
Scyllae, Briareus,
the Lernean
beast, Chimaera,
the
Gorgans,
the
Harpies
and Cerberus
(286-90).
Styx
is the abode of the
a?roi;
it is divided into smaller
sections,
which are
designated by
the terms sedes
(431)
or loca
(434), campi
(441)
and arua
(477).
These locations are inhabited
by
different
groups
o? a?roi such as the infants
by
the banks
(427-28)
of
Cocytus,
next those condemned for false reasons
(430),
then the maesti
(434),
the
Lugentes (441)
and the arua which
frequent
those clan bello
(477-
78)8).
Even in Tartarus a
rudimentary
division into different loca-
tions seems to be in effect for different
categories
of sinners
(scelerati
563)?the
Titans,
for
example, occupy
the
very
bottom of Tartarus
(fundo
uoluuntur in imo
580-81);
and different
punishments
are allot-
ted to different
groups
of sinners
(608-17).
Similarly,
at the end of book
six, Elysium
is described as a
regio
(886)9):
the
poet remarks,
in indirect
speech,
that Aeneas and the
Sibyl
were
given
a tour
through
the wide fields of the whole
region
(886-887):
sic tota
passim regione uagantur
aeris in
campis
latis
atque
omnia lustrant.
According
to Ernout and
Meillet, regio designates
a 'limited
part'
or
'region'
within a
larger space10).
When the
Sibyl
asks Musaeus
about the
regio
and locus in which Anchises abides
(670),
she asks
information about the
specific region
of Dis which Anchises
inhabits,
and the
specific
location within that
region.
For, locus,
according
to Ernout and
Meillet,
denotes the
specific place
in which
one dwells. Servius
commenting
on the line 670 observes that
regio
is a
general
term,
whereas locus is
specific,
and adds that a locus
8)
For the five
categories
of
?????
see: E. Norden
(1976),
11-16,
244 ff.
9)
When Aeneas nails the
golden bough
on the threshold in front of the doors
of the house which is at the entrance to
Elysium,
the
implication
is that the house
belongs
to
Persephone. For,
the
golden bough
is a
gift
for her
(hoc
sibi
pulchra
suum
ferri Proserpina
munusl instituit
6.142)
who lives with Pluto
(casta
licet
patrui
seruet Pro-
serpina
limen
6.402). Persephone
is in
charge
of
Elysium,
as Minos is of
Styx
and
Radamanthys
of Tartarus.
10)
A. Ernout and A.
Meillet,
Dictionnaire
Etymologique
de la
Langue
Latine
(Paris
1959).
VERGUES ELYSIUM 37
belongs
to a
regio.
Therefore,
the
valleys
of the sedes beatae or laeti loci
(638-39),
the nitentes
campi (677)
and the domi
placidae (705) repre-
sent different locations of the
Elysian region11).
In these locations
dwell the concilia
piorum
which the
apparition
of Anchises mentioned
to Aeneas earlier in book 5.731-35. Both the elaborate
geography
of
Elysium
and the classification of the souls of the
pii,
it will be
argued,
owe much to
Orphic-Pythagorean
ideas of after-life.
Elysium
is mentioned for the first time in the
Odyssey
4.561-69 in
the
prophecy
of Proteus who foretells to Menelaus that
he,
as the
spouse
of Helen and son-in-law of
Zeus,
will be translated into the
Elysion pedion,
a
place
at the bounds of the earth
(pe??ata ?a???
563)12)
without
snow,
rain or
storms,
where
only
breezes of
zephyr
blow to cool the
people
who lead there a toilless life. It is clear that
Homer
regards Elysium
as the abode of those blest who have divine
links
(564-65). Although Vergil,
as we noted
above,
uses the
Homeric
Elysium
as a framework for his own
account13) by
main-
taining
the name and
placing Anchises,
the
spouse
of
Venus,
within
it,
he reconstructs
Elysium
from a moral
point
of view:
Elysium
is
the
place
of reward of
morally pure
souls.
A first indication that
Vergil
conceived of
Elysium
in a more
complex way
than his
predecessor
is his choice of the location.
When Aeneas and the
Sibyl
arrive at a fork in the road
through
the
Dis
proper (540),
the
Sibyl explains
that on the
right
is the
path
to
Elysium (6.541-42):
dextera
quae
Ditis
magni
sub moenia
tendit,
hac iter
Elysium nobis;
In
eschatological
accounts
stemming
from
Orphic-Pythagorean
sources,
it
is,
frequently,
attested that the
places
of reward of the
morally superior
souls are on the
right. Plato,
for
example,
in the
myth
of
Er, places
on the
right
the abodes of the
righteous (Rep.
11)
It is worth
noting
that
Vergil's
taste for divisions was taken over and
exag-
gerated by
Dante.
12)
It is not clear whether the
p??ata ?a(?? (563)
were on the surface or
underground.
13)
See: G.N.
Knauer,
Die Aeneis und
Homer, Hypomnemata
7
(1964),
107-47.
38 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
614c-e):
t??? ??? d??a????
?e?e?e??
p??e?es?a? t?? e?? de????
.... In the
Gold
Leaf
? lines
5-614),
on the
right
is
placed
the abode of the
deified
souls15):
'???'
?p?ta? ???? p????p?? f???
?e?????,
de????
+ ?S???S???? + <??>?a?
pef??a??????
e?
???a
p??ta.
?a??e
pa??? t?
p????a
t? d' ??p?
p??s?e ?pep???e???
?e?? ?????? ?? ?????p?? e??f?? ?? ???a epete?.
?a??<e> ?a??e?
de???? ?d??p??<e?>
?e????a?
te
?e????
?a? a?sea
Fe?sef??e?a?.
The choice of the
particular
location
suggests
in the
background
Orphic-Pythagorean
influence.
Once at
Elysium,
Aeneas and the
Sibyl pass through
the sedes
beatae
(637-38),
which
occupy
the summa
cacumina,
the
highest plain
of
Elysium (dehinc
summa cacumina
linquunt 678). Vergil
describes
them as
valleys (uirecta 638)
covered with forests and laurel-trees
(639, 658),
watered
by
the river Eridanus
(659)
and surrounded
by
aether with their own sun and stars
(638-41):
largior
hie
campos
aether et lumine uestit
purpureo, solemque
suum,
sua sidera norunt.
In the sedes beatae the souls are involved in such activities as
gym-
nastics,
dances and
banquets (642-657),
or attend to the same
duties
they
had when alive
(645-47, 653-55).
Such a
description
resembles the accounts of the abodes of
reward of the
ultimately
blest found in
Pindar, Aristophanes,
Plato.
In
Pindar,
for
example,
the island of the blest is a
plain (leimon [frg.
114
Bowra])
in the walled
city (t??s??)
of Cronus
(0. 2.68-71)
which
is located
by Oceanus16):
ds??
d'?t???asa? ?st???
??at????? ?e??a?te?
?p?
p??pa?
ad????
e?e??
14)
All the
quotations
of the Gold Leaves are taken from G. Zuntz's edition. See:
G.
Zuntz, Persephone.
Three
Essays
on
Religion
and
Thought
in
Magna
Graecia
(Oxford
1971),
337-38.
15)
Zuntz
(above
n.
14)
believes that the doctrine
expounded
here is
Pythagorean,
not
Orphic.
16)
See: G.
Kirkwood,
Selections
from
Pindar
(APA 1982), 74;
M.L.
West,
Hesiod
Works and
Days (Oxford 1978),
195-96.
vergil's elysium 39
?????,
ete??a?
????
?d??
pa?? ???-
???
t??s??
It is surrounded
by trees,
watered
by
a river and a
golden light
shines
perpetually
over the blest
(0. 2.68-72):
???a
?a?????
??s??
??ea??de?
a??a? pe??p????s?? d??e?a
d?
???s?? f???e?,
ta
?e? ?e?s??e?
?p'
???a?? de?d????,
?d??
d' ???a
f???e?,
There,
the souls of the blest
appear
to
pursue horsemanship,
athletics, draughts
and
music,
or
perform
sacrifices to the
gods (frg.
129
Kirkwood,
114
Bowra):
?a? t??
?e? ?pp??? ????as???s?
<te ?>
t?? d?
pess???
t?? d?
f??????ess?, t??p??ta? pa??
d?
sf?s??
e?a???? ?pa?
t??a?e?
d?????
In the
Frogs
of
Aristophanes
the
place
of the initiates in the under-
world is described as the
flowery
field
(p??????d?? ?e????e?)17)
of
Persephone,
where the sun and the moon shine
(447-55).
The
initiates there dance and
sing (319-20). According
to
Plato,
the
abode of the
philosophers
is located at the
top
of the
heaven,
the
?pe????????? t?p??
(Phaedrus 248a)
and is of immeasurable
beauty
(Phaedo 114c).
And Cicero in the Somnium
Scipionis
identifies this
Platonic
place
with the
milky way
which surrounds the zodiac
(16-17).
Characteristic of the above texts is that the abodes which
they
describe are reserved for the souls which are
absolutely pure and,
therefore,
have
escaped
reincarnation. In
Olympian
2.68-72,
for
example,
the island of the blest is the
permanent
abode of the souls
which have
completed
three
cycles
of life and death
abstaining
from
any
sort of
injustice.
In the
frg.
133
(Kirkwood)
these souls are
identified with those reborn as
kings,
athletes or
poets/prophets
17)
In the
Frogs Persephone
is
placed immediately
after the
valley
of the blessed
initiates
(431-36).
40 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
who,
when
dead,
will be called heroes
by
the men
(??
d? t?? ???p??
?????? ???e? ?-/???? p??? a????p?? ?a????ta?)18). Empedocles, also,
in
frg.
146
(DK)
states that the
prophets, bards, doctors,
and
princes
when dead become
gods19):
'when the
prophets
and the
singers
and the
physicians (i?troi)
and
the
political
and
military
leaders
die,
they
become divine and
honoured like the
gods'.
Aristophanes
in the
Frogs
states that the initiates in the field of
Persephone
are
pure (?????? ?a?a?e?e? 355), and,
while
alive,
led
a
pious
life
(e?se??
te
d?????e? t??p?? pe?? t??? ??????
?a?
t??? ?d??ta?
456-59).
Plato, also,
states that those who are
absolutely pure
and
led their lives
wisely (Phaedo 82c)
after
3,000
years
of reincarnations
are deified
(Phaedrus 249a):
???
d?
?e
?e??
????? ?? f???s?f?sa?t?
?a?
pa?te??? ?a?a??
?p???t? ??
????? ?f???e?s?a?
???'
?
t?
f????a?e?.
Cicero in the Somnium
Scipionis grants
to the statesmen who have
served their
country
the reward of eternal life
(13)20):
omnibus
qui
patriam
conseruauerint adiuuerint auxerint certum esse in caelo
definitum
locum,
ubi beati aeuo
sempiterno fruantur. Finally,
in the Gold Leaves
Al,
A4 the souls which are
absolutely pure, katharai,
and have
escaped
reincarnation
go
to the fields of
Persephone
to become
gods.
In
these texts it seems that absolute
purity
is the
necessary
condition
for
deification,
and is
usually
achieved
through
a series of re-
incarnations.
Vergil
has
placed
in the sedes beatae two
groups
of souls which
were
regarded
as divine
by
tradition or
by Orphic-Pythagorean
standards: the first
group
is the
mythological
which includes
Orpheus
and Musaeus and the heroes of the
golden age.
Tradi-
tionally Orpheus
and Musaeus were
regarded
as
demi-gods leading
an immortal life in the underworld
(Plato, Apology 41a-b).
As for the
18)
G. Kirkwood
(above
?.
16) suggests
that the heroes
correspond
to those
ultimately
blest of 0. 2.68-75.
19) Probably,
the
Empedoclean
doctrines were well known in the first
century
B.C.
Lucretius,
for
instance,
refers and
pays special
tribute to
Empedocles
in the
De Rerum Natura 1.715 f?. Since
Vergil
was a student of the
Epicurean
and Stoic
schools,
it was
part
of his
training
to become familiar with the known
philosophical
creeds.
20)
This
group
seems to be included in
Vergil's general category
of memores.
VERGIL'S ELYSIUM 41
golden
race,
it was believed that
they
became
holy spirits, protec-
tors of the humans
(Hesiod,
Works and
Days 110-127)21).
The
second
group
includes souls which
according
to
Orphic-
Pythagorean
ideas merit
deification,
because
they
are
pure.
The
idea of
purity
is reinforced
by
the
epithets
castus
(661)
and
pius
(662).
The term
pius, according
to
Conington,
means
castus22).
Castus,
according
to the
Sibyl,
is
every person
who has not commit-
ted a
nefas (624)
such as the social or
religious
crimes which burden
those confined to Tartarus: nulli
fas
casto sceleratum insistere limen
(563).
A?, then,
are the
persons
who were
just
in
socio-political
and
religious
matters while alive. These blessed are classified in five
major groups: a) people
killed in battle fields for their
country, b)
priests, c) prophets/poets
of the
gods, d) people
who benefited
humanity through
their arts and
e)
those who are remembered
by
the
people,
because of their merit
(Aen.
6.648-49,
660-64). Vergil
employs
the term heros for* such souls as the race of Teucrus
(magnanimi
heroes
649)
or the
poet/prophet
Musaeus
(heros 672)
stressing,
thus,
their semi-divine state of
being.
In
addition,
he
presents
all the souls
having
their
temples
wreathed with white
fillets
(665). According
to
Conington,
the fillets
suggest
that these
souls are consecrated to the
gods (648-49, 660-64),
because of their
personal merit23).
The sense that the souls of the sedes beatae abide there
permanently
is further
supported by
Anchises'
explanation
that some of the souls
by
fate
transmigrate
into new bodies
(713-14), implying, thus,
that
others do not. Aeneas
picks
on this idea in the
question
anne
aliquas
...?
(719-20).
Servius
commenting
on 6.719 states that
Vergil
here
blends
philosophic
truth and
poetic
fiction.
According
to Anchises
in his
speech
about the anima in lines
743-51,
all the souls from the
21)
See M.L. West
(?978),
181-83.
22)
See
J. Conington
& H.
Nettleship,
The Works
of Vergil (Hildesheim 1963).
23) J. Conington-H. Nettleship
in the
commentary
on the Aeneid 6.665
(1963)
observe that the white fillets are "a mark of
consecration, being
worn
by
the
gods
and
by persons
and
things
dedicated to them'*.
They
cite as an
example
the
Georgics
3.487 in which a victim
ready
to be sacrified to the
gods
is wreathed with
white fillets. R.G. Austin in his
commentary
on the Aeneid 6.665 cites more sources
such as Val. Flaccus 1.840 and Statius Achilleis
1.11;
see R.G.
Austin,
Aeneidos
Liber VI
(Oxford 1977).
In these cases the fillets are worn
by priests
and
poets
respectively marking
their
holy
office.
42 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
underworld return to
earth; according
to
philosophers, only
the
impure
souls
transmigrate
into new bodies: ... miscet
philosophiae
figmenta poetica
et ostendit tarn
quod
est
uulgare, quam quod
continet ueritas
et ratio naturalis. nam secundum
poetas
hoc dicit: credendum est animas ab
infer?s
reuerti
posse
ad
corpora?
... secundum
philosophos
uero hoc dicit:
credendum est animas
corporis contagione pollutas
ad caelum reuerti? The
reader, therefore,
is meant to understand that the sedes beatae have
been allotted to the souls who merit deification because
they
were
absolutely pure
while alive
(661).
Having
not found Anchises
among
the souls of the sedes
beatae,
the
Sibyl
and Aeneas are directed to the nitentes
campi (676).
This area
is described as an enclosed
valley (conualle 679)
which is
separated
from the blessed fields
by
a hill
(676-78):
...et ante tulit
gressum camposque
nitentisl
desuper
ostentat.
According
to A. van
Gennep's
The Rites
of Passage,
the mountain in
primitive
societies
represents
the
boundary
of a
place
and its
crossing requires
a verbal
rite, usually
an invocation to the
spirit
of
the
place24).
As such an invocation could be
regarded
the
Sibyl's
inquiries
from the
felices
animae and
particularly
Musaeus,
the
optimus
uates
(6.669)25),
who seems to have a
leading
role
among
the
souls
(667-69),
about the
dwelling places
of Anchises
(669-671).
Musaeus
points
from the
height
the nitentes
campi
and
puts
Aeneas
and the
Sibyl
on an
easy path (676).
In the
Vergilian
underworld
the road serves as a
passage
from one location to another within the
same
region
or different
regions
of the Dis
proper (477, 540-43).
Both the hill and the road
suggest
that the nitentes
campi
is another
area of
Elysium.
Musaeus does not
accompany
the
Sibyl
and
Aeneas to the
dwelling places
of Anchises
(676)26).
It is a law of the
24)
See A. van
Gennep,
The Rites
of Passage (Chicago 1960), 3,
transi,
by
M.B.
Vizedom and G.L. Canee.
25)
Musaeus, according
to
Plato,
had
composed
a
song
on the rewards of the
righteous people
in the underworld. In the
song
Musaeus and his son conducted
these
people
to the underworld and
prepared
a
symposium
for them
(Rep. 363c-d).
Vergil apparently
was familiar with this tradition and thus
presents
the
Sibyl
to
ask for
guidance
from Musaeus.
See, also,
M.
Desport,
L'Incantation
Virgilienne:
Virgile
et
Orph?e (Bordeaux 1952), 156-59; also,
L.
Herrmann,
Mus?e et l'En?ide in
Hommages
? W.
Deonna,
Coll. Latomus 28
(1957),
263-68.
26) J. Conington-H. Nettleship (above
?.
22)
noticed that Musaeus leaves
Aeneas and the
Sibyl
when
they
have mounted the
slope
and see the
way
on the
vergil's elysium 43
underworld that the souls cannot cross the boundaries
(373-76),
unless
they
fulfill the
necessary
conditions
(327-28)27).
The nitentes
campi occupy
a lower
place
than the sedes beatae. In
texts
stemming
from
Orphic-Pythagorean
sources the abodes of the
souls destined to be reborn are located below the abodes of the
ultimately
blest. Thus in
Olympian
2.62-67 the esloi live in the
underworld in an area
shining
with sun:
?sa??
d? ???tess??
a?e?,
?sa??
????a??
a????
????te?, ?p???ste???
?s??? d????ta?
???t??
??
????a
ta-
??ss??te?
??
?e??? ???a
??d? p??t???
?'d??
?e?e??
pa?? d?a?ta?,
a???
pa?? ??? t??????
?e??
??t??e? e?a???? e?????a??
ada???? ?????ta?
a???a,
t?? d'
?p??s??at?? ??????t?
p????.
As esloi Pindar considers the souls of those who have not committed
a
grave
crime on the land or in the sea but are not
absolutely pure
and, therefore,
will be reincarnated
(O. 2.61-67).
Plato claims that those who have lived a
holy
life
go upwards
(Phaedo 114b-c)
and dwell on
earth,
in the
'bright
abodes'
(katharan
oik?sin),
which are located below the abode of the
philosophers,
destined to be reincarnated
(Rep. 614c-e).
These are the eudaimones.
In Phaedo
82a-b,
Plato defines the eudaimones in terms of social
justice:
'
"Then",
said
he,
"the
happiest
of
those,
and those who
go
to the best
place
are those who have
practised by
habit and
other
side,
but
they
do not
explain why;
R.G. Austin
(above
n.
23)
makes no com-
ment on Musaeus' activities after he has shown to Aeneas and the
Sibyl
the
path
to be
followed;
Servius also observes that
only
Aeneas and the
Sibyl
descend the
slope
and reach the
valley
of Anchises.
27)
Note for
example
what the
Sibyl
tells Palinurus:
'unde
haec,
o
Palinure,
tibi tarn dira
cupido?
tu
Stygias
inhumatus
aquas amnemque
seuerum
Eumenidum
aspicies, ripamue
iniussus adibis?
desine fata deum flecti
sperare precando, (6.373-76).
And earlier the
Sibyl
remarks that the souls cannot cross
Cocytus
unless
they
have
obtained a
proper
burial
(327-28).
44 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
study,
without
philosophy
or divine
inspiration,
the social and civil
virtues which are called
prudence
and
justice'' ,28).
In the Gold Leaves A2-3 lines 6-7 the souls who are
pure (katharai)
and have
paid
amends for some
shortcoming
while alive
hope
to
go
to the
place
of
euageis,
the abode of those destined to return to
life29):
"?????a?
??
?a?a??? ?a?a??, ??????? ?as??e?a/
.../ ?a?
?a? ????
???? ????? e????a? ??????
e??a?. / p???a? d' ??tap?te?s'
?????
??e?a
??t? d??a???./ .../ ??? d'
???t?? ??? pa?' ????? Fe?sef??e?a?/ ?? ?e
p??f??? p???? ?'d?a? ?? e?a????.
According
to
Zuntz,
the
adjective
katharos in these texts denotes
"purity
in some
particular respect
and form and from some
par-
ticular
pollution"
such as
murder, adultery, political injustice30).
In all of the above texts the difference between those destined to
transmigrate
into new bodies and those who have
escaped
reincar-
nation is the
degree
of
purity
which is achieved
gradually through
a series of lives.
Anchises is found in the nitentes
campi
to review a new
group
of
souls which are introduced with the words: inclusas animas
superum-
que
ad lumen ituras
(679-80). They
are the souls which are destined
to return to earth. The close connection of the
participle
inclusas
(680)
with the ablative conualle uirenti
(679) suggests
that this new
group
of souls dwell in the nitentes
campi.
Servius observes that
Vergil, by
the
participle
inclusas and the ablative
conualle,
inten-
tionally emphasizes
the isolation of these souls from the other
population
of
Elysium; they
are different and
separate
from the
multitude at the banks of the Lethaean river
(non
re vera
inclusas,
sed
a multitudine
separatas 6.680); they
are not
yet ready
for reincarna-
tion. Limina
(696)
Aeneas
accidentally
and
Vergil intentionally
call
the
place31).
The word limen
signifies
the
'entrance',
the
'passage*
28)
??????
e?da?????stat??, ef?,
?a? t??t?? ??s? ?a?
e?? ???t?st??
t?p??
???te?
??
t?? d???t????
?a?
p???t???? ??et?? ?p?tet?de???te?, ?? d?
?a???s?
s?f??s????
te ?a?
d??a??s????, ?? ?????
te ?a?
?e??t?? ?e?????a?
??e?
f???s?f?a?
te ?a?
???;
29)
Zuntz
(above
n.
14)
believes that the doctrine
expounded
here is
Pythagorean,
not
Orphic.
30)
See Zuntz
(1971),
307.
31) RJ. Edgeworth,
The
Ivory
Gate and the Threshold
of Apollo,
CM 37
(1986),
145-60,
discusses the
meaning
of limina as a transition to misfortune and death.
On Aeneid 6. 696 he
suggests
that limina is associated with both
joy,
because of
Aeneas' reunion with
Anchises,
and
fear,
because he cannot touch his father
(156). Generally,
he
regards
the threshold as a
threatening place. My interpreta-
vergil's elysium 45
to
something
else and
synecdochically
the 'house'
(Ernout-Meillet,
OLD).
The nitentes
campi, therefore,
is both the 'house' of the souls
who have not
escaped
rebirth and their
passage
to their final
destination,
the Lethaean
valley,
for rebirth.
Since Anchises is found
among
the inclusae
animae,
they
are
part
of the concilia
piorum
which the
apparition
of Anchises mentioned to
Aeneas in book 5.734-35.
Why, then,
are the souls of the nitentes
campi
destined to be reincarnated?
They
are
pii
/casti,
but not in the
same
degree
as the souls in the sedes beatae. The
pii
who dwell in the
nitentes
campi
seem to
correspond
to the Pindaric
esloi,
the
euageis
of
the Gold Leaves
and, finally,
the Platonic eudaimones
(Phaedo 82a-b).
The
presence
of Anchises
among
these
pii supports
the idea of
degree
of
purity. Anchises,
while
alive,
was not
absolutely pure.
Although
he
displayed
iustitia and
pietas by
his
actions,
he
constantly
misinterpreted
the will of the
gods ultimately acting against
the
fata32).
He
closely
resembles the
description
of the Platonic eudaimon
(Phaedo 82a-b):
'
"Then",
said
he,
"the
happiest
of
those,
and those who
go
to the
best
place
are those who have
practised, by
nature and
habit,
with-
out
philosophy
or divine
inspiration,
the social and civil virtues
which are called
prudence
and
justice"
'.
This is the
reason,
it seems to
me,
that Anchises is not one of those
consecrated to the
gods33).
His death before
arriving
at
Italy may
tion includes
RJ. Edgeworth's suggestion,
since the limina here are the
dwelling
places
of those who have not obtained a semi-divine state and are bound to return
to
upper
world.
32)
For
pius
in the sense of 'faithful in social
obligations'
see:
Cato,
Agr. 4,
Cicero,
Sest.
4, Vergil,
Aen. 5.
296, Ovid,
Met. 4. 551.
33)
He cannot be even
regarded
as one of those who will be remembered
by
the
people,
because
Vergil
in Aeneid 5 makes clear that the tomb of Anchises and
his
memory preserved through
the sacerdos
assigned
to his tomb and the annual
sacrifices
performed
there are destined to
disappear along
with the
impotent
population
of the Sicilian
Troy. Vergil
describes this
city
to which Anchises' tomb
is attached as
preserving
the name and divinities
(hoc
Ilium et haec loca Troiam/ esse
iubet... sedes I
fundatur
Veneri Idaliae 5.
755-60)
of old
Troy,
and inhabited
by
the
elder, physical impotent population
of the
original city (longaeuos
senes oc
fessas
aequore
maires et
quidquid
... inualidum 5.
715-17).
This
city, now, preserves
the Tro-
jan
mores et cultus
(5. 757-58),
but is destined to die
along
with its old
population,
prevented
from
physical
and cultural renewal. The tomb of Anchises stands there
as a
symbolic representation
of the
impending physical
and cultural
death,
and a
46 URANIA MOLYVIATI-TOPTSIS
be seen as a
punishment
for his
shortcoming.
Note in book 3 that
Helenus hails Anchises for the
piety
of his
son,
but not
his,
and
stops abruptly
the
prophecy avoiding
to mention his death before
arriving
at the Italian coast
(478-81).
Furthermore,
the idea of
degrees
of
purity
is reinforced
by
Anchises'
philosophical speech
on the soul in lines 731-32 where it
is stated that all the souls are not in the same
degree
contaminated
by
their contact with the
body:
igneus
est ollis
uigor
et caelestis
origo
seminibus, quantum
non noxia
corpora
tardant
terrenique
hebetant artus
moribundaque
membra.
By
the
quantum
non
(731)
clause
Vergil
seems to allude to the tradi-
tional
theory
of
separation
of the soul from the
body, according
to
which,
the wise man's soul as much as
possible
abstains from
pleasures
and
desires,
distress and
fear;
whereas the souls which are
overwhelmed
by corporeal pleasures
or
pains
are
incapable
of
exerting
reason
and, therefore,
do not maintain their
purity (Phaedo
66c-d, 83b,
Timaeus
86b-c)34).
Pius
y therefore,
in 5.734 is used in a
generic
sense to include adi
the souls that dwell in
Elysium,
in contrast to the
impure
state of
the tristes umbrae in Tartarus.
Elysium
contains two different abodes
of reward and two different classes of
pii:
the sedes beatae with the
deified souls who have
escaped
the
cycle
of
rebirth,
and the nitentes
campi
with those
righteous
who are destined to
transmigrate
into
new
bodies35).
Toronto,
York
University
token of the fulfillment of his
personal
desire to die
along
with his
sedes, Troy.
He
is thus destined to be
forgotten.
34) Heyne
takes
quantum
as
qualitative explaining
the difference in mores
among
the
men, according
to the
degree
of
change
and
separation
of the anima from the
body (731-32);
see CG.
Heyne,
P.
Virgilii
Maronis
Opera
Omnia
(London 1819).
Austin
(1977)
observes in this line a
"compression
of
thought'' and, following
Conington, suggests
that the souls cannot function
properly,
because of the
weakness of the
body.
35)
I would like to
express my
sincere thanks to Professor
Stephen
V.
Tracy
and Professor Michael Herren for their valuable comments and time
they spent
for this
paper.