Caeneus in the Underworld: Aeneid 6.440-449

nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem  

Lugentes campi; sic illos nomine dicunt.

hic quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit

secreti celant calles et myrtea circum

silva tegit; curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt.

his Phaedram Procrinque locis maestamque Eriphylen  

crudelis nati monstrantem vulnera cernit,

Evadnenque et Pasiphaen; his Laodamia

it comes et iuvenis quondam, nunc femina, Caeneus

rursus et in veterem fato revoluta figuram.

--Vergil, Aeneid 6.440-449

Not far from here, spread out all around in every direction were the Mourning Fields; that’s what they’re called. This is where people affected by cursed love waste away. They hide in the narrow foot paths covered in a myrtle forest; even death itself cannot remove their pain. This is where he sees Phaedra, Procris, sad Eriphylis who bears the wounds of her cruel son, as well as Evandne and Pasiphae. Laodamia wanders here as companion to Caeneus—he had been a young man, but now returned by Fate to his previous shape as a woman.

NOTES:

·        Phaedra was cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love with her stepson Hippolytus

·        Procris, afraid her husband was unfaithful to her, followed him while he went out hunting and was accidentally killed by him.

·        Eriphylis betrayed her husband’s whereabouts while he was hiding during the Theban War and was swallowed by the earth

·        Evadne loved her husband so much that she threw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre

·        Pasiphae was cursed by Poseidon to fall in love with a bull after her husband Minos refused to offer him appropriate sacrifices

·        Laodamia loved her husband Protesilaus so much that she threw herself on his funeral pyre

·        What is Caeneus’ durus amor? Is it being the target of Poseidon’s attention and subsequent attack? Although Caeneus has a son (Coronus), there is no mention in extant myths about any love interest / marriage.

 

VERGIL / VIRGIL	MAP:
Name:  Publius Vergilius Maro Date:  70 BCE – 21 BCE Works:  Aeneid*               Eclogues              Georgics	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Vergil was born in Mantua (Cisalpine Gaul, located in northern Italy) and lived during the tumultuous transition of Roman government from republic to monarchy. His masterpiece, the Aeneid, tells the story of Aeneas’ migration from Troy to Italy; it was used for centuries as the pinnacle of Roman literature.	GOLDEN AGE ROME

 

 

Caeneus in the Underworld: Servius In Aen. 6.445

Vergil conflates the transformation myths of Tiresias (whose body reverts back to his original form) and Caeneus.

 

NUNC FEMINA CAENEUS Caenis virgo fuit, quae a Neptuno pro stupri praemio meruit sexus mutationem. fuit etiam invulnerabilis. qui pugnando pro Lapithis contra Centauros crebris ictibus fustium paulatim fixus in terra est, post mortem tamen in sexum rediit. hoc autem dicto ostendit Platonicum illud vel Aristotelium, animas μετεμψύχωσιν sexum plerumque mutare.

 

--Servius,  In Aen.6.445

 

CAENEUS, NOW A WOMAN: Caenis was a maiden who earned a change of gender as payment for Neptune’s assault against her. He was also invincible. He was driven into the earth by an overwhelming attack of spears while fighting centaurs on behalf of the Lapiths; however, upon his death, his body changed back. In using this myth, Vergil shows the Platonic (or maybe Aristotelian?) concept of the transmigration of souls, that souls commonly change their gender.

 

SERVIUS	MAP:
Name:  Maurus Servius Honoratus Date:  4th – 5th c. CE (???) Works:  In Vergilii carmina comentarii	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.	BYZANTINE / LATE LATIN

Married to Her Passion: the Ace Roman Painter Iaia, Pliny the Elder Nat. Hist. 35.147-148

Pinxere et mulieres: Timarete, Miconis filia, Dianam, quae in tabula Ephesi est antiquissimae picturae; Irene, Cratini pictoris filia et discipula, puellam, quae est Eleusine, Calypso, senem et praestigiatorem Theodorum, Alcisthenen saltatorem; Aristarete, Nearchi filia et discipula, Aesculapium. Iaia Cyzicena, perpetua virgo, M. Varronis iuventa Romae et penicillo pinxit et cestro in ebore imagines mulierum maxime et Neapoli anum in grandi tabula, suam quoque imaginem ad speculum. nec ullius velocior in pictura manus fuit, artis vero tantum, ut multum manipretiis antecederet celeberrimos eadem aetate imaginum pictores Sopolim et Dionysium, quorum tabulae pinacothecas inplent. pinxit et quaedam Olympias, de qua hoc solum memoratur, discipulum eius fuisse Autobulum.

--Pliny the Elder, Nat. Hist. 35.147-148

There were also women painters:

• Timarete, the daughter of Micon, [the creator of] Diana, a painting in Ephesus that is among the oldest
• Irene, the daughter and protégé of the painter Cratinus, [the creator of] The Girl / Proserpina / Kore (which is on display at Eleusis), as well as a painting of Calypso, an old man, and the juggler Theodorus, as well as the dancer Alcisthenes
• Aristarete, the daughter and protégé of Nearchus, [the creator of] Aesculapius.
• Iaia of Cyzicus, who never married, was a painter at Rome during the time of Marcus Varro’s youth, did both paintings and engravings in ivory. Her specialty was portraits of women, the most famous of which is on display at Naples, a huge portrait of an old woman, as well as a self portrait in a mirror. No painter was faster at the art, and she was so skilled that her works were more valuable than even very famous artists of the time period, Sopolis and Dionysius, whose paintings litter our modern museums.
• Some woman named Olympias, but the only thing we really still know about her was that she had a protégé named Autobulus.

PLINY THE ELDER	MAP:
Name:  Gaius Plinius Secundus Date:  23 – 79 CE Works:  Naturalis Historia*	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Pliny was an Italian-born Roman statesman and author who lived during the reigns of the early Roman emperors. He spent most of his life in service of his country; he ultimately gave his life in arranging the evacuation of the regions devastated by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. His work, the Natural History, is a 37-volume collection of art, history, and science of the ancient world.	GOLDEN AGE ROME