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Mapping
Vergil: Cartography and Geography in the
Aeneid
Georgia L.
Irby
College of
William and Mary
At its core, the
Aeneid is a tale of travel
and adventure, and the land- and seascape become just as important as
the peoples whom the exiled Trojans encounter. Many cartographical and
geographical topoi emerge
from reading this great epic within the context of Graeco-Roman
scientific geography. The Aeneid,
in fact, reflects the best cartographic advances of the day and is
presented in the same way as other “maps” from ancient Greece and Rome –
not in the modern pictural sense but, rather, verbally. Vergil,
furthermore, seamlessly incorporates many of the key aspects of ancient
geography (topography, climatology, ethnography) to enhance overarching
themes of his masterpiece. In this talk, we will explore Vergil’s use of
narrative maps (in particular, the map described by Helenus,
Aeneid 3.374-462 and Aeneas’
shield as a political map, Aeneid
8.671-28) and how Vergil’s narrative maps compare with the ambit of
Greco-Roman cartography. We will also examine how Vergil manipulates
topography and employs both eponymous and culturally specific toponyms (Caietae
portus, Latium, Laurentine Tiber). Geography in Vergil, like
geography in “scientific” or “historical” sources, was concerned only
with the inhabited/habitable world (oikoumene)
and the human stamp on the landscape. Describing and mapping the world
conveyed powerful symbolic resonance, and Vergil’s
Aeneid can thus be
interpreted as a literary analog to the initiatives of Julius Caesar and
Marcus Agrippa to map the entire Roman empire. |