1—
Comparative Brevity of Virgil's Speeches
The first thing that we notice in Virgil is something negative: the great reduction in
the length of conversations . Great conversation scenes, such as that at the court of
Alcinous (e.g. Od . 11.353ff.), or in the palace of Odysseus (e.g. Od . 17.369ff.), or as
in the assembly in Iliad 1, in which Achilles and Agamemnon, Calchas and Nestor
converse, and even Athena speaks – though she is audible only to Achilles – and
Achilles himself speaks no fewer than eight times; or lengthier duologues as in
Odyssey 1, where there are four exchanges between Athena and Telemachus; or
complicated series of conversations, such as in Iliad 6, where Hector speaks in quick
succession with his mother, with Paris and Helen, with the housekeeper, with An-
dromache, and finally with Paris again – there is nothing like this in the Aeneid . The
most common kind of interchange is between two speakers and takes the form of
405 only one utterance and one response:[50] often the first speaker then replies once more;
the only examples of two utterances and two responses are in Book 1 between
Venus and Aeneas, and in Book 9 between Nisus and Euryalus, if Euryalus' short,
incomplete final words (219-21) are to be counted as a response. Virgil very seldom
goes beyond a duologue, and almost only when depicting assemblies: at the begin-
ning of Book 10, besides Jupiter, Venus and Juno also speak; in the Laurentian
senate (11.243) we have the messenger Venulus, Latinus, Drances and Turnus; in
the Trojan camp – and this is the richest of all these scenes (9.232ff.) – Nisus,
Aletes, Ascanius, Euryalus and Ascanius again. In addition, one may speak of a
series of duologues: in Book 1, Dido replies first to Ilioneus, then to Aeneas who has
just entered; in Book 2 (638ff.), first Anchises and Aeneas converse, then Creusa
speaks to Aeneas, then Anchises and Aeneas speak to each other again; in Book 9,
first Pallas and Aeneas, then Aeneas and Evander; in Book 12 first Latinus then
Amata with Turnus; later (625ff.), first Juturna with Turnus, then Saces with him,
finally Turnus with Juturna again. It can be seen that when Virgil has a series of
conversations he also keeps them remarkably short.
This technique is shown to be deliberate by the fact that Virgil repeatedly inter-
rupts a duologue with certain devices to prevent its extending beyond a single or
two-fold exchange. In Book 3, Aeneas and Andromache have each spoken once:
then (345) Helenus approaches and greets his countrymen. In Book 4, Dido has
replied to Aeneas' response: before he can reply again, she abandons him, multa
volentem dicere (390) [wishing to say much more], and serving-women carry her to
her room in a faint. In Book 6, Deiphobus has answered Aeneas and then put a
number of urgent questions to him: but the Sibyl cuts short the rest of the conversa-
tion (538). In Book 11, Latinus has to break off the meeting of the assembly before a
decision has been reached, when the enemy approach and everything is suddenly
thrown into confusion.
We need to establish the perspectives which led Virgil to keep his duologues, and
all his speeches, so very short; a negative approach will be best here.
Virgil avoids everything which does not directly contribute to the artistic effect
406 or tell the reader anything new, and which would only be included for the sake of
completeness. Whereas the main aim of the Homeric poets is to capture the scene
which they have before their eyes, in all its changing detail, and to place it before the
eyes of their audience, and they achieve this by depicting everything , leaving as
little as possible to the imagination of the audience, Virgil expects every single
component of the narrative to contribute a certain effect, and omits anything which
cannot achieve such an effect by itself.[51] This is his governing principle both in the
presentation and in the choice of speeches. The intense interest of Andromache in
Aeneas and his family, like the amazed admiration of Deiphobus at Aeneas' journey
to Hades, finds expression in their questions: Aeneas, for his part, could not say
anything in reply except what the listener already knows, and that is why he does
not say anything. In Homer, Agamemnon says to the wounded Menelaus ( Iliad
4.190): 'The doctor will heal your wound and soothe the pain with herbs', then to
the herald Talthybius: 'Call me Machaon quickly, to look at Menelaus, who has an
arrow-wound', at which Talthybius goes into the camp, looks for Machaon, sees
him standing with his men, goes to him and says: 'Get up, Asclepiades; Agamem-
non is summoning you to come to see Menelaus, who has an arrow-wound' – there
are three direct speeches: the first announces the errand, the second assigns it, the
third executes it. The equivalent passage in Virgil (12.391) has only iamque aderat
Phoebo ante alios dilectus Iapyx [and now there stood Iapyx, whom Phoebus loved
beyond all others] – that a messenger has been sent to fetch him, and that the
messenger has carried out this errand, can be left for us to deduce. But Virgil does
give messages in direct speech, e.g. at 5.548: Aeneas sends to Iulus to say that the
Troy Game can now begin; this enables the listener to understand the point of the
parade which follows, including the fact that Aeneas has planned it as a surprise for
the other spectators. To name only a few examples in Homer, the message which the
[dread dream] takes to Agamemnon, Iris to Priam, Hermes to Ca-
lypso, has been given to them beforehand by Zeus in direct speech ( Iliad 2.8,
24.144; Od . 5.29); this is clearly superfluous since we hear the message again when
it is delivered. In Virgil (5.606 and 9.2), we hear at first only that Juno is sending Iris
407 on an errand; we do not learn what the message is until the same moment when the
mortals concerned receive it. On the other hand, at 4.416 we hear Dido's message to
Aeneas in direct speech at the point of dispatch, not at the point of delivery: here the
more important consideration was to show Dido's state of mind. But on one occa-
sion (4.223), in imitation of the despatch of Hermes in the Odyssey , Virgil does tell
us a message in direct speech although it is given again in direct speech on delivery:
he felt that the detailed depiction of Mercury's preparations for the journey, and the
journey itself, required a broader foundation than a simple misit de caelo [he sent
from heaven], which really covers the journey too. It is normal practice, all through
Homer also, for the messenger to receive the message silently; also, when, for
example, Iris calls the wiinds, they follow without replying ( Iliad 23.212), as when
one hero challenges another to come with him, or despatches him, etc. (e.g. Iliad
10.72, 148; 13.468); on the other hand, it belongs to the nature of the situation that
when a request is directed to an equal or a superior, and its granting is a matter for
doubt, the one who is petitioned has to declare his explicit approval (Zeus and Thetis
[Iliad 1.518], Aphrodite and Hermes [Iliad 14.212], Hephaestus and Thetis [Iliad
18.463]). Virgil does much the same in such cases: Anna and Barce do not reply to
Dido's orders (4.437, 500, 641), nor does Camilla to Turnus' command (11.519); on
the other hand, Aeolus replies to Juno (1.76); Neptune (5.800) and Vulcan (8.395)
reply to Venus. But Amor's answer to Venus' prayer (1.689) and Allecto's to Juno's
(7.341) are suppressed. This was already noticed by the ancient exegetes,[52] whereas
they correctly regarded it as only to be expected that, for example, Opis receives
Diana's command in silence (11.595). The difference is this: Diana commands but
408 Venus and Juno both request, the latter even in very emotional words.[53] But in spite
of the form of these requests,[54] it is clear in both cases that of course they will be
granted: the son cannot refuse his mother's wish – in the same way ( Iliad 21.342)
Hephaestus carries out Hera's request without further ado –, the daemon cannot
disobey the command of the queen of heaven: that is why the poet is able to
dispense with direct speech here. He can also manage without questions, whenever
they do not express a particular ethos [character], or do not elicit information which
we would not otherwise hear; e.g. Agamemnon's question to the embassy returning
from Achilles' tent ( Iliad 9.673) and many similar occasions in Homer. Virgil either
passes over where one might expect questions – take for instance Juno and Aeolus,
or Venus and Vulcan, as compared with the visit of Thetis to Hephaestus ( Iliad
18.424) or of Hermes to Calypso ( Od . 5.87) – or, where the situation makes it
essential to have something of the sort, Virgil gives a brief summary instead of
having someone speak: primus Iulus accepit trepidos ac Nisum dicere iussit (9.232)
[Iulus was first to welcome the excited pair, and he asked Nisus to speak], Latinus
legatos quae referant fari iubet et responsa reposcit ordine cuncta suo (11.240)
[commanded the ambassadors to deliver their messages, requiring of them the de-
tailed answers to all that he had asked]; similarly in the visit to the Underworld,
when Aeneas has to question his guide repeatedly to elicit explanations (318, 560:
here very emotional, like his interrogation of Palinurus, Dido, Deiphobus; 863 to
show the vivid effect on the onlooker of the beautiful but melancholy sight of
Marcellus); there is one place (710) where he reports speech in indirect and abridged
form, to make a strong contrast with the direct question which immediately follows
(719), so that Aeneas' great amazement is emphasized. For the sake of variety,
Virgil uses indirect speech in place of direct in other places too: in the Games in
Homer, Achilles introduces every single contest with the same turn of phrase; Virgil
is deliberately recalling this formulaic usage when he uses almost identical words to
409 introduce two contests, although they do not occur close together;[55] but the invita-
tion to participate in a contest only takes the form of direct speech once: that is on
the occasion of the only dangerous contest, the boxing-match, and it enables ethos to
be put into the challenge; in two other places, indirect speech suffices (291, 485).
Other examples of direct speech are: one occasion when Aeneas himself names the
prizes (309); one occasion when he adjudicates in a doubtful result (348); and one
occasion when he interprets the heavenly omen as signifying victory for Acestes
(533).