The Course / The Aeneid 6/10

When:
June 5, 2019 @ 10:45 am – 12:45 pm
2019-06-05T10:45:00+01:00
2019-06-05T12:45:00+01:00
Where:
The Course at The University Womens Club
2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Cost:
£59.00
Contact:
Mary Bromley
020 7266 7815

Established in 1994, The Course offers exciting lectures in Art History, Literature and Music.

“Our classic, the classic of all Europe, is Virgil”, said T S Eliot in 1944. 75 years on, the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, but not European culture. What better moment could there be to retrace the journey Virgil created for Aeneas: escape from the Trojan inferno, voyage to Carthage, love for Dido, abandonment of her to found a new Troy at Rome, and pilgrimage to the Underworld, a golden bough as passport. Artists picture it all as if they travelled with him.

As the Fleet Sails, so Dido’s Pyre is set alight (iv; v)

Dido immolates herself. At sea, Aeneas and his crew look back, see the fire, but do not realize why it is burning. A storm drives them to Sicily, where they visit the tomb of Aeneas’s father Anchises and stage memorial games: sea-racing, athletics, boxing, archery, horsemanship. Trojan women fire the ships. Bourdon, Cayot, Coypel, Fuseli, Guercino, Reynolds, Robson, Rubens, Sacchi, Tiepolo.