Antiquity Studies

A Night in Cyprus (Verg. Aen. 1.657-697)

crossmark logo

Abstract

In a short and unprecedented episode of Book 1, the Aeneid has Venus swap Iulus and Cupid: the goddess transfers Iulus to Cyprus for one night only, and has Cupid impersonate Iulus at the court of Carthage. This paper examines the reasons why the model of Cleopatra and Caesarion is relevant to the episode, in particular via the political significance of the Cypriot location and the reference to Cleopatra’s visual propaganda.


Open access

Submitted: May 17, 2021 | Accepted: June 23, 2021 | Published Dec. 16, 2021 | Language: en

Keywords Caesarion • Virgil • Cleopatra • Augustus • Roman epic and politics • impersonation • Cyprus • Venus • Civil wars at Rome • Body doubles • Carthage and Alexandria in the Aeneid • Aphrodite

Copyright © 2021 Alessandro Barchiesi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-548-3/027


read this chapter