Virgil outlines Aeneas’ predestined path in The Aeneid. Aeneas will follow his fated course from the ashy ruins that once were Troy to Rome’s ramparts. These two cities represent the beginning and ending of the Trojans’ voyage, and also the main boundaries in which Virgil contextualizes his entire plot. Virgil is unsure of the exact locations between these two points. There are mountains, seas, and forests. Different peoples differ in their relationship with forests. Latins and Trojans are defined in their affinity for, and integration with, nature. The Aeneid does not just use forests as a backdrop. They also play a dynamic role in the story, with Aeneas as well as the other Trojans having encounters both inside and outside of forests. The human interaction with the forest reveals the complex and nuanced nature that the Virgilian landscape has.
The Italians are in harmony with nature, while the Trojans do not. Their culture and lifestyle have been adapted to the environment. King Latinus’ palace exemplifies the close relationship between man and nature. It is described as a “wonderful place, both for its ancient forests and for their sanctity” (166). “Images of their ancestors […] are carved into ancient cedar.” The use, rather than the man-made, of woods and other natural material to express power, history, and ancestry reveals Latin’s attachment to the forest and the intertwining of rusticism, religion, nature, and ancestry. The Arcadian King Evander traces this connection back to the times when “These groves used to be the home of nymphs, fauns, and men who were born from tree trunks or study oaks.” (198). While the “golden era” is long past, the Latins retain some of its elements. They still have a primitive outlook and coexist peacefully with the forests, which was soon disrupted by the Trojans on their quest for Rome.
Ascanius, Aeneas’ son, is driven by divine forces to shoot down a stag that was being cared for by a Latin woman named Silvia (whose name comes from the Latin word for “forest”). Aeneas’s son Ascanius was driven by divine powers to shoot down a male stag. Silvia, the Latin woman who cares for him, had been caring for it for a long time. Virgil explains how “this hunting led to the troubles” and that the rural minds of Latium became warlike because of it (176). Ascanius breaks the peace that was established between nature and humanity by hunting and killing this animal. Ascanius’s action is a foreshadowing of future Trojan incursions into the land. It also highlights the tension between two opposing concepts that are at play in Aeneas’s drive to conquer the Latins.
The forest is a place that the Trojans fear – it’s a place full of uncertainty and danger. Although the forest appears to be out of reach and control of civilization, it is used as an exile site. However, this “darkness,” which seems to exist in the forest, can prove detrimental to the exiles. The first tryst between Dido, Aeneas, and the gods takes place in the woods. Away from the human world and its sanctity, they lose control and abandon their duties. Dido’s funeral pyre is filled with pine logs, ilex planks and greenery to symbolize the forest in which she had consummated her love. Warriors Nisus & Euryalus also suffer a tragic end, as they are separated by the unknown and treacherous wilderness while fleeing from their enemy. They find no escape in the deceptive forest, which is a maze.
“The forest was shaggy with thorny briers and dark ilex. The briers were everywhere, but there was a faint pathway amongst the thick brushwood. Euryalus’s fear is the reason he gets lost in the forest, surrounded by shadowy branches and heavy spoils.
The forest is a crossroads in both cases, which allows for the separation and union of these unfortunate couples. Aeneas’s departure from Dido is also facilitated by the forest. The forest initially separates Nisus from Euryalus, but it becomes the scene of Nisus’ bravery and loyalty.
The supernatural and mythical associations of the woods add to its mystery. Amata, driven insane by Allecto and Juno under the instructions of the goddess, “pretends Bacchus holds her. Hurrying to the woods, Amata attempts a greater scandal. This leads to greater madness. She hides Amata in the green mountains. This is stealing the Trojans their marriage by preventing the wedding torches. Amata’s actions show the parallels that are drawn between Lavinia (the virginal maiden) and the unspoiled forest. They both represent the object of Trojan lust. Their fertile bodies will become the foundation of their future cities and inhabitants. The Aeneid’s context politicizes forests, making them more than just environments where random actions can take place. These are liminal zones, where the characters are forced to straddle the line between life and mortality, wilderness and civilization. They also become active participants and actors of the fundamental and ongoing conflict that exists between humans and gods, Latins or Trojans.
