Page 1 of 1

Aeneas in Scotland?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:50 am
by Aulus Dionysius Mencius
Salvete omnes

Did Aeneas ever come across Scotland? One might think so after seeing one of Rick Stein's cooking programs.

He was up in the highlands to visit an organic breeding farm of Highland cattle, and the farmer's name was... Aeneas.
What a mighty name for such a proud Scotsman.

Iubeo aliquem valere

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:10 am
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco
Salve Menci

Are you sure it wasn't a Scotsman with a very strange accent? ;)

Vale bene,
Draco

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:14 pm
by Quintus Aurelius Orcus
Salve Menci

I think what you saw was a man who was given the same name as a mythological figure, by his parents. Sometimes people still do that, name their children after mythological figures. We know that the Carthaginians and the Phoenicians reached England, maybe even further than that, as the Phoenicians have said to be the first to travel around the continent of Africa on request of an Egyptian pharaoh. But I never heard anything that would even suggest Aeneas or any other Greek reached Scotland. I think there was evidence that suggested that the Greeks traded with Celts in Central- Europe, but that was more due to the fact that the Greeks ahd colonies on the coast of southern Gaul.
vale

Romulus

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:55 pm
by Aulus Dionysius Mencius
Salvete, mi Orce

I knew I had to add smileys in my post... I was aware that the Greecs never set foot on Scotland, but it was just to introduce the man's name.

Nevertheless, thanx for the additional info, my friend :wink:

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 12:54 pm
by Quintus Aurelius Orcus
Salve Menci

Did you ever read the History of Geoffrey Monmouth. He lived in the 11th century AD and wrote about the legend of King Arthur and claimed that King Arthur was a descendant of Aeneas. Somebody has mentioned this to me today.
vale

Romulus

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:54 pm
by Aulus Dionysius Mencius
Salvete mi Orce

I am familiar with Geoffrey of Monmouth. However, I have not (yet) read his Histories.

I sometimes find it amusing how King Arthur, himself being a controversy, is linked with ancient Greece and/or Roma. There are people who link him to Aeneas, other people link him to a member of the last Imperial family that ruled Rome. One of that family supposedly went to England or Scotland, and there he became known as Pendragon, Arthur's alleged father... Imaginative writing, if you ask me.

Cura ut valeas

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:58 pm
by Quintus Aurelius Orcus
Salvete Menci

Didn't Ovid create the story of Aeneas fleeing to Latium for the emperor Augustus because he (the emperor) wanted to create a original myth?
I thaught i read somewhere that Augustus ordered Ovid to do just that.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not.

Romulus

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 8:02 pm
by Aulus Dionysius Mencius
It would not surprise me... Rewriting history or creating one's own results in a fine display on your curriculum vitae, does it not?

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 8:06 pm
by Quintus Aurelius Orcus
back than, it would still be doable. Now, it is almost impossible to do something like that, but that doesn't seem to stop people from trying to rewrite history.
Anyway Ovid was a poet and they were known for creating stories of the gods and passing them down from generation to generation. Still, they were criticized by some philosophers like Plato and Sokrates. Maybe there were others aswell.

Romulus