#this isn't linguistics this is literary analysis said my prof and it's true

[wildkitte]

Creusa must die

I have been a little bit obsessed with Creusa’s character ever since I first translated Aeneid in my first ever text course in university 5 years ago (dear god). Her disappearance, Aeneas’ devastated, mad dash to find her and her final appearance as a ghost have been haunting me for all these years without an end in sight. Apparently not everyone shares this obsession, as there is comparatively little research on her (if we compare to Dido or Camilla – perhaps only Lavinia is as ignored as Creusa is and she at least has Ursula K. Le Guin batting for her), and even my professor said: “Creusa just dies, but it doesn’t really matter why she does”.

But it does matter! Creusa’s disappearance is the only way the Aeneid can happen! Creusa’s death is the only way Aeneas is free to perform his duty to Rome! Creusa must die, so Rome can be born!

It’s interpretation time, baby.

In a way Creusa is the perfect wife – for both Aeneas and also in the sense of Augustan values. She is loyal to her husband, she has performed her duty as a wife, bearing a son for Aeneas. Creusa is also the one to remind Aeneas to fulfill his duty as paterfamilias and protect his family instead of seeking death in the carnage of Troy (see 2.675-678).  Rivoltella’s article La Morte Di Creusa E Didone Nell’Eneide Ed Il Motivo Del ‘Seguito Amoroso’ details the motif of following (sequor) in the Aeneid and touches on this topic of Creusa as the ideal wife.

Now... You can probably imagine how devastated I am that I have apparently not saved anywhere the summarized translation my prof provided for me of Rivoltella’s article (there’s also interesting stuff about ‘following’ as an erotic motif in archaic Roman literature but also in later erotic poetry, i.e. Catullus – it’s a really good article, shame I can’t understand Italian). If you want to read it, it can be found here – if I remembered smth incorrectly I’ll be forever ashamed

But from memory: in the Greek marriage tradition, the place of the wife is at home. When man goes to war, wife stays behind (as a mirror to the Aeneid, we can raise Penelope from the Odyssey – she stays behind, waiting for Odysseus for 20 years, staying loyal to him by staying where he left her), and the battlefield is traditionally the place of a man. Roman marriage tradition is different in this sense, or at least attitudes had shifted a little by the time Vergil was writing the Aeneid. The duty of the wife was to support her husband, which then developed into wives leaving the household to follow their husbands to previously male-dominated places – for example, the battlefield (at least Julia the Elder, Augustus’ daughter, apparently travelled to meet Agrippa where he was campaigning when they were married - almost died because of a flash flood on the way too, funnily enough in Ilium).

From this perspective Creusa is kind of best of both worlds: she both follows her husband to exile, following him as a sign of ultimate loyalty – but with her death, her ghost is kept in Troy “by the gods’ Great Mother”, and so she stays, like a good wife should, at home, tending to the corpse of Troy forever. Creusa, with her sacrifice, performs pietas – duty to the gods (delivering the prophecy), duty to the country (ensuring the founding of Rome and continuation of the legacy of Troy), and towards family (convincing Aeneas to stay with his family, demanding he care for their child, and sending him away to his journey).

Rivoltella suggests that Creusa even “over-sacrifices” herself – she is ready to follow her husband to peril, while also ultimately staying in Troy, so devoted to her husband she is ready to sacrifice herself for his fate. Keith (2000) suggests that “if Aeneas seals the success of his imperial mission with the ‘sacrifice’ of Turnus at the conclusion of the poem (12.950-2), he inaugurates the epic project over the ghostly shade of his wife.” Creusa’s death and her prophecy is the catalyst for Aeneas’ entire journey, the final push out of Troy.

There’s also of course the fact that without the loss of Creusa, Aeneas could not love Dido. Dido and Aeneas are inherently connected by tragedy, widowhood – I do not think Dido could have opened her heart to Aeneas, or that Cupid’s attack on her would have been as effective, without this connector, the devastating premature loss of their spouses. But Creusa has also given Aeneas something Dido has not and can never give: a son, a child to continue the line. That she has given Aeneas a son is something that already puts her “above” Dido in a way – Dido has not birthed any heirs, does not even have a little Iulus to remember Aeneas by as he leaves. Creusa’s son will be the one to continue the great line of Trojan kings and become the founder of the glorious line of Roman people. In this way, too, Creusa has fulfilled her duty to both Aeneas and the future Roman empire.

Creusa’s prophecy can’t happen without her death either: she promises him “a royal wife” waiting in Hesperia, and naturally Aeneas can’t marry Lavinia if Creusa is still alive (and same would apply to Dido, if they had ever been married – sorry Dido).

Creusa is actively an obstacle for Aeneas’ fate, and like user @cakemoney​ BRILLIANTLY pointed out:

[ID: tumblr tags #aeneid daily #something something from a character standpoint juno is an antagonist because she just hates his ass #from a metaphor standpoint juno is the antagonist because devotion to family / duty to your spouse is? an obstacle? #that aeneas must overcome / cast aside in order to found the roman empire? hhhhhhh. End ID]

I am literally eating my hands, this is such a good observation. Marriage is an obstacle in Aeneas’ fate! If he stays in Troy for Creusa, if he stays with Dido, he can’t fulfill his duty. And so, he must be miserable for the rest of his life (my prof pointed out that he seems to accept Lavinia as his wife out of obligation, yet another thing that has been decided for him, and at this point he is simply too tired to resist).

My best friend started reading the Aeneid after I had talked their ear off about it for the past year, and just finished book 2 with this brilliant observation: Creusa acts as a metaphor for Troy itself. Just like Aeneas goes back to her, and she is already gone, so is Aeneas’ struggle to found Troy over and over again doomed, because Troy is now ashes and forever out of reach (no matter how much he wants to embrace it, manus effugit imago…).

Creusa died the moment the Greeks breached the city gates and yet Aeneas drags her memory across the Mediterranean, planting cities that never grow, shadows of the former kingdom and what once was, a pale imitation of what he lost that night. “There in store for you happy days,” Creusa tells him, but I think that ship has already sailed.

So Creusa must die, as does Troy, so that fate can be fulfilled. She must die so Aeneas has to do what gods have set out for him to do. Creusa is Troy – she must burn so Aeneas can leave, and yet he spends all of his journey dragging her corpse behind him, never free of the ghost that disappeared to thin air in his arms.

And that’s all folks, my final Creusa post! Thank you for indulging with my analysis of my favourite Aeneid blorbo, I shall cease tormenting the tag with my rabid dog energy (at least until she gets mentioned again lmao). Your tags have been absolutely wonderful btw, and like said, if you have more Creusa articles for me or want just want to rave about her, PLEASE DO!

Here finally the promised reading list:

Grillo L., 2010, Leaving Troy and Creusa: Reflections on Aeneas’ Flight, CAMWS 106, 43–68.

Hughes L., 1997, Vergil’s Creusa and Iliad 6, Mnemosyne 50, 401–423.

Keith A. M., 2000, Over Her Dead Body, Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 101–131.

Perkell C., 1981, On Creusa, Dido, and the Quality of Victory in Virgil’s Aeneid, Women’s Studies 8, 201–223.

Perkell C., 2021, Creusa and Dido Revisited, Vergilius 67, 117–138.

Rivoltella M., 2002, La Morte Di Creusa E Didone Nell’Eneide Ed Il Motivo Del ’Seguito Amoroso’, Aevum Gennaio-Aprile 2002, Anno 76, 81–100.