Describe how Plato, Sappho, and/or Catullus conceive of love (and/or friendship). You can choose to only discuss one of the three works or compare two or three of them. You can also choose to compare their views on love with The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, or Lysistrata. You can also choose to focus more specifically on either the lover or the beloved if you like.

I think Sappho’s poetry is very sad and that her conception of love is sad as well. In Poem 16 she writes about how Helen left her husband, children, and parents for another man whom she loved or maybe desired. And then a lot of the text is missing unfortunately but I think what she meant to do in this poem is compare herself  to either Helen who had to give up this love. Because Sappho says: “Reminded me now of Anaktoria/ who is gone.” Or maybe she is comparing her “love” (the women who left her) to Helen since they both left the people they love.

The reason why I think her conception of love is sad is because she writes about how she got dumped by the women she loved and that she wants to die because of it. We see this in Poem 94: “I simply want to be dead./ Weeping she left me.”

How do any of the following poets’ views on love compare? In both Petrarch’s and Daniel’s poems, it seems as if they are both writing about someone who is unattainable. It is as if they are looking on from a distance. Petrarch is writing about this love that he missed while Daniels is writing about a love that he is afraid to miss. Daniels writes that he would turn down Rome, and the Pope for this women. They both write quite passionately about love. Also in both of their poems they write about how they are in love with a golden haired women. Petrarch writes in poem 90: “She let her gold hair scatter in the breeze.” And Daniels wrote “When I look at her golden hair…” Hair, as we discussed in class, comes up a lot in these courtly love poems, and is a major attraction to these poets.

Consider the role that various gods and their moods and actions play in The Aeneid. It might make sense to focus especially on Juno and Venus.

Throughout the entire book, the gods and goddesses had a lot of influence. If one of them is angered by you or your people, like Juno was, then they can make your journey a lot harder. On the other hand, if the gods and goddesses favor you or even if you just pray to them, they will help you out. For example when Aeneas gets hurt, his mother Venus, who is a goddess, sends some healing balm. Or when there was a storm, they prayed to Neptune, and he would calm the ocean. Juno hates the Trojans because there was once a Trojan by the name of Troy who didn’t pick her in a beauty contest. Because of this she takes out her anger on Aeneas and the Trojan people. Venus is Aeneas’ mother and she tries to help her son whenever she can. Since Juno and Venus are on opposite sides, this causes a lot of conflict betweens the gods.