A Tale of Three Stags: The Significance of the Stag Episode in Aeneid 1.180-94

Eric A. Cox (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

In this paper I will argue that the initial hunting scene in the Aeneid, set in book one after Aeneas lands near Carthage, foreshadows several later scenes not only thematically but also linguistically. Furthermore, the scenes share the early Greek notion of the reversal of fortune. This, I argue, is not coincidental, but is critical for a full appreciation of Vergil’s presentation of the later destruction of the Punic and Latin communities.

Upon arrival on the shore of Carthage, Aeneas mounts a crag and peers into the sea to discern whether his fellow ships have come safely through a storm. As he does so, he notices three stags, the ductores of a group of seven. Aeneas kills all of these deer in order to provide food for his men. This scene is echoed later in the Dido simile at 4.68-73, the episode involving Silvia’s pet stag at 7.493ff and the Turnus simile in 12.746-57.

Scholars have pointed out parallels between a few of the scenes involved in this discussion (i.e., Boyle (1993), Staley (1990)). Some focus on Vergil’s comparison of Dido and Turnus to deer hunted by Aeneas, others on the ironic reversal of Dido’s role as huntress (when compared to Diana) in book one, in contrast to her role as the hunted in the simile of book four. No scholars, however, have fully explored the linguistic similarities between these four scenes, nor have they exhausted the thematic links between them. Vergil uses the term ductores to describe the three deer that catch his eye in the initial episode, and he elaborates upon their outstanding physical features. The distinguishing characteristics of the ductores lead to their death and the death of those around them, and ultimately to the destruction of their peaceful micro-community. The same destruction of an outstanding figure and the subsequent destruction of his or her peaceful community can be seen in the Dido simile in book four, the death of Silvia’s stag in book seven and the Turnus simile in book 12. For instance, when Vergil first introduces Dido, she is also outstanding (forma pulcherrima, Aen. 1.496), but her infatuation with Aeneas leads to her neglect of her community and her eventual death; Turnus, likewise, is first described as ante alios pulcherrimus omnis (Aen. 7.55); and the elaborate decoration of Silvia’s stag’s horns and her meticulous hygienic care for it places it in a position beyond all other animals. Consequently, the beginning of the war with the Latins and the Trojans, which in turn leads to the destruction of the landscape of Latium, is the direct result of the stag’s death.

This reversal of fortune is not a random coincidence that binds each of these scenes together. It harkens back to the earlier Greek notion that prosperity does not abide in one place for long. Dido, Turnus and Silvia’s stag all experience a dramatic reversal of fortune, plummeting from their prosperous position at the head of their community to their final death. It is for the purpose of foreshadowing these later events that Vergil has Aeneas kill the three ductores on the shore of Carthage. Thus he demonstrates from the beginning of the epic until the end that Aeneas is a deadly force, destroying the prosperity that lies in his path. To ignore the reversal of fortune in 1.180-94 is to miss the significance of the three stags on the Libyan shore, and this thematic link that runs throughout the epic.