2 THE TROJAN EXODUS: THE INITIATION OF A NATION Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides Introduction The second book of the Aeneid, a familiar and favourite reading of a number of Latin stu- dents, focuses on the drama that unfolded during the last night of Troy. 1 Aeneas, grateful to the Carthaginian Queen for her hospitality and flattered by her admiration, cannot but agree to her request to hear, detail by detail, the events of the fatal day that saw the utter destruction of his city. 2 Aeneas’ narration has almost cinematographic qualities; 3 however, despite his ma- jestic descriptions of palaces and private buildings yielding to the flames and annihilation (real and metaphorical), the dramatic emphasis falls on the misfortunes of the people, relived in short episodes throughout the night, so terrible and so numerous that the audience is almost exhausted by the relentless repetition of deaths and devastation. Troy, in common with the tragic fates of renowned ancient capitals, resembles a paradise utterly lost and reduced to a flaming hell in the hands of its irreverent conquerors. The cause of all this is a gigantic wooden horse (instar montis, Aen. 2.15), a crafted ‘trap’ (insidias, 36), set in action by the ‘deceptions’ (doli, 152) of treacherous Sinon. 4 This paper is divided in two parts. The first part focuses on the role of the wooden horse in the destruction of Troy. I shall demonstrate that the currently suggested interpretations which by and large associate the wooden horse with sympathetic magic are not fully satisfactory. I shall also revise the argument that Troy was consumed by a magical fire and that the city was a symbol of a magical maze. In the second part, I shall suggest that the elements of Aeneas’ narration that have been interpreted as magical could be more appropriately read as initiatory. A close reading of the second book of the Aeneid could reveal that Vergil describes the de- struction of Troy in terms that recall initiation into ancient mystery cults, including the Eleus- inian and the Bacchic/Orphic mysteries. 5 This interpretation is in line with the longstanding 1 I would like to thank the Classical Association of Victoria for the opportunity to present this paper to their members for whose comments I am grateful. I would also like to thank the two anonymous refe- rees of Iris for their most constructive suggestions and Prof Graham Zanker who generously agreed to offer me his time and energy in shaping the final version of this article. 2 Gale 2003: 337ff. argues that during his retelling Aeneas, like another Orpheus, fights with the ghosts of the past on the brink of his unknown future. The comparison is extremely useful and as insightful as the idea that the last night of Troy resembles a catabasis. Although Gale focuses on the idea of leaving the past behind in acceptance of a brighter future (a message that runs through Vergilian poetry), she does not associate the catabasis with initiation rites which might be employed to the same effect. Aus- tin 1959: 16f. associates the wooden horse episode with the bizarre and disastrous interaction of Aris- taeus and Orpheus in Georgics 4. 3 The recent cinematic version of the fall of Troy (à la Hollywood) has left us with vivid impressions of the horrible deaths that the citizens may have suffered. 4 The size of the horse is employed as an ominous sign that escaped the attention of the delirious Trojans, an indication that this wooden structure would prove to be, far from an attempt at expiation, a sacrileg- ious monstrosity. Cf. Aen. 2.195f. where Aeneas refers to Sinon’s duplicity: talibus insidiis periurique arte Sinonis/ credita res, captique dolis lacrimisque coactis… (‘with such snares and the craft of per- jury the tale won credibility and we were captured by wiles and forced tears…’); cf. Eur. Tr. 534. 5 The view that Vergil employs Eleusinian motifs was first put forward by Bishop Warburton and C. Still who are cited (with some doubt) by Knight 1929: 213; cf. Luck 1973: 147-66 and Zetzel 1989: