Abstract

CAIRO, María Emilia. Gates of Sleep: Death, Knowledge and Revelation in Book 6 of Aeneid. Nova tellus [online]. 2013, vol.31, n.1, pp.121-144. ISSN 0185-3058.

In this article we propose an interpretation of the Somni portae as a threshold between two different levels of knowledge: the possibility of learning about the future in the underworld and the human inability to understand such knowledge. With this aim, the critical bibliography about this passage is reviewed and the different meanings of umbra, insomnium, verus and falsus are examined. The relationship between knowledge, sleep, death and katabasis is also analyzed.

Keywords : Aeneid 6; Somni portae; prophecies.

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