Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber.

1. The figure of speech used in the first two lines of the extract is ‘allusion’. Explain. (Application)
2. Who speaks these lines? Who was Aeneas? (Recalling & Understanding)
3. Why does Cassius compare himself to Aeneas? (Understanding & Analysis)
4. Who is this ‘man’ referred to in the fourth line of the extract? What grudge does the speaker bear against this ‘man’? (Recalling & Understanding)
5. What does this speech reveal about the speaker? (Understanding & Evaluation)

Answer 1

1. The first two lines contain an ‘allusion’ to the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas. Cassius refers to the story in which Aeneas carried his aged father, Anchises, on his shoulders while escaping from burning Troy.
2. These lines are spoken by Cassius. Aeneas was a famous Trojan hero and an ancestor of the Romans who saved his father, Anchises, from the flames of Troy.
3. Cassius compares himself to Aeneas because, just as Aeneas carried his weak father to safety, Cassius had rescued the exhausted Caesar from the river Tiber. Through this comparison, he tries to show Caesar’s physical weakness.
4. The ‘man’ referred to is Caesar. Cassius resents the fact that Caesar, whom he considers physically weak and no better than other Romans, is now treated almost like a god while men like Cassius must bow before him.
5. The ‘man’ referred to is Caesar. Cassius resents the fact that Caesar, whom he considers physically weak and no better than other Romans, is now treated almost like a god while men like Cassius must bow before him.