Battlestar Galactica: 'The Aeneid' in Space!

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#1

Hello all.

This is my first post here, but after going on something of Classics bender after watching all of the re-imagined BG in a three-month period (for the first time, mind you), I felt I would offer my fellow fans a way to help with BG withdrawal.

For starters, Battlestar Galactica is totally “The Aeneid!”
I’ll spare you the long and frighteningly geeky essay I wrote and just give you some quotes from the Robert Fitzgerald translation to back up my theory.

“Weeping, I drew away from our old country,
Our quiet harbors, and the coastal plain
Where Troy had been; I took to the open sea,
Borne outward into exile with my people,
My son, my hearth gods and the greater gods.”

  • Aeneas, Book III, 14-18

“The Dardan race (Trojans) will reach Lavinian country (Italy) –
Put that anxiety away – but there
Will wish they had not come.”

  • Sibyl, Book VI, 130-132

“How with their hands outstretched they pray for peace
And armor their beaked ships?

  • Juno, Book X, 108-110

“In war there’s no salvation.”

  • Drances (Latin), Book XI, 493

Need a quick and dirty BG fix? Look no further than the Classics shelf.

#2

Greetings!

That’s a hell of a first impression you’re making there.

Anyway, I’ve been postulating similar theories in the past - and so have other people, Old Timer comes almost immediately to mind.

If you use the search button and type Aeneid/Aeneas and other literary terms and names, such as Odyssee/Odysseus/Dido and Iliad/Troy/Homer, you’ll find that a lot has already been written about those things and the way they might relate to BSG on these here forums. [Also try Tannhäuser/Tannhauser/Tannhaeuser Gate ! :-)]

In my opinion, it’s to narrow-minded to compare BSG only to the Aeneid, there’s a whole lot of other stuff, namely the Iliad and the Odyssee, but also other Greek mythological tropes that have to be taken into account as well as the whole Erich-van-Däniken-related kind of reception of the Ancient World.

But yeah, it’s always interesting to think about these things and welcome again, feel free to join all the discussions about those things.

And the gutter…

#3

Welcome Albatross. Interesting post. I hadn’t made the connection, but with the emphasis on greco-roman mythology, I’d be surprised if the writers hadn’t.

#4

Let’s hope it’s a good first impression.

I would hate to alienate my fellow fans with just one post.

#5

I guess that depends on the post! :eek:

IYKWIM!