Transistor and Aeneid: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Transistorer (croped).jpg||thumb|200px|Assorted discrete transistors]]
:''For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities, see [[Ennead]]''.
{{Infobox Book<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = Aeneid
| translator =
| image = [[Image:BarocciAeneas.jpg|300px]]
| image_caption = ''Aeneas flees burning Troy,'' Federico Barocci, 1598 [[Galleria Borghese]], Rome
| author = [[Virgil]]
| country = [[Roman Republic]]
| language = [[Latin language|Latin]]
| genre = [[Epic Poetry]]
|publisher = Various
| release_date = Early [[Common Era]]
| isbn = n/a <!-- was first published before ISBN system started -->
}}
The '''''Aeneid''''' ({{pronEng|əˈniːɪd}}; in [[Latin]] '''''Aeneis''''', {{pronounced|aɪˈne.ɪs}} &mdash; the title is [[Greek language|Greek]] in form: [[genitive case]] ''Aeneidos'') is a [[Latin]] [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] written by [[Virgil]] in the [[1st century BC]] (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the [[legend]]ary story of [[Aeneas]], a [[Troy|Trojan]] who traveled to [[Italy]], where he became the ancestor of the [[Rome|Romans]]. It is written in [[dactylic hexameter]]. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half treats the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the [[Latins]], under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.


The hero [[Aeneas]] was already known to [[Greco-Roman]] legend and myth, having been a character in the ''[[Iliad]]''; Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of [[Rome]] and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous [[piety]], and fashioned this into a compelling [[founding myth]] or [[National epic|nationalist epic]] that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimized the [[Julio-Claudian dynasty]] as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.
In [[electronics]], a '''transistor''' is a [[semiconductor device]] commonly used to [[Electronic amplifier| amplify]] or switch [[Electronics|electronic]] signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a [[semiconductor]] material, with at least three [[terminals]] for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled [[electric power|power]] can be much larger than the controlling power, the transistor provides amplification of a signal. The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern [[electronic device]]s, and is used in [[radio]], [[telephone]], [[computer]] and other electronic systems. Some transistors are packaged individually but most are found in [[integrated circuit]]s.


== History ==
==Story==
The ''Aeneid'' can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1-6 (Aeneas' journey to Italy) and Books 7-12 (the war in Italy). These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the wandering theme of the ''Odyssey'' and the ''Iliad'''s themes of warfare.<ref>E.G. Knauer, "Vergil's ''Aeneid'' and Homer", ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'' 5 (1964) 61-84. Originating in [[Servius]]'s observation [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053&query=book%3D%237]</ref> This is, however, a rough correspondence the limitations of which should be borne in mind.<ref>The majority of the ''Odyssey'' is devoted to events on Ithaca, not to Odysseus' wanderings, so that the second half of the ''Odyssey'' very broadly corresponds to the second half of the ''Aeneid'' (the hero fights to establish himself in his new/renewed home). Joseph Farrell has observed, "...let us begin with the traditional view that Virgil's epic divides into 'Odyssean' and 'Iliadic' halves. Merely accepting this idea at face value is to mistake for a destination what Virgil clearly offered as the starting-point of a long and wondrous journey" ("The Virgilian Intertext", ''Cambridge Companion to Virgil'', p. 229).</ref>
{{main|History of the transistor}}
[[Image:Replica-of-first-transistor.jpg|thumb|340px|A replica of the first working transistor.]]


===Journey to Italy (books 1-6)===
The first patent<ref>{{patent|US|1745175|[[Julius Edgar Lilienfeld]]: "Method and apparatus for controlling electric current" first filed in Canada on 22.10.1925, describing a device similar to a [[MESFET]]}}</ref> for the field-effect transistor principle was filed in Canada by Austrian-Hungarian physicist [[Julius Edgar Lilienfeld]] on October 22, 1925, but Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices.<ref>
[[Virgil]] begins his poem with a statement of his theme (''Arma virumque cano...'', "I sing of arms and of a man...") and an invocation to his [[Muse]] (''Musa, mihi causas memora...'', "O Muse, recall to me the reasons..."). He then explains the cause of the principal conflict of the plot; in this case, the resentment held by [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] against the [[Troy|Trojan]] people. This is in keeping with the style of the [[Homer]]ic [[Epic poetry|epic]]s.
[[William Shockley]] knew of Lilienfeld's work.
</ref> In 1934 German physicist Dr. [[Oskar Heil]] patented another field-effect transistor. There is no direct evidence that these devices were built, but later work in the 1990s shows that one of Lilienfeld's designs worked as described and gave substantial gain.
Legal papers from the Bell Labs patent show that [[William Shockley]] and [[Gerald Pearson]] had built operational versions from Lilienfeld's patents, yet they never referenced this work in any of their later research papers or historical articles.
On 17 November 1947 [[John Bardeen]] and [[Walter Brattain]] observed that when electrical contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, the output power was larger than the input. Shockley saw the potential in this and worked over the next few months greatly expanding the knowledge of semiconductors and is considered by many to be the 'father' of the transistor.


[[Image:Mosaic boxers Getty Villa 71.AH.106.jpg|thumb|right|Boxing scene from the ''Aeneid'' (book 5), mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa in [[Villelaure]] ([[France]]), ca. [[175|175 AD]], [[Getty Villa]] (71.AH.106)]]
== Importance ==


Also in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins [[in medias res]], with the Trojan fleet in the eastern [[Mediterranean]], heading in the direction of [[Italy]]. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy, he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. [[Juno]] is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the [[judgment of Paris]] against Aeneas's mother [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], and because her favorite city, [[Carthage]], will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. Also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the god's cup bearer- replacing Juno's daughter Hebe. Juno proceeds to [[Aeolus]], King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe ([[Deiopea]], the loveliest of all the sea nymphs, as a wife). He agrees, and the storm devastates the fleet. [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno's intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of [[Africa]]. There, Aeneas's mother, Venus, in the form of a hunting woman very similar to the goddess [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], encourages him and tells him the history of the city. Eventually, Aeneas ventures in, and in the temple of Juno, seeks and gains the favor of [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Dido]], Queen of Carthage, the city which has only recently been founded by refugees from [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] and which will later become Rome's greatest enemy.
The transistor is considered by many to be the greatest invention of the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book | title = Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism | author = Dennis F. Herrick | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | year = 2003 | isbn = 0813816998 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=59rxoe1IkNEC&pg=PA383&ots=UC_NxASdwo&dq=transistor+greatest-invention&sig=Ul_-DYQxG7EhLsRvhE8QM821JEQ }}</ref> It is the key active component in practically all modern [[electronics]]. Its importance in today's society rests on its ability to be [[mass production|mass produced]] using a highly automated process ([[Semiconductor fabrication|fabrication]]) that achieves astonishingly low per-transistor costs.


At a banquet given in the honour of the Trojans, Aeneas recounts the events which occasioned the Trojans' fortuitous arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the events described in the ''[[Iliad]]''. Crafty [[Odysseus|Ulysses]] devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into Troy by hiding in a large [[Trojan Horse|wooden horse]]. The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a man, [[Sinon]], to tell the Trojans that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest [[Laocoön]], who had seen through the Greek plot and urged the horse's destruction, hurled his spear at the wooden horse. Just after, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, Laocoon was suddenly grabbed and eaten, along with his two sons, by two giant sea snakes. So the [[Troy|Trojan]]s brought the horse inside the fortified walls, and after nightfall the armed [[Greeks]] emerged and began to slaughter the city's inhabitants. Aeneas woke up and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight against the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off tens of Greeks. Venus intervened directly, telling him to flee with his family. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son [[Ascanius]] and father [[Anchises]], his wife [[Creusa]] having been separated from the others and subsequently killed in the general catastrophe. He tells of how, rallying the other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean (including [[Thrace]], [[Crete]] and [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]]). One of these locations was [[Buthrotum]], a city which tried to replicate Troy. There, he met [[Andromache]], the wife of [[Hector]]. She still laments for the loss of her valiant husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas saw and met Helenus, one of [[Priam]]'s sons, who had the gift of prophecy. Through him, Aeneas learned the destiny laid out for him: he was divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known as ''Ausonia'' or ''Hesperia''), where his descendants would not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. In addition, Helenus also bade him go to the [[Sibyl]] in [[Cumae]]. Heading out into the open sea, Aeneas left Buthrotum. While in the open sea, [[Anchises]], the father of Aeneas, peacefully died. The fleet reached as far as [[Sicily]] and was making for the mainland, until Juno raised up the storm which drove it back across the sea to Carthage.
Although several companies each produce over a billion individually-packaged (known as ''[[Discrete transistor|discrete]]'') transistors every year,<ref>[http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/FET-MOSFET/a/9000000085806.htm FETs/MOSFETs: Smaller apps push up surface-mount supply<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
the vast majority of transistors produced are in [[integrated circuits]] (often shortened to ''IC'', ''microchips'' or simply ''chips'') along with [[diode]]s, [[resistors]], [[capacitors]] and other [[electronic components]] to produce complete electronic circuits. A [[logic gate]] consists of about twenty transistors whereas an advanced microprocessor, as of 2006, can use as many as 1.7 billion transistors ([[MOSFET]]s).<ref>[http://www3.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/201969.htm?page=6 Intel® Multi-Core Processor Architecture Development 29.09.2006.]</ref>
"About 60 million transistors were built this year [2002] ... for [each] man, woman, and child on Earth."<ref>[http://www.embedded.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=9900861 Embedded.com - The Two Percent Solution<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


Meanwhile, [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] had her own plans. She went to her son, Aeneas' half-brother [[Cupid]], and told him to imitate [[Ascanius]]. Disguised as such, he goes to Dido, and offers the gifts expected from a guest. With her motherly love revived in the sight of the small boy, her heart was pierced and she fell in love with the boy and his father. During the banquet, Dido realizes that she has fallen madly in love with Aeneas, although she had previously sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband, [[Sychaeus]], who was murdered by her cupidinous brother [[Pygmalion of Tyre|Pygmalion]]. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting him from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a cave in which Aeneas and Dido presumably have sex, an event that Dido takes to indicate a marriage between them. But when [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] sends [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] to remind Aeneas of his duty, he has no choice but to part. Her heart broken, Dido commits [[suicide]] by stabbing herself upon a [[pyre]] with Aeneas' sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas's people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is an obvious invocation to [[Hannibal]]. Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees Dido's funeral pyre's smoke and knows its meaning only too clearly. However, destiny calls and the Trojan fleet sails on to Italy.
The transistor's low cost, flexibility and reliability have made it a ubiquitous device. Transistorized [[mechatronics]] circuits have replaced [[electromechanical]] in controlling appliances and machinery. It is often easier and cheaper to use a standard [[microcontroller]] and write a [[computer program]] to carry out a control function than to design an equivalent mechanical control function.


Aeneas's father [[Anchises]] having been hastily interred on Sicily during the fleet's previous landfall there, the Trojans returned to the island to hold funeral games in his honour. Eventually, the fleet lands on the mainland of Italy and further adventures ensue. Aeneas, with the guidance of the [[Cumaean Sibyl]], descends to the [[underworld]] through an opening at [[Cumae]], where he speaks with the spirit of his father and has a prophetic vision of the destiny of [[Rome]]. Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle in the land of [[Latium]], where he courts [[Lavinia]], the daughter of king [[Latinus]].
Because of the low cost of transistors and hence digital computers, there is a trend to [[Digitizing|digitize]] information, such as the [[Internet Archive]]. With digital computers offering the ability to quickly find, sort and process [[digital]] information, more and more effort has been put into making information digital. As a result, today, much media data is delivered in digital form, finally being converted and presented in analog form to the user. Areas influenced by the [[digital revolution]] include [[television]], [[radio]], and [[newspaper]]s.


[[Image:Aeneas Latium BM GR1927.12-12.1.jpg|thumb|280px|right|Roman bas-relief, 2nd century: Aeneas lands in Latium, leading Ascanius; the sow identifies the place to found his city (Book 6)]]
== Usage ==


===War in Italy (books 7-12)===
''For a basic guide to the operation of transistors, see [[How a transistor works]].''
Although Aeneas would have wished to avoid it, war eventually breaks out. Juno is heavily involved in causing this war - she convinces the Queen of Latium to demand that Lavinia be married to [[Turnus]], the king of a local people, the [[Rutuli]]. Juno continues to stir up trouble, even summoning the Fury Alecto to ensure that a war takes place.


Seeing the masses of Italians that Turnus has brought against him, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of Turnus. He meets King Evander, whose son, [[Pallas (son of Evander)|Pallas]], agrees to lead troops against the other Italians. Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is being attacked, and a midnight raid leads to the tragic deaths of [[Nisus]] and his love [[Euryalus]], in one of the most emotional passages in the book. The gates, however, are defended until Aeneas returns.
In the early days of transistor circuit design, the [[bipolar junction transistor]], or BJT, was the most commonly used transistor. Even after [[MOSFET]]s became available, the BJT remained the transistor of choice for digital and analog circuits because of their ease of manufacture and speed. However, desirable properties of MOSFETs, such as their utility in low-power devices, have made them the ubiquitous choice for use in digital circuits and a very common choice for use in analog circuits.


In the battling that follows, many heroes are killed, notably Pallas, who is killed by Turnus, and Mezentius, Turnus' close associate who inadvertently allowed his son to be killed while he himself fled; he reproached himself and faced Aeneas in single combat, an honourable but essentially futile pursuit. Another notable hero, [[Camilla (mythology)|Camilla]], a sort of [[Amazons|Amazon]] character, fights bravely but is eventually killed. Camilla had been a virgin devoted to [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] and to her nation; the man who killed her was struck dead by Diana's sentinel Opis after doing so, even though he tried to escape.
[[Image:Transistor as switch.svg|thumb|150px|BJT used as an electronic switch, in grounded-emitter configuration]]
[[Image:Common emitter amplifier.svg|165px|thumb|Amplifier circuit, standard common-emitter configuration]]
<!-- [[Image:|thumb|120px|Amplifier-Waveforms]] -->


After this, single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas was so obviously superior that the Italians, urged on by Turnus' divine sister, Juturna, break the truce. Aeneas is injured, but returns to the battle shortly afterwards. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium itself, (causing the queen of Latium to hang herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In a dramatic scene, Turnus' strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and he is struck by Aeneas' spear in the leg. As Turnus is begging on his knees for his life, the poem ends with Aeneas killing him in rage when he sees that he is wearing the belt of his friend Pallas.
===Switches===


This is where the ''Aeneid'' ends, although we know that it is incomplete. Virgil died before finishing his work, and many people have felt that the poem is not complete without an account of Aeneas' marriage to Lavinia and his founding of the Roman race. To fill this perceived deficiency, the fifteenth-century Italian poet [[Maffeo Vegio]] (also known as ''Mapheus Vegius'') composed a "supplement to the ''Aeneid''", which was widely printed in [[Renaissance]] editions of the work. Others, however, see the violent ending to the ''Aeneid'' as a typically Virgilian comment on the darker, vengeful side of humanity.
Transistors are commonly used as electronic switches, for both high power applications including [[Switched mode power supply|switched-mode power supplies]] and low power applications such as [[logic gates]].


===Amplifiers===
==Context==
[[Image:VaticanVergilFol22rFlightFromTroy.jpg|thumb|right|250px|folio 22 from the [[Vergilius Vaticanus]] - flight from Troy]]
The work was written at a time of major change in Rome, both political and social. The [[Roman republic|Republic]] had fallen, [[civil war]] had ripped apart society, and many Romans' faith in the "Greatness of Rome" was severely faltering. However, the new emperor [[Augustus Caesar|Augustus]] was beginning to institute a new era of prosperity and peace after a generation of chaos that had badly eroded traditional social roles and cultural norms. Specifically, Augustus was trying to re-introduce traditional Roman moral values, and the ''Aeneid'' is thought to reflect that aim. Aeneas was depicted as a man devoted and loyal to his country and its prominence, rather than personal gains. He went off on a journey for the betterment of Rome. In addition, the ''Aeneid'' attempts to legitimize the rule of [[Julius Caesar]] (and by extension, of his adopted son Augustus and his heirs). Aeneas' son Ascanius, called Ilus from ''Ilium'', meaning Troy, is renamed ''Iulus'' and offered by Virgil as an ancestor of the ''[[gens Julia]]'', the family of Julius Caesar. When making his way through the underworld, Aeneas is given a prophecy of the greatness of his imperial descendants. Furthermore, Aeneas receives weapons and armour from [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]], including a shield which illustrates the future of Rome and lays stress once again upon the emperors, including Augustus.


One might also note the relationship between the Trojans and Greeks in the ''Aeneid''. The Trojans were the ancestors of the Romans according to the ''Aeneid'', and their enemies were the Greek forces who had besieged and sacked Troy; yet at the time the ''Aeneid'' was written, the Greeks were part of the Roman Empire and a respected people who were considered cultured and civilised. This situation is resolved by the fact that the Greeks beat the Trojans only through the use of a trick, the wooden horse, not on the open field of battle: thus Roman dignity is saved.
From [[mobile phone]]s to [[television]]s, vast numbers of products include [[amplifier]]s for [[sound reproduction]], [[Transmitter|radio transmission]], and [[signal processing]]. The first discrete transistor audio amplifiers barely supplied a few hundred milliwatts, but power and audio fidelity gradually increased as better transistors became available and amplifier architecture evolved.


==Themes==
Transistors are commonly used in modern musical instrument amplifiers, in which circuits up to a few hundred [[watt]]s are common and relatively cheap. Transistors have largely replaced [[vacuum tube|valves (electron tubes)]] in instrument amplifiers. Some musical instrument amplifier manufacturers mix transistors and vacuum tubes in the same circuit, to utilize the inherent benefits of both devices.
Nearly the entirety of the ''Aeneid'' is devoted to the philosophical concept of opposition. The primary opposition is that Aeneas, as guided by [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], representing ''pietas'' (reasoned judgment and performing one's duty), whereas [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Dido]] and [[Turnus]] are guided by [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], representing unbridled ''furor'' (mindless [[passion (emotion)|passion]] and [[fury]]). Other oppositions within the ''Aeneid'' include: [[Destiny|Fate]] versus [[Action (philosophy)|Action]], [[Male]] versus [[Female]], [[Rome]] versus [[Carthage]], Aeneas as [[Odysseus]] in Books I-VI versus Aeneas as [[Achilles]] in Books VII-XII, [[Calm]] [[Weather]] versus [[Storms]], and the [[Horned Gate]] versus the [[Ivory Gate]] of Book VI.


''Pietas'', possibly the key quality of any 'honourable' Roman, consisted of a series of duties: duty towards the Gods (hence the English word [[piety]]); duty towards one's homeland; duty towards one's followers and duty to one's family - ''especially'' one's father. Therefore, a further theme of the poem explores the strong relationship between fathers and sons. The bonds between Aeneas and Ascanius, Aeneas and Anchises, Evander and Pallas, Mezentius and Lausus are all worthy of note. This theme reflects Augustan moral reforms and was perhaps intended to set an example for Roman youth.
===Computers===


The major moral of the ''Aeneid'' is acceptance of the workings of the Gods as fate through the use of ''pietas'' or piety. Virgil, in composing the character of Aeneas alludes to [[Augustus]], suggesting that the gods work their ways through humans; using Aeneas to found Rome, Augustus to lead Rome, and that one must accept one's ass.
The "first generation" of electronic computers used [[vacuum tube]]s (also called "electron tubes"), which generated large amounts of heat, were bulky, and were unreliable. The development of the transistor was key to computer miniaturization and reliability. The "second generation" of computers, through the late 1950s and 1960s featured boards filled with individual transistors and [[Magnetic core memory|magnetic memory cores]]. Subsequently, transistors, other components, and their necessary wiring were integrated into a single, mass-manufactured component: the [[integrated circuit]].


==Style==
==Comparison with vacuum tubes ==
The ''Aeneid'', like other classical epics, is written in [[dactylic hexameter]], meaning that each line has six feet made up of [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]]s, or one long syllable and two shorts, and [[spondee]]s, or two long syllables. As with other classical Latin poetry, the meter is based on the length of syllables rather than the stress, though the interplay of meter and stress is also important. Virgil also incorporated such poetic devices as [[alliteration]], [[onomatopoeia]], [[synecdoche]], and [[assonance]].


==Time==
Prior to the development of transistors, [[vacuum tube|vacuum (electron) tube]]s (or in the UK "thermionic valves" or just "valves") were the main active components in electronic equipment.
Unlike Homer's ''Odyssey'', no time is set for the events which take place during the ''Aeneid''. Even the age of Aeneas's son, Ascanius, cannot provide a clue to the sequence of events; in Book 4, for example, he is pictured both as participating in the hunt, and being impersonated by Cupid as a child in the arms of Dido, shooting arrows into her heart. During Book 4, however there is an indirect reference to a timeline. It is stated that Dido and Aeneas were together through the long winter, implying that Aeneas and his crew must have only stayed in Carthage for the winter, before they heeded Jupiter's message sent by Mercury to leave Carthage. Some{{who}} suggest Virgil was being intentionally discreet with his use of time in the ''Aeneid''.


==''Aeneid'' allegory==
=== Advantages ===
The most debated theories with regard to the ''Aeneid'' involve whether Virgil meant to convey a so-called "hidden message" or allegory within the poem. These, of course, are only speculative interpretations. The first section in question is:


:"There are two gates of Sleep, one said to be of horn, whereby the true shades pass with ease, the other '''''all white ivory agleam without a flaw, and yet false dreams are sent''''' through this one by the ghost to the upper world. Anchises now, his last instructions given, took son and Sibyl and let them '''''go by the Ivory Gate''."''' (Italics added for emphasis)
The key advantages that have allowed transistors to replace their vacuum tube predecessors in most applications are:
(''Book VI, Lines 893-899, Fitzgerald Trans.'')
* Small size and minimal weight, allowing the development of miniaturized electronic devices.
* Highly automated manufacturing processes, resulting in low per-unit cost.
* Lower possible operating voltages, making transistors suitable for small, battery-powered applications.
* No warm-up period for cathode heaters required after power application.
* Lower power dissipation and generally greater energy efficiency.
* Higher reliability and greater physical ruggedness.
* Extremely long life. Some transistorized devices produced more than 30 years ago are still in service.
* Complementary devices available, facilitating the design of [[complementary-symmetry]] circuits, something not possible with vacuum tubes.
* Though in most transistors the junctions have different [[doping (semiconductor)|doping]] levels and geometry, some allow bidirectional current flow.
* Ability to control very large currents, as much as several hundred amperes.
* Insensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration, thus avoiding the problem of [[microphonics]] in audio applications.
* More sensitive than the hot and macroscopic tubes


Aeneas's exiting of the underworld through the gate of false dreams has been variously interpreted: One suggestion is that the passage simply refers to the time of day at which Aeneas returned to the world of the living; another is that it implies that all of Aeneas's actions in the remainder of the poem are somehow "false." In an extension of the latter interpretation, it has been suggested that Virgil is conveying that the history of the world since the foundation of Rome is but a lie. Other scholars claim that Virgil is establishing that the theological implications of the preceding scene (i.e. an apparent system of [[reincarnation]]) are not to be taken as literal.<ref>Trans. David West, "The Aeneid" (1991) xxiii.</ref>
=== Disadvantages ===


The second section in question is:
* Silicon transistors do not operate at voltages higher than about 1 kV, SiC go to 3 kV.
* The [[electron mobility]] is higher in a vacuum, so that high power, high frequency operation is easier in tubes.
* Silicon transistors, compared to vacuum tubes, are highly sensitive to [[electromagnetic pulse]]s.


:"Then to his glance appeared the accurst swordbelt surmounting Turnus' shoulder, shining with its familiar studs - the strap Young Pallas wore when Turnus wounded him and left him dead upon the field; now Turnus bore that enemy token on his shoulder - enemy still. For when the sight came home to him, Aeneas '''''raged''''' at the relic of his anguish worn by this man as trophy. '''''Blazing up and terrible in his anger''''', he called out: 'You in your plunder, torn from one of mine, shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come from Pallas: Pallas makes this offering, and from your criminal blood exacts his due.' '''''He sank his blade in fury''''' in Turnus' chest..."
== Types ==
(Italics added for emphasis) (''Book XII, Lines 1281-1295, Fitzgerald Trans.'').


This section has been interpreted to mean that for the entire passage of the poem, Aeneas who symbolizes ''pietas'' (reason) in a moment becomes ''furor'' (fury), thus destroying what is essentially the primary theme of the poem itself. Many have argued over these two sections. Some claim that Virgil meant to change them before he died, while others find that the location of the two passages, at the very end of the so-called Volume I (Books I-VI, the [[Odyssey]]), and Volume II (Books VII-XII, the [[Iliad]]), and their short length, which contrasts with the lengthy nature of the poem, are evidence that Virgil placed them purposefully there.
{{float_begin|side=right}}
|- align = "center"
| [[Image:BJT PNP symbol.svg|80px]] || PNP || [[Image:JFET P-Channel Labelled.svg|80px]] || P-channel
|- align = "center"
| [[Image:BJT NPN symbol.svg|80px]] || NPN || [[Image:JFET N-Channel Labelled.svg|80px]] || N-channel
|- align = "center"
| BJT || || JFET ||
{{float_end|caption=BJT and JFET symbols}}


[[Image:VirgilAeneidVI.jpg|thumb|''Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia'',<ref>The anecdote, in which the poet read the passage in Book VI in praise of Octavia's late son [[Marcellus]], and Octavia fainted with grief, was recorded in the late fourth-century ''[[vita]]'' of Virgil by [[Aelius Donatus]].</ref> by [[Jean-Joseph Taillasson]], 1787, an early [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] painting ([[National Gallery]], London]]
{{float_begin|side=right}}
==The history of the ''Aeneid''==
|- align = "center"
The poetry of the ''Aeneid'' is polished and complex; legend has it that Virgil wrote only three lines of the poem each day. Although the work is substantially complete, with the same length and scope as Homer's epics, which it imitates, it does appear to lack some finishing touches: a number of lines are only half-complete, and the ending is generally felt to be too abrupt to have been intentional. It is common, however, for epic poems to contain incomplete, disputed, or badly adulterated text, and because this poem was composed and preserved in writing rather than orally, the ''Aeneid'' is more complete than most classical epics. Furthermore, it is possible to debate whether Virgil intended to rewrite and add to such lines. Some of them would be difficult to complete, and in some instances, the brevity of a line increases its dramatic impact. However, these arguments may be anachronistic - half-finished lines might equally, to Roman readers, have been a clear indication of an unfinished poem and have added nothing whatsoever to the dramatic effect.
| [[Image:JFET P-Channel Labelled.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET P-Ch Enh Labelled.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET P-Ch Enh Labelled simplified.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET P-Ch Dep Labelled.svg|80px]] || P-channel
|- align = "center"
| [[Image:JFET N-Channel Labelled.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET N-Ch Enh Labelled.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET N-Ch Enh Labelled simplified.svg|80px]] || [[Image:IGFET N-Ch Dep Labelled.svg|80px]] || N-channel
|- align = "center"
| JFET || colspan="2"| MOSFET enh || MOSFET dep
{{float_end|caption=JFET and IGFET symbols}}


However, another legend states that Virgil, fearing that he would die before he had properly revised the poem, gave instructions to friends (including the current emperor, [[Augustus]]) that the ''Aeneid'' should be burned upon his death, owing to its unfinished state and because he had come to dislike one of the sequences in Book VIII, in which [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] have [[sexual intercourse]]. He supposedly intended to alter this sequence to conform better to Roman moral virtues. The friends did not comply with Virgil's wishes, and [[Augustus Caesar|Augustus]] himself ordered that they be disregarded. After minor modifications, the ''Aeneid'' was published.
Transistors are categorized by:
* [[List of semiconductor materials|Semiconductor material]] : germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide, etc.
* Structure: [[Bipolar junction transistor|BJT]], [[JFET]], IGFET ([[MOSFET]]), [[IGBT]], "other types"
* Polarity: [[NPN transistor|NPN]], [[PNP transistor|PNP]] (BJTs); N-channel, P-channel (FETs)
* Maximum power rating: low, medium, high
* Maximum operating frequency: low, medium, high, [[radio frequency]] (RF), [[microwave]] (The maximum effective frequency of a transistor is denoted by the term <math>f_\mathrm{T}</math>, an abbreviation for "frequency of transition". The frequency of transition is the frequency at which the transistor yields unity gain).
* Application: switch, general purpose, audio, high voltage, super-beta, matched pair
* Physical packaging: [[Through-hole technology|through hole]] metal, through hole plastic, [[Surface-mount technology|surface mount]], ball grid array, power modules
* Amplification factor [[Transistor models|h<sub>fe</sub>]] (transistor beta)<ref>{{cite web|title=Transistor Example|url=http://www.bcae1.com/transres.htm}} 071003 bcae1.com</ref>
Thus, a particular transistor may be described as: ''silicon, surface mount, BJT, NPN, low power, high frequency switch''.


In the [[15th century]], there were two attempts to produce an addition to the ''Aeneid''. One was made by [[Decembrio - family of scholars|Pier Candido Decembrio]] (which was never completed) and one was made by [[Maffeo Vegio]], which was often included in 15th and [[16th century]] printings of the ''Aeneid'' as the ''Supplementum'', or a so-called "thirteenth book". The most recent addition, though not strictly a sequel, is Claudio Salvucci's epic poem ''The Laviniad'' (1994).
===Bipolar junction transistor ===
{{main|Bipolar junction transistor}}


The first full and faithful rendering of the poem in an [[Anglic language]] is the [[Middle Scots|Scots]] translation by [[Gavin Douglas]]—his ''[[Eneados]]'', completed in [[1513]], which also included Maffeo Vegio's supplement. Even in the [[Twentieth century]], [[Ezra Pound]] considered this still to be the best ''Aeneid'' translation, praising the "richness and fervour" of its language and its hallmark fidelity to the original<ref>Pound and Spann; ''Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry'', New Directions, p.34.</ref><ref>See [http://www.powells.com/review/2007_01_11.html Emily Wilson ''Passions and a Man''], New Republic Online (January 11, 2007), which cites Pound's claim that the translation even improved on the Virgil because Douglas had "heard the sea".</ref>. The English translation by the [[17th-century]] poet [[John Dryden]] is another important version that can be said to retain the power and flow of the original, although Dryden took numerous, significant liberties with the text. Most classic translations, including both Douglas and Dryden, employed a rhyme scheme, a very non-Roman convention that is not usually followed in modern versions.
The '''[[bipolar junction transistor]]''' (BJT) was the first type of transistor to be mass-produced. Bipolar transistors are so named because they conduct by using both majority and minority carriers. The three terminals of the BJT are named ''emitter'', ''base'' and ''collector''. Two [[p-n junction]]s exist inside a BJT: the ''base/emitter junction'' and ''base/collector junction''. "The [BJT] is useful in amplifiers because the currents at the emitter and collector are controllable by the relatively small base current."<ref name=Streetman>{{cite book |last=Streetman |first=Ben |authorlink=Ben G. Streetman |title=Solid State Electronic Devices |year=1992 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |isbn=0-13-822023-9 |pages=301&ndash;305}}</ref> In an NPN transistor operating in the active region, the emitter-base junction is forward biased, and electrons are injected into the base region. Because the base is narrow, most of these electrons will diffuse into the reverse-biased base-collector junction and be swept into the collector; perhaps one-hundredth of the electrons will recombine in the base, which is the dominant mechanism in the base current. By controlling the number of electrons that can leave the base, the number of electrons entering the collector can be controlled.<ref name=Streetman/>

Unlike the FET, the BJT is a low–input-impedance device. Also, as the base–emitter voltage (<math>V_{be}</math>) is increased the base–emitter current and hence the collector–emitter current (<math>I_{ce}</math>) increase exponentially according to the [[Diode modelling#Shockley diode model|Shockley diode model]] and the [[Bipolar_junction_transistor#Ebers.E2.80.93Moll_model|Ebers-Moll model]]. Because of this exponential relationship, the BJT has a higher [[transconductance]] than the FET.'''

Bipolar transistors can be made to conduct by exposure to light, since absorption of photons in the base region generates a photocurrent that acts as a base current; the collector current is approximately beta times the photocurrent. Devices designed for this purpose have a transparent window in the package and are called [[phototransistor]]s.

===Field-effect transistor===
{{main|MOSFET}}
{{main|JFET}}

The '''[[field-effect transistor]]''' (FET), sometimes called a '''''unipolar transistor''''', uses either electrons (in '''N-channel FET''') or holes (in '''P-channel FET''') for conduction. The four terminals of the FET are named ''source'', ''gate'', ''drain'', and ''body'' (''substrate''). On most FETs, the body is connected to the source inside the package, and this will be assumed for the following description.

In FETs, the drain-to-source current flows via a conducting channel that connects the ''source'' region to the ''drain'' region. The conductivity is varied by the electric field that is produced when a voltage is applied between the gate and source terminals; hence the current flowing between the drain and source is controlled by the voltage applied between the gate and source. As the gate–source voltage (<math>V_{gs}</math>) is increased, the drain–source current (<math>I_{ds}</math>) increases exponentially for ''V<sub>gs</sub>'' below threshold, and then at a roughly quadratic rate (<math>I_{ds} \propto (V_{gs}-V_T)^2</math>) (where <math>V_T</math> is the threshold voltage at which drain current begins)<ref name=horowitz-hill>{{cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Horowitz |coauthors=[[Winfield Hill]]|title=[[The Art of Electronics]]|edition=2nd |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-37095-7 |pages=115}}</ref> in the "[[space charge|space-charge-limited]]" region above threshold. A quadratic behavior is not observed in modern devices, for example, at the [[65 nanometer|65nm]] technology node.<ref name=Sansen>
{{cite book
|author=W. M. C. Sansen
|title=Analog design essentials
|year= 2006
|page=§0152, p. 28
|publisher=Springer
|location=New York ; Berlin
|isbn=0-387-25746-2
|url=http://worldcat.org/isbn/0387257462}}
</ref>

To turn on a transistor it has to be charged like a capacitor. One polarity of charge is responsible for conduction, the other serves for charge neutrality. In the BJT, both types of charge carriers come close together and so the capacitance is high, therefore only low voltages are needed to produce a given amount of charge. In a FET both types of charges are separated by the dielectric and additionally the [[Debye length]], thus reducing the capacity and increasing the voltage needed for switching. Above zero Kelvin, the exponential curve is convoluted with the hard turn on of the BJT and the parabolic turn on of the FET.

For low noise at narrow [[bandwidth (signal processing)|bandwidth]] the higher input resistance of the FET is advantageous.

FETs are divided into two families: '''junction FET''' ([[JFET]]) and '''insulated gate FET''' (IGFET). The IGFET is more commonly known as '''metal–oxide–semiconductor FET''' ([[MOSFET]]), from their original construction as a layer of metal (the gate), a layer of oxide (the insulation), and a layer of semiconductor. Unlike IGFETs, the JFET gate forms a PN [[diode]] with the channel which lies between the source and drain. Functionally, this makes the N-channel JFET the solid state equivalent of the vacuum tube [[triode]] which, similarly, forms a diode between its [[grid]] and [[cathode]]. Also, both devices operate in the ''depletion mode'', they both have a high input impedance, and they both conduct current under the control of an input voltage.

Metal–semiconductor FETs (MESFETs) are JFETs in which the [[p-n junction#Reverse-bias|reverse biased PN junction]] is replaced by a metal–semiconductor [[Walter H. Schottky|Schottky]]-junction. These, and the HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors, or HFETs), in which a two-dimensional electron gas with very high carrier mobility is used for charge transport, are especially suitable for use at very high frequencies (microwave frequencies; several GHz).

Unlike bipolar transistors, FETs do not inherently amplify a photocurrent. Nevertheless, there are ways to use them, especially JFETs, as light-sensitive devices, by exploiting the photocurrents in channel–gate or channel–body junctions.

FETs are further divided into '''depletion-mode''' and '''enhancement-mode''' types, depending on whether the channel is turned on or off with zero gate-to-source voltage. For enhancement mode, the channel is off at zero bias, and a gate potential can "enhance" the conduction. For depletion mode, the channel is on at zero bias, and a gate potential (of the opposite polarity) can "deplete" the channel, reducing conduction. For either mode, a more positive gate voltage corresponds to a higher current for N-channel devices and a lower current for P-channel devices. Nearly all JFETs are depletion-mode as the diode junctions would forward bias and conduct if they were enhancement mode devices;
most IGFETs are enhancement-mode types.

===Other transistor types===

* [[Heterojunction bipolar transistor]]
* [[Alloy junction transistor]]
* [[Tetrode transistor]]
* [[Pentode transistor]]
* [[Spacistor]]
* [[Surface barrier transistor]]
* [[Micro alloy transistor]]
* [[Micro alloy diffused transistor]]
* [[Drift-field transistor]]
* [[Unijunction transistor]]s can be used as simple pulse generators. They comprise a main body of either P-type or N-type semiconductor with ohmic contacts at each end (terminals ''Base1'' and ''Base2''). A junction with the opposite semiconductor type is formed at a point along the length of the body for the third terminal (''Emitter'').
* '''Dual gate FETs''' have a single channel with two gates in [[cascode]]; a configuration that is optimized for '''high frequency amplifiers''', '''mixers''', and [[oscillators]].
* [[Darlington transistor]]s are two BJTs connected together to provide a high current gain equal to the product of the current gains of the two transistors.
* [[IGBT transistor|Insulated gate bipolar transistors]] ([[IGBT transistor|IGBTs]]) use a medium power IGFET, similarly connected to a power BJT, to give a high input impedance. Power diodes are often connected between certain terminals depending on specific use. IGBTs are particularly suitable for heavy-duty industrial applications. The [[Asea Brown Boveri]] (ABB) [http://library.abb.com/GLOBAL/SCOT/scot256.nsf/VerityDisplay/E700072B04381DD9C12571FF002D2CFE/$File/5SNA%202400E170100_5SYA1555-03Oct%2006.pdf '''5SNA2400E170100'''] illustrates just how far power semiconductor technology has advanced. Intended for three-phase power supplies, this device houses three NPN IGBTs in a case measuring 38 by 140 by 190 mm and weighing 1.5 kg. Each IGBT is rated at 1,700 volts and can handle 2,400 amperes.
* [[Single-electron transistor]]s (SET) consist of a gate island between two tunnelling junctions. The tunnelling current is controlled by a voltage applied to the gate through a capacitor. [http://www.mitre.org/tech/nanotech/single_electron_transistor.html][http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/11/9/7/1.]
*[[Nanofluidic transistor]] Control the movement of ions through sub-microscopic, water-filled channels. [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/06/28_transistor.shtml Nanofluidic transistor, the basis of future chemical processors]
*[[Trigate transistors]] (Prototype by Intel)
*[[Avalanche transistor]]
*[[Ballistic transistor]]
*[[Spin transistor]] Magnetically-sensitive
*[[Thin film transistor]] Used in LCD display.
*[[Floating-gate transistor]] Used for non-volatile storage.
*[[Photo transistor]] React to light
*[[Inverted-T field effect transistor]]
*[[Ion sensitive field effect transistor]] To measure ion concentrations in solution.
*[[FinFET]] The source/drain region forms fins on the silicon surface.
*[[FREDFET]] Fast-Reverse Epitaxial Diode Field-Effect Transistor
*[[EOSFET]] Electrolyte-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor ([[Neurochip]])
*[[OFET]] Organic Field-Effect Transistor, in which the semiconductor is an organic compound
*[[DNAFET]] Deoxyribonucleic acid field-effect transistor

== Semiconductor material ==

The first BJTs were made from [[germanium]] (Ge) and some high power types still are. [[Silicon]] ([[Si]]) types currently predominate but certain advanced microwave and high performance versions now employ the '''compound semiconductor''' material [[gallium arsenide]] ([[GaAs]]) and the '''semiconductor alloy''' [[silicon germanium]] ([[SiGe]]). Single element semiconductor material (Ge and Si) is described as '''elemental'''.

Rough parameters for the most common semiconductor materials used to make transistors are given in the table below; it must be noted that these parameters will vary with increase in temperature, electric field, impurity level, strain and various other factors:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|+Semiconductor material characteristics
!Semiconductor <br> material
!Junction forward <br> voltage <br> V @ 25 °C
!Electron mobility <br> m²/(V·s) @ 25 °C
!Hole mobility <br> m²/(V·s) @ 25 °C
!Max. junction temp. <br> °C
|-
!Ge
|0.27 || 0.39 || 0.19 || 70 to 100
|-
!Si
| 0.71 || 0.14 || 0.05 || 150 to 200
|-
!GaAs
| 1.03 || 0.85 || 0.05 || 150 to 200
|-
!Al-Si junction
| 0.3 || — || — || 150 to 200
|}

The ''junction forward voltage'' is the voltage applied to the emitter-base junction of a BJT in order to make the base conduct a specified current. The current increases exponentially as the junction forward voltage is increased. The values given in the table are typical for a current of 1 mA (the same values apply to semiconductor diodes). The lower the junction forward voltage the better, as this means that less power is required to "drive" the transistor. The junction forward voltage for a given current decreases with increase in temperature. For a typical silicon junction the change is approximately −2.1 mV/°C.<ref name=Sedra>
{{cite book
|author=A.S. Sedra and K.C. Smith
|title=Microelectronic circuits
|year= 2004
|pages=p. 397 and Figure 5.17
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|edition=Fifth Edition
|location=New York
|isbn= 0-19-514251-9
|url=http://worldcat.org/isbn/0-19-514251-9}}
</ref>

The density of mobile carriers in the channel of a MOSFET is a function of the electric field forming the channel and of various other phenomena such as the impurity level in the channel. Some impurities, called dopants, are introduced deliberately in making a MOSFET, to control the MOSFET electrical behavior.

The ''[[electron mobility]]'' and ''[[hole mobility]]'' columns show the average speed that electrons and holes diffuse through the semiconductor material with an [[electric field]] of 1 volt per meter applied across the material. In general, the higher the electron mobility the faster the transistor. The table indicates that Ge is a better material than Si in this respect. However, Ge has four major shortcomings compared to silicon and gallium arsenide:
* its maximum temperature is limited
* it has relatively high [[Reverse leakage current|leakage current]]
* it cannot withstand high voltages
* it is less suitable for fabricating integrated circuits
Because the electron mobility is higher than the hole mobility for all semiconductor materials, a given bipolar [[NPN transistor]] tends to be faster than an equivalent [[PNP transistor]] type. GaAs has the highest electron mobility of the three semiconductors. It is for this reason that GaAs is used in high frequency applications. A relatively recent FET development, the '''high electron mobility transistor''' ([[HEMT]]), has a [[Heterojunction|heterostructure]] (junction between different semiconductor materials) of aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)-gallium arsenide (GaAs) which has double the electron mobility of a GaAs-metal barrier junction. Because of their high speed and low noise, HEMTs are used in satellite receivers working at frequencies around 12&nbsp;GHz.

'''Max. junction temperature''' values represent a cross section taken from various manufacturers' data sheets. This temperature should not be exceeded or the transistor may be damaged.

'''Al-Si junction''' refers to the high-speed (aluminum-silicon) semiconductor-metal barrier diode, commonly known as a [[Schottky diode]]. This is included in the table because some silicon power IGFETs have a '''parasitic''' reverse Schottky diode formed between the source and drain as part of the fabrication process. This diode can be a nuisance, but sometimes it is used in the circuit.

== Packaging ==

[[Image:Transistor-photo.JPG|right|thumb|250px|Through-hole transistors (tape measure marked in [[centimetre]]s)]]

Transistors come in many different packages ([[:Category:Chip carriers|chip carriers]]) (see images). The two main categories are ''[[Through-hole technology|through-hole]]'' (or ''leaded''), and ''surface-mount'', also known as '''surface mount device''' ([[Surface-mount technology|SMD]]). The '''ball grid array''' ([[Ball grid array|BGA]]) is the latest surface mount package (currently only for large '''transistor arrays'''). It has solder "balls" on the underside in place of leads. Because they are smaller and have shorter interconnections, SMDs have better high frequency characteristics but lower power rating.

Transistor packages are made of glass, metal, ceramic or plastic. The package often dictates the power rating and frequency characteristics. Power transistors have large packages that can be clamped to [[heat sink]]s for enhanced cooling. Additionally, most power transistors have the collector or drain physically connected to the metal can/metal plate. At the other extreme, some surface-mount '''microwave''' transistors are as small as grains of sand.

Often a given transistor type is available in different packages. Transistor packages are mainly standardized, but the assignment of a transistor's functions to the terminals is not: different transistor types can assign different functions to the package's terminals. Even for the same transistor type the terminal assignment can vary (normally indicated by a suffix letter to the part number- i.e. BC212L and BC212K).

== See also ==
{{portalpar|Electronics|Nuvola_apps_ksim.png}}

<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*[[Semiconductor devices]]
*[[Electronic component]]
*[[Semiconductor]]
*[[Band gap]]
*[[Diode]]
*[[Transconductance]]
*[[Transresistance]]
*[[Integrated circuit]]
*[[Transistor–transistor logic]]
*[[Very-large-scale integration]]
*[[Transistor count]]
*[[Moore's law]]
*[[Transistor models]]
*[[Semiconductor device modeling]]
</div>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== Further reading==

* {{cite book
| author = Amos S W & James M R
| title = Principles of Transistor Circuits
| publisher = Butterworth-Heinemann
| year = 1999
| id = ISBN 0-7506-4427-3
}}
* {{cite book
| author = [[Paul Horowitz|Horowitz, Paul]] & Hill, Winfield
| title = The Art of Electronics
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| year = 1989
| id = ISBN 0-521-37095-7
}}
* {{cite book
| author = Riordan, Michael & Hoddeson, Lillian
| title = Crystal Fire
| publisher = W.W Norton & Company Limited
| year = 1998
| id = ISBN 0-393-31851-6
}} The invention of the transistor & the birth of the information age
* {{cite book
| author = Warnes, Lionel
| title = Analogue and Digital Electronics
| publisher = Macmillan Press Ltd
| year = 1998
| id = ISBN 0-333-65820-5
}}

* {{cite journal
| author = Robert G. Arns
| year = 1998
| month = October
| title = The other transistor: early history of the metal-oxide-semiconducor field-effect transistor
| url = http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=730824
| journal = Engineering Science and Education Journal
| volume = 7
| issue = 5
| pages = 233–240
| id = {{ISSN|0963-7346}}
| doi = 10.1049/esej:19980509
}}
* {{cite news
| title = Herbert F. Mataré, An Inventor of the Transistor has his moment
| date = 24 February 2003
| publisher = The New York Times
| url = http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2003/Transistor-Matare-Inventor24feb03.htm
}}
* {{cite journal
| author = Michael Riordan
| year = 2005
| month = November
| title = How Europe Missed the Transistor
| journal = IEEE Spectrum
| volume = 42
| issue = 11
| pages = 52–57
| url = http://spectrum.ieee.org/print/2155
| doi = 10.1109/MSPEC.2005.1526906
}}
* {{cite book
| author = C. D. Renmore
| year = 1980
| title = Silicon Chips and You
}}
* {{cite book
| author = Wiley-IEEE Press
| title = Complete Guide to Semiconductor Devices, 2nd Edition
}}


Recent English verse translations include those by [[C Day Lewis]] (1963) which strove to render Virgil's original [[hexameter]] line, [[Allen Mandelbaum]] (honoured by a 1973 [[National Book Award]]), [[Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress|Library of Congress Poet Laureate]] [[Robert Fitzgerald]] (1981), [[Stanley Lombardo]] (2005), and [[Robert Fagles]] (2006).
== External links ==
{{Wikibooks|Transistors}}
{{Commonscat|Transistors}}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7091190.stm BBC: Building the digital age] photo history of transistors
* [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000D5D9F-A849-1330-A54583414B7F0000 Transistor Flow Control] — Scientific American Magazine (October 2005)
* [http://www.porticus.org/bell/belllabs_transistor.html The Bell Systems Memorial on Transistors]
*[http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/exhibit/exhibit.php?id=159270&lid=1 ''IEEE Virtual Museum, Let's Get Small: The Shrinking World of Microelectronics'']. All about the history of transistors and integrated circuits.
* [http://www.pbs.org/transistor/ ''Transistorized]''. Historical and technical information from the [[Public Broadcasting Service]]
* [http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200011/history.cfm ''This Month in Physics History: [[November 17]] to December 23, 1947: Invention of the First Transistor]''. From the [[American Physical Society]]
* [http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/1997/Dec/hour1_121297.html ''50 Years of the Transistor]''. From [[Science Friday]], December 12, 1997
* [http://users.arczip.com/rmcgarra2/index.html ''Bob's Virtual Transistor Museum & History]''. Treasure trove of transistor history
* [http://www.ee.washington.edu/circuit_archive/parts/cross.html ''Jerry Russell's Transistor Cross Reference Database]''.
* [http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ ''The DatasheetArchive]''. Searchable database of transistor specifications and datasheets.
* Charts showing many characteristics and giving direct access to most datasheets for [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2n.html 2N], [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2sa.html 2SA], [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2sb.html 2SB]. [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2sc.html 2SC], [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2sd.html 2SD], [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-2sh-k.html 2SH-K], and [http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/transistors-3up.html other] numbers.


===Datasheets===
==Influence==
The ''Aeneid'' has long been considered a fundamental member of the [[Western canon]]. As a result, many phrases from this poem entered the [[Latin]] language, much as passages from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] and [[Alexander Pope]] have entered the [[English language]]. One example is from Aeneas' reaction to a painting of the [[sack of Troy]]: ''Sunt lacrimae rērum et mentem mortālia tangunt''—"These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart." (''Aeneid'' I, 462) ({{perseus|Verg.|A.|1.462}}). The influence is also visible in very modern work: [[Brian Friel]]'s ''[[Translations]]'' (a play written in the 1980s, set during the English colonisation of Ireland) makes references to the classics throughout, and ends with a passage from the ''Aeneid'':
:"Urbs antiqua fuit—there was an ancient city which, 'tis said, [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] loved above all the lands. And it was the goddess's aim and cherished hope that here should be the capital of all nations—should the fates perchance allow that. Yet in truth she discovered that a race was springing from Trojan blood to overthrow some day these Tyrian towers—a people ''late regem belloque superbum''—kings of broad realms and proud in war who would come forth for Libya's downfall."


==Footnotes==
A wide range of transistors has been available since the 1960s and manufacturers continually introduce improved types. A few examples from the main families are noted below. Unless otherwise stated, all types are made from silicon semiconductor. Complementary pairs are shown as NPN/PNP or N/P channel. Links go to manufacturer datasheets, which are in [[PDF]] format. (On some datasheets the accuracy of the stated transistor category is a matter of debate.)
{{reflist|2}}
* [http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/2N3903-D.PDF 2N3904]/[http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/2N3906-D.PDF 2N3906], [http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/BC182-D.PDF BC182]/[http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/BC212-D.PDF BC212] and [http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/BC546-D.PDF BC546]/[http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/BC556B-D.PDF BC556]: Ubiquitous, BJT, general-purpose, low-power, complementary pairs. They have plastic cases and cost roughly ten cents U.S. in small quantities, making them popular with hobbyists.


==See also==
*[[AF107]]: Germanium, 0.5 watt, 250&nbsp;MHz PNP BJT.
* [[Roman mythology]]
* [[Greek mythology]]
* [[:Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]


==Further reading==
*BFP183: Low power, 8&nbsp;GHz microwave NPN BJT.
*{{Citation |last=Maronis |first=P. Vergili |authorlink=Virgil |editor-last=Mynors |editor-first=R.A.B. |title=Opera |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=1969 |isbn=9780198146537}}
* [http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM194.pdf LM394]: "supermatch pair", with two NPN BJTs on a single substrate.
*{{Citation |last=Virgil |first= |authorlink=Virgil |editor1-last=Fairclough |editor1-first=H.R. |editor2-last=Goold |editor2-first=G.P. |title=Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid 1-6 |publisher=Harvard University Press |series=Loeb Classical Library |location=Cambridge, Mass. |date=2001 |isbn=0-674-99583-X}}
* [http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/9288.pdf 2N2219A]/[http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/9037.pdf 2N2905A]: BJT, general purpose, medium power, complementary pair. With metal cases they are rated at about one watt.
*{{Citation |last=Virgil |authorlink=Virgil |editor1-last=Fairclough |editor1-first=H.R. |editor2-last=Goold |editor2-first=G.P. |title=Aeneid Books 7-12, Appendix Vergiliana |publisher=Harvard University Press |series=Loeb Classical Library |location=Cambridge, Mass. |date=2001 |isbn=0-674-99586-4}}
* [http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/2N3055-D.PDF 2N3055]/[http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/2N3055-D.PDF MJ2955]: For years, the venerable NPN 2N3055 has been the "standard" power transistor. Its complement, the PNP MJ2955 arrived later. These 1&nbsp;MHz, 15 A, 60 V, 115 W BJTs are used in audio power amplifiers, power supplies, and control.
*{{Citation |last1=Virgil |authorlink=Virgil |last2=Ahl |first2=Frederick (trans.) |title=The Aeneid |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-283206-1}}
* [[2N7000]] is a typical small-signal [[field-effect transistor]].
*''Virgil: The Aeneid (Landmarks of World Literature (Revival))'' by K. W. Gransden ISBN 0-521-83213-6
*''Virgil's 'Aeneid': Cosmos and Imperium'' by Philip R. Hardie ISBN 0-19-814036-3
*{{Citation |last=Heinze |first=Richard |authorlink=Richard Heinze |title=Virgil's Epic Technique |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |date=1993 |isbn=0-520-06444-5}}
*{{Citation |last=Johnson |first=W.R. |title=Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |date=1979 |isbn=0520038487}}
*Brooks Otis, ''Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry'', Oxford, 1964
*Lee Fratantuono, ''Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid'', Lexington Books, 2007.
*Joseph Reed, ''Virgil's Gaze'', Princeton, 2007.
*Kenneth Quinn, ''Virgil's Aeneid: A Critical Description'', London, 1968.
*Francis Cairns, ''Virgil's Augustan Epic'', Cambridge, 1989.
*Gian Biagio Conte, ''The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Vergilian Epic'', Oxford, 2007.
*Karl Gransden, ''Virgil's Iliad'', Cambridge, 1984.
*Richard Jenkyns, ''Virgil's Experience'', Oxford, 1998.
*Eve Adler, ''Vergil's Empire'', Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.


==External links==
* 2SC3281/2SA1302: Made by [[Toshiba]], these BJTs have low-distortion characteristics and are used in high-power audio amplifiers. They have been widely counterfeited[http://sound.westhost.com/counterfeit.htm].
{{Commonscat|Aeneid}}
* [http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/4491.pdf BU508]: NPN, 1500 V power BJT. Designed for [[television]] horizontal deflection, its high voltage capability also makes it suitable for use in ignition systems.
{{Sisterlinks}}
* [http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/MJ11012-D.PDF MJ11012/MJ11015]: 30 A, 120 V, 200 W, high power Darlington complementary pair BJTs. Used in audio amplifiers, control, and power switching.
* [http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/2N%2F2N5457.pdf 2N5457]/[http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/2N%2F2N5460.pdf 2N5460]: [[JFET]] (depletion mode), general purpose, low power, complementary pair.


* Translations
* BSP296/BSP171: [[IGFET]] (enhancement mode), medium power, near complementary pair. Used for logic level conversion and driving power transistors in amplifiers.
** {{perseus|Verg.|A.|1.1}} - Latin text, Dryden translation, and T.C. Williams translation (from the Perseus Project)
* [http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/irf3710.pdf IRF3710]/[http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/irf5210.pdf IRF5210]: [[IGFET]] (enhancement mode), 40 A, 100 V, 200 W, near complementary pair. For high-power amplifiers and power switches, especially in automobiles.
** Gutenberg Project: [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/228 The Aeneid (Dryden translation)] (plain text)


* Text
Part numbers starting with "2S" are from Japan. Transistors with part numbers beginning with 2SA or 2SB are PNP BJTs. Transistors with part numbers beginning with 2SC or 2SD are NPN BJTs. Transistors with part numbers beginning with 2SJ are P-channel FETs (both JFETs and MOSFETs). Transistors with part numbers beginning with 2SK are N-channel FETs (both JFETs and MOSFETs).
** [http://bibliotecas.reduaz.mx/libros-e/libros/P._Vergilii_Maronis-Aeneidos.pdf ''Aeneidos Libri XII''] Latin text by Publius Vergilius Maro, PDF format
** A facing page Latin-French edition ('juxtalinear') of [http://gerardgreco.free.fr/IMG/pdf/Virgile-Eneide-I-juxtalineaire-latin-fr.pdf the first book.] PDF format of good quality.
* Sequels
**[http://virgil.org/supplementa/decembrio.htm The Thirteenth Book of the ''Aeneid'': a fragment by Pier Candido Decembrio, translated by David Wilson-Okamura]
** Supplement to the twelfth book of the ''Aeneid'' by Maffeo Vegio at [http://virgil.org/supplementa/vegio-latin.htm Latin text] and [http://virgil.org/supplementa/vegio-twyne.htm English translation]
** [http://www.arxpub.com/literary/Laviniad/laviniad.html The Laviniad: An Epic Poem, by Claudio Salvucci]
**[http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Index-Lavinia.html ''Lavinia'' a contemporary account of the Aeneid from Lavinia's viewpoint by Ursula K. Le Guin]


* Commentary
=== Patents ===
**[http://mainehumanities.org/podcasts/index.html#winter Four talks by scholars on aspects of the Aeneid] (including Virgil’s relationship to Roman history, the Rome of Caesar Augustus, the challenges of translating Latin poetry, and Purcell’s opera ''Dido and Aeneas''), delivered at the Maine Humanities Council's [http://mainehumanities.org/programs/winter.html Winter Weekend] program.
**[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Serv.+A.+toc Perseus/Tufts: Maurus Servius Honoratus. Commentary on the ''Aeneid'' of Vergil. (Latin)]
**[http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-3.html CliffsNotes]


{{Roman myth}}
* {{patent|US|1745175|[[Julius Edgar Lilienfeld]]: "Method and apparatus for controlling electric current" first filed in Canada on 22.10.1925, describing a device similar to a [[MESFET]]}}
* {{patent|US|1900018|[[Julius Edgar Lilienfeld]]: "Device for controlling electric current" filed on 28.03.1928, a thin film [[MOSFET]]}}
* {{patent|GB|439457|[[Oskar Heil]]: "Improvements in or relating to electrical amplifiers and other control arrangements and devices" first filed in Germany on 02.03.1934}}
* {{patent|US|2524035|J. Bardeen et al.: "Three-electrode circuit element utilizing semiconductive materials" oldest priority 26.02.1948}}
* {{patent|US|2569347|W. Shockley: "Circuit element utilizing semiconductive material" oldest priority 26.06.1948}}


[[Category:Transistors| ]]
[[Category:Aeneid| ]]
[[Category:Semiconductor devices]]
[[Category:1st century BC works]]
[[Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty]]
[[Category:Unfinished books]]


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Revision as of 15:44, 10 October 2008

For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities, see Ennead.
Aeneid
Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome
AuthorVirgil
CountryRoman Republic
LanguageLatin
GenreEpic Poetry
PublisherVarious
Publication date
Early Common Era
ISBNn/a Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

The Aeneid (Template:PronEng; in Latin Aeneis, IPA: [aɪˈne.ɪs] — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half treats the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad; Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous piety, and fashioned this into a compelling founding myth or nationalist epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.

Story

The Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1-6 (Aeneas' journey to Italy) and Books 7-12 (the war in Italy). These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the wandering theme of the Odyssey and the Iliad's themes of warfare.[1] This is, however, a rough correspondence the limitations of which should be borne in mind.[2]

Journey to Italy (books 1-6)

Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme (Arma virumque cano..., "I sing of arms and of a man...") and an invocation to his Muse (Musa, mihi causas memora..., "O Muse, recall to me the reasons..."). He then explains the cause of the principal conflict of the plot; in this case, the resentment held by Juno against the Trojan people. This is in keeping with the style of the Homeric epics.

Boxing scene from the Aeneid (book 5), mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa in Villelaure (France), ca. 175 AD, Getty Villa (71.AH.106)

Also in the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res, with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy, he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris against Aeneas's mother Venus, and because her favorite city, Carthage, will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. Also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the god's cup bearer- replacing Juno's daughter Hebe. Juno proceeds to Aeolus, King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe (Deiopea, the loveliest of all the sea nymphs, as a wife). He agrees, and the storm devastates the fleet. Neptune takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno's intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa. There, Aeneas's mother, Venus, in the form of a hunting woman very similar to the goddess Diana, encourages him and tells him the history of the city. Eventually, Aeneas ventures in, and in the temple of Juno, seeks and gains the favor of Dido, Queen of Carthage, the city which has only recently been founded by refugees from Tyre and which will later become Rome's greatest enemy.

At a banquet given in the honour of the Trojans, Aeneas recounts the events which occasioned the Trojans' fortuitous arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the events described in the Iliad. Crafty Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse. The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a man, Sinon, to tell the Trojans that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest Laocoön, who had seen through the Greek plot and urged the horse's destruction, hurled his spear at the wooden horse. Just after, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, Laocoon was suddenly grabbed and eaten, along with his two sons, by two giant sea snakes. So the Trojans brought the horse inside the fortified walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged and began to slaughter the city's inhabitants. Aeneas woke up and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight against the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off tens of Greeks. Venus intervened directly, telling him to flee with his family. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son Ascanius and father Anchises, his wife Creusa having been separated from the others and subsequently killed in the general catastrophe. He tells of how, rallying the other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean (including Thrace, Crete and Epirus). One of these locations was Buthrotum, a city which tried to replicate Troy. There, he met Andromache, the wife of Hector. She still laments for the loss of her valiant husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas saw and met Helenus, one of Priam's sons, who had the gift of prophecy. Through him, Aeneas learned the destiny laid out for him: he was divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known as Ausonia or Hesperia), where his descendants would not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. In addition, Helenus also bade him go to the Sibyl in Cumae. Heading out into the open sea, Aeneas left Buthrotum. While in the open sea, Anchises, the father of Aeneas, peacefully died. The fleet reached as far as Sicily and was making for the mainland, until Juno raised up the storm which drove it back across the sea to Carthage.

Meanwhile, Venus had her own plans. She went to her son, Aeneas' half-brother Cupid, and told him to imitate Ascanius. Disguised as such, he goes to Dido, and offers the gifts expected from a guest. With her motherly love revived in the sight of the small boy, her heart was pierced and she fell in love with the boy and his father. During the banquet, Dido realizes that she has fallen madly in love with Aeneas, although she had previously sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband, Sychaeus, who was murdered by her cupidinous brother Pygmalion. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting him from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a cave in which Aeneas and Dido presumably have sex, an event that Dido takes to indicate a marriage between them. But when Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, he has no choice but to part. Her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon a pyre with Aeneas' sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas's people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is an obvious invocation to Hannibal. Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees Dido's funeral pyre's smoke and knows its meaning only too clearly. However, destiny calls and the Trojan fleet sails on to Italy.

Aeneas's father Anchises having been hastily interred on Sicily during the fleet's previous landfall there, the Trojans returned to the island to hold funeral games in his honour. Eventually, the fleet lands on the mainland of Italy and further adventures ensue. Aeneas, with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl, descends to the underworld through an opening at Cumae, where he speaks with the spirit of his father and has a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome. Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle in the land of Latium, where he courts Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus.

Roman bas-relief, 2nd century: Aeneas lands in Latium, leading Ascanius; the sow identifies the place to found his city (Book 6)

War in Italy (books 7-12)

Although Aeneas would have wished to avoid it, war eventually breaks out. Juno is heavily involved in causing this war - she convinces the Queen of Latium to demand that Lavinia be married to Turnus, the king of a local people, the Rutuli. Juno continues to stir up trouble, even summoning the Fury Alecto to ensure that a war takes place.

Seeing the masses of Italians that Turnus has brought against him, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of Turnus. He meets King Evander, whose son, Pallas, agrees to lead troops against the other Italians. Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is being attacked, and a midnight raid leads to the tragic deaths of Nisus and his love Euryalus, in one of the most emotional passages in the book. The gates, however, are defended until Aeneas returns.

In the battling that follows, many heroes are killed, notably Pallas, who is killed by Turnus, and Mezentius, Turnus' close associate who inadvertently allowed his son to be killed while he himself fled; he reproached himself and faced Aeneas in single combat, an honourable but essentially futile pursuit. Another notable hero, Camilla, a sort of Amazon character, fights bravely but is eventually killed. Camilla had been a virgin devoted to Diana and to her nation; the man who killed her was struck dead by Diana's sentinel Opis after doing so, even though he tried to escape.

After this, single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas was so obviously superior that the Italians, urged on by Turnus' divine sister, Juturna, break the truce. Aeneas is injured, but returns to the battle shortly afterwards. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium itself, (causing the queen of Latium to hang herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In a dramatic scene, Turnus' strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and he is struck by Aeneas' spear in the leg. As Turnus is begging on his knees for his life, the poem ends with Aeneas killing him in rage when he sees that he is wearing the belt of his friend Pallas.

This is where the Aeneid ends, although we know that it is incomplete. Virgil died before finishing his work, and many people have felt that the poem is not complete without an account of Aeneas' marriage to Lavinia and his founding of the Roman race. To fill this perceived deficiency, the fifteenth-century Italian poet Maffeo Vegio (also known as Mapheus Vegius) composed a "supplement to the Aeneid", which was widely printed in Renaissance editions of the work. Others, however, see the violent ending to the Aeneid as a typically Virgilian comment on the darker, vengeful side of humanity.

Context

folio 22 from the Vergilius Vaticanus - flight from Troy

The work was written at a time of major change in Rome, both political and social. The Republic had fallen, civil war had ripped apart society, and many Romans' faith in the "Greatness of Rome" was severely faltering. However, the new emperor Augustus was beginning to institute a new era of prosperity and peace after a generation of chaos that had badly eroded traditional social roles and cultural norms. Specifically, Augustus was trying to re-introduce traditional Roman moral values, and the Aeneid is thought to reflect that aim. Aeneas was depicted as a man devoted and loyal to his country and its prominence, rather than personal gains. He went off on a journey for the betterment of Rome. In addition, the Aeneid attempts to legitimize the rule of Julius Caesar (and by extension, of his adopted son Augustus and his heirs). Aeneas' son Ascanius, called Ilus from Ilium, meaning Troy, is renamed Iulus and offered by Virgil as an ancestor of the gens Julia, the family of Julius Caesar. When making his way through the underworld, Aeneas is given a prophecy of the greatness of his imperial descendants. Furthermore, Aeneas receives weapons and armour from Vulcan, including a shield which illustrates the future of Rome and lays stress once again upon the emperors, including Augustus.

One might also note the relationship between the Trojans and Greeks in the Aeneid. The Trojans were the ancestors of the Romans according to the Aeneid, and their enemies were the Greek forces who had besieged and sacked Troy; yet at the time the Aeneid was written, the Greeks were part of the Roman Empire and a respected people who were considered cultured and civilised. This situation is resolved by the fact that the Greeks beat the Trojans only through the use of a trick, the wooden horse, not on the open field of battle: thus Roman dignity is saved.

Themes

Nearly the entirety of the Aeneid is devoted to the philosophical concept of opposition. The primary opposition is that Aeneas, as guided by Jupiter, representing pietas (reasoned judgment and performing one's duty), whereas Dido and Turnus are guided by Juno, representing unbridled furor (mindless passion and fury). Other oppositions within the Aeneid include: Fate versus Action, Male versus Female, Rome versus Carthage, Aeneas as Odysseus in Books I-VI versus Aeneas as Achilles in Books VII-XII, Calm Weather versus Storms, and the Horned Gate versus the Ivory Gate of Book VI.

Pietas, possibly the key quality of any 'honourable' Roman, consisted of a series of duties: duty towards the Gods (hence the English word piety); duty towards one's homeland; duty towards one's followers and duty to one's family - especially one's father. Therefore, a further theme of the poem explores the strong relationship between fathers and sons. The bonds between Aeneas and Ascanius, Aeneas and Anchises, Evander and Pallas, Mezentius and Lausus are all worthy of note. This theme reflects Augustan moral reforms and was perhaps intended to set an example for Roman youth.

The major moral of the Aeneid is acceptance of the workings of the Gods as fate through the use of pietas or piety. Virgil, in composing the character of Aeneas alludes to Augustus, suggesting that the gods work their ways through humans; using Aeneas to found Rome, Augustus to lead Rome, and that one must accept one's ass.

Style

The Aeneid, like other classical epics, is written in dactylic hexameter, meaning that each line has six feet made up of dactyls, or one long syllable and two shorts, and spondees, or two long syllables. As with other classical Latin poetry, the meter is based on the length of syllables rather than the stress, though the interplay of meter and stress is also important. Virgil also incorporated such poetic devices as alliteration, onomatopoeia, synecdoche, and assonance.

Time

Unlike Homer's Odyssey, no time is set for the events which take place during the Aeneid. Even the age of Aeneas's son, Ascanius, cannot provide a clue to the sequence of events; in Book 4, for example, he is pictured both as participating in the hunt, and being impersonated by Cupid as a child in the arms of Dido, shooting arrows into her heart. During Book 4, however there is an indirect reference to a timeline. It is stated that Dido and Aeneas were together through the long winter, implying that Aeneas and his crew must have only stayed in Carthage for the winter, before they heeded Jupiter's message sent by Mercury to leave Carthage. Some[who?] suggest Virgil was being intentionally discreet with his use of time in the Aeneid.

Aeneid allegory

The most debated theories with regard to the Aeneid involve whether Virgil meant to convey a so-called "hidden message" or allegory within the poem. These, of course, are only speculative interpretations. The first section in question is:

"There are two gates of Sleep, one said to be of horn, whereby the true shades pass with ease, the other all white ivory agleam without a flaw, and yet false dreams are sent through this one by the ghost to the upper world. Anchises now, his last instructions given, took son and Sibyl and let them go by the Ivory Gate." (Italics added for emphasis)

(Book VI, Lines 893-899, Fitzgerald Trans.)

Aeneas's exiting of the underworld through the gate of false dreams has been variously interpreted: One suggestion is that the passage simply refers to the time of day at which Aeneas returned to the world of the living; another is that it implies that all of Aeneas's actions in the remainder of the poem are somehow "false." In an extension of the latter interpretation, it has been suggested that Virgil is conveying that the history of the world since the foundation of Rome is but a lie. Other scholars claim that Virgil is establishing that the theological implications of the preceding scene (i.e. an apparent system of reincarnation) are not to be taken as literal.[3]

The second section in question is:

"Then to his glance appeared the accurst swordbelt surmounting Turnus' shoulder, shining with its familiar studs - the strap Young Pallas wore when Turnus wounded him and left him dead upon the field; now Turnus bore that enemy token on his shoulder - enemy still. For when the sight came home to him, Aeneas raged at the relic of his anguish worn by this man as trophy. Blazing up and terrible in his anger, he called out: 'You in your plunder, torn from one of mine, shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come from Pallas: Pallas makes this offering, and from your criminal blood exacts his due.' He sank his blade in fury in Turnus' chest..."

(Italics added for emphasis) (Book XII, Lines 1281-1295, Fitzgerald Trans.).

This section has been interpreted to mean that for the entire passage of the poem, Aeneas who symbolizes pietas (reason) in a moment becomes furor (fury), thus destroying what is essentially the primary theme of the poem itself. Many have argued over these two sections. Some claim that Virgil meant to change them before he died, while others find that the location of the two passages, at the very end of the so-called Volume I (Books I-VI, the Odyssey), and Volume II (Books VII-XII, the Iliad), and their short length, which contrasts with the lengthy nature of the poem, are evidence that Virgil placed them purposefully there.

Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia,[4] by Jean-Joseph Taillasson, 1787, an early neoclassical painting (National Gallery, London

The history of the Aeneid

The poetry of the Aeneid is polished and complex; legend has it that Virgil wrote only three lines of the poem each day. Although the work is substantially complete, with the same length and scope as Homer's epics, which it imitates, it does appear to lack some finishing touches: a number of lines are only half-complete, and the ending is generally felt to be too abrupt to have been intentional. It is common, however, for epic poems to contain incomplete, disputed, or badly adulterated text, and because this poem was composed and preserved in writing rather than orally, the Aeneid is more complete than most classical epics. Furthermore, it is possible to debate whether Virgil intended to rewrite and add to such lines. Some of them would be difficult to complete, and in some instances, the brevity of a line increases its dramatic impact. However, these arguments may be anachronistic - half-finished lines might equally, to Roman readers, have been a clear indication of an unfinished poem and have added nothing whatsoever to the dramatic effect.

However, another legend states that Virgil, fearing that he would die before he had properly revised the poem, gave instructions to friends (including the current emperor, Augustus) that the Aeneid should be burned upon his death, owing to its unfinished state and because he had come to dislike one of the sequences in Book VIII, in which Venus and Vulcan have sexual intercourse. He supposedly intended to alter this sequence to conform better to Roman moral virtues. The friends did not comply with Virgil's wishes, and Augustus himself ordered that they be disregarded. After minor modifications, the Aeneid was published.

In the 15th century, there were two attempts to produce an addition to the Aeneid. One was made by Pier Candido Decembrio (which was never completed) and one was made by Maffeo Vegio, which was often included in 15th and 16th century printings of the Aeneid as the Supplementum, or a so-called "thirteenth book". The most recent addition, though not strictly a sequel, is Claudio Salvucci's epic poem The Laviniad (1994).

The first full and faithful rendering of the poem in an Anglic language is the Scots translation by Gavin Douglas—his Eneados, completed in 1513, which also included Maffeo Vegio's supplement. Even in the Twentieth century, Ezra Pound considered this still to be the best Aeneid translation, praising the "richness and fervour" of its language and its hallmark fidelity to the original[5][6]. The English translation by the 17th-century poet John Dryden is another important version that can be said to retain the power and flow of the original, although Dryden took numerous, significant liberties with the text. Most classic translations, including both Douglas and Dryden, employed a rhyme scheme, a very non-Roman convention that is not usually followed in modern versions.

Recent English verse translations include those by C Day Lewis (1963) which strove to render Virgil's original hexameter line, Allen Mandelbaum (honoured by a 1973 National Book Award), Library of Congress Poet Laureate Robert Fitzgerald (1981), Stanley Lombardo (2005), and Robert Fagles (2006).

Influence

The Aeneid has long been considered a fundamental member of the Western canon. As a result, many phrases from this poem entered the Latin language, much as passages from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope have entered the English language. One example is from Aeneas' reaction to a painting of the sack of Troy: Sunt lacrimae rērum et mentem mortālia tangunt—"These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart." (Aeneid I, 462) (Perseus Project A.1.462). The influence is also visible in very modern work: Brian Friel's Translations (a play written in the 1980s, set during the English colonisation of Ireland) makes references to the classics throughout, and ends with a passage from the Aeneid:

"Urbs antiqua fuit—there was an ancient city which, 'tis said, Juno loved above all the lands. And it was the goddess's aim and cherished hope that here should be the capital of all nations—should the fates perchance allow that. Yet in truth she discovered that a race was springing from Trojan blood to overthrow some day these Tyrian towers—a people late regem belloque superbum—kings of broad realms and proud in war who would come forth for Libya's downfall."

Footnotes

  1. ^ E.G. Knauer, "Vergil's Aeneid and Homer", Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 5 (1964) 61-84. Originating in Servius's observation [1]
  2. ^ The majority of the Odyssey is devoted to events on Ithaca, not to Odysseus' wanderings, so that the second half of the Odyssey very broadly corresponds to the second half of the Aeneid (the hero fights to establish himself in his new/renewed home). Joseph Farrell has observed, "...let us begin with the traditional view that Virgil's epic divides into 'Odyssean' and 'Iliadic' halves. Merely accepting this idea at face value is to mistake for a destination what Virgil clearly offered as the starting-point of a long and wondrous journey" ("The Virgilian Intertext", Cambridge Companion to Virgil, p. 229).
  3. ^ Trans. David West, "The Aeneid" (1991) xxiii.
  4. ^ The anecdote, in which the poet read the passage in Book VI in praise of Octavia's late son Marcellus, and Octavia fainted with grief, was recorded in the late fourth-century vita of Virgil by Aelius Donatus.
  5. ^ Pound and Spann; Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry, New Directions, p.34.
  6. ^ See Emily Wilson Passions and a Man, New Republic Online (January 11, 2007), which cites Pound's claim that the translation even improved on the Virgil because Douglas had "heard the sea".

See also

Further reading

  • Maronis, P. Vergili (1969), Mynors, R.A.B. (ed.), Opera, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198146537
  • Virgil (2001), Fairclough, H.R.; Goold, G.P. (eds.), Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid 1-6, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-99583-X
  • Virgil (2001), Fairclough, H.R.; Goold, G.P. (eds.), Aeneid Books 7-12, Appendix Vergiliana, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-99586-4
  • Virgil; Ahl, Frederick (trans.) (2007), The Aeneid, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-283206-1
  • Virgil: The Aeneid (Landmarks of World Literature (Revival)) by K. W. Gransden ISBN 0-521-83213-6
  • Virgil's 'Aeneid': Cosmos and Imperium by Philip R. Hardie ISBN 0-19-814036-3
  • Heinze, Richard (1993), Virgil's Epic Technique, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-06444-5
  • Johnson, W.R. (1979), Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0520038487
  • Brooks Otis, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry, Oxford, 1964
  • Lee Fratantuono, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid, Lexington Books, 2007.
  • Joseph Reed, Virgil's Gaze, Princeton, 2007.
  • Kenneth Quinn, Virgil's Aeneid: A Critical Description, London, 1968.
  • Francis Cairns, Virgil's Augustan Epic, Cambridge, 1989.
  • Gian Biagio Conte, The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Vergilian Epic, Oxford, 2007.
  • Karl Gransden, Virgil's Iliad, Cambridge, 1984.
  • Richard Jenkyns, Virgil's Experience, Oxford, 1998.
  • Eve Adler, Vergil's Empire, Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

External links

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