Rumor’s Rumors
Rumors spread like wildfires and like wild fires they can cause great damage. The fire moving slowly throughout the foliage yet rapidly destroying everything in its path. This statement could also be used to describe the way Rumor, the monstrous and conniving creature in Virgil’s Aeneid(Book IV), spread malicious lies through the earth and the heavens. Virgil uses the actions of Rumor to display how destructive gossip can be. To begin, Rumor’s rumors were dispersed out of spite. After Rumor discovered that Aeneas and Dido were an item she made it her responsibility to bring fear to everyone of what this relationship could entail. Although Aeneas and Dido were in fact a couple, Rumor twisted this truth into something dangerous and faulty. She knew the results of her actions could be
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“From heaven had shaken him awake, he now burned only to be gone, to leave that land of the sweet life behind.” Aeneas attempted to leave his lover without a word in the hopes of saving her feelings, however, it resulted in a heated argument between the two where Dido said, “Do you abandon me, a dying woman, guest that you are- the only name now left from that of husband? Why do I live on?” This exclamation led her to her suicide, leaving her land queenless; this was Rumor’s ultimate goal, mass destruction.
Detrimental gossip was not a new concept brought to life in Virgil’s Aeneid; gossip has been around since the dawn of time and still exists in modern day. Gossip, especially false, can significantly alter the lives of those gossiped about, as shown in the Aeneid and in a Washington Post article written by Cass Sunstein, “Rumors are nearly as old as human history, but with the rise of the Internet, they have become ubiquitous… False rumors are especially troublesome;
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Rumors can break and humiliate people’s lives. A good example of this would be when Don John was passing rumors to corrupt Claudio’s and Hero’s relationship. Don John brings out that Hero is disloyal to Don Pedro and Claudio so they would be tricked by a false statement and insult Hero in many...
Braund, Susanna Morton. “Virgil and the Cosmos: Religious and Philosophical Ideas.” The Cambridge Companion to Virgil. Charles Martindale, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 204-221.
Dido is portrayed as a strong and independent character through her successful founding and ruling of Carthage. However, Venus commands Cupid to “breathe [his] flame of poison” (I. 688) on Dido. Dido develops a passion that is “an unseen flame gnaw[ing]” (IV.2) at her. The flame illustrates the intense emotions Dido feels for Aeneas. Aeneas and Dido consummate their love in a cave, causing Dido to assume they are married. Unfortunately for Dido, Aeneas must follow his fate to Italy and leave Dido in Carthage. “Now [Dido] must called [Aeneas] guest instead of husband” (IV. 324). However, Aeneas declares he “never made a pack of marriage” (IV.339) with Dido. This fuels her hatred of him even more. Dido does not have the emotional stability to live without Aeneas. During his confession, Dido admits “hot madness” (IV.376) consumes her and the connections between fire and fury is
In The Aeneid there are rich implemented principles such as fate, discipline, and competition which greatly influenced the Roman empire causing it’s rise from obedience to the principles as well as it’s fall from disobedience. Virgil lived during the dawn of the rising sRoman empire, and his book was a catalyst to the greatness that grew within the nation. The Aeneid focused around the principle that fate’s power and dominance overrule human life, which in turn would bring indolence or proactivity depending on the individual’s capacity. Although fate can easily be ripped down as a belief it did many great things for the Romans whether it is real or not. Unfortunately the themes of deceit and trickery also crept into the book’s contents, which
In Virgil's epic the "Aeneid," women were viewed much the same way as in the Homeric epic's. Their beauty possessed such charm that the noblemen had great respect and trust for the women. After the scheming ways of Venus, to make Dido (queen of Carthage) fall in love with Aeneas, Dido became more of a mother and confidant to Aeneas. As a confidant to Aeneas, Dido said, "Tell us, from the beginning, about the strategy the Greeks devised to capture Troy, about the suffering of your people, and about your wanderings over land and sea for these seven long summers."(123) Dido was kind and generous to Aeneas and his men, but Aeneas had a calling from Jupiter to leave Carthage, and without hesitation was on his way. Regardless of the feelings, Aeneas may have had for Dido, his priorities were not with the woman, and not leaving was never an option.
We also see in the story what someone must sacrifice in order to fulfill their goals. Though Aeneas's destiny was much more grand than many of our own, we still must make choices that can sometimes hurt others. I really thought that Vergil captured our inner emotions with the affair between Dido and Aeneas.
Both Virgil and Milton portray femininity and women as a threat to the divine higher order of things by showing women as unable to appreciate the larger picture outside their own domestic or personal concerns. For example, in the Aeneid, it is Dido, the Queen of Carthage, who out of all the battles and conflicts faced by Aeneas, posed to the biggest threat to his divinely-assigned objective of founding a new Troy. Like Calypso detains Odysseus in Homer's epic, Dido detains Aeneas from his nostos to his "ancient mother" (II, 433) of Italy, but unlike Calypso, after Dido is abandoned by Aeneas she becomes distraught; she denounces Aeneas in violent rhetoric and curses his descendents before finally committing suicide. Therefore, Virgil demonstrates how women have a potent and dangerous resource of emotions, which can ambush even the most pious of men. Indeed, Dido's emotional penetrate the "duty-bound" (III, 545) Aeneas who "sighed his heart ou...
As in Book I of "The Aeneid," Book II and Book III are authored by Publius Vergilius Maro, but the entirety of the books is written as exposition delivered by the character Aeneas. Aeneas could thus be considered the "author" of the piece, and his audience is Dido and her Phoenician people. Aeneas narrated the contents of the pieces as a response to Dido's request for his story, and his reluctance apparent in the opening lines suggests that he disagrees with the prospect of recalling such painful memories, but complies regardless. Therefore, Aeneas's motivation in relating his story (and, in a way, Virgil's as well) is to reveal what events transpired on his voyage from Troy to Carthage. His actions during the fall of Troy in particular lend
“I was obliged to memorize the wanderings of a hero named Aeneas, while in the meantime I failed to remember my own erratic ways. I learned to lament the death of Dido, who killed herself for love, while all the time, in the midst of these things, I was dying, separated from you, my God and my Life.
The final trait that was Oedipus' greatest enemy throughout the entirety of the play was his own truthfulness. Whenever new facts presented themselves, Oedipus gave them an honest look. As soon as it was suspect that Oedipus was involved, he acknowledged it; "I think that I myself may be accurst by my own ignorant edict".
But Virgil also had a deep hatred for all wars and battles, a sentiment which is hinted at in the text of the Aeneid many times.
Lawall, Sarah N. “The Aeneid.” The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 612-652. Print.
On a quest to compose a story that would be known as the great epic of Rome, writer Virgil created The Aeneid, a poem following the journey of an epic hero, Aeneas. In “Book II”, Virgil portrays the Trojan War in such a way that makes the Trojans appear less foolish than what The Odyssey depicted. The Trojans good character, love, and sympathy shine through as the Greeks are viewed as deceitful and untrustworthy. “Book IV” describes Queen Dido’s inability to find love after the loss of her beloved husband. Aeneas arrives in her kingdom after escaping the Greek’s attack on Troy, and Queen Dido ultimately falls in love with the great warrior who washed up on her shores. Withstanding plights that seem impossible to overcome can cause one to make decisions by balancing the need for personal happiness and obligations that must be upheld. Through
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that the impact of seeing the truth is harmful rather than enlightening. Whenever Oedipus strives to discover more to strengthen Thebes’ perspective of him, it leads him closer to his fate as determined by prophesy. Tiresias stands as a model in the play for the individual who is able to see the meaning beyond plot of events although his is blind, and Oedipus represents the oblivious arrogant individual who is never content because they need to be the unsurpassed individual. In the play, Sophocles illustrates the downside of a personality like Oedipus who desires to see the truth by ending the play with the brutality of gouging out his own eyes. Ultimately, the play reinforces that seeing the truth is harmful and being content with what you have, without greedily striving for more, can help avoid fate and a related deposition.
It is said that the truth will set you free, but in the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus, the truth drives a man to imprison himself in a world of darkness by gouging out his eyes. As he scours the city for truth, Oedipus’ ruin is ironically mentioned and foreshadowed in the narrative. With these and other devices Sophocles illuminates the king’s tragic realization and creates a firm emotional bond with the audience.