Paper 3 – The Essential Aeneid
The Essential Aeneid by Stanley Lombardo is a translation of The Aeneid by Virgil. The Aeneid, an epic poem, tells the story of Aeneas one of the survivors of the siege of Troy. Aeneas is destined to follow a great path to the founding of Rome. The Aeneid uses Aeneas as a medium for conveying the message of “sunt lacrimae rerum” and qualities of pietas, severitas, and gravitas. The traits that make Aeneas a national symbol and an epic hero, and the qualities that define what every Roman should be.
Discuss Aeneas as a national symbol and an epic hero, what are his main personal qualities?
Aeneas is a national symbol and epic hero for his main qualities of pietas, severitas, gravitas, and selflessness. Pietas and selflessness go hand in hand, because Aeneas many times hurts himself just to fulfill his devotion to the gods.
“I am Aeneas, devoted to my city’s gods” (Virgil 1, 13, 460).
This is exactly what pietas is, the quality of being religious and devoted to one’s religion. Aeneas with no doubt displays this characteristic, and many times causes himself great harm just to follow the will of the gods.
Aeneas also shows severitas, the quality of rigor and sternness. Aeneas, when faced with intense emotion or a seemingly unconquerable task, always stood strong and unmoved. Regardless of how the incident would affect most people, Aeneas remained firm and untouched.
Lastly, Aeneas displays the characteristic of gravitas, the quality of dignity. Aeneas displays his honor in combat, a common way to display this character trait in Roman culture.
“In great Sila, or high on Taburnus, two bulls have locked horns in mortal combat. The keepers fall back in fear, and the cattle stand in silent dread, the heifers ...
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... Aeneid, Aeneas is characterized very well, and his characterization is Virgil’s depiction of what every Roman should be. Every Roman should have a sense of duty, “sunt lacrimae rerum”, which means “suffering for ones duties”. This characterization also implies that every Roman should have an unquestionable devotion to the gods, and The Aeneid does a great job of showing this. Aeneas, regardless of the personal consequences, consistently obeys the gods every will in continuing on his journey. Finally, every Roman should be dignified, and have a strong image. In Virgilian Rome it was equal to a crime to disgrace the Roman culture, or even dishonor ones self. If a man was not dignified, he might as well not be a Roman. Every Roman should embody these three admirable traits, and he should follow The Aeneid in displaying himself as an honorable and devoted individual.
Aeneas witnessed, for apparently the first time in his understanding, the horrors of war and the vile nature that it brings out in men. He calls it an `inhuman shuddering" because the act he has just witnessed is so far from the realm of decent human behavior and it causes an equal reaction.
In both characters loyalty and dutifulness is a central ideal that they stick to. In The Aeneid Aeneas’ loyalty and sense of duty is seen in many instances, such as when they arrive on the shores of Italy and takes refuge Dido’s city of Carthage. While there, Aeneas and his people feast and live well, and Aeneas has the opportunity
"I sing of warfare and a man at war…Till he could found a city…the high walls of Rome." (Book I, 1-12) There can be no dispute that the Aeneid is an account of the history of Rome. There are several items which with Virgil links the story of Aeneas to the Rome of his time period. Probably the most obvious of these is the surplus of predictions concerning Rome’...
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
It is clear when reading the Aeneid that Virgil was familiar with the earlier works of Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Virgil, more than just being aware of these earlier works, uses themes and ideas from these poems in his own. Far more than just copying scenes and ideas, Virgil expands and alters these themes to better tell his story, unique from the Greek originals he is drawing from. Virgil reveals what qualities he regards as heroic through the juxtaposition of Aeneas’ character and the negative aspects of the underworld. By looking at which qualities are esteemed and derided respectively, we can identify the qualities that Virgil would like to emphasize positively to his readers. Also, we can argue that Virgil is indeed trying to convey a particular set or morals to those readers. Beyond the underworld, it is possible to clearly identify these traits in the other sections of the poem where Virgil is borrowing and making his own alterations. Using these distinctions we can very clearly derive Virgil's morality from the poem, and see where Virgil's ideal characters veer away from the Greek ideal that came before.
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.
Aeneas also went to fight in the Trojan War. He also was a national hero. He was a great warrior. Both Odysseus and Aeneas were trying to head home.
Throughout the epic, Aeneas suffered the loss of many people dear to him. The first person to pass away was his wife Creusa. During the ...
The “tragic hero” with Sophocles and Euripides has several elements that are in common, whereas the character is essentially good, usually has some relation to royalty, however they have some type of flaw or commit some act, going against their better judgment or character, causing something tragic to happen to them or by them. I will explain different examples of the tragic hero in Sophocles and Euripides characters, but Virgil’s characterization of Aeneas I would not say is not completely accurate in comparison to the previous representations of the tragic hero, however I would say that Virgil’s depiction of the tragic hero embodies many of the traits and happenings, however evolution has altered how and for what exact reasons Aeneas is not just like the other tragic heroes of the past. In Sophocles’ Antigone I believe a notable tragic hero is Creon. He is fundamentally good as he is determined to put his kingdom before his personal feelings, but he is also flawed and for Creon his flaw is hubris. What makes him a tragic hero is that though he is doing what he believes to be ri...
Out of the two heroes Gilgamesh was the one who was most aggressive and pursued the more ambitious goal, though it was one near impossible to achieve. Gilgamesh wanted to have a power that only the gods possessed. He wanted to be immortal. Aeneas never sought such an unachievable task, and was not as determined as Gilgamesh was. Aeneas only had to find a place where the defeated Trojans could settle and found a new city. Once in the story he even had to be reminded of his destiny by the Jupiter when he was distracted by his love for Dido.
While the Aeneid does outline the future of Rome, it also highlights the pains of war, and also exposes his audience to a culture of violence, which they may be unfamiliar with. The act of balancing one’s duty towards others and his or her personal desires was a conflict that many people struggled with. By presenting the struggle between balancing inner desires and and personal responsibilities, Virgil offers his audience a framework that enhances their overall understanding of the poem.
To begin, both the leadership qualities and flaws of Aeneas and Odysseus must be examined in order to determine who the better leader is. Virgil presents Aeneas very differently than Homer presents Odysseus. They are both certainly heroes, but Aeneas seems more accessible and a stronger leader, due to the way Virgil presents him. Virgil illustrated Aeneas as a man that had to participate in many tests and tempering’s, and from that, his heroism was seen as flawless. The same goes along with Homers’ Odysseus, yet in a different, more astounding way.
Thesis: Despite his accomplishments and the glory associated with his life, Aeneas only achieves the status of hero through divine intervention, and this god-given position causes him just as much grief as it does splendor.
Aeneas is often referred to as 'pious Aeneas', and this is also how even he...
In addition, the overall theme of the poem highlighted morality, which was a definitive tenet of Greco Roman civilization. In many ways, Virgil wrote the poem as a means of lauding the moral virtues of Roman society and as a personal challenge to outdo Homer’s epic compositions, The Illiad and The Odyssey. Virgil was successful because he had incorporated many of the same tales shared in the works of Homer into one epic poem which presented a linear storyline in the books that detailed the life and times of Aeneas and the Trojans. That being said, Virgil did not stray far from the approach that many writers had used before him; his primary focus throughout the Aeneid was placed squarely upon the back of idealized Greek and Roman moral principles, which were the dedication to ones’ honor, family, and country. By no means is there anything wrong with this approach, but in many ways, the entire poem could be viewed as a “propaganda” piece; while it might have served to enlighten, educate, and create a cohesive and uplifting story for the Roman populace, the poem lacked depth and a more profound exploration of human intricacies. While Virgil’s epic poem has stood the test of time and remains one of the greatest pieces