Chapter Themes of The Aeneid - Study Guide by Virgil

roundly slaughtered by the Trojans. Such attitudes were not to be promoted within Rome of the first century BC. Therefore, we see Aeneas leaving behind the traditional heroic role, when he leaves Troy. His desire to die gloriously at Troy is questioned first by the ghost of Hector, secondly by himself when he sees the death of Priam and finally by Venus when she prevents him from killing Helen. Hector raises Aeneas' responsibility to his city and her household gods, Aeneas himself raises his responsibility to his family, while Venus raises his responsibility to heed the wishes of the gods. Therefore, once he has determined to leave, he has stepped beyond the narrow confines of traditional, self-interested heroism and taken up a more communal heroism that recognises the individual's responsibility to people and things other than himself, most explicitly the cornerstones of Roman 'pietas' - one's race, one's family and one's gods.

3. The Character of Aeneas

A discussion of the character of Aeneas follows directly from a discussion of the Aeneid's new concept of heroism. Aeneas has often been criticised for being feeble and uninspiring. Many people have preferred the rugged, self-confident Turnus to the diffident and taciturn Aeneas. Yet such criticism fails to see that Aeneas is not a traditional epic hero badly drawn, but a more rounded, proto-Augustan figure, who provides the template for the 'pius Romanus'. It is pointless to compare him disparagingly with the Homeric heroes, since, if not chronologically then ethically at least, he lives in a different world to them. It is not simply himself that he must lead to the land promised by fate, but his people, his family and the gods of his former city. If he appears much of the time to be reluctantly following the wishes of fate and the gods, then we must appreciate how he does consistently subjugate his own feelings and how unclear is the mission with which he has been charged. He has not been informed of the future in depth, as we have by Jupiter's prophecy in Book 1. He is simply told initially by the ghosts of Hector and Creusa that he must leave Troy and found a new city. Then, as his travels lead him to various sites on which he attempts to establish this city, he is told through prophecies that it must be in Italy. Therefore, for the first half of the poem, Aeneas is wandering the seas with little idea of what it is that he is looking for. In stark contrast to Odysseus, who leaves the ruins of Troy a victor and with a certain and familiar endpoint to his travels, Aeneas leaves defeated, his city and people decimated, with no clear concept of where he is aiming for or what he will find when he arrives there. He is not fired by the desire to get home; he is not following his own deepest-held wishes; and there is no foreseeable conclusion to his struggles. This is why his 'pietas' is so emphasised. For in spite of all this, he still carries out his mission. He may not be visibly enthused by it - it is notable that he offers no comment after seeing the pageant of heroes - but, particularly after his visit to the Underworld, he shows a grim determination that enables him to succeed, with the gods' help, in triumphing in Latium and putting the destruction of Troy behind him.

And yet, Aeneas also demonstrates how difficult it is to be a hero in the new mould; how it is difficult to reject some aspects of the old Homeric heroism. This ties in with the discussion of Virgil's public and private voices. For Aeneas' heroism is generally related to the poet's public voice, since his 'pietas' is civic and altruistic, whereas Homeric heroism is more self-related. When Aeneas hears of Pallas' death and embarks upon a killing spree, he is acting in a manner reminiscent of the heroes of the Iliad. Indeed his sacrifice of eight young men to Pallas (10.517-20) directly parallels the sacrifice that Achilles makes to the spirit of Patroclus. Most crucially, the slaughter of Turnus at the end of the poem shows that the Homeric axiom of helping your friends and harming your enemies cannot easily be disregarded in favour of Anchises' injunction to spare the vanquished. The desire for vengeance and fulfilment of personal obligations cannot simply be neglected. Just as with the poet's public and private voices there is the irresolvable, or at least unanswered, problem of conflict, so there is a conflict between the old and new types of heroism.

4. Dido and Aeneas

Ever since antiquity, the story of Dido and Aeneas has been the most popular episode in the Aeneid. It is not difficult to see why. The suffering of Dido and the resolution of Aeneas in the face of many attempts