A National Hero : Aeneas As A Stoic Hero

Anger can always incite irrational actions. The sight of Helen seeking shelter at the altar, causes Aeneas to remember the crimes she committed driving him to furious anger. This anger drives him to contemplate an ignoble and uncharacteristic act of revenge by murdering Helen as she sought protection from the gods. Despite being depicted as a virtuous hero, Aeneas’ strong, visceral reaction to seeing Helen shows that he is subject to the same passionate feelings all humans feel, especially when something raises his anger.

Odysseus, the hero in The Odyssey, and Aeneas, the hero in The Aeneid, fought in opposing sides in the Trojan war. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca and was arguably the smartest king and warrior in all of Greece, whereas Aeneas was a warrior from Troy whose destiny was to found the Roman race in Italy. While both men were highly acclaimed by their respective countrymen as heroes, they shared many similarities in respect to their background, their virtue and their struggles. However, amidst these similarities Odysseus and Aeneas were very different in their social status, their innate disposition and in the defining characteristics of their quest.

Aeneas was a good leader because he was brave, strong, and selfless. The Aeneid was written by Virgil during the reign of Augustus in 19 BCE, and the character of Aeneas was meant to represent Augustus and suggest that Augustus was a direct descendant of Aeneas. Many historians think that Virgil sounded a bit sarcastic when stating how great Aeneas was, implying he himself was not a fan of Emperor Augustus. Throughout the book, Aeneas is referred to as “The Great and Good” and other phrases along those lines, and is always spoken of as a great hero. He does things such as kill deer for his men, or survive a terrible storm, and he even has the approval of the great god Jupiter. Aeneas is a demigod, (his mother is Venus), making him more powerful and respected than any other Trojan men. The Romans valued physical and mental strength, both of which Aeneas has.

The Aeneid, the famous epic poem written by Virgil, depicts the struggle of establishing an empire. The beginning of The Aeneid introduces Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus, whose fate is to find a new home in Italy after the fall of Troy. Throughout the perilous journey, Aeneas faces great obstacles as he strives to fulfill his prophecy and gradually transform into the ideal Virgilian hero. To emphasize his growth, I will discuss three themes in this essay: the extent of free will as it relates to fate, the influence of divine beings on mortals, and the principles of morality. All of these ideas serve as an understanding as to why Aeneas is unable to act on his own accord. This leads me to defend the view that humans require the positive guidance of a mentor figure to resist their self-indulgence.

Aeneas is son of Anchises, the prince of Dardaria and Venus, goddess of beauty and love. Aeneas was a Trojan military leader during the Trojan War. Aeneas was also one of the lone survivors after the siege of Troy. After the fall of Troy, Aeneas is divinely lead to Carthage by Juno because she has a grudge against the Trojans. While in Carthage, queen Dido falls deeply in love with Aeneas. Jupiter afraid that Aeneas is abandoning his destiny sends Mercury to order Aeneas to leave Carthage and travel to Italy. Once he arrives in Italy he is visited by his father’s ghost which tells him he needs to travel to the Underworld. Aeneas ends up going to the Underworld to

Achilles, the demigod son of a sea nymph named Thetis and king Peleus of the Myrmidons, is the central representation of a Homeric hero in Homer’s Iliad. His raging power is a source of awe for men on both sides of The Trojan War. In continuation of the Trojan narrative, Aeneid follows the wanderings of the Trojan prince Aeneas. His fate is to establish the Trojan Remnant in Latium, the birthplace of The Roman Empire, Aeneas faces an endless stream of challenges in his journeys. A significant obstacle is Turnus. Turnus, described by the Sybil as a “second Achilles,” proves to be incredibly like the Homeric hero. Virgil transforms Aeneas from a figure of pietas to one of furor similar to that of Turnus and Achilles. However, Aeneas never truly reaches the inhuman rage witnessed in these other two warriors.

In his epic poem “The Aeneid,” Virgil details an account of how the great empire of Rome descended from a Trojan leader named Aeneas. It is an action-packed story, filled with tales from the hardships at sea to the brutality of warfare as Aeneas journeys to Italy following the downfall of Troy. Aeneas, the hero of the story, is depicted in mostly a positive light throughout the poem and shown portraying a wide variety of emotions and traits, some seemingly contrasting one another—from scorching, merciless anger to tender, affectionate love. While he is a three-dimensional, rather well-rounded character, Virgil depicts women throughout The Aeneid in a more one-dimensional, usually negative light, establishing a hint of sexism and misogyny throughout

The Roman epic of Virgil's Aeneid describes the hardship and misadventures of Aeneas and the Trojans quest from Troy to Italy. Like Homer’s famous epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s narrative style and structure portrays similar attributes in the finding of Rome. Aeneas encounters several women on his journey who play a significant role throughout this epic in assisting or destroying his journey to Rome. His representation of female characters provides the readers with a better understanding of gender politics and reasons why some female leaders failed. Each of Virgil's female characters demonstrates a combination of traits throughout the epic; however, such behaviors of these women tend to develop unwanted conflict due to emotions.

The function of prophecy manifests itself in many ways in the Aeneid. Throughout the epic, prophecies and omens act as the agents behind Aeneas fulfilling his destiny as well as providing clear social commentary on the dawn of the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. Even though not all of the prophecies and omens included in the epic come to pass in literary terms, Virgil’s inclusion of prophecy is of paramount importance for driving the plot forward. In this essay I will discuss the function of both internal and external prophecy and the effect these prophecies have on both the characters in the epic and the enjoyment of the reader from The Roman Empire until the present day.

     A comparison between Virgil's hero, Aeneas, and the Homeric heroes, Achilles and Odysseus, brings up the question concerning the relevance of the difference between the Homeric heroes and Aeneas. The differences in the poets' concerns are explained by the fact that Virgil lived many years after Homer, giving Virgil the advantage of a more developed literary and philosophical society than Homer had at his disposal. But the question remains: how are the differences between the Homeric heroes and Aeneas relevant to the epic at large? This question will be answered by first pointing out the differences between Greek and Roman society, then explaining

Many people seem to be under the impression that the Aeneid is a celebration of Roman glory, led by the hero of fate Aeneas. I find these preconceived ideas hard to reconcile with my actual reading of the text. For starters, I have a hard time viewing Aeneas as a hero at all. Almost any other main characters in the epic, from Dido to Camilla to Turnus, have more heroic qualities than Aeneas. This is especially noteworthy because many of these characters are his enemies. In addition, Aeneas is presented as a man with no free will. He is not so much bound to duty as he is shielded by it. It offers a convenient way for hum to dodge crucial moral questions. Although this doesn’t necessarily make

Both the Odyssey and the Aeneid represent their cultures very well, but they express different ideas on what one should strive for in life.  There are also different forces that pushed both epics to be written.  The Aeneid expresses the Roman idea of pietas which means to show extreme respect for one’s ancestors. We see this in Aeneas when he is pictured caring his father away from burning Troy.  He has pietas because he cared so much for his father that in fleeing from Troy he took up his father over his shoulder to save his from certain death.  This is not the only major idea in the Aeneid.  There is also a very political focus.  The Roman were very interested in politics which comes through in the Aeneid. The Odyssey has the Greek

Aeneas is a person who holds his family and friends close to his heart, but doesn’t show care to people who he feels have done acts that harm his loved ones. Test of character that confront him are losing people that he loved to death, having to enter the Underworld, leaving Dido for his fate to travel to Italy, and facing Turnus in battle after Turnus killed Pallas. Aeneas passes all of test he is given with minor setbacks, like being able to leave the Underworld alive, but he carries the mourning of the deaths of his loved one through the entire myth. The temptations he resists are staying with Dido in Carthage, and letting the death of people he cared for stop him from his journey. Aeneas resist staying with Dido because his fears what the gods would do if he didn’t leave Carthage for Italy. He doesn’t let the death of loved ones stop his journey, because most of them wanted Aeneas to continue his journey and reach his destiny. Aeneas find the task of killing Turnus out of revenge for Pallas’s death irresistible, since Pallas was Aeneas’s friend and seeing Turnus with Pallas’s belt filled Aeneas with rage.

Before Augustus came to power, Civil war had ravished the basic principle of the Roman people. Piety, the warning to “fulfil our duties towards our country, our parents, or others connected with us by ties of blood” was undermined by faction. The duty towards country, parents and relatives was less of a bond because faction determined duty rather that Pietas. Thus Rome, a city founded in pietas, was that foundational principle. internal faction undermined the principles of pietas and corrupted its role in the city. Rome needed a moral reform towards pietas; Rome needed a refocus on the roots of the empire, its duty towards its ancestors, and unity based in pietas. Commissioned by Augustus, Virgil constructs the Aeneid so that it portrays the cruciality of pietas by redefining Greek epic heroism to include pietas. Each comparason of aeneas to another greek hero emphasises the pietas within him, showing how he is better because of it and combining the heroism of all the Greek heroes into Aeneas. By doing this, virgil shows that to unify Rome through pietas is to harness Rome’s power. Thus, Virgil reveals to the Romans a virtue which allows the individual Roman citizen embody and partake in the glory of Rome.

In Virgil’s poem, The Aeneid, the ideal Roman hero is depicted in the form of Aeneas. Not only does Aeneas represent the Roman hero, but he also represents what every Roman citizen is called to be. Each Roman citizen must posses two major virtues, he must remain pious, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race. In the poem, Aeneas encompasses both of these virtues, and must deal with both the rewards and costs of them.