Female’s Impact on Politics in The Aeneid by Virgil

In Homer's composition, The Odyssey, the roles women play are very significant. The best examples of the true nature of women occur when Odysseus encounters Circe and Calypso. These two characters illustrate the thoughts and feelings of how women how a woman feels and how they think. As the quote states, Circe and Calypso illustrate how women really can be crafty, intelligent, sneaky, disloyal, and cruel. In contrast to battles with men, Cyclops, or animals, sexual battles with women are sometimes much more difficult to win.

The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit

In the Aeneid the Roman poet Virgil presents many different people that play roles in the life of Aeneas. From gods and goddesses to mortal men and women, every personality has some precise part to play in Aeneas' impersonal fate. Of the many different characters, several are women. In fact, after reading the Aeneid it becomes clear that women play a particularly large role in Aeneas' life. From Juno to Venus, and Penelope to Lavinia, women seem to directly affect Aeneas' destiny for good or for worse. However, one can also see that

Women and men are immensely different, but human qualities don’t change between them. Virgil uses books II and IV of The Aeneid to express his disagreement with this statement. Book II tells about the war between the Trojans and the Greeks, specifically the story of the Trojan horse , which Virgil wrote from the perspective of the Trojans. Book IV focuses on love instead of war, that is the love between Queen Dido and Aeneas. Both of these books end in tragedy, one in the fall of a city and the other in suicide. In both books, Virgil describes men as wise and less emotional than women to portray the incorrect statement that women are not smart and are over dramatic.

The Aeneid was written during the time of Augustus (27 BC), the first Emperor of Rome. After Caesar’s death in 44BC, Augustus had the immense task of bringing Rome back to her original stability and unity that had been shattered during the Civil Wars and decline of her Republic. In the establishment of this empire Augustus had legislation encouraging marriage and the birth of children. Thus it makes sense that Virgil’s The Aeneid promoted the theme of marriage in a beneficial light. In Book 12 Aeneas was fated to marry Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus of Latium. By marrying Lavinia Aeneas would be in alliance with Latinus, conquering Latium to further the founding of Rome. Aeneas explains this alliance with the following: “May both nations, undefeated, under equal laws, / march together toward an eternal pact of peace. / I shall bestow the gods and their sacred rites. / My father-in-law Latinus will retain his armies, / my father-in-law, his power, his rightful rule. / The men of Troy will erect a city for me— / Lavinia will give its walls her name.” This shows that through the alliance, not only would Aeneas rise in power and land, but it also describes the unity and peacefulness that would result from the alliance. Therefore, The Aeneid promoted political marriages due to the benefits and success that resulted from those marital alliances.

However, there is also a sense of injustice, as Juno's actions seem unwarranted towards Aeneas, as she acts out of personal hatred towards him. It is also significant that Neptune only calms the storm, as it threatens the peace of his seas, and not because he pities the wretched Aeneas: 'Power over the sea and the cruel trident were never his (Aeolus), but mine. '[4] This emphasises that the gods can be cruel, illustrated by the misuse of Juno's power to influence Aeolus, to start a storm; as well as, selfish and unjust.

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.

Rome was experiencing a great deal of internal turmoil during the period when Virgil wrote the Aeneid. There was somewhat of an identity crisis in Rome as it had no definitive leader, or history. With the ascension of Augustus to the throne, Rome was unified again. Still, it had no great book. The Greeks had their Odyssey, giving them a sense of history and of continuity through time. A commonly held view is that the Aeneid attempts to provide the Romans with this sense of continuity or roots. There is a great deal of textual evidence to support this interpretation. Virgil makes numerous references to the greatness of Rome through "ancient" prophecies. Clearly, the entire poem is an account of

How much control do women have over their emotions in the Aeneid? In his poem, Virgil frequently shows women in situations where irrational thoughts lead to harmful choices. Specifically, Virgil presents women as being easily influenced by their emotions. Consequently, these characters make decisions that harm both themselves and those around them. Throughout Aeneas’s journey, divinities such as Juno and Venus are seen taking advantage of the emotions of different women, influencing these characters to act in ways that ignore important priorities. Not only does Virgil present women as completely vulnerable to their emotions, but he also shows the problems that arise when these women engage in decisions where they put their own feelings

The different portrayals of female characters Antigone and Lysistrata illustrate the fundamental nature of the proper Athenian woman. Sophocles' Antigone allows the reader to see that outrage over social injustices does not give women the excuse to rebel against authority, while Aristophanes' Lysistrata reveals that challenging authority in the polis becomes acceptable only when it's faced with destruction through war. Sophocles and Aristophanes use different means to illustrate the same idea; the ideal Athenian woman's ultimate loyalty lies with her polis. This Greek concept of the proper woman seems so vital when considering Athenian society because both a tragedy and comedy revolve around this concept. The differing roles accorded to

In the poem, Virgil says that all Romans ought to have two certain virtues: he must remain a pious Roman citizen, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race. In Virgil’s poem, he uses Aeneas as a portrayal of not only a roman hero, but also as the ideal Roman citizen.

The power of women was very limited in ancient Greece. Women were mostly viewed as the housewives and mothers instead of being involved in society. In the excerpt Lysistrata written by Aristophanes and Roman Women Demonstrate against the Oppian Law written by Livy, there is a clear indication women thrive to have more power than they are originally granted. In fact, women want to be able to have a say in the important aspects of their community such as wars they lose their husbands to or the amount of jewelry they are allowed to wear to show their honor and wealth. Furthermore, the women start very weak, but then realize they can have power over their men. In Lysistrata, the women are able to manipulate the men but taking away their number one desire. Meanwhile, in Roman Women Demonstrate against the Oppian Law, women are able to beg men into giving in to what they want. By viewing and analyzing two sources, the audience comes to the conclusion that women are able to achieve more power than they are originally granted.

The role of women in ancient Greek life was insignificant compared to that of Greek men. A woman's job was to take care of the children and to cook and clean unless she had servants or slaves that would do it for her. Yet, in Greek mythology, women were often written as major characters. Well-known Greek plays contain many well-written, complex, female characters. Female individuals in Greek mythology were often seen as very powerful and fierce and were depicted by “her wits, her beauty, or her bad deeds.”

In book two, Aeneas remains to fight despite clear indications from the gods that it is better to escape and carry on the Trojan race. However, Aeneas is overcome by the Homeric notions of duty and honor. Virgil purposely does this to show that while Aeneas acted only with a view to the narrow Homeric concept, he grows later to fully understand his duty (Mudlo).