The Roles Of Aeneas In The Aeneid By Virgil

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.

Throughout the beginning of the Aeneid Dido, the queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, son of Venus and leader of the Trojans have an intimate relationship that ends in death. The relationship begins in Book I when Venus, the goddess of love, has her other son Cupid fill Dido with passion for Aeneas, to ensure Aeneas's safety in this new land. "Meanwhile Venus/Plotted new stratagems, that Cupid, changed/ In form and feature, should appear instead/ Of young Ascanius, and by his gifts/ Inspire the queen to passion, with his fire/ Burning her very bones." (693) Venus did this to protect Aeneas and his son, in fear that Dido would have otherwise been cruel to them.

To begin, Virgil depicts Queen Dido as an emotional person. When her lover Aeneas leaves her to build Rome, Dido curses him and prepares to burn all of his possessions, only to later kill herself. Before Dido ends her life in The Aeneid “Book IV: The Passion of the Queen,” she curses Aeneas by yelling,

It is chiefly the duty to the gods, as well as to country and family, all of which Aeneas is shown to display throughout the story. As the purpose of writing the Aeneid was to give the roman empire an illustrious founding, it would make sense for the hero to be of a pious and dutiful nature, which all Romans should aspire to. Yet there are moments when Aeneas strays from this depiction, for example, when he sees Helen and longs to get revenge for the fall of his country despite knowing there is no honour or fame in punishing a woman [2.568-589]. There is divine intervention here when his mother appears to show him that there are more important things he needs to do than kill a woman. Nonetheless, a short while later, when he learns of his wife Creusa’s death, Aeneas says he ‘stormed and raged and blamed every god and man that ever was’ [746-7], which goes directly against the notion of pietas. And yet he displays it again when he has to give up Dido in book 4 to carry on his journey.

In every great epic, love plays a key role in bringing people together but also destroying plenty in its way. Even though Dido is characterized as this powerful leader, she slowly starts to fall as her passion for Aeneas starts to grow. As Aeneas tells his story to all the people, Dido slowly starts falling more and more in love with Aeneas. Throughout this Book you slowly start to see the demise of Queen Dido. "Towers, half-built, rose no farther; men no longer trained in arms... Projects were broken off, laid over, and the menacing huge walls with cranes unmoving stood against the sky". Virgil provides images of how Carthage is being affected by the downfall of Queen Dido. Dido is so infatuated with love that she cannot see how she is running Carthage to the ground for the love of Aeneas. The goddess Juno, the queen of gods, saw this as an opportunity to keep Aeneas from reaching Italy. Dido even broke her vow of chastity and surrenders to her desires for Aeneas. “Dido had no further qualms as to impressions given and set abroad; She thought no longer of a secret love but called it marriage”. This statement demonstrates how she is becoming

In Book Four, Virgil describes how Dido, utterly heartbroken by Aeneas’ desertion, prays to the gods to curse him (TA: 12.973-4): … let him be plagued in war by a nation proud in arms, torn from his borders, wrenched from Iulus’ embrace, let him grovel for help and watch his people die a shameful death… may he never enjoy his realm… let him die before his day, unburied on some desolate beach. In this instance, Dido’s prophecy does not come to pass in the epic although there is an anxiety created for the reader that this fate is a possibility for Aeneas. However ‘The Punic Wars’, which broke out between Rome and Carthage in the 3rd and 2nd Centuries B.C. (Lazenby, 1996: XV) would seem to be the fulfillment of the curse Dido places on Aeneas and his future when he abandons her and sails to Italy to fulfill his fate. The internal failure of Dido’s curse reminds us however that Aeneas is a slave to an altogether more important and powerful prophecy: the prophecy of Rome.

     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

Virgil uses a tricolon of questions to establish Aeneas’ confusion and anxiety regarding telling Dido of his departure. One example is ‘quo nunc reginam ambire furentem audeat adfatu?’ which translates to ‘By what mode of address dare he seek to get round the queen now in her unhinged state?’ This shows how Aeneas feels troubled about how Dido will react. ‘audeat’, meaning ‘dare’, suggests Aeneas is worried because he knows what could happen if he uses the wrong approach. In addition, he describes the queen as ‘furentem’, meaning ‘unhinged’, however Dido is yet unaware of the situation and so remains calm.

Dido has infamously been labeled the tragic literary love interest to Aeneas in Virgil's The Aeneid. Her suicide was a vital plot point in Virgil's work and he emphasizes the people who influenced her decision to eventually take her own life in order to gain sympathy for this flawed yet tragic character. There are numerous people who could in fact be held responsible for Dido's death, some of the people were completely out her control and Virgil attempts to have the reader pity her unfortunate circumstances. Dido''s suicide is classic literary trope that makes us question the way others actions fully affect the lives of others. The situations that surrounded the life of Dido appeals to the readers pathos and aids in the question as to why unseen forces can affect life so drastically in these Greek tragedies.

On the other hand, Virgil notes that Dido’s love for Aeneas has caused her to suffer. Dido’s emotions have caused her to act like a wounded animal, not thinking about the consequences of her own actions. By being reduced to an animal, Dido has lost all rational thought. Consequently, Dido’s lack of rational thought causes her to begin to ignore other duties she has to fulfill.

Once Dido’s and Aeneas’ “love” has been set on its course, he receives word from the god Mercury to return to his duties for Troy, “Blind to your own realm, oblivious to your fate!” (Virgil, p.136) Aeneas desires the love of Dido, but recognizes his obligation to found Rome. This is where a complication arises regarding fate. Aeneas strayed from his destiny, moving alongside his desires rather than uniting his aspirations with his obligations, thus creating conflict within his life and difficulties weighing the importance of his obligations and desires. The pressures of fate and the gods were not in Aeneas’ control; however, it was his own decision to fall in love with Dido and ignore his mission, even if momentarily. As humans we are obligated to one another regardless of desire.

Virgil’s Aeneid was to Rome what the Illiad and Odyssey were to Greece, a long narrative that triumphantly related heroic events in an elevated style. While Virgil’s main reason for writing The Aeneid was to foreshadow the coming of Augustus and legitimize his rule over Rome, an underlying theme in this epic is a presence of power among women. Few of Virgil’s women characters fit the common weak and passive stereotype; instead, many are quick to react, extremely emotional and very opinionated. While in a position of power, three of Virgil’s main female characters, Dido, Venus and Juno, allow their emotions to dictate many of their decisions and reactions on matters, thus projecting a common stereotype of how women are viewed in society.

Are the deeds of mortal characters in the Aeneid controlled by the gods or by fate? Aeneas must fulfill the will of the gods, while enduring the wrath of other gods, all the while being a worthy predecessor of Augustus and founder of the Roman people. Of course, the Trojan is successful because he gives himself up to these other obligations, while those who resist the will of the gods, Dido and Turnus, die sad deaths.

Intro – Begin by talking about how people often see Aeneid by Virgil as focusing on the events surrounding the Trojan war, but an equally important part of the story is the prevalent theme of duty. For instance, if one looks at Aeneas one can see his devotion towards caring for his people, and his persistence to follow his duty. Because of the emphasize that Virgil places on Aeneas devotion to his people and his duty to obey the gods, one can begin to theorize that Virgil believed duty was the most important quality a man could possess. Thesis: Often times, the Aeneid carries the reputation as a book centering around the founding of Rome, however, without the constant reminder of duty, one cannot fully view Virgil’s story as he intended.