Aeneid
Virgil’s Aeneid
is arguably the most influential and celebrated
work of Latin
literature. Written in the epic meter, dactylic hexameter, the Aeneid
follows the journey of Aeneas, son of Venus, after the fall of Troy. According to
an ancient mythical tradition, Aeneas fled the burning city and landed in
Italy, where he established a line of descendants who would become the Roman
people.
Virgil (70–19
b.c.e.) draws on the works of numerous authors, such as Lucretius, Ennius,
Apollonius of Rhodes, and, especially, Homer. Virgil consistently adopts
Homeric style and diction (a good example of this is the first line of the
poem: “I sing of arms and a man . . .”). He also re-creates entire scenes from
the Iliad and the Odyssey. Books 1 to 6 of the Aeneid show
such close
parallels to the Homeric epics that they are often called the “Virgilian
Odyssey.” Books 7 to 12, meanwhile, closely echo the Iliad. Virgil’s use of Homeric
elements goes beyond mere imitation. Virgil often places Aeneas in situations
identical to those of Odysseus or Achilles, allowing Aeneas’s response to those
situations to differentiate him from (and sometimes surpass) his Homeric
counterparts.
Virgil
constructs his epic in relation to the Roman people and their cultural ideals.
He defines Aeneas by the ethical quality of piety, a concept of particular importance
for Rome at the time of the Aeneid’s composition. The Aeneid also contains
several etiological stories of interest to the Roman people, most notably
that of Dido
and the origin of the strife between the Romans and the Carthaginians.
The Dido
episode is one of the most famous vignettes of the Aeneid. Dido, the queen of
Carthage— also known by her Phoenician name, Elyssa—aids Aeneas and his
shipwrecked Trojans in Book 1. Through Venus’s intervention, Dido falls
desperately in love with Aeneas and wants him and his men to remain in
Carthage. But a message from Jove reminds Aeneas
that his fated
land is in Italy. Immediately, he orders his men to depart. Dido is heartbroken
over Aeneas’s leaving: She builds a pyre out of Aeneas’s gifts and commits
suicide on it, prophesying the coming of Hannibal before she dies. When Aeneas
descends to the Underworld in Book 4, Dido’s shade refuses to speak with him.
Dido’s
character shows a great deal of complexity. She appears first as an amalgam of
Alcinous and Arete as she hospitably receives her Trojan guests but soon becomes
a Medea figure, well acquainted with magic and arcane knowledge. Dido is a
sympathetic character throughout the epic, though much of how Virgil describes her
would have brought to the Roman reader’s mind the Egyptian queen Cleopatra
(associated with
Mark Antony
and the civil war).
Interpretations
of the Aeneid are numerous and far from unanimous. The Aeneid’s composition
coincides with the end of the civil wars and the beginning of Augustus’s
regime. Virgil ostensibly endorses the new princeps by referring to him as the
man who will usher in another golden age. Yet several elements of the epic might
suggest that Virgil did not wholeheartedly support Augustus. Much of the debate
centers on the war in Italy that occupies the second half of the epic, in which
some scholars see a reference to the Battle of Perusia in 41 b.c.e., an event
Augustus would have preferred to forget. Scholars also point to the end of the Aeneid,
where Aeneas kills Turnus as he pleads for his life, as unambiguously
criticizing the new leadership. This anti-Augustan view of the Aeneid has,
however, met with opposition.
Many scholars
find more evidence of the Iliad than of Augustus’s campaign in the latter half
of the Aeneid. Others suggest that in killing Turnus, Aeneas acted
appropriately for his cultural circumstances. The Aeneid has also been proposed
to represent, not Virgil’s view of Augustus, but rather the condition of the
Roman people. Virgil seems to offer conflicting evidence for his perspective on
Augustan Rome and may intentionally leave the matter ambiguous so that the
reader may decide for him- or herself.
The Aeneid was
highly anticipated even before publication and has since enjoyed immense
popularity. Quintilian regarded Virgil as nearly equal to Homer and credits him
with having the more difficult task. Latin epic writers after Virgil looked to
the Aeneid as their model. Statius even acknowledges that his epic,
the Thebaid,
cannot surpass that of Virgil. The Aeneid became a standard school text of the
ancient world and was a critical part of a good education. Virgil, however,
considered the work unfinished. At the time of his death he famously called for
the Aeneid to be burned rather than published. Augustus saved the Aeneid from
the flames and ordered its publication.
World History - Aeneid
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