Queen Dido falls for him, and in doing so condemns herself, since he is driven onby divine whims, and Rome isn't going to establish itself. Gods' plans aren't something mortals candisrupt in this unfinished work that ends abrupt-" The Aeneid has been facetiously called a spinoff or even fanfiction of The Iliad-it takes a side character from The Iliad and makes him a central character.
t's also a propaganda piece and a foundation myth in praise of Rome, commissioned by Caesar Augustus himself. It was written by the Roman poet Virgil andends unfinished, with only 12 books out of apromised 24 completed, because Virgil died before getting any further. It draws on charactersand ideas from Homer, but while theepic subjects of Homer's works were wrath (menis)and homecoming (nostos), The Aeneid's idea is pietas: duty and devotion.Aeneas is a reverential man who consistently serves and honors the gods, and in doing so he's setting an example of Roman virtues. His patriotism, authority, and loyalty to a noble cause make him the ultimate Roman, even before the city exists. After Troy's fall and several misadventures at sea,Aeneas' battered fleet of ships lands at Carthage,a big city being reinforced by Dido. Aeneas and Dido fall in bed with a slight aid from Venus, but he has to establish her andcontinue on to Italy,and she kills herself out of grief. Later books of The Aeneid deal withthe war that breaks outwhen Aeneas finally reaches Italy, but most college courses on the heroic focus on the earlier chapters at Carthage. I used to consider The Aeneid more hard to rank with than Homer's work. The Iliad is about rage, something most people can see even if they've never been involved in combat, and The Odyssey is about struggling to get home, another almost universal experience, but The Aeneid is aboutestablishing a city and backing up a dynasty, and that sense of grand imperial destiny isn't, perhaps, the most common feeling. Aeneas himself can seem almost otherworldly in his goodness, and there's a famousstory about W.B. Yeats giving a copy of The Aeneid to a sailor who read it and over that Aeneas was a priest, not a hero. ButAeneas has to be this apotheosis of dutiful behavior because the intended audience for the epic needed to see a character who was 100% devoted tothe empire, even before it formally existed. Someelements and characters:Empires: Seats of power aren't destroyed, just relocated. Troy was wrongfully torn down,sothe Trojans will merely move their country to Italy and re-establish its magnificence-Jupiter himselfpredicts that Rome's rule will be everlasting. The Trojans are tragic heroes andtheir new dynasty is a continuation of the old dynasty, which is a usual style of empires because it adds an air of authenticity to any rulership.Carthage is opposed to Rome in the future (or in the case that the original readers would have been experiencing), so while Juno plots to have Carthage dominate the world, the Fates decree that it won't happen. The Carthage/Rome enmity is likewise emphasised by Rome's founder driving Carthage's founder to suicide in this epic.Forward motion: Aeneas has to keep travelling onward, usually against his will. He seems to be the settling-down type, and tries to get a metropolis with his fellow Trojan refugees in Crete. The city is coming along nicely when the gods send down aplague to do him leave again. When he lands on Carthage,Aeneas is so weary from his travels and so impressed by Carthaginian civilization, he really thinks he can stay in that countrylongterm, all prophecies to the contrary. Mercury, the messenger of the gods, has to make a personal call to tell Aeneas to act on.But though he's bound by duty, Aeneas' homebody tendencies crop up in his dialogue now and then, andhe misses Troy so badly, he mentions a few times that it would have been ideal to die there, defending his home. For Aeneas, land-founding is a dumb business.Heroism: Priestly attributes aside, Aeneas is still a warrior. Even while bone-weary from living a storm, Aeneas comes ashore and climbs a low cliff, from which he spies and shoots seven deer-all this before breakfast. After shooting the deer, he thoughtfully gives his men a pep talkand saysthat some god will help them in their misfortune. He's heroic about protecting his family,too;as Troy is burning, he carries his father Anchises on his shoulders and holds his son Anscanius' hand to send them out of the burning city.With allhis skill and his devotion to his people, he could be an amazing hero if he weren't being frogmarched to Italy by the gods, though that's basically the unit load of the epic.Dido:Her whole narrative is heartbreaking.She loved her ex-husband, but he was killed by her evil brother, and her husband's ghost warned her to fly the country. With her riches, she founds Carthage and her glorious city is still being built when Aeneas shows up. She's as pious as Aeneas, and is building a grand temple for Juno, and she displays evenmore personal virtue when sheoffers the Trojans hospitality and a rank among her people. She's a superheroine of empathy,and feels for Aeneas because they've both suffered terribly. Dido would probably have fallen for Aeneas on her own,but Venus is so anxious for her son's wellbeing in a strange city,shemakes Dido fall magically, insanely in bed with him.Aeneas and Dido get together, but the big question the epic poses is,"are they married?" Several characters examine their relationship and the answer is: Maybe. Dido says they are married, Aeneas says they're not, Juno, Venus, and Mercury think they are, but Aeneas leavesDido suddenly, implying an ended affair instead of a formal divorce. When he leaves, she suffers a perfect character derailment andher erratic behavior culminates in suicide, but when Aeneas tries to speak to her shade in the underworld, she snubs him and won't speak, so Aeneas experiences some retribution. Over time, I've come to seeThe Aeneid asa bit more of a humanized epic. The hero always does what he's told, but it's at the expense of personal happiness, so there's kind of a fight to his decisions and an added emotional property to the story. The translation is extraordinarily beautiful and poetic-I highly recommend it. Grade: A
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