Aeneas is unheroic in the Homeric sense. If your definition of *hero*
is the same as Homer's, then there is nothing more to say. But if we
define it as humanity's ideal then what we have is an argument between
Homer and Vergil.
For Vergil, WAR IS BAD, but sadly a necessary utility of history
[Stephen Dedalus in Joyce's _Ulysses_: history is a nightmare from
which i am trying to wake up]. A time of peace is on its way for Rome,
and thus spake Jupiter:
-aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis. (I, 291).
where odysseus is cunning, aeneas is pious...yet this does not
contradict his fighting (pietate insignis et armis-VI,403) because
ultimately what he is fighting for is Rome and the consequent peace with
the reign of Augustus.
For Vergil, there is a price that one must pay in being a hero, for the
job is not so glorious as one might think.
-matthew spencer
David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
message forwarded by listowner
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:47:45 -0500
From: Bruce R. Magee [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Aeneas ( Virgil) probably weren't as stoic as some have though. The
expression of emotion (outside of stoicism) was not seen as a necessarily
bad thing. In the _Iliad_, Achilles' big breakthrough comes when he
Priam cry together. He has finally recognized that he his enemy share a
common humanity. Aeneas' heroism could be questioned on other grounds,
such as his abandonment of Dido.
Katie Rae Gregory wrote:
Whomever-
The Aeneid by Virgil has undergone some critizism:
1. Propoganda
2. Imitates Homer
3. Aeneas is unhoroic
It is critizim #3 that I am interested in. I'm curious as to what the group
thinks. Does his tender heart, which often times leads to tears, make
him more
or less of a hero? If he is as hero, why? If he isn't, Why?
Just to get you thinking, for example, when Aeneas sees the frieze of the
Trojan
war and weeps, in modern times is Aeneas still a hero? That is just one
example
I could think of off the top of my head. My emial address is
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THANKS
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