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VIRGIL – TOO GOOD A POET
Bella’s Summary Points:
 Whilst parts of the Aeneid show his intentions to “whitewash a military
dicatorship with plenty of blood on its hands as a new Golden Age,” its
literary merit shows that was not his only motive nor aspiration
o The desire to bring a peaceful age to Italy is made more
understandable by the fact that Virgil was born in tumultuous
times, and lived most of his life with the country in civil war
 Its a homeric epic, with a strong element of the divine and the
supernatural and a human hero, subject to human passions and
weaknesses but still larger than life.
 He chose Aeneas because there were previous epic stories with him
being the founding father of the Romans, and the fact that he linked in
with the Iliad with a prophecy that he would rule a great nation (he was
a fighter second only to Hector).
 Virgil took inspiration from Homer, Greek dramas with fleshed out
characters which were sometimes women and tried to talk about
ethically grey areas and Latin epics talking about the history of Rome
 Catullus’ Medea is quite similar to Dido from Virgil
 Virgil himself deals with issues and his awareness of the cost of nationbuilding and of the need for a new kind of leadership, inspired by his
sensitivity to nature and empathy for human aspiration and suffering
 Venus is Aeneas’ mum
 Aeneas’ affair with Dido is tragic, both are being manipulated by gods,
Dido almost resonates with Cleopatra- both exotic queens, both
passionate, both needing to be sacrificed to make things work
This is the text of a talk given at a teachers’ conference. It is in three sections:
1. VIRGIL’S BACKGROUND
2. THE AENEID AS EPIC
3. THE NEW HERO, AENEAS
VIRGIL’S BACKGROUND
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VIRGIL – TOO GOOD A POET
We all know that Virgil composed the Aeneid with the blessing of his patron
Maecenas, who was a close advisor to Octavian, later known as Augustus. He
appears to have read parts of the work to Augustus, and in fact was travelling
back with Augustus from Greece to Italy when he sickened and died on arrival
in Italy. The Aeneid was still unfinished, but Augustus overruled the poet’s
dying wish to have it destroyed, so, despite its imperfections, we have the
poem to enjoy today.
Did Virgil write the Aeneid as propaganda for the regime, to whitewash a
military dictatorship with plenty of blood on its hands as a new Golden Age?
Parts of the poem certainly read as though he had, but to call the Aeneid
propaganda is to oversimplify it unjustifiably – and would anyone but a Roman
historian bother reading it today?
Virgil was born in 70 BCE, a year after Crassus had crushed the slave rebellion
of Spartacus that threatened the stability of Italy. When he was about seven,
the state was threatened again by an aristocratic rebel this time, Catiline,
whose faction was suppressed by the consul, the novus homo, Cicero. Through
Virgil’s teenage years, Caesar, Pompey and Crassus were building their
powerful armies and fuelling their ambitions, regardless of Cicero, the senate
and the traditional institutions of Rome. Virgil was in his early twenties when
civil war broke out between Caesar and Pompey, and he was 26 when Caesar,
then dictator for life, was assassinated by his fellow senators. More than a
decade of civil wars followed, at the end of which Caesar’s great-nephew,
Octavian, emerged victorious over all other contenders for power. At the time
of Actium in 31 BCE, Virgil would have been nearly 40 years old. He would
never have known an Italy at peace with itself. If Octavian, soon to be known
as Augustus, the revered one, could bring peace and stability to Italy, is it
surprising that Virgil, with his deep love for the beautiful countryside, should
have embraced the new era as a Golden Age?
So it seems very likely that Virgil was sincere in welcoming the rule of
Augustus. This does not make him a sycophantic court poet, nor does it mean
that he was unaware of, or condoned, the atrocities inflicted by Augustus – the
proscriptions, for example, that marked the ascent of the Second Triumvirate.
It does, however, mean that the Aeneid should be read as a very complex
poem.
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THE AENEID AS EPIC
The story of Rome – from village to empire – is certainly grand enough for us to
use the word “epic” in the modern sense. But an epic poem in the Homeric
tradition, containing as it does a strong element of the divine and the
supernatural, still needs a hero at its centre – a human hero who, though
larger than life in many respects, is subject to human passions and
weaknesses. Virgil took as his hero the Trojan Aeneas. There were two clear
reasons for doing so: first, there was already an Italian tradition that Aeneas
was the founding father of the Roman people (pp images 6 and 7), written
about in early Latin epics by Naevius and Ennius. Secondly, Aeneas provided a
strong and honourable link to the epics of Homer – he is shown as a match for
Achilles in Iliad 20. 303 – and there was even a prophetic line (Iliad 307-8)
saying that Aeneas would survive the Trojan War and rule a great nation.
So Virgil composed a poem in Latin following the epic tradition of Homer – a
sort of sequel to a revered work, like the sequels to Jane Austen that have
appeared in recent years. As everyone knows, the first six Books of the Aeneid
are based on the Odyssey, a journey around the Mediterranean complete with
Cyclops, shipwrecks and supernatural encounters, even conversations with the
dead. The second half, with its battles for the right to settle in Italy, clearly
draws from the Iliad , with the final Aeneas/Turnus duel strongly echoing the
fight between Achilles and Hector.
Now those of you who have read some of the sequels to Jane Austen will
probably feel, as I do, that they don’t quite work. Try as the authors will to
imitate Austen’s style, the prose sounds stilted, and the content of their plot is
invariably too modern, containing sexual and other references which Jane
Austen would never have made. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
reproduce the language and the ideas of a bygone age, and a wise author does
not try too hard to do so.
Virgil was writing in Latin; the epics of Homer were orally composed in Greek.
Virgil could draw on 500 years of literary tradition since the time of Homer, in
both Greek and Latin. There were the dramas of 5th century Athens, many of
them with plots taken from the Trojan War saga, but with fleshed out
characters, particularly the women. These dramas showed the interaction and
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sufferings of the characters and used the well-known plots to explore ethical
dilemmas – a favoured pastime of 5th and 4th century Greek intellectuals.
The Hellenistic period that followed Alexander the Great’s conquests gave rise
to a flowering of Greek poetry written by well-educated, scholarly poets, many
based in Alexandria. Some cultivated the shorter, more personal styles of
poetry (that ultimately inspired Catullus) and others sought to emulate the
Homeric epics with works of grand style, written in imitation of Homer’s
archaic Greek language. The most notable work of the latter style is the
Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes.
The Argonautica seems to me to be like one of those sequels to Jane Austen
that never quite works. It is written in self-consciously epic language; its hero,
Jason, is no Achilles or Odysseus, but a team leader who got his position by
default, and has to rely utterly on the special gifts of several members of his
crew. But I believe this work influenced Virgil quite strongly. Apollonius
introduced a tragic love-dynamic never found in Homer: Medea is made to fall
in love with Jason by divine intervention so that she will help him survive his
ordeal and obtain the Golden Fleece. He does not fall in love with her. Medea
is not Dido, but there are a number of common features.
Then Virgil had Latin epics to draw on. The poet Naevius (ca. 270 BC – 201
BC) had written an epic on the Punic War. In this he mentioned Anchises and
his son Aeneas leaving Troy and arriving in Latium where Romulus, Aeneas’
grandson in this version, founded Rome. Ennius (239-169 BC) was another
Latin poet who composed the Annales , a historical epic poem in the metre of
Homer, the hexameter line. This poem began the history of Rome with Aeneas.
Both these Latin poets survive only in fragments to us, but Virgil no doubt had
access to them.
Only a generation earlier than Virgil, the poet Catullus had departed from his
usual practice of writing short personal poems to compose some mini-epics in
hexameter verse. One of these (Poem 64) includes the abandonment of
Ariadne by the hero Theseus. When Virgil included the tragedy of Dido in the
Aeneid he was not following Homeric tradition, but the works of later Greek
and Latin writers who had appeared in the seven hundred or so years that
separated Virgil from Homer.
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The Aeneid as epic, then, draws from a number of literary elements. What
saves it from being a tiresome amalgam of literary adaptations is the fact that
it is very much a poem for Virgil’s own time, imbued with his own awareness of
the tremendous cost of nation-building and of the need for a new kind of
leadership, inspired by his own sensitivity to nature and empathy for human
aspiration and suffering, and enabled by his mastery of the Latin language and
the technicalities of hexameter verse.
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THE NEW HERO, AENEAS
Central to the poem is the character of Aeneas, who is many things at once.
He belongs to the age of Homeric heroes, appearing as a prominent, if not
major, character in the Iliad , the second best fighter after Hector. His mother
is the goddess Aphrodite/Venus, qualifying him as a semi-divine hero like
Hercules, Achilles or Perseus. In Troy, he displays the Homeric hero’s code of
“fight to the death – never flee”, but then has to reverse everything he has
lived by to rescue his family and flee from Troy at the behest of the gods.
He gradually learns that his destined homeland is in Italy, where he is to found
a people that will rule the world. The journey to Italy takes seven years, during
which Aeneas sheds several elements – his nostalgia for Troy and his
commitment to rebuilding his homeland, his ties to the mythical world of
Cyclops and Harpies, and his dependence on his father for moral and religious
guidance. The greatest test is his affair with Dido. Taking aspects from
Apollonius, Greek drama and Catullus 64, Virgil depicts a love-affair that
cannot prosper, in which both partners are being manipulated by the gods.
But Virgil infuses this tragic love story with a particularly Roman political
resonance: Dido’s city is Carthage, destined to be Rome’s arch-enemy, and
Dido herself is a passionate and exotic queen, a foreign temptress that readers
would surely identify with the recently vanquished Cleopatra. Such a woman,
kindly and innocent, beautiful, resourceful and talented as she is, must be
sacrificed to fulfil Aeneas’ destiny as the founding father of the Romans.
Aeneas’ great attribute is pietas –that untranslatable Roman virtue that sounds
in English like the Scout or Guide promise: duty to gods, people and family, a
quality very different from the heroic bravado, physical supremacy, cunning
persuasiveness, and overwhelming self-centredness that mark the well-known
Homeric figures. (Only Hector comes close – and he sacrifices himself, and the
future of his people, to his code of honour.) Pietas is a virtue that keeps a civil
society functioning; it is a quality for peace, not war. Pietas fits in with the new
Rome of Augustus – its goal is obedience to the gods and the welfare of
significant others, not personal glory.
It is pietas that drives Aeneas to abandon Dido at the command of the gods
(Virgil tells us that he suppressed the love in his heart.) Pietas compels him to
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make the journey to the Underworld to visit his father. When his ally, old King
Evander, entrusts his son Pallas to Aeneas for his first experience of battle,
pietas demands that Aeneas protect the youth. And in the big picture, pietas
compels Aeneas to establish a safe home in Italy for his son and his followers,
and to do whatever is necessary to bring this about.
In the last three Books of the Aeneid, Virgil thoroughly explores the
complexities of pietas. In Book 10, by contriving the temporary removal of
Turnus, Aeneas’ great rival, Virgil brings to prominence the colourful, odious
Mezentius as the principal enemy figure. Mezentius is the archetypal vicious
tyrant, expelled by his own people, the Etruscans, for his unspeakable cruelty.
He has joined with Turnus, while the Etruscans support Aeneas.
Mezentius, however, has a softer side. He is accompanied by his son, Lausus, a
charming, valiant youth, the counterpart to Aeneas’s protege, Pallas. Lausus
intervenes as Aeneas is about to kill Mezentius, and is killed instead by the
hero, a far superior warrior to the young man. A poignant demonstration of
pietas, indeed, by someone on the “wrong” side.
The death of Lausus at the hands of Aeneas is paralleled to the death of young
Pallas at the hands of Turnus. The boastful Turnus took Pallas’ belt as a wartrophy and gloated over him and his absent father, much as Achilles would
have done. Aeneas’ behaviour at the death of Lausus is shown as more
complex. When he confronts Lausus, who has cheated him of his victory over
Mezentius, Aeneas goes into a rage (furit Aeneas) and berates Lausus for his
pietas, This from Aeneas! He kills the youth in a moment made poignant by
Virgil’s description of Lausus’ tunic, hand-embroidered by his mother and now
stained with blood. But as soon as Lausus is dead, Aeneas is remorseful. Pietas
comes to the forefront of his mind and he refrains from despoiling the body
which he returns to Lausus’ comrades.
There remains the inevitable death of Mezentius. This horrible tyrant, now
wounded and worried sick about his son, is shown as a lonely old man with no
friend but his horse. He bravely faces Aeneas, and his manner of death
redeems him. His love for Lausus (pietas) is to be his memorial.
After a number of suspense-causing delays, Aeneas and Turnus finally meet in
a duel that is to decide the future ruler of Latium. Virgil makes it clear that
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destiny is on the side of Aeneas, and that Juno, the goddess that has opposed
him all the way, is finally brought to accept this, on condition that the hated
name of “Trojans” will be subsumed into Italian, Latin and Romans. Aeneas,
unaware of these divine machinations, subdues Turnus and wins the
supremacy. Turnus submits. There is no need for the death of Turnus. Aeneas
wavers, but then sees the belt Turnus is wearing, his trophy torn from the body
of Pallas. Overcome by a rush of fury, he kills Turnus.
What was Virgil telling us in this last act? That killing Turnus was an act of
pietas – the just revenge for the death of Aeneas’ protege, Pallas? Or that
Aeneas, the leader, was still a man prone to uncontrolled emotions? That
statesmanship and clemency have to be learned, and Aeneas is still a leader in
training? That victory is inseparable from tragedy?
Aeneas, the hero of the epic, and the founding father of the Romans, existed in
legend and literature well before Virgil, but it was Virgil who brought him into
the complex world of the Augustan Age, when not only imperial success but
public order were the product of undisguised military power, and when many
individuals, both distinguished and obscure, were relentlessly suppressed,
dispossessed and killed in the interests of the victorious regime. Virgil may
have longed for peace and order and prosperity in Italy, but he was very
conscious that they came at a heavy price in his time. The Aeneid’s opening
lines declare a song about a heroic quest and the founding of a great nation,
but the triumphant marching song constantly modulates to a minor key – “so
heavy a task it was to found the Roman race.”
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