Revelations of Rome in Virgil's Aeneid

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; writer whose reputation Augustus wanted Virgil Revelations of Rome to transcend for the glory of Rome (The Iliad of Homer 13). Augustus wanted Virgil to tell a story in VirgilÕs Aeneid that grandly mythologized the founding of Rome. Therefore, Virgil went right to the source: the Greek by Tara Vandiver epic literature of Homer. In reading the product of VirgilÕs art, it is only obvious to see the major Ancient Rome, so important in its day that people inßuence that Homer had on the construction of The said all roads led to that city, was the capital of one Aeneid. of the most powerful civilizations in all of history. The parallels between The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Romans conquered many lands and territories, and The Aeneid are evident from the Þrst page to the their power stretching all the way from the British last. In fact, it seems that the very structure of The Isles to the Persian East. At Þrst glance it appears Aeneid was taken from the two epic poems of Homer: as if the Romans of old were unbeatable. However, with Òthe Þrst six books modeled on The Odyssey and it is important to remember that Þrst glances are the second six on The IliadÓ (Atchity 101). The way not always what they seem: in actuality, the ancient that VirgilÕs tale can easily be split into two halves Romans were conquered from the inside out. In the also reßects the two legends of Homer: the Þrst six year 146 B.C., Rome had ofÞcially conquered Greece, books of The Aeneid being that of the great journey, even though there had been functioning Greek or Ònostros,Ó like OdysseusÕ voyage to Ithaca, and colonies on ItalyÕs peninsula for many years (Atchity the second six being like that of the battles of Troy; 323). RomeÕs physical might had overpowered though Aeneas fought on the Italian peninsula, he and that of Greece, but, as the philosopher Horace his men were of Trojan blood (Commager 89). stated, ÒConquered Greece conquered, in turn, the The connection to HomerÕs Troy is evident uncultivated victor and introduced the arts in rustic in the very essence of The Aeneid. VirgilÕs whole LatiumÓ (Constable 53). Ancient Rome absorbed all idea starts with the escape of Aeneas from his home, that was ancient Greece. In all aspects of its culture, the burning Troy from The Iliad. It was there, when Rome adopted the ways of Hellas, and that adaptation Achilles was Þghting Aeneas in the twentieth book is manifested in the epic tale The Aeneid. of The Iliad, that Homer prophesized the future of Virgil, the author of The Aeneid, was born the young Trojan (The Iliad of Homer 412). Homer in 70 B.C. in ancient Rome (Atchity 100). In the wrote: ÒHis fate is to escape to ensure that the great year 49 B.C., he moved to Cumae, a city located line of Dardanus may not unseeded perish from the west of modern-day Naples. Cumae was founded worldÉTherefore Aeneas and his sons, and theirs, in 750 B.C. by the Greeks; the city of Cumae was will be lords over Trojans born hereafterÓ (Fitzgerald the Òoldest Greek mainland colony in the WestÓ 404). These few lines in HomerÕs epic tales gave Virgil that was still in existence (ÒCumaeÓ). With Rome the opportunity to succeed the mission Augustus put in power, Cumae was subdued and controlled by before him. the year 338 B.C. (ÒCumaeÓ). At the time of Virgil, In the very opening of The Aeneid, there is a Cumae was considered to be an Epicurean society, connection to the epics of Greece. Virgil opens with ÒI following the pleasure-seeking ideas, antithetical to sing of warfare and a man at war / Tell me the causes the stoic Romans, of the Greek philosopher Epicurus now, O Muse,Ó and ÒFor years / They wandered as (Anderson 110). Virgil was educated in Cumae and their destiny drove them on / From one sea to the started writing there. In 31 B.C. he began writing next: so hard and huge / A task it was to found the The Aeneid. It was the Roman ruler Augustus who Roman peopleÓ (Virgil 4). The way the story begins, initiated this project for Virgil, wishing him Òto between the way that the narrator invokes a sense provide for Rome what Homer had done for the of entertainment through song and the interaction GreeksÓ (Atchity 101). between him and the Muse, known to be a Greek Homer, the Greek to whom the writing of goddess of the creative arts, as well as the description The Iliad and The Odyssey is attributed, whose of the long journey by sea, is very similar to the tales had Òreasonably sound textsÓ available to the opening scene of The Odyssey, in which the narrator public by the end of the sixth century B.C., was the states: ÒSing in me, Muse, and through me tell the 65 story / of that man skilled in all ways of contending, resemblance is explicitly indicated by the words ÔlikeÕ / the wanderer, harried for years on end, / after he or ÔasÕÓ (ÒSimileÓ). An ÒepicÓ simile, also called a plundered the stronghold on the proud height of ÒHomericÓ simile, is an extension of the basic simile. TroyÓ (Homer 1). Within an epic simile there are often several lines, Continuing, it is unmistakable that there are found in poetry usually, used to Òintensify the stature not only numerous parallels to the tales of Homer in of the subjectÓ (ÒEpic SimileÓ). Virgil used these the story of Aeneas, but that it is all due to the Greek epic similes throughout the whole tale of Aeneas. inßuence on the Roman way of life. On any manner of Beautifully written, these epic similes, began in the subjects, Virgil illustrates how the stylings of Greece Þrst book and continued through to the last. were tightly intertwined in the society of ancient In the beginning of the tale, when Virgil was Rome, including: philosophy, religion, mythology, or describing the fall of Troy, Aeneas had said to his in literature. Carthage: From that time on, like predatory wolves History In fog and darkness, when a savage hunger When it comes to history, much of what is Drives them blindly on, and cubs in lairs passed down through generations is oral- tradition. Lie waiting with dry famished jaws- just so In the time of Virgil, around 49 B.C., it was known Through arrow ßights and enemies we ran that the land of Rome was not always Roman. It Toward our sure death. (Virgil 46) was known by Romans that their ancestors came to Here Virgil incorporates a technique that allows the Tiber somehow, and someway, and that it was those, even without an interest in military matters most likely connected to the movements of other and warfare, to be greatly intrigued by the events peoples around the area. In looking at the ancient surrounding the characters, thus demonstrating Greeks, their history was directly related to that of the reason behind using epic similes as a literary the people of Rome. Not only are they very close technique; namely, intensity. geographically, but there is a deÞnite background of In The Aeneid, Lavinia, princess of Latium, war and conßict. The Trojan War, between the Greeks (modern-day Italy), kept close to her mother during and King PriamÕs people, was the eternal account of the battles between their people and AeneasÕ Trojans., Hellenistic power, immortalized by HomerÕs work. Virgil wrote: The Romans, though their past was different from Lavinia, listening to her mother, streamed the Greeks on an individual basis, acknowledged the With tears on burning cheeks; a deepening fact that their history was inßuenced by the culture of blush Greece and that there must be a correlation between Brought out with a Þery glow on her hot face. their two empires. This acceptance of history by Rome As when one puts a stain of crimson dye can be seen in the pages of The Aeneid, where there On ivory of India, or when is reference to the wars between Greece and Ilium, White lilies blush, infused with crimson roses, (Troy) ( trans. Fitzgerald 403). Virgil dedicated a So rich the contrast in her coloring seemed. whole book in The Aeneid to the fall of Troy and all (Virgil 369). that happened within those walls: ÒIlium was going Describing the feeling Lavinia had when she down in ÞreÓ (Virgil 55). began to realize that she would soon become the wife of the opponent, Aeneas, Virgil created an epic simile Literature that reached out to his audience, enabling them to feel The arts of Greece are seen in every aspect of her distress. the Roman aesthetic. From the statues that were stolen In the last book, ÒThe Fortunes of War,Ó from Greek lands and adapted to the culture of Rome, during the battle between TurnusÕ men and AeneasÕ, to plays and poems, to the actual concepts and forms there was a moment in which Turnus had an outburst in writing, Ancient Rome attempted to make it all of energy. Virgil writes: their own. In The Aeneid, the most obvious way that Like blood-stained Mars himself he rode, this is seen is through literary form. Written in iambic when Mars pentameter, Virgil incorporated two major literary Goes headlong by the frozen Hebrus river, concepts that came from Greece: that of the epic simile Beating out claps of thunder on his shield and that of the Homeric motif. And lashing on his furious team for war- A simile is a Þgure of speech, used often That team that on the open ground outruns in literature, involving a comparison between two The south and west winds, while the farthest different objects.

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