"Stuff," or geras as it was called in Aeneas' time, was the main objective of pursuit for heroes. It bestowed kleos but more often was the means to their untimely end. Aeneas and Turnus both fell under this curse leading to Aeneas' kleos and Turnus' untimely end , but their geras was often bestowed upon them by the Gods. These godly gifts prophesized events to come, and give us a way to compare and contrast the two men - Aeneas and Turnus. In this paper, I will analyze the armor that Turnus and Aeneas receive from the Gods, and show that it prophesizes the world to come, the endeavors of the two heroes, and more importantly it prophesizes the ending of the poem through the scenes depicted on the "stuff" given by the gods.
The first, and most obvious place to start is the shield of Aeneas and his other armor, as it is depicted in great length during book 8 of The Aeneid. As Venus begs Vulcan for Aeneas' armor, "breathing divine love into her words, (8.373)" she convinces him to make it, as all women of this day could convince simple minded men - even Vulcan, a god, in this case - to do their wishes with just the slightest "tricks and beauty. (8.394)" Once Venus presents the shield to her son she says "don't hang back from punishing the arrogant Laurentians or the fierce Turnus. (8.613-14)" Aeneas takes this to heart as he slings the shield over his shoulder, because although "he didn't know the stories. He shouldered his descendants' glorious fate. (730-1)" metaphorically putting the city of Rome and it's "uncertain" (but really so certain) future on his back. The second that Aeneas receives this shield from his mother, our tale is over, we know the ending of the poem. Aeneas' shield and Turnus' helmet have already shown us their...
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...ill holds so closely. The greatest part of it all is that the whole story comes to the conclusion that one could have pulled away with knowledge of the background very early on. Turnus' helmet marked him as a monster, as much as he shies away, in the Chimera and as an opponent of the divine order of Jupiter. Just as the Chimera was slain by Bellerophan "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters (Kerenyi, 75)," Turnus must be eliminated if peace is to be established, Aeneas' proto-Roman ideals are to be fulfilled, and Aeneas' promise to his mother when he received the fateful armor is to be kept. When Aeneas slays his counterpart, fate is being fulfilled - Rome is being saved for the first but not nearly the last time, and Aeneas' descendents can be born to become gods. Their armor not only prophesized the world to come, but Turnus' untimely death, and Aeneas' kleos.
Theseus, The Great Athenian hero, was the son of Dianae and King Aegeus. Theseus had something that not many children at his age didn’t have, “he grew up strong far beyond others” (210). When he was young his father, King Aegeus, set a hollow sword and a pair of shoes and placed a great
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
It is without fail that throughout Aeschylus’ trilogy, The Oresteia, the presence of light and dark can be found in the characters, the plot and the themes. The trilogy follows the House of Atreus its emergence from darkness into the light. However, the light and darkness are often presented symbolically throughout the trilogy and often appear as pairs, which are constantly at odds with each other like Clytaemnestra versus Orestes and Apollo verses the Furies. Light and dark are not defined, nor strictly categorized, as good against evil, rather they move towards the primal versus civilized nature of the culture, and the two merging, and moving into a new era of Greek civilization. The dark is not pure evil, the light is not pure good; they are a coming together of two different times, and because of that transition, from primitive to civilized, tension builds and breaks, which causes the tragic events of The Oresteia throughout the three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.
Ariosto adapts and transforms Vergil’s final episode of The Aeneid into his own conclusion in Orlando Furioso. The final scenes in the epics parallel one another in many ways, yet also show distinct differences. Ruggiero and Rodomont represent Aeneas and Turnus, respectively, and the actions of Ariosto’s characters can be interchanged with their corresponding characters’ acts in The Aeneid. Ariosto reminds us of controversy and questions that Vergil elicits in his conclusion and responds interpretively, reshaping the ending and clarifying ambiguities.
"I sing of warfare and a man at war…Till he could found a city…the high walls of Rome." (Book I, 1-12) There can be no dispute that the Aeneid is an account of the history of Rome. There are several items which with Virgil links the story of Aeneas to the Rome of his time period. Probably the most obvious of these is the surplus of predictions concerning Rome’...
We also see in the story what someone must sacrifice in order to fulfill their goals. Though Aeneas's destiny was much more grand than many of our own, we still must make choices that can sometimes hurt others. I really thought that Vergil captured our inner emotions with the affair between Dido and Aeneas.
Throughout the epic, Aeneas suffered the loss of many people dear to him. The first person to pass away was his wife Creusa. During the ...
In this essay I will compare and contrast the qualities and plights of both Aeneas and Gilgamesh. These two epic heroes share similar fates, yet are very different in personality.
Turnus pleaded for his life, yet he did not deserve to have the privilege of being pardoned bestowed upon him. That is why Aeneas is looked up to for ending his life. I believe that when someone takes a life then the penalty of death should be reciprocated. A person who takes a life for revenge would usually not have my pardon either, but the poem takes place at a time where there was war and chaos, and so there would be no enforcement of punishing Turnus. Therefore, I believe it was right for Aeneas to take justice into his own hands by killing the man who killed Pallas.
Additionally, the information that each hero receives is different. Odysseus learns from Tiresias that he will return home but "will find a world of pain at home" (11.132). Tiresias tells Odysseus of the obstacles that will be in his way on the way home and how to overcome them. Further, he is told how to get rid of his curse brought upon by Poseidon. Although Aeneas is also told the future by his father and "of glory in the years to come, wars that he must fight, [and] how he might avoid or bear each toil to come," (6.1207-1210) the type of information contrasts with the information given to Odysseus because Aeneas receives information relating to the rise of Rome and how he will achieve his goal, whereas Odysseus is given information that will purely suit himself. Aeneas also learns of the journeys and purging that a person's soul takes after death before being reincarnated. Anchises explains that when a body dies, "not all the scourges of the body pass from the poor souls," (6.990) so therefore they all "undergo the discipline of punishments and pay in penance for old sins: [they] suffer each his own shade" (6.994-999). This emphasizes the justice system of Virgil's Underworld because each soul receives the punishment it deserves.
As in Book I of "The Aeneid," Book II and Book III are authored by Publius Vergilius Maro, but the entirety of the books is written as exposition delivered by the character Aeneas. Aeneas could thus be considered the "author" of the piece, and his audience is Dido and her Phoenician people. Aeneas narrated the contents of the pieces as a response to Dido's request for his story, and his reluctance apparent in the opening lines suggests that he disagrees with the prospect of recalling such painful memories, but complies regardless. Therefore, Aeneas's motivation in relating his story (and, in a way, Virgil's as well) is to reveal what events transpired on his voyage from Troy to Carthage. His actions during the fall of Troy in particular lend
“I was obliged to memorize the wanderings of a hero named Aeneas, while in the meantime I failed to remember my own erratic ways. I learned to lament the death of Dido, who killed herself for love, while all the time, in the midst of these things, I was dying, separated from you, my God and my Life.
Many people seem to be under the impression that the Aeneid is a celebration of Roman glory, led by the hero of fate Aeneas. I find these preconceived ideas hard to reconcile with my actual reading of the text. For starters, I have a hard time viewing Aeneas as a hero at all. Almost any other main characters in the epic, from Dido to Camilla to Turnus, have more heroic qualities than Aeneas. This is especially noteworthy because many of these characters are his enemies. In addition, Aeneas is presented as a man with no free will. He is not so much bound to duty as he is shielded by it. It offers a convenient way for hum to dodge crucial moral questions. Although this doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person, it certainly makes him a weak one. Of course some will argue that it takes greater moral conviction to ignore personal temptation and act for the good of the people. These analysts are dodging the issue just like Aeneas does. The fact is that Aeneas doesn’t just sacrifice his own personal happiness for the common good; he also sacrifices the past of the Trojan people, most notably when he dishonors the memory of his fallen city by becoming the men he hated most, the Greek invaders. The picture of Aeneas as seen in the end of the Aeneid bears some sticking resemblances to his own depiction of the savage and treacherous Greeks in the early books.
Thesis: Despite his accomplishments and the glory associated with his life, Aeneas only achieves the status of hero through divine intervention, and this god-given position causes him just as much grief as it does splendor.
When discussing the fate of Aeneas, a thought provoking question is posed that is commonly debated. If Aeneas is commanded by fate, does he have free will? It is important to approach this question with a solid understand of fate. There are two common sides to the debate of whether Aeneas had free will or not. One view believes Aeneas had no choice but to follow his destiny because he was commanded by fate, and prophesied to found the race that will one day build Rome. The other side states Aeneas did indeed have free will, and even though his fate was set, room is available within his fate for events to change. One can argue Aeneas makes some of his own choices, but no particular detail of his life is untouched. Destiny determines that the Trojans will found a city in Italy, but it does not stipulate how that will happen. This is where room is left for free will. After much research and considering the views of many commentators and the proof they showed, the answer can simply be found by going back to the text of The Aeneid.