How Does Virgil Create Sympathy In The Aeneid

Leaves of Grass. Kebra Nagast. Popol Vuh. Daredevils of Sassoun. These titles represent some of the most respected works of their cultures. On a quest to compose a story that would become the great epic of Rome, writer Virgil created The Aeneid, a poem following the journey of Aeneas, an epic hero. In “Book II” of The Aeneid, Virgil portrays the Trojan War in such a way that makes the Trojans appear less foolish than what The Odyssey, its Greek predecessor, depicted. Virgil emphasizes the Trojans’ good character, love, and sympathy while exposing the Greeks deceitful and untrustworthy ways. “Book IV” describes Queen Dido’s inability to find love after the loss of her beloved husband. After escaping the Greek’s attack on Troy, Aeneas

When it begins to seem as if the Trojan War will never end, a large wooden horse appears outside the walls of Troy, and the people of the city become skeptical of the mysterious statue. The Trojans have little trust for the Greeks because of their cunning attacks and deceiving war tactics, however, they place a great deal of pride in the fact that they do not cheat their war opponents and place their moral values before everything else. In “Book II”, Virgil opens with Sinon, a Greek warrior, announcing his abandonment by the Greeks to the people of Troy saying the rest of his men retreated back to Greece; “Unblamed may I break the oath of Greek allegiance, unblamed hate them and bring all to light that they conceal; nor am I bound by any laws of country” (Virgil, Aeneid: Book II 168-169). Aeneas begins to feel pity for the poor man pleading for acceptance as one of their own and starts to contemplate letting him into the city. Sinon continues to elaborate that the wooden horse was a gift to the goddess Minerva, who had turned away from the Greeks due to the desecration of one of her temples. Denying the statue’s entrance to the city and leaving it to the power of the weather would consequently infuriate her. Considering showing their values of kindness, trustworthiness, and respect for the gods, Aeneas allows the horse to enter Troy and accepts Sinon’s plea for

In “The Prioritization of Moral Duties”, physician and philosopher Alex Scott explores the ways in which morals differ. Scott states that moral duties or obligations “...are requirements to perform actions in order to comply with given principles of morality.” It is a necessity to appease these duties so one may fulfill moral standards of society. Executing “...actions that are advised or recommended but not necessarily required or obligatory” (Scott) are known as moral prescriptions. Virgil shows Aeneas making both moral duty and prescription choices in The Aeneid. Once he recognizes that his moral prescription choice to let Sinon in hindered his job as a leader, Aeneas switches gears to accomplishing his moral obligation of defending Troy instead. In short, he lets his emotions get in the way of completing his job even while realizing that his responsibility is to help protect Troy. Scott explains, “the amount of blame that may be properly placed on persons for noncompliance with moral duty may also be determined by whether they actually recognized their moral duty.” Aeneas’s dilemma is not that he does not know his duty is to protect Troy, but more along the lines of his ignorance as to what could possibly happen by letting Sinon enter. Disregarding