Values Of The Aeneid

One of the more important values that Aeneas embodies is pietas. Pietas is a nigh-untranslatable word that means great devotion and piety, the two words Lombardo uses most in his translation of the Aeneid to indicate this value. Randall Ganiban, in his introduction to the Aeneid states that “Aeneas is placed in such a difficult position because of his pietas – his duty towards his family, state, and the gods (Ganiban, p.15).” Aeneas struggles to balance his sense of duty towards all three and that fact that despite his immortal parentage, he is simply a human man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He is a human man with an almost supernatural sense of duty, which is why it is very strange that he finds some of his strongest

Throughout the epic, Aeneas and his father Anchises are shown to have a deeply loving relationship. During the final moments of Troy, as Aeneas desperately tries to free his family from the horror the Greeks are ensuing on the city, he begs his father to follow him from the city. “’Did you think I could leave without you, Father? / How could such a thing come out of your mouth (A. 2.773-4, L.)?’” Anchises, however, believes he will only be a burden to his son, and because of the omens from the gods, refuses to impede his son’s quest for greatness. Aeneas does not let this stand. He recognizes that he needs to counsel and the wisdom of his father to complete his quest. “’Come, dear Father, onto my shoulders now. / You will not weigh me down, and come what may/ We will face it together, peril or salvation (A. 2.833-5, L.).’” The Romans often turned to their elders and the customs of their families to guide them through troubling times; Aeneas is about to enter into the most troubling times of his life. He seeks Anchises counsel in many moments of the epic. A few of those moments even follow Anchises’ death. “Moments later he met with his comrades, / Acestes foremost, and explained to them / His beloved father’s instructions (A. 5.847-49, L.)” Anchises compels Aeneas to leave the sick and weary on Sicily, under the protection of a fellow Trojan. His appearance, while a

Part of this need originates during the fall of Troy, as he watches Priam and his family die in their home at the hands of the enemy. “Before me rose Creuesa, / Abandoned, the pillaged house, and the plight / Of little Iulus ( A. 2.657-9, L.).” Aeneas’ worldview collapses alongside Troy. Gone is his stable home and life; he no longer simply has a home to protect. He now must build a new one, and he builds it to the needs of his son Ascanius, whom he works to protect through the entirety of the novel. He places this need to protect and preserve Ascanius’ glory above even his own desires, as in the episode with Dido. “’And my dear son, Ascanius – am I to wrong him / By cheating him of his inheritance, / A kingdom in Hesperia, his destined land (A. 4.406-8, L.)?’” As much as he longs to remain with Dido, he longs for the Trojans’ new country even more. In fact, it is his devotion to Ascanius that pushes him to leave Dido. During Mercury’s speech to Aeneas, after he is sent by Jupiter to push the Trojan back on course, Ascanius’ diminishing glory in the final blow that moves Aeneas away from Carthage. “’If your own glory means nothing to you, / Think of the inheritance you owe to Ascanius - / A kingdom in Italy and the soil of Rome (A. 4.307-9, L.).’” Mercury admonishes Aeneas for neglecting his quest, and in turn neglecting his son. While Aeneas is a great hero, is not an infallible person. He falls