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Compare and Contrast Essay Within the scope of this research, we will compare and contrast the novels and characters from the Aeneid, by Virgil, and Moses, Man of the Mountain, by Hurston. In the Aeneid, the author Virgil outlines the significance of authority by reiterating the need for Aeneas to fulfill his destiny in relation to pietas, devotion to family and country, as the central Roman virtue in the underworld. Virgil successfully uses the underworld to capture and dramatize the importance of authority by allowing Aeneas to see the future Rome due to his leadership through many forms and histories of Roman authority. Once the Trojans were on the shores of Italy, Aeneas had yet another duty to fulfill: a visit to the underground, where he met Sibyl, the "holy prophetess (149). Aeneas finds his father Anchises in the underworld and is told of the future of Rome and how his descendants will found it. When Aeneas saw his father in the Homes of Peace, Anchises explains the reincarnation process which is also believed today by a great number of people.
All the details of their descendants and future wars confirmed what Aeneas knew all along: his true love, Italy: the future of Rome and the "glory to be, will be (pg. 174). " Book VI contains the following passage: "You are the only soul who shall restore Our wounded state by waiting out the enemy. Others will cast more tenderly in bronze Their breathing figures, I can well believe, And bring more lifelike portraits out of marble; Argue more eloquently, use the pointer to trace the paths of heaven accurately And accurately foretell the rising stars. Roman, remember by your strength to rule Earth's peoples - for your arts are to be these: To pacify, to impose the rule of law, To spare the conquered, battle down the proud. " Virgil uses literary allusions to the Iliad and the Odyssey by allowing Anchises to give Aeneas some history of his people as an incentive to carry out his mission as a leader. By mentioning the downfall of his people during the Trojan War and foreshadowing his destiny by "Sparing the conquered" Trojans and "battle down the proud" Greeks, can be looked upon as a reinforcement of his duties not only to his dead father and family, but to the entire Trojan population.
To let another character found and rule Rome would just prove the failure of his people again, as shown through the Trojan war. Aeneas feels great pride and energy regarding his role in history and is anxious to continue on his journey. The gods are trying to convince Aeneas to value duty to his city and family, a kind of affiliation or relation by virtue of descent as-if from a parent, above duty to a lover by mere affiliation, or arbitrary association. This perspective on an appeal to authority still hinges on a relationship between Aeneas' desire for affiliation and public authority as the authority of filial priority. We learn early on in this epic that Aeneas is a very important character because of his divine parentage. After all, his mother is the Goddess Venus and his father's brother was the King of Troy.
His mother is more concerned with his destiny than with his happiness. She makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas and then he falls in love with the Carthaginian queen in return. Despite the fact that he is happy, his mother is one of the gods working to make him fulfill his destiny. This "destiny" is truly revealed to Aeneas in the underworld when he encounters a few fellow Trojan comrades. One such comrade Aeneas encounters in the underworld is Palinurus who was also duty bound, a helmsman on Aeneas's hip and a faithful servant who falls overboard and drowns, failing to finish his duties.
The need of a proper burial in the underworld is essential in attaining some feelings of gratification for carrying out duty to his people and country. Aeneas can now realize what it means to be "Roman" and carry out his duties as destiny prescribed to avoid the chance of an overlooked and proper burial. Virgil uses Aeneas to personify the spirit of the Roman Empire by encompassing the scope of both Iliad and Odyssey. By allowing the underworld to open many aspects of Greek history, Aeneas is able to understand the importance of his family values, striving to fulfill his duty, or his mission, even though Dido almost prevented it. Because of the underworld, he has gained compassion for his lost men by always thinking about the welfare of his people.
He has proved to be a great leader who showed responsibility by keeping his spirits high when times were tough, even though he had great honor which gave him desire and determination to fulfill his duties regardless of the circumstances. Virgil wrote the Aeneid in order to arouse patriotism in the Roman people. His references to oracles and prophesies are implications that Rome was founded because it was destined to be founded by the gods who just happen to be the most powerful and influential beings during Virgil's era. The entire Book VI, referring to the underworld, is intended to show how the future leaders of Rome are destined to found it.
The fact that they consume almost the entire good part of the underworld shows that they are the "chosen ones. " In the introduction to this 1939 novel, Hurston says that Africans (and, by extension African Americans) revere Moses "not because of his beard nor because he brought the laws down from Sinai" but "because he had the power to go up the mountain and bring them down... Who can talk with God face to face? Who has the power to command God to go to a peak of mountain and there demand of Him laws with which to govern a nation? ... That calls for power, and that is what Africa sees in Moses. " (13) Hurston incorporates the African tradition into her retelling of the Exodus story, along with that traditions humor, colloquialisms, wit, irreverence, and apocryphal embellishments. The result is probably her most accessible work, an undemanding read that still reflects a mirror on such issues as politics, slavery, and feminism. The novel is remarkably faithful to the original, but Hurston's Old Testaments heroes and their adversaries are fleshed out as lethargic, selfish, dithering, conniving, as well as joyous, loving, and (above all) human.
Moses brother Aaron and sister Miriam, for example, are depicted as much a hindrance to the movement as a help. Moses himself is presented warts and all. As expected, he is the savior who leads a slave nation from captivity to the freedom of a Promised Land, the wise prophet who brings law and government to an unruly and divided people. Still, Hurston's Moses observes that "the first law of Nature is that everybody likes to receive things, but nobody likes to feel grateful.
And the very next law is that people talk about tenderness and mercy, but they love force. If you feed a thousand people you are a nice man with suspicious motives. If you kill a thousand you a hero. " (77) And Moses does kill -- not only Egyptian soldiers hot in pursuit, but 3, 000 of his own people: defenseless, drunken revelers paying homage to a golden calf (Exodus 32: 28), an unforgiving and ruthless act that never fails to jar modern sensibilities. Words Count: 1, 242.
Free research essays on topics related to: aeneas, trojan war, compare and contrast, underworld, proper burial
Research essay sample on Compare And Contrast Proper Burial
