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Emergence of a Conscience To begin with a lot of scholars believe that The Aeneid can be regarded as an interpretation of The Odyssey and Iliad if looking at these two pieces of literature with the eyes of a Roman writer. Even though the plots of these two books are very similar and the main characters act very much alike the writing styles of the writers dont look the same. Talking about the main characters I want to say that Aeneas' character does not share the same features of the Odysseus. Aeneas lacked that leadership that Odysseus possessed Aeneas was coming to be a leader and it was not that fast where as Odysseus was a here and a leader almost from the first days. Aeneas is a great survivor. He's one of those people who can lose everything and still start over again.
He goes from being a victim of the Greeks at Troy to becoming a conqueror in Italy. He starts out as an unhappy and unwilling exile and becomes the founder of a great city. Aeneas is the first hero in Western literature who changes and develops. His struggles help him discover who he is and what he thinks is important. Is Aeneas great because his fate made him great or is he great because he had the courage and determination to live up to the role fate handed him?
There is a side to Aeneas-particularly in the first four books of the Aeneid- that isn't very impressive, even if you can understand why he feels the way he does. He's sad, tired, always waiting for his father or the gods to tell him what to do. But Aeneas always fulfills his duty to his family, to his country, and to the gods, even when he's depressed. He is never selfish. He always puts his responsibility to others first. If you have to name one quality that defines Aeneas, it is this devotion to duty, a quality the Romans called pietas or piety.
This quality keeps him going even when he would rather forget about his fate. Ultimately, this same quality makes him accept, even welcome, that fate. Because, when Aeneas finally realizes that all his efforts will make the glorious Roman Empire possible, his love of his family and his country are fulfilled. The result is that the Aeneas you see at the end of The Aeneid is determined, sure of himself and confident that he knows what's right. He has become a great leader who is able to impose order on people who display more selfish and unruly emotions. Aeneas achieves his self-control at a stiff price to himself and, often, to others.
He leaves Dido, a woman who rescued him and his Trojans and who loves him deeply, with no explanation except that he must follow his fate to Italy. You may decide that he's a cold-blooded achiever. Or you may decide that Aeneas felt terrible pain at leaving Dido and was able to leave only through the heroic mastery of his feelings. Aeneas is a great warrior, able and willing to brutally kill his names, but he is often horrified by death.
Even in the last scene of the Aeneid, where Aeneas kills his most bitter rival, Turns, you see that he has a moment of pity. Aeneas does not just live in the moment. He lives with a strong sense of history. He remembers his past in Troy and he sees the future in store for his people. Aeneas' own life shows the terrible price men pay to build great civilizations. He has to suppress his own feelings in order to bring order.
But one of the greatest features that, I believe, Aeneas had was his feeling of conscience. He had attributed it in the cases when it was needed the most. His pity, warmth and of course his duty towards his family had made him more human than Odysseus. Aeneas always had fulfilled his duty to his fated city, his gods and his family.
This piousness sustains him through the grueling journeys and challenges, even when things are not going well for him. Pietas is the characteristic that makes Aeneas stronger through each trial as he makes personal sacrifices and never wavers from his duties to his family, his country, and most of all to the gods. The complete devotion to Aeneas family is a admirable trait of piety. Aeneas love for his kin is exemplified in his fleeing of falling Troy. He was recalling his story to Dido when he realizes that there was no use fighting any longer, and that he must leave Troy; he hurries off to find his family. Once he reaches his family, he has his father, Anchises, on his shoulder, Ascanius, his sons little hand in his own, and Creusa, his wife close behind as they head off for the ships.
When he reaches his destination at the funeral mound, he realizes that his wife was missing. Aeneas "turned back alone into the city nothing for it but to run the risks again comb of all Troy, and put his life in danger as before" (Aen. 2: 975 - 979). His devotion to his wife was worth risking his life in order to bring her to safety. As he frantically searches "in endless quest from door to door" (Aen. 2: 1001) for Creusa, her ghost appeared to him and told to him that she cannot go with him because she was no longer living, but to go back to the family and that a special mission is ahead of him.
Personal loss is a tragedy that Aeneas must face as he ventures on to reach is fate. His pious personality and his feeling of conscience are the characteristic that had saved his family and had lead him on his journey to the future founding of Rome. Every battle that Aeneas fights, is a battle fought for his country. In book II, during his recollection of the end of Troy, he tells Dido that even though he was told to flee, he did stay back for a short while and fight. The reason for this action could be that he could not stand to see the destruction of his home.
After his escape of Troy, Aeneas endures journey after journey of disastrous outcomes. His pieta here is what kept him going through the grueling time. As he was telling his heartfelt story to the queen, Dido, she was falling helplessly in love with Aeneas. During the stay at Carthage, the love between Dido and Aeneas bloomed. The stop at the city turns into a yearlong settlement. Jupiter, ruler of the gods, began to get angry because Aeneas is not fulfilling his destiny.
He sends out his messenger to scold Aeneas and remind him that he has duties to accomplish. Aeneas must now choose between his fate and his love for Dido. As he fought down his emotion for Dido, Aeneas makes the decision to carry out the gods instruction. After making the personal sacrifice of losing Dido to the future of Rome, Aeneas exemplified that he is worthy of the term piety. And again here we see great example of conscience that Aeneas reveals in the right moment. After he leaves Carthage, he eventually arrives at Cumae where a battle against the Italians breaks out.
During the fighting, Aeneas kills many enemies, but one incident glorifies his piety. As he was fighting young Lausus, he "drove his tough sword through the young mans body" (Aen. 10: 1142), the death on his pale face made Aeneas "groan in profound pity and wrung his own heart" (Aen. 10: 1151 - 1152). After he kills Lausus, Aeneas faces Mezentius, the young dead soldiers father, and was driven to slay him too. Aeneas kills the father and son duo with pity in his heart as he fights for his country. He does his duty, to fight for his destiny with devoutness to his gods.
Aeneas duty to the gods exemplifies his piousness. Through his journeys and challenges, he prays to his gods and asks for blessing. He has total devotion to the gods, possibly because of his half divine. With Venus as his mother, she always watches over him, intervenes with trouble to help out her son.
In book III, Aeneas prays at a shrine of Apollo to "grant a home and walls to weary men" (Aen. 3: 117 - 118). As Aeneas stays in the home and walls of Carthage, Mercury sent by Jupiter, reminds him that he must remember his fate, and that he should leave immediately. Knowing that he will hurt Dido and leave his happiness, he is being dutifully following the words of Mercury. While following the gods command in Cumae, Aeneas "spoke out his vows" (Aen. 12: 236) to the "almighty Father, and his lady-thou, Saturnia, more kindly to us goddess, now, I pray; and thou, too, famous Mars, " (Aen. 12: 239 - 243) and "call on springs and streams, and all the powers both of high heaven and the deep blue sea. " (Aen. 12: 244 - 245) Even during the suspense of his battle with the Italians, he glorifies the gods and prays for peace to come. Aeneas displays piety to the gods at times of battle and war. His duty and devotion to the gods leads him to the victory over the Italians and to the land.
Aeneas victory at the end venerates his piousness. His ability to keep going through endless heartaches and disappointments strengthens him as a hero and as a leader. This admirable trait is shown through the love he has for his family, the devotion of reaching his fate of finding the new city, and the duty to his gods as he ventures through his mission. His pietas was confirmed when he put aside his heart to comply with the wills of the gods.
Virgil idealizes Aeneas as a model of great leadership, firm on his beliefs, but also a compassionate person and a man who feels tha emergence of conscience. He is a symbol of the great Roman virtues of pietas. Bibliography Fitzgerald, Robert. The Aeneid. Translation of Virgil's The Aeneid, New York: Random House, 1983.
Virgil. The Aeneid, Book II. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. 1971 by Allen Mandelbaum. By permission of Bantam Books. Inc.
All Rights Reserved. P. p. 36 - 37. Eastwood, Atwater. (1988) The Aeneid. 2 nd edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall
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