The Aeneid



The Aeneid

Introduction

The poem narrates the story of Aeneas who was a Trojan (Virgil, 19BC). He decided to exit leave his destroyed city upon getting an order from his God, Mercury. He planned to set up a new city in foreign land. The idea which gave him strength was the fact that the newly developed city will one day turn into the Empire of Rome. The themes of poem include mythological powers, jealousy, love, human politics sufferings, and top of all the duty. The story took place somewhere around 1000 B.C. The poem poses some interesting question on the reader, such as how did Aeneas' piety and sense of duty change? Is it a political poem? And is it propaganda? The paper plans to answer these questions.

Discussion

Aeneas Sense of Duty

After reading the poem many times, I feel that Aeneas sense of duty did change. Enhancement of dutiful virtues of Aeneas can be clearly seen through his actions (Lincoln, 2007); as the poem begins Aeneas introduced himself as a dutiful person, and his actions continued to express his sense of duty, as the poem unfolds. The case of Aeneas is not that of starting performing actions from no actions, but he transformed into a higher degree of duty and honor. Right from the beginning of the poem, Aeneas is shown as a dutiful person. Initially, he left his city, for the will of God; then he swayed off the truck due to lust and finally he unselfishly placed his own life on stake for the sake of good for all.

It was Aeneas sense of duty which made him act against his wills because he understood the fact that it is far more important to please God, as compared to pleasing himself. He never let the emotions overcome his sense ...