A culture will be affected by the heroes it claims as its own – Greek leaders li
A culture will be affected by the heroes it claims as its own – Greek leaders like Alexander the Great modeled themselves on Achilles, where as the Romans claimed Troy as their heritage and felt a soldier should model his behavior on that of Hector and Aeneas. Does this type of admiration and modeling play out in our modern culture as well?
Aeneas is renowned for his pietas, or sense of duty, in much the same way that Achilles is renowned for his rage. Is this always seen as a good trait or not? When Aeneas represents characteristics that are more obviously expected of modern leadership, such as empathy, devotion, care for his men, the ability to inspire with words, why is Achilles still the hero most of Western society remembers?
What kind of Empire was The Aeneid created to champion? How was it different from the Greece championed by The Iliad? What did the Romans value in a hero/leader – and how successful do you feel Virgil was in literally attempting to change the values of the people to look for different leadership characteristics? (For this question you may want to refer to both the Introduction given in the textbook to the Aeneid, and the background provided on Canvas.)
As a whole, we remember and retell the stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey more than The Aeneid. Do you think the fact that The Aeneid was crafted specifically as a founding myth, vs. evolving through centuries of oral storytelling, has anything to do with this?
Do we sympathize more with Dido or with Aeneas, in their confrontations towards the end? Why?
Does Dido, in the end, have more or less agency than the female characters in The Iliad? Why? There are two common ways of viewing this:
Dido functions as a pawn of the gods in this story, used to further the plot and provide conflict or distraction for the character, much the same as in the Iliad before.
Dido functions as the first, true independent female character, acting out of personal passion and motivation and remaining her own woman in spite of the gods’ interference.
Which of these views do you hold and why?
7. Write a paragraph arguing for or against the sentiment that words are mightier than the sword, which is a sentiment Aeneas essentially was crafted to demonstrate. Use the heroes we have read about so far as an example. Also think about the political/public speaking figures we admire vs. say military leaders. These realms do cross, but not all the time. More often you see influential military leaders (Patton), or influential public speakers (most U.S. presidents). Although, great speeches are often associated with times of war (Churchill). Are actions or words more necessary to motivate people? Are they inextricably linked? Keep all these in mind in your argument.
