Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

THE CHIEF CHARACTERS
development of Aeneas' character, and Virgil points this with emphasis. After
the description of Augustus Anchises breaks off to ask his son
et dubitamus adhuc uirtutem extendere factis,
aut metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra? (6.806—7)
And do we still hesitate to enlarge our prowess by deeds, or does fear prevent us from
founding a settlement in the Ausonian land?
Aeneas does not answer — but we can answer for him; there can be no more
hesitation now. And finally as Anchises escorts Aeneas along the way back to the
upper world he has fired his heart with passion for the glory awaiting him;
incenditque animum famae uenientis amore (6.889). This passion must overcome
all other passions which Aeneas as an individual has felt and will feel
again. His passive acceptance of duty now turns into a positive and dynamic
urge.
In the second half of the poem the interest shifts from the question of whether
Aeneas is strong enough and devoted enough to achieve his mission (his
experiences in the underworld have ensured that he will be) to the question of
how he is to achieve it. What does the man ofpietas, the man of deep human
sympathies, do when he is confronted by violent opposition? Virgil was too
much a realist, and too much a child of his violent times, to pretend that
opposition promptly melts away before righteousness; yet he was himself a
gentle person with nothing of the soldier in him, and could take little pleasure in
the ruthless triumph of power, however justly based it might seem to be. The
second half of the poem explores this question, and this is one of the things
which Virgil meant when he said in his new invocation (7.44—5):
maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo,
maius opus moueo
A greater series of events arises before mej I undertake a greater task.
For most of the time during the war in Latium Aeneas presents a picture of a
just and merciful general, caring for his own men, and generous to the enemy.
When Lausus intervenes in the battle to try to save his father Mezentius, and
Aeneas is forced to kill him, he is filled with remorse and sorrow and himself
lifts up the dead body with words of compassion (10.821 ff.). When the Latin
envoys ask for a truce to bury the dead, Aeneas willingly grants it and wishes
there could have been a truce for the living too (n.io6fF.). When the arrangements
for a single combat between himself and Turnus are violated and general
fighting breaks out again, Aeneas rushes into the midst, unarmed and unhelmeted,
urging his men to control their anger (12.31 iff.). It is on the whole true
to say that Aeneas hates war and fights because it is his bitter duty, in contrast
with Turnus who is most himself on the battlefield.
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