The virtue of piety was a defining characteristic in Roman life, Romans carried out their everyday lives in accordance of the ideas of pietas which is one’s duty to their family, God, and people; these Roman values are displayed in Virgil’s The Aeneid through the actions of the character Aeneas, and challenged further in the Gospel of Matthew by Jesus Christ. The word “pietas” is a Latin word that means dutifulness, and refers to the balanced duty to a person’s family, gods, and people in Roman culture. The Romans believed that for these duties to be upheld then it must be implemented in one’s everyday life, and this belief of the Romans separated them from other ancient societies. In The Aeneid, Aeneas engages in all aspects of pietas throughout his journey to Italy to become the ancestor to the city of Rome.
Aeneas first example of dutifulness occurs in Book II when he begins to tell his story of how Troy fell and how he escaped the chaos. When the Greeks attacked Troy from within, Aeneas’ initial
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Much like how Aeneas put his life in danger to protect his city and rescue his family from Troy, Jesus teaches self-sacrifice, and one’s commitment to their family however, he reinterprets the definition of family and society. Jesus declares: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me………..and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10: 37-38). Jesus redefines family to be his disciples that devote their entire lives to God. He refines the ideas of society through the Beatitudes by proclaiming the “blessed” which is the model discipleship. The Beatitudes are part of Jesus’ teachings on paving a path to Heaven through selfless acts and compassion; he quotes: “let your light shine before other, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven” (Matthew 5:
The Romans emerged from Italy and formed their culture that can find its roots among an array of native tribes and Greek colonies that populated Italy. There are two parts of the foundation of a Roman’s identity that stemmed from the cultural influences that produced the Romans, their culture and their ideals. The first component of the foundation of the Roman identity is the usage and the incorporation of others’ myths into their own etiological myth. The second part stems from these myths that made the Romans believe that their existence and success was the result of fate. By looking into Virgil’s Aeneid and Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline one can see that this two-part foundation produced a society and people that embodied this idea that they were the best parts of all the cultures
Piety is a difficult word to understand and define. In Plato’s Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, he brings up a dialogue that rings true even today. The question of what piety is, and how can one fully understand so they can thereby live piously. Socrates rejected Euthyphro’s definition of piety as “what is dear to the gods” because this definition was vague, and did not truly explain what piety was and because as the gods are beyond understanding and are ununified, there is no exact set of what they hold dear. Socrates has many problems with Euthyphro’s definitions, because he is looking for Euthyphro to give him an accurate definition, while Euthyphro fails to give a proper definition.
Aeneas is seen as a model of piety, but he is living in a sinful relationship with his mistress Dido, the queen of Carthage. In The Confessions, St. Augustine tells of his spiritual journey from his adolescence when he had no interest in virtue or Christianity
Loyalty is a fickle mistress. At times she is a guiding figure, giving heart to the protagonist’s quest. Other times she betrays the protagonist, turning those one trusts against themselves. Important to note is that loyalty is neither good nor evil, but a means to justify one’s actoins. Two classic examples of loyalty’s nature is The Aeneid and King Lear.
We see this in the epic increasingly present when Aeneas receives oracles or talks with his dad. These people remind him of his destiny and reset him on the path that he began on. So as you can see much of what Aeneas sees as honorable comes from what the gods what him to do, as this was common during this time. It would be similar to someone using a Judeo-Christian model to say what is honorable and what is not in today’s world.
Throughout the ages, authors have offered their opinions on what important qualities and defining characteristics a leader needs to posses by manifesting these critical qualities inside of their characters. One such book, the Aeneid by Virgil, offers such a scenario where Virgil argues that duty to gods should take precedence over everything, and he does not shy away from showing the consequences of when one neglects his or her duty. Virgil accomplishes this idea through his presentation of Aeneas, the main character of the story, as he routinely evidences to the reader that devotion to duty takes precedence over everything-even life itself. Aeneas, for example, even though he often suffers in the moment, he trusts the promptings of the gods,
In the Aeneid written by Virgil the audience gets a history of the Greeks battling the Trojans. The Greeks reached their peak in the Mediterranean world in 6th-5th centuries BC. Greek religion was important to both men and women alike. The ancient Greeks were very religious people. They believed in many Gods, which is seen through the Aeneid.
Hidden beneath the plot of The Aeneid lies a complex question about the trichotomy between fate, free-will, and divine intervention. An example of this tension can be found in book two lines 241-270. This passage of text shows the death of Laocoön and his kin through the intervention of a goddess. Here Virgil shows the integration of this trichotomy. Aeneas’s world is bound by a predetermined fate, and although the characters seem to have free will, fate will be fulfilled, despite how hard they try.
In the Bible and Virgil’s The Aeneid, the pursuit of honor and glory is complex, and it does not come without serious consequences and hardships. However, while Jesus and Aeneas both strive to achieve a certain goal due to divine intervention and both overcome certain adversities, their underlying motives and their ultimate outcomes are starkly different. Although it would appear that neither Jesus nor Aeneas would be motivated by personal fame or glory—as they were sent on godly missions, this is not the case in The Aeneid. Jesus acts completely selflessly as he teaches others about the Kingdom of God and how to live their lives, whereas Aeneas is working to win greatness for his ancestors as he was sent by the gods to settle and create an
This week’s lectures were on the underworlds. I find it interesting how Virgil and Homer had an extremely different view of the underworld off each other. For Homer, he talked about the underworld in the Odyssey with Odysseus as the visitor. Odysseus has no problems going to the underworld he has no issues seen all he had to do was sacrifice a black sheep/ drink blood and is an enlightening experience for Odysseus. He learns about how to go on with the rest of this life thanks to Agamemnon and finds out why Poseidon hates him.
If you take the time to look deeper into Aeneas’s actions with Dido and look at his overall, he shows to be a very mature person that is all about the cause. Even though Aeneas got a warning from Hector’s ghost, he stayed passionate and headstrong to go and fight the Greeks. Throughout, he never seems to lose sight of any of his goals. In reading about Aeneas’s, a modern day reader might focus mainly on his action with Dido and see him as inconsiderate and insensitive. If you take to time to looking more in to his character, you will see that he really cares.
Regular human interaction is a very normal part of life. People interact with each other throughout the entire day, they just do not think about it. But if that human interaction is taken away by loneliness or loss, it has a major effect on our sanity. Virgil, the author of the Aeneid, was born in 70 B.C. near Mantua, Italy. Born into a peasant family, Virgil had many hardships faced early on in his life, which he reflects in his many poetic works.
When Virgil sat down to write Rome’s national epic, he was faced with no small task. He had to produce a masterpiece that would rival Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, please the emperor Augustus, and arouse patriotism in the Roman people. He had to shape Aeneas into a true Roman hero, a valiant man who first survives war and a shipwreck and then chooses duty over love, willingly leaving Dido to fulfill his duty of founding a new empire. Significantly, however, Virgil had a major obstacle to overcome: the Fall of Troy. For Virgil, there was no escaping that Aeneas’s people, the Trojans, lost the Trojan War
He shouldn’t have been able to go back on the battlefield to fight and kill Turnus, but his mother, Venus, saved him. After reading book four and twelve of The Aeneid, it is determined that Aeneas is neither a good or bad character or considered a hero. He is just caught up in the will of the gods with them intervening in every step he makes. Being born on Venus he just happened to be the perfect pawn to do the gods
In The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, written by Yiu Sing Lúcús Chan, a large portion of it is directed towards the eight Beatitudes. Taking place in Matthew, was the teaching that Jesus gave on the mountain, giving hope to the disciples in order to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, living in eternity with God. One of the beatitudes that stood out me was the first, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Chan 161). Also, the second beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Chan 169).