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What Is Belfiore's Loyalty To Aeneas

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Lee, 25. Lee discusses the Dido episode as a whole, rather than a specific section. He argues a passionate Aeneas would be a “less than worthy founder” and the founding of Rome “would be less a design of the gods and more the … trick of some occult force”. I argue the importance of Aeneas’s disconnection from emotion places more emphasis on the gods and his devotion to the gods. Lee and I agree with the idea that Aeneas’s devotion to his mission and the gods make him more heroic and more worthy of his name. Belfiore, 21. Belfiore and I discuss the same passage here, but we interpret it very differently. Belfiore says this passage reveals Aeneas’s “personal loss [as] still more important to him than his duty to the future revealed by the ghost”. I argue that the “future revealed by the ghost” is what convinces Aeneas to turn around and leave Troy. Belfiore’s account offers great insight in how important family and love is to Aeneas, which grants a deeper understanding of why it is difficult for him to leave Troy and Dido. However, I would disagree that his family could convince him to stop the pursuit of his mission because he ultimately ends up leaving after he interprets the sign. By the completion of the book, Belfiore argues, Aeneas is completely changed and would no longer choose his family over his …show more content…

Belifore’s thoughts on the relationship between Ascanius and Aeneas influenced my addition of a new passage to strengthen my refutation of a counter-argument. Belfiore discusses the transformation of Aeneas from the beginning of the book until he embraces his son for the last time. Belfiore explains how this embrace is the ultimate changing point for Aeneas’s impersonal pietas. His pietas is now fully oriented toward the future—the future of Rome and the future of his son. Her insight intensifies our appreciation for Aeneas’s pietas because readers can clearly see the transformation of Aeneas’s character to steadfast, impersonal, and

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Aeneas, however, is also simply pointing out that personal feelings don 't mean anything in the face of piously doing your duty and following fate. If he 'd chosen to follow his personal feelings, he 'd have never even started on this journey that led him to Dido. However, Aeneas’ choice to leave Dido seems like a weak move considering Dido defies her own fate because her own emotions are so powerful – this speaks to the idea that furor and human emotion unbridled is more potent and meaningful than being dedicated to pietas and accepting one’s fate. But it also ends disastrously

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Despite his intial feelings, Aeneas eventually surpasses the temptation of death and leads the evacuation of Troy, realizing that the wellbeing of the people is worth surviving, and that a life in defeat is worth enduring, in hope of a better future. His decision to run instead of fight, his exercise of prudence and fortitude in a position of rage, and his devotion to the future wellbeing of his people represents a more humane, noble and heroic way to

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