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What Role Does Passion And Duty Play In The Aeneid

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Like when Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, “Science is my passion, politics my duty.” Virgil seems to write Aeneas’s character in the Aeneid with this sense of duty over passion. Being passionate about something versus fallowing orders is not always interpreted in the same way. Writer Michael Shen informs about the roles played by passion and duty in Virgil’s the Aeneid. One example of passion and duty that is found in Shen’s essay is how Aeneas chooses duty over love when dealing with his affair with Dido of Carthage, demonstrating that his commitment to fulfill his destiny is more important. Shen also points out that Virgil frequently refers to Aeneas as being tied to his obligations; he additionally reveals that Aeneas is often found in the
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When Jupiter speaks to Venus about the destiny of Rome in Book 1, lines 241-244, “There Fate holds out a homeland, calm, at peace. There the gods decree the kingdom of Troy will rise again. Bear up. Save your strength for better times to come (Virgil 932).” This quotation shows how the Aeneid demonstrates the evolution of Roman civilization and the understanding of history by reflecting key Roman beliefs in fate and the gods and the importance of perseverance in the face of

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As the God of Fire laboriously forged the shield of Aeneas, he depicted the history of Rome through visualization. History, in these terms, is rather relative. This legendary shield bestowed upon Aeneas by the Gods tells the future. For example, “And set apart, the virtuous souls, with Cato giving laws.” (8.783-784).

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The Aeneid, as well as The Inferno, depict hell as a place where there are multiple levels and where sins are punished differently depending on the degree of severity, the evilest of sins receiving the worst punishments. Virgil like Dante portrays an afterlife in which people are awarded for their deeds. This kind of belief would have been prominent in a character like Aeneas, he would have believed that his deeds would have been justly rewarded in the afterlife. While he most likely did not have the same set of values and virtues that St. Augustine later had after his conversion he did live by a code of honor or a set of values that pertained to his time and culture. The virtue he possessed that motivated him to establish a new home in modern day Rome was one of honor, which was very important to ancient civilizations, both greek and Trojans alike.

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When the poet Virgil wrote the national epic The Aeneid between 29 and 19 BC, all written works and conduits for creative expression were monitored by Roman ruler Augustus Caesar – a real-life contention between passion and control. Throughout the excerpt on pages 139 and 140 of Fagle’s translation (which covers themes such as fate, the gods, and divine intervention, and piety), Virgil explores the underlying theme of conflict between desire and duty, emotion, and reason. Exploring irony, the comparison of Dido and Aeneas’ traits, and pietas being a decision, Virgil shows Aeneas to be a flawed, enigmatic epic Roman hero who personifies the human conflict – passion versus control – of the Aeneid and the Roman empire itself. To begin with, it’s

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In Cicero’s On Duties, Cicero conveys his message through an epistolary format, pathos, and inductive reasoning (rhetorical advice) by showing the audience how a man’s duties are to be conducted with moral guidance and supreme goodness. Cicero writes On Duties in an epistolary format; in other words, he writes it in a letter. There are historical and family implications to his message. First, there was a major civil war going on after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Cicero, a supporter of the Roman Republic, was constantly persecuted by political enemies, such as Mark Antony.

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With quotes such as: “ ...the supreme degree of being and the supreme degree of life are one and the same thing. You [God] are being in a supreme degree and are immutable,” it is to no surprise that most readers interpret God as Saint Augustine’s divide ruler (8). To further their position, these same readers may present evidence as in chapter VIII of the Confessions when Augustine converts to Christianity and accepts God as his “helper and redeemer” (155). They may even argue that the whole point of the memoir is to give his thanks and praise to his Lord and Savior. However, I do not believe that is the Lord who Augustine follows.

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In The Aeneid, Virgil introduces new concepts to his audience, while integrating real-world institutions at the same time. The appearance of the Underworld in The Odyssey and The Aeneid are similar to each other as they both occur almost in the

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Elise Beauchemin Mr. Mosher English 2 2/23/18 Aeneas and the Quintessence of Stoicism The Aeneid, an epic written by Virgil, thousands of years old and yet still read today by many. It tells the story of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, and his efforts to establish order and defend his homeland. Throughout the 9,896 lines of the poem, he lives according to the Ancient Roman ideals of the Stoic. He is the paragon of a Trojan hero who places duty above pleasure, controls his passions and appetites through the power of reason, does not let the storms and stress of life disturb his self-possession and composure, and practices the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

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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

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As Aeneas’ main antagonist, she is first introduced as embittered by a “sharp / and savage hurt, [that] had not yet left her spirit.” (Book I, 39-40). The goddess hates the Trojans because of the judgment of Paris and Jupiter’s ravishment of Ganymede, and she is determined to stop Aeneas from founding Rome. Virgil’s use of “savage” when presenting Juno reflects the unruliness of her emotions and how they have plagued her spirit and mind. Controlled by her passions, Juno’s first act in the Aeneid is the introduction of an element of disorder that serves as the contrast to politics: “Then- burning, pondering-

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The continual decrease in birth rates was an alarming indicator of a decreasing elite class and of the depravity and adultery that plagued the Roman upper classes. Augustus believed that Rome’s long- term survival required adult citizens to produce more children but he did not want to deem this task up to individual conscience (wiki). These new laws which played a central role in the roman family unit for the next three centuries, absorbed and elevated the traditional power of the father figure in a Roman household. Created by Virgil the ancestral Roman hero Aeneas became an icon of Roman pietas or respect. He is often depicted escaping Troy with his father on his back and his son close at hand; The family man who looks back respectfully to the past generation and fights to secure the honor of the next (WoR).

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Literary epics, including the Aeneid, typically have a very poetic and lyrical sense of style in the writing that go hand in hand with the other characteristics of epics such as supernatural forces, the actions of superhuman strength, and a hero or heroine. Authors of epics, for example the Aeneid, the Iliad, and the Odyssey, often include several different themes and lessons that the reader can learn from reading the stories. The themes and lessons vary from simple moral beliefs to psychological behavior. Most themes, however, have to do with the way humans act and human nature. In the Aeneid, one theme that deals with human nature is the idea that strong sentiments or feelings between people or towards situations can overwhelm a person and

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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.

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Virgil wanted to create a means for Rome. “The subject he finally chose was the legendary origin of Rome through the foundation in Italy by Aeneas of lavinium, which founded Alba Longa, which founded Rome”. (Williams, 1992:14) 6 The purpose of roman heroes, which can be seen through the Virgil’s Aeneid is to give means to the origin of Rome (Sinnigen, 1965:55).

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The Aeneid was commissioned by Augustus, the first citizen of Rome. Augustus desired to restore Rome after a brutal civil war and advocated for a conservative standpoint. (Williams). Within the Aeneid, the praise of Augustus’ values does not merely alter the plot, but rather it is the plot. Primarily, the Aeneid is a story about the fate of Rome, not Aeneas himself.

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