Women In The Aeneid

Women in Virgil’s The Aeneid and the Gospel of Mark are portrayed quite differently. In The Aeneid, Mercury states that an “uncertain and inconstant thing is women” in reference to the irrationality expressed during their emotional states. It can be further said that such irrationalities pose as obstacles to the mission of Aeneas. However, this is not always true. Much of the emotions experienced and the actions carried out by these women are the result of control, disregard, and attacks on dignity. Therefore, the women act on behalf of a certain reason. In the Gospel of Mark, women are not seen from a negative standpoint but are instead praised, respected and defended. They serve a vital role in the life of Jesus. The male counterparts in

Many deaths arise during the war between the Trojans and the Rutulians. One of these deaths is that of Euryalus. Rumor soon tells the mother of Euryalus, who had no idea of her son’s fatal decision, of his death. His mother “wretched, runs out, and with a woman’s wailing, tearing her hair and heedless of men’s presence and the darts and danger, mad, she races towards the walls’ front lines (Aeneid 9.633-637).” There, she speaks her sorrows and asks for her self destruction. The grief that women encounter is much different than that of men. It is here that gender distinction is seen. Pallas, son of Evander, is given consent by his father to fight in war. He, too, is told of his son’s death by Rumor, but does not act like the mother of Euryalus. Instead, Evander comes to terms with his son’s death saying “But if ultimately death was waiting for my son, then I am glad he fell while leading on the Teucrians to Latium, and only after he had cut down thousands of the Volscians’ army (Aeneid 11.215-219).” The sorrows represented by the mother seem to devalue the view of women. It makes them seem irrational and excessive in their emotions when the circumstances of both sons were