What Does the Juxtaposition of Dido and Aeneas Suggest about Virgils Moral Values - Essay Example

Morality Publius Vergilius Maro, best known as Virgil, is a poet whose best known for his poem Aeneid, which is considered the national epic of Rome up to date. In his twelve book poem, he describes the journey of Aeneas, who is a warrior fleeing the capture of Troy to Italy, his stay with the Dido Queen of Carthage and his battles with Turnus an Italian prince. Through his poem, he conveys several themes such as fate, suffering, and glory with all revolving around the morality of both the writer and the characters of the poem. This paper will look the morality of Virgil through the juxtaposition of Dido of Carthage and Aeneas as brought out by Virgil’s poem. ­­ Virgil uses an unorthodox way of portraying morality through his love story tragedy between Dido and Aeneas. By using these two side by side he is able to create a good example of the differences between a good leader and a bad leader in terms of moral standing. First with the fall of Troy, Aeneas is seen following orders from the gods and taking the Trojans to Italy, where they are to set up a new town in which they are to live. He faces many perils battles and test of his ability to lead and he manages to get by with a little push from the gods. He chooses his people over his love for Dido, leaves behind those who are not for his cause and are tired of the journey and fights Turnus just so that he may establish a home for his people. He shows reason, takes responsibility over his people and boasts of commitment to the cause. Dido on the other hand facing the same fate of exile shows the bad characters of a leader. Having fled to escape her brother’s greed, she sets a goal of building a new home for her and her followers. Instead of doing this, she opts to choose her needs over those of her followers. Committing suicide over Aeneas betrayal of her love is an act of selfishness that leaves her people without leadership. Through her actions, here we see that she has little regard for her loyal subjects and does not take into consideration their wellbeing for she deserts them for her own gain. It is also quite evident that Dido’s death was lead to through her thinking with her emotions unlike Aeneas, who was more practical and thought in his mind. At first as Dido hears out the Aeneas story of his escape and journey. The more he talks about the perils he faced with his convoy the more she falls in love with him evident from the line, “By saying this she inflames the queen’s burning heart with love” (Kline 54). She falls in love to a point that she thinks they are married after the incident in the cave in the woods during the storm. When Aeneas says that he must leave and continue with his journey, she is infuriated and wishes him peril in his journey and that their races will hate each other. She resolves to kill herself, “Then the unhappy Dido, truly appalled by her fate, prayed for death: she was weary of gazing at the vault of heaven” (Kline 451-452). She tells her sister Anna to build a pyre for burning some of Aeneas’ belongings which he left behind. She climbs to the top and takes her life with his sword. Her actions here are purely emotional and by doing so, she wrongs here people because she leaves them leaderless. Aeneas on the other hand, after being visited by Mercury and is reminded of his mission, tries to break off the relationship. He claims it is his fate to go to Italy and build a nation as it was a duty given to him by the gods and he must perform it, “But now it is Italy that Apollo of Grynium, Italy, that the Lycian oracles, order me to take: that is my desire, that is my country “ (Kline 345-347). With that, he readies his convoy for the voyage and departs without considering his feelings for Dido. By acting so, Aeneas did the morally just thing. He looked after his people since he was to build them a new home. He forsakes his love for Dido claiming that they are not married so he is not obliged to remain behind with her. Aeneas is also portrayed as a man of reason. Having fallen in love with the queen of Carthage, he is derailed from his obligation to his people. The gods, through Mercury, send word to him, reminding him of his obligation, “The king of the gods himself, who bends heaven and earth to his will, has sent me down to you from bright Olympus: he commanded me himself to carry these words through the swift breezes.” (Klein 269-272). Not wanting to anger the gods, he told Dido of his plans and rallied his convoy to get the ships ready to sail. He explains his situation and obligations to the gods and his people to Dido, who accuses him for betraying their love. Dido on the other hand acts out of anger and madness. Dido would rather take her life than live. Even when they meet in the underworld of Hades, she refuses to hear the explanations he has to give her about the reasons for his departure. Once again, he tells her that he left not of his free will but under the decree of the gods who had commanded him to go and build a new home for his people. Instead, she runs off to the shadows of her husband Sychaeus, “At the last she tore herself away, and, hostile to him, fled to the shadowy grove where Sychaeus, her husband” (Klein 472-474). Having forsaken her people to die out of her own sorrow and later when she meets her lover fails to acknowledge his just reason, she portrays a leader who is not shrewd enough to use reason to guide her actions thus bringing the aspect of immorality to play. Virgil may have gotten his message across through the use of a love story but he still could have done the same using a different plot. The use of tragic love stories is usually meant to portray morality in a different light. The morals portrayed with these stories are more to do with matters of the heart rather than with matters of leadership. Love does not deal with reason, shrewdness and leadership. To use it in this context is out of place, but Virgil being well talented is able to do it with the love he shows between Dido and Aeneas. Similarly, in Homer’s Iliad, we see the writer portray the theme of morality. The Iliad is a Greek epic poem about the Trojan War. Here we see Greek leaders at loggerheads with each other and this almost cost them the war. Having pride as a leader will jeopardize the people under your leadership. Achilles, Agamemnon and Hector all possess pride. Achilles refuses to fight and prays for the gods to let the Greeks be defeated so that Agamemnon may see his importance to the army. He withdraws his army and heads for his ships to camp for the period of the war. His prayers are answered as Hector leads the Trojans against Agamemnon and back him against the wall. Agamemnon on the other hand cannot handle the fact that Achilles is a better warrior than he is. When he goes to battle with the Trojans, he is forced back to the wall he had built to protect the ships. It becomes clear that his pride has cost him the war and he sends for Achilles to come and join him. The feud between the two warriors cost the Greek many lives and almost the whole war. Were it not for the horse, they were defeated. Hector on the other hand knows that the Greek army will destroy his city of Troy once Achilles is called back to the ranks and yet he still wants to fight them. He fails to heed the warning of Polydamas, a Trojan seer. When he kills Patroclus, he enrages Achilles, who comes to kill him in vengeance. With the death of Hector, the Trojan armies are dismayed and fall back to the city. This petty pride leads to the fall of Troy leading to the journey of Aeneas to Italy to set up a new home for the Trojan people. Pride and jealously greatly cost the two warring nations dearly with the Greek army losing many people at the hand of the Trojan army while Troy was lost leaving the Trojans homeless. These attributes are morally wrong to have as a leader for they clearly cloud ones judgment. In the end, it is clear that as a leader, one must respect his or her obligations to the people. Aeneas was to go to Italy and build the Trojan a new home. Though derailed in Carthage, he gets his act together through divine intervention to fulfill his obligation. He uses reason rather than his emotions to assure his success showing good moral values. Unlike Aeneas, Dido, Hector, Achilles and Agamemnon fail to show good morals. Dido’s suicide shows that she only cared for her needs rather than using reason to see she would be leaving her people leaderless. The Greek warriors too let their pride cost them a lot of men in battle and Hector’s choice to fit rather than surrender cost him his city. It is evident that a leader must be shrewd and use reason in making his or her decisions and pride will lead to dire consequences. Works Cited Kline, A. S. "Virgil: Aeneid IV." Poetryintranslation.com, 2012. Web. 12 Apr 2014. .  Kline, A. S. "Virgil:Aeneid VI." Poetryintranslation.com, 2012. Web. 12 Apr 2014. . Read More