The Aeneid (19 B.C.)
Arma virumque cano (I sing of arms and the man.)
One of the first great literary works of Western Civilization, The Aeneid is the founding epic of Rome, making the case for a sort of Roman version of Manifest Destiny. It picks up with the fall of Troy and follows Aeneas and a hardy band of survivors through their victory over and fusion with the Latins. Along the way, it explains the undying enmity between Rome and Carthage, as Aeneas abandons his lover Dido, Queen of Carthage, and, in its day, it served as a justification for the rise and rule of Caesar Augustus, portraying the Roman Empire as predestined and paralleling Aeneas and Augustus as instruments of that destiny. In fact, Virgil, despite over a decade of effort, considered the work to be unfinished and unworthy, so he requested that it be burned upon his death, but Augustus, thankfully, intervened and saved it.
One interesting facet of the story is that Aeneas himself often takes a back seat to other characters. In particular Dido and the Latin warrior Turnus, prince of the Rutulians. Indeed, Turnus emerges as one of the great heroes in literature as he struggles against the fates and he wars against Aeneas and the Trojans, whom the gods have decreed will rule all of Italy.
One of the great tragedies of modern education is the rarity of Latin
and Greek in the curriculum, replaced by French and Spanish. Hard
to believe I wasted 6 years on Spanish classes (never learning to conjugate
verbs mind you) when we could have been learning not merely the languages
upon so much of English is based, but also studying the great seminal works
of Western Civilization. The epic poems of Virgil and Homer remain
vital to our culture and remain well worth reading.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (A)
