The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-09-29
VIRGIL,'S AENElD


Arms and The Man of Destiny are
the subject Of Virgils story, in which
he portrays the birth of a nation.
The author goes far back into his
tory as Homer told it, to find a nat
lonal hero for his people. But his
story has one great difference from
the Illiad and the Odyssey, from which
it borrows so much besides hero.
Homer's tales are spontaneous stories
OF the great chiefs who stand at the
beginning Of Greek history, while
Virgil, man of letters and patriot
who would make plausible the divine
mission of his race to rule the world,
deliberately chooses his hero and then
makes for him a history to suit his
needs. One wonders sometimes
whether Aeneas or the Italian nation
is the hero of the great national story.
In Homer, Aeneas stands alongside
Hector as one OF the great champions
of Troy. When the city falls he is
one of the few Trojans who escape
destruction. With his venerable father
Anchises on his shoulders, his son
held by the hand, and his wife fol
lowing, he makes his way to the shore
and takes ship with a large company
OF his following to seek a new land
and found a new kingdom. But he
has hanging over him the inveterate
hostility of the goddess Juno, the per-
sistent foe Of all that was Trojan.
After the fashion advised by Horace,
he plunges into the midst Of things.
After some six years Of wandering,
Aeneas sets sail for Italy, after he
has lost his father in Sicily. His wife
has long since persisted. At JunO's
orders the god of the winds sends
tempest which drives the hips to AT
RIGA. His mother, the Goddess Venus,
does her best to make up for the
harshness Of Juno, foretells to him
the greatness that lies in store for
him and his race, and directs him to
Carthage, the rising city of Queen Di-
do. Happy chance brings the hero
and the queen together, a generous
and kindly hospitality follows, the
everwatchful Venus produces in place
of Aeneas, son Ascanius, her own mis-
cheviOus Cupid. The queen of Car
thage can no more resist.
\ regal entertainment is set before
the visitors in a scene of vast magnif-
icence. At the end of the banquet the
queen demands his story from the
royal wanderer, just as King Alcinous
had asked the same from Odysseus
With al 1.-The magnates of her court
gathered around, with AeneaS' COM
panions as we'll, the queen fondling
/ the little Ascanius in her arms-re-
member that rogue Cupid, was play
ing the part-the prince began the IA
nous tale of the last night Of Troy,
the stratagem Of the wooden horse,
/ the story Of LAGOON, and all the rest,
to which follow his own escape with
his people, and his many eyars' wan
derings, his meeting with AndrOmache
in Epirus, and all the events that
had taken the six years Of his life
Then follows the famous fourth book
of the Aeneid, the great story of the
passionate love of Dido for the Man OF
| Destiny. 1t is one Of the most widely
read, the most admired, the most dis
cussed stories in the worlds literature
Virgil summoned to it his greatest art;
he did not hesitate to borrow from
the great writer's of the past, partlc
ularly from the Medea of Appo!inius
Rhodius, the fine tale of romantic love
which has come from Alexandria il
the late days of the Greek genius
Virgil is not a supreme artist in the
portrayal of character as Homer was
but in the picture of the tender anC
pathetic passion Of the queen, he rose
to his highest point. The queens con
Bfession of her love TO her sister the
great hunting party for her lover:
entertainment; the storm that separ
ates the hunters and drives the roya
pair to a cave alone, the queen:
tenderness; and then the flight of thu
piOus Aeneas; the queens entreaties
the portrayal Of all the passion o
a sighted woman; and finally he
own self-inflicted death as the here
flees to higher duty-it is splendid!
done. For the hero as an individual
there can be nothing but the mos
perfect contempt. His only excuse
is that he is the Man of Destiny
individuals must play a subordinat
role in the great drama of race. The
Italian who reads the story remember!
the bitter enmity between Rome ant
Carthage, remembers the years o
, trouble Hannibal was later to lay o.
tho descendants of AoOpac an5 ,oo-,c