Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-12


AIMS and The Man of Destiny are
The subject of Virgips story, in
which he portrays the birth of
nation.
The author goes far back into his
tory as Homer told it, to find a
national hero for his people. But
his story has one great difference
from the Had and ODYSSEY, from
which it borrows so much besides a
hero. Homer's tales are spontane-
Gus stories of the great chiefs who
stand at the beginning of Greek his
tory, while Virgil, a man of letters
and a 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 Ae-
meas or the Italian nation is the
hero of the great national story.
In Homer. Aeneas stands along
side Hector as one Of the great
champions Of Troy. When the city
falls he is one of the few Trojans
to escape destruction. With his
venerable father Anchises on his
shoulders, his son held by the hand,
and his wife following, 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 persistent foe of
all that was Trojan. 1t is at this
point that Virgil takes up the tale
of his Man Of Destiny. 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 had long since persisted. At
Juno's orders the god of the winds
sends forth tempest which drives
the ships to Africa. 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 ris-
ing city of Queen Dido. Happy
chance brings the hero and the queen
together, a generous and kindly hos
pitality follows, the everwatchful
Venus produces in place of Aeneas'
son Ascanius, her own mischievous
cupid. The queen of Carthage can
no more resist.
A regal entertainment is set be
fore the visitors in a scene of vast
magnificence. 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 all the mag
mates of her court gathered around,
with Aeneas' companions as we'll,
the queen fondling the little Ascan-
ius in her arms-remember that
rogue Cupid was playing the part
the prince began the famous tale
Of the last night of Troy, the STRAIT
egem of the wooden horse, the story
of LAGOON, and all the rest, to which
follow his own escape with his
many years wanderings. 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. It is one of
the most widely read the most adj
mired, the most discussed stories in
mcned to it his greatest art; he did
not hesitate to borrow from the
great writer's Of the past, particular
ly from the Medea of Apollonius
Rhodius, the fine tale of romantic
love which has come from Alexan-
dra in the late days of the Greek
genius. Virgil is not a supreme ar
fist in the portrayal of character as
Homer was, but in the picture of the
tender and pathetic passion of the
nueen he rose to his highest point.
The queens confession of her love
to her sister; the great hunting party
for her lovers entertainment; the
storm that separates the hunters and
drives the royal pair to a cave alone,
the queens tenderness; and then the
flight of the pious Aeneas; the
queens entreaties; the portrayal of
all the passion Of a sighted wom-
an; and finally her own self-in-
flicted death as the hero. flees to a
higher duty-it is splendidly done.
For the hero as an individual there
can be nothing but the most per-
feet contempt. His only excuse is
that he is the Man of Destiny; indi-
viduals must play subordinate role
in the great drama of a race. The
Italian who reads the story remem-
bers the bitter enmity between Rome
and Carthage. remembers the years
of trouble Hannibal was later to
lay on the descendants of Aeneas,
and must have reason for 1t all.
The modern reader has a different
point of view and wishes that the
poet had found a more glorious role
for the national hero, the mighty
founder of a race destined to rule
| the world. For Aeneas thoroughly
deserved the imprecations heaped up-
| on his head by the dying Dido.