The Ocala evening star., 1920-06-15

" IltI IIt was CHdISSu WIFI USHls5
Homer's SMILES as if they were his
owE, he merely replied. "Only the
strong can WELD the club of Her
cules."
The part which divine personages
| take in the Aeneid is very important
Aitho they do not seem as active as
those pictured by Homer nevertheless
| they are interested in a more stately
and dignified manner The favoritism
of the various gods is traced back to
their origin and the divine protection
OF the founder of Rome is we'll shown.
Still more ancient was the Romans
worship of their dead and their belief
i'll their temperance. In the Aeneid
we find the clearest indications of this
form of belief. The whole of the
sixth book is inspired by the feeling
Of the greater spiritual life of man
beyond the grave. The conceptions
Of this book entitle Virgil to take his
place among the great religious
teachers of the world.
To be true epic a poem must es-
sentially contain, besides the things
already mentioned, a faithful repre-
sentatiOn of the manners and GUS
toms of the time. In the manners of
Nirgil's characters we recognize the
influence of refined traditions and
habits of dignified society. His per-
sCnages show not only courtesy but
studied consideration for each other.
The customs are carefully portrayed
and the reader is initiated into the
religious, social and political life of
the age.
Altho the Aeneid is essentially ali
epic, no thorough appreciation can be
written Omitting its qualities as a
Gl amatic and lyric poem. The de-
scription of the fall of Troy in which
is graphically portrayed the grandeur
OF the armies, the heroism of the
leaders and the tenseness of the stu
ations- at once establishes Virgil rs a
dramatist.
The human interest in this narra~
tive is gripping and there has been no
more absorbing or vital story ever
written. The action is skillfully sus-
tanned thruout; the contrasts are
vivid and convincing and the climaxes
and anticlimaxes are attained by a
masters touch Thus, after the
thrilling description of the fail Of
Troy, the action suddenly changes,
and Aeneas weary, discouraged,
broken-hearted, bids farewell to the
scenes of his former grandeur and de-
parts for the mountains.
The conception and delineation of
Dido's passion is powerful Virgil is
much better at conceiving a state of
feeling, some pathetic or passionate
scene rather than creating and sus-
tanning the development of living
characters. Truly it may be said that
Dido is Virgi's only original charac-
ter, and she ranks for all times as
one of the great herOines of poetry.
The most tragic element in the de-
velCpment of her love for Aeneas is
the struggle which her love has with
her sense of fidenity to her dead hus
band. The first feeling awakened in
| her mind was compassion for Aeneas
and a desire to share her fortune with
| his weary followers. This compassion
rapidly deepens into love, which is
| but step to an absorbing and fatal
passion that leads to insanity.
! Restless visions in the night, the
memory of ancient prophecies. and
| the voice of her former husband call
/ ing confirm her in her resolution to
! die Virgil's art reaches its sublim-
est elevation in the description of her
self-inficted death, when on her fun
/ eral Dyre she invokes a dire curse
against Aeneas and all his race.
81 shall die unavenged," she says,
''still let me diet is thus, thus, I
fain would pass into the shades; may
the cruel Trojan drink in with his
eyes the sight of this fire from the
deep, and carry along with him the
omen of my DEATH"
Virgil had a strong sense of COM
passion as we'll as dramatic instinct
for tho Dido met her death breathing
bitter denunciations, he sends Iris 20
cut lock of her hair and free her
struggling soul.
Considering Virgil as a lyric poet
it is hard to determine what more of
elegance, of compact structure or OF
varied harmony Virgil might have i'm
parted to his rythm had he lived to
devote more time to the revisal of his
work. In long narrative poem the
perfect rhythmical smoothness that
characterizes the Georges is hardly
to be expected.
English readers may hold that the
Aeneid is inferior in majesty to Mil
ton but it is easier and less cumber-
some. 1t also flows in a more varied
anG self-sustained stream than the
overfowing current of Spencer's
verse. The Latin hexameter became
for Virgil an exquisite and powerful
medium for communicating to others
his animated or impressive narrative
his grave or impassioned oratory, his
apt SMILES, his elevated moods and
for calling up that Spectacle of a
statelier life in which his spirit ha-
bitually lived.
(All who have read the Aeneid will
at once recognize the merit and