Virgil's Aeneid: Furor and Pietas

Duty, Passion and War in Rome's Epic Masterpiece

An exploration of duty and passion - or Pietas and Furor - in Virgil's Aeneid, and how these apply to the
characters of Dido and Aeneas.

Virgil portrays a set of distinctly Roman heroic virtues throughout the Aeneid, which encompass very
different ideals regarding ones duty to family, country and gods, when compared to the epic poetry of
Homer.

What emerges is a depiction of two ideologically opposing concepts, those of Furor and Pietas, which serve
to illustrate the unique qualities of a Roman ruler and set Virgil's hero apart from passionate characters such
as Homer's Achilles, the Aeneid's anti hero Turnus, and the Carthaginian queen Dido.

Dido's Deterioration

Dido is an interesting example because she is a figure who is characterized by both Pietas and Furor in quick
succession. Initially she is portrayed by Virgil as the ideal ruler. She is pro active in government, 'giving
laws and rules of conduct to her people, and dividing work into equal parts'.(Bk1, 508) She is pious,
devoting a great temple to Juno, and also magnanimous, as she treats Aeneas' comrades with hospitality and
respect.

Dido becomes an example for Aeneas, as it is from her devotion to Pietas or duty, that Carthage's prosperity
is shown to derive. Virgil is also illustrating the positive effects of a capable and self sacrificing head of
state, and inviting a comparison with his emperor and patron, the great Augustus Caesar.

However Dido's divinely manipulated deterioration into a bad ruler allows Virgil the opportunity to portray
the direct antithesis to these noble ideals. Dido's destruction is brought about by a lack of self control and
her indulgence of selfish passion, which completely undermines all of her prior qualities and sends her city
into disarray.

We learn that 'all the work that had been started, the threatening ramparts...great walls and cranes...all stood
idle' (Bk4, 470) and Virgil is depicting how individual desire is incompatible with a leaders responsibility to
maintain the stability of the social order.

Dido becomes the archetypal bad ruler, she is dominated her Furor, and descends from an ideal leader who
'bore herself joyfully among her people..like Diana'(Bk1,502) to a woman dominated by her passion who
'raged and raved round the whole city like a Bacchant.'(Bk4,307)

In contrast, Aeneas is forced to endure his own suffering, to 'fight down the anguish in his heart'(Bk4,580)
and to remain 'faithful to his duty much as he longed to sooth her sorrow.'(Bk4,583) His decision to abandon
Dido becomes 'a heroic and kingly choice of virtue' (Cairns, 50) an expression of Pietas, an an action worthy
of great admiration in the Roman world.

War and Furor

However Aeneas' Furor is also demonstrated throughout the epic, and his quest becomes a character
reformation, where he shifts from a Homeric individualist ruled by his passion, to a self sacrificing hero,
who upholds the duty or Pietas to his family, country and gods over all other things.
This is illustrated most explicitly during book two – the flashback to Troy - where Aeneas is motivated by
nothing more than his desire to seek a glorious death in battle. He relates how 'frenzy and anger drove me on
and suddenly it seemed a noble thing to die in arms'.(Bk2,321) However it is clear that Virgil is not out to
romanticize war in the same way as Homer – most likely due to his own experiences – and is therefore keen
to illustrate the selfishness and futility of Aeneas wish to die gloriously. Restrained by the divine
intervention of his mother, he comes to understand that the preservation of his family and country are much
greater priorities.

This also evokes several other interesting concepts regarding the way Virgil is portraying the use violence
and the reality of war. Rather than war becoming an opportunity for personal glorification, we see Aeneas
heroic efforts in battle suddenly re directed from the futile and selfish wish to die gloriously, to the
preservation of his Gods and family.

This is illustrated by Creusa's plea 'if you have reason to put hope in arms, your first duty is to guard this
house.'(Bk2,432) Seeking war and strife for no good reason is certainly not the action of a Roman hero, as
Romans liked to believe that their acts of conquest were justifiable measures of self defense. War is depicted
by Virgil as a last resort, and learning to apply force when necessary is another important ideal Aeneas must
strive to understand.

Virgil's Aeneid and the Roman State

The Political Agenda of Virgil's Epic

A discussion of how the Aeneid reflects the political context of Augustus' Pax Romana, and Virgil's
portrayal of heroic virtue compared to Homer.

Written as an embodiment of the cultural ideals of the Roman state, Virgil's Aeneid was an epic masterpiece
worthy of serving the Romans in the same way as Homer's epics had served the Greeks. Virgil was in awe of
Romes transition into a new golden age under the leadership of Augustus which promised a new era of
prosperity under the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), and an end to the one hundred years internal strife which
had almost torn the empire apart.

His epic was in part to help consolidate the position of Romes ruler by portraying his divine linage, but also
to reaffirm in Romes citizens the sense of pride in their origin which had become obscured by the empires
rapid growth and internal instability.

Virgil depicts Aeneas as a new type of epic hero more befitting the Roman age. One who must overcome
suffering and trails in order to reach a moral ideal of leadership, and understand the sometimes painful
realities necessary for the successful outcome of his quest.

Aeneas - A New Type of Epic Hero

One of the most significant ways in which Virgil reflects the unique ideals of a Roman hero is through his
use of certain parallels. Book one is interesting in the way it follows a very similar narrative structure to that
of Book five of the Odyssey, and it seems that Virgil is inviting the reader to recourse back to Homer in
order to highlight the contrast between Aeneas and Homeric heroes like Odysseus. This analogy makes the
reader aware of the distinctive nature of Aeneas as an epic hero when compared to those of the Greek era,
and during books one to four, Virgil seems keen to portray how prone he is to lapses of human weakness.

As the storm strikes his fleet, we learn that 'a sudden chill went through Aeneas and his limbs grew
weak'(92-101) as he considers the possibility of an inglorious death, and with several of his ships missing,
he is forced to show his men 'the face of hope' (180-81) and 'keep his misery deep in is heart'.(195) These
descriptions illustrate the way in which Virgil's Aeneid is portraying a shift from the Greek ideals of heroic
virtues to those more befitting the ideology of Roman culture.

We see Aeneas practicing self control and taking on the burden of grief for the good of his men. He makes it
his personal responsibility to provide for them by killing seven deer – one for each of his ships – and shares
out the wine of Acestes 'with a hero's generosity'.(194-97) At a very early stage of the epic, Aeneas is
established as a leader who makes the well being of his followers his main priority and who endures
personal suffering on their behalf in a way quite alien to most other epic heroes.

Augustus - The Ideal Imperialist

These acts of selfless leadership are one of the key ideals being evoked by Virgil, and it is a concept which
ties in with one of Augustus' key justifications for imperial rule, 'that the princeps undertook the enormous
burden and cares of the imperium.'(Cairns: 32) Unlike the selfish, individualist Homeric heroes like
Odysseus and Achilles, Aeneas toils and suffers as a leader out of a profound sense of duty to his followers.

However these heroic virtues are initially applied inconsistently, and it appears that Virgil is deliberately
illustrating human frailty and weakness in Aeneas in order to demonstrate his reformation in a way which is
educative. Aeneas quest is essentially one of self improvement in which he must learn to abstain from selfish
acts of pleasure, overcome human weakness, and learn to embody a set of values highly prized in the Roman
age.