Examples Of Propaganda In The Aeneid

Virgil’s The Aeneid provides a plethora of symbols and metaphors relating to events that occurred during and directly before the reign of Augustus. This can be seen with throughout the piece and especially in book 6, with the story of Anchises, Aeneas’ father, discussing all the great Romans that will spring from the great city that Aeneas is bound by fate to found. The reasons behind this are clear when it is understood that Virgil was paid to write the piece for the Augustan Empire as a form of propaganda. Despite the intertwined propaganda, Virgil still managed to show examples of literary freedom and demonstrate current public opinion. Stories of his relationship with Dido, the dream gates, and the gifted shield distinctly lead to this conclusion. In the very first book of the Poem, where Virgil begins in medias res, Aeneas meets the Queen of Troy Dido. The gods cause him to appear “in bright light from head and shoulders noble as a god’s...beauty of hair and bloom of youth” (1.589-91). This should come as no surprise as Aeneas’ role is to serve as the embodiment of all Romans. This good impression and the feast that follows allows a forum from which Aeneas can describe, for the next few books, the disastrous and long journey …show more content…
This argument is on the basis of the gates’ description in The Aeneid. They are described as, “of horn, whereby the true shades pass with ease, the other all white ivory agleam, without a flaw, and yet false dreams are sent through this one by the ghosts to the upper world” (6.892-96). Of the two gates, the one of Ivory is described in better detail and with seemingly more regard than the alternative gate. Following this line of reasoning, Anchises had a disposition to simply pick the fairer of the two gates. Virgil’s artful depiction can be seen in this chapter, appears most often surrounding in major point in the