Similarities Between Aeneas And Tariq Ibn Ziyad

Downtrodden on the Mediterranean coastline, the hero rises before his cohort as they face overwhelming obstacles and rallies them onward to fortune and glory. This striking image coincidentally illustrates the origin of two disparate domains: Aeneas begetting the Roman people and Tariq ibn Zayid seizing the Iberian Peninsula for the Islamic Caliphate. The scenes of these heroes’ rousing speeches echo each other both literally and literarily as they open the classic tale of the birth of their cultures. The fictional Aeneas of Virgil’s epic poem as well as Tariq ibn Ziyad, who would be permanently veiled by legend and hyperbole, would become glorified by their supposed descendants them long after the facts had faded from the historical record. Their imposing images were intended to embellish the empires that succeeded them and have since …show more content…
While geographically the speeches are rather far apart, with a wayward Aeneas “shipwreck[ed] on the coast of Africa near Carthage” and Tariq ibn Ziyad having already crossed into Europe over the Strait of Gibraltar a thousand miles westward, the settings are analogous as anonymous beaches sheltering these anxious armies (Anderson). The direct audience of soldiers are worried and weary, in desperate need of some rousing rhetoric, Aeneas’ men having been catapulted ashore by a divine storm and ibn Ziyad’s were awaiting a proper battle in a makeshift fortress having “had just spent three months on a scrap of land with no clear idea of what to do next” (Molina). Narratively, the hero must address his cohort as he prepares to push them into further peril. Aeneas’ speech is brief but resolute as he performs “the first duty of a commander: strengthening his men with confidence in their purpose, encouraging them by reminding them of their past exploits, and uniting them in loyalty to himself” (Highet