Religious And Social Values In Virgil's The Aeneid

Great Essays
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, telling the

story of a Trojan hero, Aeneas, the roman’s ancestor. The Aeneid is divided into

twelve books. The first half of the books tells the story of Aeneas’s voyage from Troy

to Italy after the Great Trojan War. The second half of the books tell us the Trojan

encounter with Latin opposition in order to establish themselves in Italy, where

Aeneas’s descendants, the Romans, are destined to live.

How does Virgil’s epic shine a light on Rome’s religious and social values and on the

power of the Great Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus?

The Aeneid was written during the Golden Age of the Roman Empire under, the First

Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus. Virgil’s
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Sinon lies to the Trojans about the wooden horse, telling them it was an

Omen for the goddess Minerva so that the Greeks could return home safely. He also

tells them if anyone should lay waste on the horse, the gods would turn on them.

The Trojans tremble in fear and decide to take the horse to the temple to calm

Minerva’s anger. That night, Sinon frees his comrades who lay carnage to the city.

One of the primary themes in Book II is family. During the fall of Troy, Priam was

forced to watch his son killed by Achilles’s son, Polites. Also, family is very

important to Aeneas. Rather than dying a certain death at the hands of the Greeks,

he decides to escape Troy with his father, and his son, Iulius. “So come, dear father,

climb onto my shoulders! I will carry you on my back. This labor of love will never

wear me down.” (880-882). He shows great love and priority for his family. In fact,

The Romans placed extraordinary values on respect for the ancestors. In fact,

Roman guided their lives by the mos maiorium, “The way of the elders”, which are

values passed down from their ancestors. Also, family was Roman society’s bedrock

because of the values that are taught. That said, Aeneas appears through
…show more content…
No human is god-like in his virtues,

and Aeneas is no different. Virgil lets the readers know that it is not impossible for

them to be like Aeneas and encourages them to emulate his morality. Book II,

contains also another important theme, which is the supernatural. Throughout the

epic, the ghosts of the dead often appear to Aeneas to give him advices and warn

him about faulty decisions. For example, in Book II, Aeneas’s wife’s ghost appears to

him and tells him to escape the city and find a land where he could start everything

all over again. “The vast plains of the sea are yours to plow until you reach

Hesperian land, […], a land of hardy people. There great joy and a kingdom are yours

to claim.” (968-972). This strengthens the idea of respect to the ancestors. Virgil

believes that the dead should be consulted for their wisdom.

Book IV begins just after finished telling the story of the fall of troy. Dido sitting

beside him is madly in love with him, but she is torn between the promise she made

to never love another man after her husband died on one hand, and the passion she

feels for Aeneas on the other hand. With her sister, Anna, she then prays to Juno

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