Aeneas, The Titular Hero Of Virgil s Aeneid - 1426 Words

Aeneas, the titular hero of Virgil’s Aeneid, is the flawed Trojan hero sent on a divine quest to found the new Troy and establish the basis for the Roman Empire. Along this journey, he is pushed to his limits both mentally and physically. This strain shows him to be a deeply Roman hero, especially in the values that come forward in his actions and response to tragedy. He embodies two major Roman values: pietas and respect for family, both past and future. One of the most important values that Aeneas embodies is pietas. Pietas is a nigh-untranslatable word that means great devotion and piety, the two words Lombardo uses most in his translation of the Aeneid to indicate this value. Randall Ganiban, in his introduction to the Aeneid states that â€Å"Aeneas is placed in such a difficult position because of his pietas – his duty towards his family, state, and the gods (Ganiban, p.15).† Aeneas struggles to balance his sense of duty towards all three and the fact that despite his immortal parentage, he is simply a human man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He possesses an almost supernatural sense of duty, which is why it is very strange that he finds some of his strongest opposition in the form of the divine. Juno, queen of the gods, violently opposes Aeneas’ quest for Rome. This is marked as strange by Virgil: â€Å"That she forced a man of faultless devotion / To endure so much hardship† (A en. 1.14-15, Lombardo). Aeneas is known throughout the land for his