Might and right
destiny explains his choice to forego Dido’s love. The emotional weight of his divine mission is shown to be ‘right’ here, even though it leads to Dido’s suicide. It is not Aeneas’ physical power which makes him righteous as he leaves, but his ability to leave his own desires behind in service to his people and future generations. Virgil partially wrote the Aeneid as propaganda for Augustan rule, with Aeneas being a supposed ancestor of the emperor. By representing Aeneas as morally just in the way he uses more than raw physical power to achieve his destiny, Virgil both affirms and legitimizes Augustus’ rule. By showing Augustus’ ancestors as capable of the foresight that led to the establishment of Rome, Virgil is suggesting that Augustus acts in accordance with the same great vision. Righteous leaders not only demonstrate physical power; they lead with intellect and self-sacrifice. It could be argued that, while he suggests there is nuance in the way that mortals should wield power, Homer uses the divine figure of Apollo in the Iliad to show there are clear differences in the righteous use of might between the gods and humans. In book one, Apollo sends a nine-day plague of arrows on the Greek camp, leading to the massacre of many Greek soldiers. It is divine retribution for the arrogance of their leader Agamemnon, who provokes the god by refusing to return Chryseis, one of his prizes of war, to her father, a prophet of Apollo. Agamemnon’s actions are tantamount to disrespecting Apollo himself, and Homer suggests that the massacre therefore has ‘right’ on its side, as on the tenth day, Agamemnon relents and sends Chryseis back to her father and the plague comes to an end. This massacre is justified. Later in the epic, Achilles begs his mother Thetis to ask Zeus to ‘help the Trojans and to trap the Greeks between the ships and salty sea to die’ ( Iliad 1.408-10). The suffering the Greeks endured during Apollo’s plague was nothing in comparison to what they were about to face with this turn of events. Achilles goes to these lengths because he is upset about Agamemnon taking Briseis, his prize from Eetion, after the return of Chryseis to her father. Achilles causes the death of his fellow Greeks for no reason other than his own self-regard. This is in contrast with Apollo, whose own attack on the Greeks reveals the overwhelming power of the gods. Homer extends the idea that massacre is only just when inflicted by divine influence in the Odyssey , when Odysseus slaughters Penelope’s suitors and the maids of the palace upon his return to Ithaca. Odysseus acts without moral restraint, causing Athena to step in to stop the breakout of a civil war precipitated by Odysseus’ ill-considered actions. Here, might is used without any moral justification, as, although Odysseus may have been justified in killing the suitors, his murder of the maids is almost a show of cowardice, rather than might. Homer is once again showing the clouded judgement of mortals when committing massacre here as the extent of Odysseus’ brutality is unjustifiable by anything beyond his own rage. This episode underlines the view that ancient literature does not straightforwardly equate might with right, as in this setting, Odysseus is by far the most formidable, yet his murder of the maids comes across as cruel, deplorable, and morally bankrupt. While Virgil does not entirely refute the idea of the actions of the mighty being inherently justified in the Aeneid , he instead reframes the idea, making it clear that it is powerful actions sanctioned by divinity that are righteous. There are numerous examples of Aeneas performing great displays of power and brutality which are sanctified by the gods. For example, Aeneas’ killing of Turnus in the final book is an example of a murder fuelled by emotion, which Homer may have seen as unjust, but by Virgil is allowed as righteous owing to its sanction by Jupiter, and because it acts as the elimination of the final obstacle in Aeneas’ path to laying the foundations of Rome, which is the hero’s true and divine destiny.
230
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting