Might and right
Yet it is also true that Virgil asserts through Aeneas that emotion can be involved in the acts of the mighty, but its presence may cause ambiguity. Virgil lingers on the moments leading up to the striking down of Turnus, giving vivid descriptions of Aeneas’ might, for example when he hurls his spear like a ‘dark whirlwind’ ( Aeneid 12.923-4). This builds anticipation for the climax of the book where Aeneas is driven to murder Turnus after becoming enraged from seeing Pallas’ baldric ‘glittering with the studs he knew so well’ ( Aeneid 12.942) on his wounded body. Here Virgil seems to echo Homeric themes of the dangers of blind rage. Although Aeneas acts through divine sanction in the striking down of Turnus, he is also ruled by personal vengeance. Virgil, therefore, presents an even greater level of depth to the idea of the mighty being justified when they act with divine support, as the murder of Turnus shows both Aeneas’ submission to his duty of founding Rome, while also showing the moral ambiguity of a murder spurred by rage. In conclusion, the contentious relationship between might and right which is evident throughout the Homeric and Virgilian epics reminds us that overwhelming raw power, when divorced from divine sanction or piety, inevitably leads to immoral actions because of the influence of human emotion. The actions of Achilles, whose ‘cataclysmic wrath’ Homer ( Iliad 1.1) culminates in the desecration of Hector’s body, and of Odysseus, whose attempt to freshen his home of the squatting suitors results in a ruthless purge, stand in disquieting contrast to the pious actions of Priam and Aeneas. But as Umberto Eco says in The Name of the Rose , ‘Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?’ 2
Bibliography Eco, U. (1995). The Name of the Rose. London West, D. (2020). Virgil: The Aeneid . Harsmondsworth Wilson, E. (2018) Homer: The Odyssey . New York Wilson, E. (2023) Homer: The Iliad . New York
2 Eco 1995: 404.
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