Dear James, I�m no ancient history specialist, but I�d say that Homer�s Agamemnon is but a reflection of military chieftains in his day. The society Homer sets to describe does not resemble mycenean period, but the Dark Age; and Agamemnon�s comparative powerlessness is generally believed to be a perfect reflection of political power at that stage of Greek development, where all centralized power had tumbled to the ground and Greece was fragmented in tiny self-involved isolated "kingdoms" without an unifying power. The situation of Augustan Rome is exactly the opposite, I believe, so Aeneas� characterization as a reliable and trusty leader to his men is but a sign of the times, if you will. Just a thought, though. I�d be glad to hear more opinions on this matter.
Regards, Miryam > I'm a bicyclist and on my days off I do some long rides and some > "long" thinking. It came to me one day pushing up a hill that Aeneas is > presented differently from other leaders. If you take the supreme > paradigm, "The Iliad," Agamemnon is not a trusted leader; Agamemnon is > criticized in numerous ways; Agamemnon's troops are a divided bunch when > it comes to his decisions. Aeneas, though, is trusted -- or so it > seems.There does not appear to be a Thersites in the Aeneid. > If Aeneas is "driven by fate," his followers are driven by > Aeneas. They seem to follow where he goes without ever questioning. > Aeneas, as far as I can tell, is never criticized. Virgil departs here > from the Homeric pattern. I find this curious. I find this very thought > provoking. > I would like to know what the rest of you think in regards to how > Aeneas is presented as a leader. I would like to know what the rest of > you think as to why Virgil presented Aeneas in this way. Is Aeneas' > leadership presented by Virgil as a new kind of leadership? Why do > Aeneas' followers follow him with so much trust? > > James C. Wiersum > > ___________________________________________________________________ > You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. > Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html > or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
