Aeneas let go ? How could he let go ? Aeneas did not lead the conquest
of Rome by his sheer will ! It was his destiny, - destiny laid out by the
gods, - Aeneas could do little else but follow that path - the character of
Aeneas is overshadowed by his destiny as was the character of Dido and the
destiny of Dido decided by the gods - If we are to be bound by the Aeneid -
there is no true character - existentialism is out the window !
----------
> From: JAMES C Wiersum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: VIRGIL: Aeneas as trusted leader
> Date: 18 April 1999 05:17
>
> Thank you to Miryam and the others who responded to my question
> about Aeneas' leadership -- and my attempt to get a discussion going. I
> will have to get down to a university library to check out the article by
> Nisbet.
> Expanding on what I have already said, Aeneas' leadership seems
> to me to be an important aspect of the whole poem. But on second thought
> maybe leadership is not a good word to use. What I am getting at is the
> relationship between Aeneas and those who follow him.
> I am not sure the Aeneid reflects what a Roman leader should be
> like. Aeneas' leadership / relationship is not authoritarian; it is not
> democratic; it is not charismatic. So what is it? It seems to be almost
> fatalistic. The people are bound to him. His destiny is their destiny but
> his destiny is caught up with the gods, e.g., Juno.
> The beginning of the old literal interlinear translation of the
> Aeneid by Hart and Osborne has always struck me as insightful. "Profugus
> fato" is translated as "driven by fate" (note that Hart/Osborne change
> the order of the Latin); I am putting the emphasis on their "driven."
> Again, what is Virgil trying to communicate? I have always been
> struck by a paraphrase of the Tao Te Ching by John Heider entitled, "The
> Tao of Leadership." Hands down I think it is one of the best books on
> leadership and management. I have used it for the past ten years. Aeneas
> seems to reflect almost something "Taoist" in his leadership and his way
> of dealing with reality. I see hints of this too at the end of Mario A.
> Di Cesare's book, "The Altar and the City: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid."
> Di Cesare says that Aeneas -- using a Christian frame -- finds his life
> by losing it. Indeed there is a Christian saying from the old Keswick
> movement that parallels the Tao Te Ching, "let go and let God." Maybe
> too, if I am at all correct, this is why Christians latched on to the
> Aeneid as almost a Christian poem.
> What am I saying? Aeneas let go! In letting go he found his
> future and the future of his people.
>
> James C. Wiersum
>
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