Between a mere wink and a Roman nightmare lies a
possible middle ground: Aeneas emerging from the ivory
gate may suggest Virgil's ambivalence toward his own
literary task of founding Rome on the myth of divinely
sanctioned empire.
"And when father Anchises/ has shown his son each
scene and fired his soul/ with love of coming glory,
then he tells/ Aeneas of the wars he must still
wage... (Mandelbaum trans. VI.1185-1188)
Then Anchises sends the Sibyl and his son "through
that way the Spirits send false dreams/into the world
above."
Clearly, as has been established, Aeneas is associated
with false dreams. It's not a big leap to see the text
as suggesting that love of glory is good, i.e.
necessary for Roman victory, but at the same time a
false dream in the sense that it is based on a
myth--Aeneas' faith is renewed through a vision of the
underworld, which is ultimately fiction, the fiction
Virgil was writing--and will inevitably lead to
suffering.
Later Nisus, the guardian of another gate, raises a
question to his comrade: "Euryalus, is it/ the gods
who put this fire in our minds,/ or is it that each
man's relentless longing/ becomes a god to him? Long
has my heart/ been keen for battle or some mighty
act..." (Mandelbaum IX.243-247)
Again the text suggests that divine inspiration
("fire") may be an illusion, sparking courageous and
sometimes foolhardy acts that are nonetheless heroic
and necessary to the glory of Rome. Perhaps Virgil was
ambivalent because he knew the Aeneid would inspire
Roman heroes--to their deaths, and the deaths of
others.
Virgil may have been patriotic enough to write the
foundation myth of the Roman Empire, but here and
there he raised a few questions, subtle enough to slip
under Augustan radar. Far from being a sign of
inconsistency or incompletion, this complexity
enhances the poem.
Chris Miller
Saint Mary's College of California
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