A couple weeks ago, The Chronicle of Higher Education printed a short essay by David P. Barash and Nanelle Barash entitled "Biology as a Lens: Evolution and Literary Criticism" (18 Oct. 2002, B7-B9). The general idea is that Darwin should join Foucault and Freud in the toolbox of literary criticism. I mention it here because the test case for the authors' thesis is Virgil's _Aeneid_. This is how the authors explain the hero's decision to leave Dido:
"We submit that whatever else he was doing, Aeneas was following human--that is, biological--impulses, conveniently projected onto the gods....If Aeneas's genes could spell out their reckoning, it would go somewhat like this: Although staying with Dido is pleasurable, you--and thus, your genes--have bigger fish to fry. When the alternative is maximizing your inclusive fitness by founding a dynasty, a sterile dalliance with a middle-aged woman is maladaptive....In his conscious mind, it is the gods who dictate Aeneas's actions, but deep down, his biological impulses compel him to leave, a kind of ancient 'My genes made me do it'" (B9).
It looks to me like they're Barca-ing up the wrong tree. After all, the real danger may be that he _will_ have children by Dido. His biological impulses should favor him staying: better the Dido you know than the Lavinia you don't. The fact that she's had a husband who's dead doesn't mean that she's middle-aged. According to Vergil, her death is premature (close of Book 4). And it is clearly Ascanius' descendants (the Julii) which matter (4.272ff), not any children Aeneas might have in Italy. Even in terms of the Barashes' quasi-Darwinian premises, this seems an inept reading of the text.
This evolutionary psychology criticism, like the Freudian school which preceded it, assumes the (non-literary) theory is so universally true that literature from all ages and cultures must reflect it. In fact, it doesn't seem to have anything like that kind of authority. A good deal of it is outright junk, one step removed from saucerology and Atlanteanism.
In short: about par for the course for literary adoptions of non-literary scholia (i.e. fair-to-partly useless).
JM("Maladroit du seigneur")P
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