Rhianna answers â€œHow realistic would you say Aeneas is?â€� â€� The Aeneid Q&A

Megan asked this question about The Aeneid:

How realistic would you say Aeneas is?

Rhianna Aeneas has been put in an impossible situation - he is a refugee mourning the destruction of his home and his people who has been given the undesired â€¦m´Ç°ù±ðAeneas has been put in an impossible situation - he is a refugee mourning the destruction of his home and his people who has been given the undesired fate of travelling to Italy to found the future Roman nation. In Dido's curse, she ensures that Aeneas will die shortly after conquering Latium, and I think that this is symbolic of Aeneas' personal struggle, and that ultimately he is no more than a pawn of the gods. That Dido has the power to do this proves that the time he spent with her is the most important in the epic. I think that Aeneas is a fascinating psychological character because of his emotional difficulties, his struggle to reconcile his inner will with the will of the gods, and I think Virgil acknowledges these difficulties through portraying a man defined by fate, and yet beset by inconsistencies and heroic failures. What's so brilliant about myths and epics is that one of the things we can explore is the struggle of realistic characterisation in a situation so contrary to our experience of reality. (less)

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