Aeneas vs Achilles
... Aeneas is in many ways presented as an Achilles for Rome, but no one would suggest he is a mere carbon copy. Homer’s heroes and the notion of the heroic code do appear to have contributed to the crafting of Aeneas’ character. Through a character analysis of Aeneas, explain which heroes or heroic traits have gone into the making of this character. How does Vergil’s Aeneas in Rome compare with the heroic code familiar from Greek epic? ... How do these differences/similarities affect your understanding of Aeneas’ character? ... Nowhere is this more evident than in contrasting two characters of Aeneas and Achilles, who were in many ways from the Greek Iliad and the Roman Aeneid respectively. ... It is the story of a private quarrel between two Greek warriors, Agamemnon and Achilles, set against the backdrop of the historical war of the Greeks against the Trojans. ... Our understanding of the nature of the Trojan conflict is echoed in the stubborn pride of both Achilles and Agamemnon, and thus the epic can be read for the excitement of its stormy warlike passages, or for the more subtle depths of its characterization and theme. ... The hero of the Iliad is unquestionably Achilles, although many of his characteristics seem unheroic to us today. ... At several points in the story, the goddess Athena sweeps down from Mount Olympus to calm Achilles down. ... Even when Agamemnon volunteers to return Briseis -- whose kidnapping has filled him with such rage to begin with -- Achilles cannot accept this gracefully. ... Ultimately, of course, it is Achilles who pays, for if the war had been allowed to end when Agamemnon attempted to make peace, Achilles friend Patroclus, together with many other brave souls on both sides, would not have been killed. ... Vergils long narrative poem tells the story of the founding of Rome by the hero Aeneas, a Trojan who survived the same war Homer described in the Iliad.