Pietas and its contrast with furor: Classicist Opinions

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Camps
Due to Aeneas' control over his feelings it could be said he lacks warmth of feeling but his sensitivity appears at every parting and loss. We meet him first in a moment of terror and leave him at the end in a outburst of anger.
1 of 11
Williams
It is not that Virgil has tried to create another Achilles and failed to do so. He has created a different kind of hero: human experience and problems of Aeneas as a human person emphasised. Most of the time we admire him, but under the pressure of his ow
2 of 11
Williams pt 2
Virgil presents furor as the chief failing of humans. Tragedies and disasters largely due to the violent and unreasoning element in human nature. Ideal that hovers in the background is the need to control impetuous and wild, irrational behaviour.
3 of 11
Boyle
Bloodletting in Book 12 presents ancestor of Julian family not as the Imperial figure of the new Roman world but as a prime embodiment of the values of the old heroic world of bloodlust and senseless pursuit of fame. Reincarnation of Achilles - very figur
4 of 11
Sowerby
Aeneas with Anchises and Ascanius in Book 2 is patriarchal ideal of Roman society, represents what pietas means for Virgil.
5 of 11
Sowerby pt 2
Reads climax negatively: rather the fulfilment of anger than a pious duty performed, poems ends ironically with Aeneas for the first time having his heart truly in his task. For the first time he just does what he wants to emotionally.
6 of 11
Sowerby pt 3
Aeneid is not a weak and artificial imitation of Homeric epic but a creative reinvention of mature values of civilisation represented in pietas, triumph over reason rather than furor. However triumph is mostly an illusion, twilight world with insubstantia
7 of 11
Gransden
By using Aeneas as his vehicle Virgil was able to create a counterpoint to warlike legends of Romulus with the story of a hero renowned for pietas, wanting peace rather than war. Essence of the Aeneid is not violent or aggressive.
8 of 11
Gransden pt 2
Aeneas' killing of Turnus can be seen as pious, as he had a duty towards Pallas and Evander. However furor dominates the last four books of the Aeneid and permeates Aeneas' actions on the battlefield (not a failing on Aeneas' part, war is so bad that it c
9 of 11
Mackie
Aeneas' general concern to facilitate fate is the cornerstone of his pietas.
10 of 11
Williams
It is Aeneas who loses in the end by succumbing to violence rather than mercy - lets furor take over and does not embrace clementia as much as the Romans would have liked.
11 of 11

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

It is not that Virgil has tried to create another Achilles and failed to do so. He has created a different kind of hero: human experience and problems of Aeneas as a human person emphasised. Most of the time we admire him, but under the pressure of his ow

Back

Williams

Card 3

Front

Virgil presents furor as the chief failing of humans. Tragedies and disasters largely due to the violent and unreasoning element in human nature. Ideal that hovers in the background is the need to control impetuous and wild, irrational behaviour.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Bloodletting in Book 12 presents ancestor of Julian family not as the Imperial figure of the new Roman world but as a prime embodiment of the values of the old heroic world of bloodlust and senseless pursuit of fame. Reincarnation of Achilles - very figur

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Aeneas with Anchises and Ascanius in Book 2 is patriarchal ideal of Roman society, represents what pietas means for Virgil.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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