As the narrative of the Aeneid develops, there is no shortage of excitement, drama and suspense. Inevitably, however, the degree of jeopardy that Virgil can create is limited by our knowing the end of the story before it has begun: Aeneas will succeed in founding a city in Italy which has its roots in Troy, his son, Ascanius, will consolidate that success by founding the Kingdom of Alba, leading as the centuries pass to Romulus and Remus, the foundation of Rome, and the City’s eventual imperial dominance. Virgil’s purpose is to look back from the culmination of that history to its legendary beginnings and proclaim that Augustus’s rule is set to bring a new golden age of peace and empire; and in the process to assert Augustus’s divine pedigree as the descendant of Aeneas, and hence of the Gods themselves, through Aeneas and his mother, Venus.
This extract, early in Book One, spells all this out as clearly as can be, in the form of a pledge given by Jupiter, the ruler of the Gods, to Venus, who has complained to him that Juno’s enmity and her attempts to destroy Aeneas and his fleet are threatening to frustrate his divine will. It may hold less excitement for the modern general reader than much of the Aeneid, but it is an important passage because it expresses succinctly the practical purpose of Virgil’s poetic enterprise: to express and enhance the personal greatness and divine aura of Augustus and glorify his political programme for Rome. The Julius Caesar whose birth Jupiter foresees must be Augustus, so called after Julius Caesar, his great-uncle and adoptive father, whose advent can hardly be said to have ended civil strife.
See the illustrated blog post here.
To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.
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