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AENEAS DESPAIRING
Aeneas' first appearance, at line 92 of the opening book of the Aeneid,
and the despairing speech which he makes upon that occasion (I, 94-IOI) have,
both in antiquity and since, caused considerable discussion. The presence of
the hero is of course felt by the reader (or listener) before this point, not only
in the statement of theme made by the poet at the beginning of the work
arma virumquecano,-but also in the sudden narrative start with which Virgil
plunges in medias res at 11.34-35:
vix e conspectuSiculae telluris in altum
vela dabant laeti et spumas salis aere ruebant;
but it is not until 1. 92 that his name is given. The joy of these unnamed sailors
is quite general and, as it were, impersonal; we can only assume that Aeneas
shares it. The storm which intervenes between lines 35 and 92, however,
occasions a shift in focus. Although we first see the tempestuous elements
through the eyes of the Trojans as a group (I, 88-9I):
eripiunt subito nubes caelumquediemque
Teucrorumex oculis; ponto nox incubat atra.
intonuerepoli et crebrismicat ignibus aether
praesentemqueviris intentant omnia mortem,
the perspective is suddenly narrowed and we find ourselves sharing the inmost
thoughts of the hero, who is now named and individualized (I, 92-IOI):
extemploAeneae solvunturfrigore membra;
ingemit et duplicis tendens ad sidera palmas
talia voce re/ent:o terquequaterquebeati,
quis ante ora patrum Troiae sub moenibusaltis
contigit oppetere! o Danaum fortissimegentis
Tydide! mene Iliacis occumberecampis
non potuisse tuaque animam hanc efundere dextra,
saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector, ubi ingens
Sarpedon, ubi tot Simois correptasub undis
scuta virum galeasqueet fortia corporavolvit!
The first impression which Aeneas makes upon the reader is not an attractive
one. Servius is careful to point out that fear reaches Aeneas last of the Trojans:
AENEAE servavitTo zcp rov, ut Aeneam ultimum territum
dicat1.
1 Ad loc. Quoted from the Harvard Servius, vol. II (Lancaster, I946).
Hermes, 105. Band, Heft 2 (1977)
?
Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, D-6200 Wiesbaden
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225
Aeneas Despairing
But he also reports the view, with which he seems to agree, that Virgil's
transference of these verses from the Odysseyis unsuitable and that the hero
has suffered unbecomingly in the process:
reprehenditursane hoc loco Vergilius quod impropriehos
versus Homeri transtuleritxcx&
tOT''O&auaor6oX&-o
8v
8' &pxelt- tpOq
youvocTaxocl(PEDov
HTrop,OXOaaxq
tzycX?TopocOup6v.nam 'solvunturfrigore membra'longe aliud
est quam X&Toyoutvaro,et (93) 'duplices tendens ad sidera
palmas talia vocerefert'molle, cum illud magis altum et
heroicaepersonae 7cp6kov ,symXropot Oup6v2.
Then, after complaining that Aeneas' words, though delivered in the proper
stance of prayer do not, in fact, form a prayer, Servius asserts that Odysseus
was at least sufficiently heroic to endure his fears in silence, while Aeneas
voices his aloud in the presence of his men:
et ille intra se, ne exaudiant socii et timidiores despondeant animo;
hic vero vocileratur 3.
The evident weakness of the hero of the poem in his very first appearance has
continued to trouble and exercise critics of the Aeneid, who, like Servius, seem
to feel that it is unsuitable and unbecoming. HEINZEmakes every attempt to
defend the nobility of Aeneas:
)>Ersieht den Tod unmittelbar vor Augen, er weiB, daB keine menschliche Kraft mehr helfen kann: aber er darf nicht, wie Achill ((D273)
und Odysseus (e 299) in gleicher Lage, Furcht vor dem Tode auBern
oder den Wunsch, am Leben zu bleiben - das ware, wie auch der
Schriftsteller vom Erhabenen (IX io) empfand, des Heros unwuirdig
.. .(
4
POSCHLis more concernedwith the art of Virgil'sadaptation of Homeric material,
but he, too, is defensive:
))Der Verzweiflungsmonolog uberbietet also den Homer an Form
und seelischem Gehalt. Er ist durch die innere Verflechtung mit der
Bildsphare des Seesturms kunstvoller, und in gewisser Weise auch
seelenvoller und inniger. Aber er ist auch weniger 'natuirlich'als die
Worte des Odysseus... ((5
2
Ibid.
3 Ibid. For references concerning ancient awareness of the imitativeness of this passage,
see Antonie WLOSOK,Die Gottin Venus in Vergils Aeneis, Heidelberg, I967, I5, n. 7.
4 Richard HEINZE, Virgils epische Technik, Berlin, 19I5 8, 487.
5 Viktor PbSCHL, Die Dichtkunst Virgils, Innsbruck, I950, 6o.
15
Hermes 105, 2
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W. W. DE GRUMMOND
226
has given us the
More recently a former student of POSCHL,Antonie WLOSOK,
most thorough and thoughtful examination of the 'Verzweiflungsmonolog'
yet published6. In her study of Virgil's adaptation of his models, however,
she considers only the problem of the relative importance of three Homeric
passages(Od.e 297ff., Od. ? 406ff.,and I1. D 272ff.); I should like to suggest,
first, that the weakness of Aeneas is real, not, as HEINZEimplies, only apparent,
and, second, that Virgil's most important source in the larger view is not
Homer at all, but Apollonius.
The idea that Aeneas is, and is intended by Virgil to be, something less
than a complete hero in the earlier portion of the poem is, of course, not a new
one. Such a view, though it is not acceptable to him, is inherent in the remarks
of Servius quoted above. HEINZEexplores the thought at several points in his
astonishingly rich and wide-ranging book and refers to it in his discussion of
the very passage at hand, just before the lines already cited:
)>Aeneasvollends pragt diesen Typus des Erhabenen, je mehr er in
seiner Lauterung zum vollkommenen Helden vorschreitet, um so
reiner aus; ... (K7
WLOSOK,
too, appreciates the importance of this monologue as an illustration
of Aeneas' human weakness8. Yet none of the discussions of the passage, it
seems to me, sufficiently stresses the fact that Virgil is quite carefully and
purposefully presenting his hero, in his first appearance in the poem, at the
very nadir, not only of his fortunes, but of his heroism as well. The delaying
of the hero's name, as HEINZEhas demonstrated9, is only one, though the
most important, of a number of instances in which Virgil uses this device to
create emphatic suspense. By the time the celebrated warrior - and it is as
a warrior that he is first brought to our attention: arma virumnque
cano - does
appear in person, the reader's expectations are high. The storm at sea, too,
as POSCHL
has pointed out, not only contributes to the mounting tension, but
also serves as preparation for epic action:
))Er versetzt die Seele des Lesers in den Zustand groBgestimmter
Erregung, der sie zur Aufnahme des gewaltigen Geschehens bereit
macht, das an ihr vortiberziehen wird<10.
6 WLOSOK (n. 3 above) I3-20.
8
WLOSOK (n. 3 above) I3-I4,
7 HEINZE (n. 4 above) 486.
especially n. 2, with its reference to FUNAIOLI and to
LIEBING.
9 HEINZE (n. 4 above)
376-377.
10 POSCHL (n. 5 above)
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23.
Aeneas Despairing
227
The reader is shocked. The reaction of Servius, dismay, perhaps even
indignation, is, I think, the one intended by Virgil"1.The reader is filled with
astonishment that Aeneas, the great epic hero, the father of Romans, the
warrior whose mighty deeds are to be celebrated in this poem as those of
Achilles were celebrated in the Iliad and those of Odysseus in the Odyssey,
is first set before our eyes in imminent danger and, more importantly, in despair
as he looks upon his awful situation. The relatively bolder reactions of Odysseus
and, somewhat less so, of Achilles, in parallel circumstances are, of course, quite
that it is important to compare the Virgilian
pertinent, and I agree with WLOSOK
and Homeric passages in detail and to examine carefully, as she has done, even
minute differences.
Yet such a procedure cannot, I think, in this case, adequately illuminate
Virgil's use of his sources. WLOSOK
claims:
))Ganzallgemein bedeutet diese Art der imitierenden Zitierung, zumal
an exponierter Stelle, daB Vergil seinen Helden in Entsprechung zu
Odysseus vorstellen will, und zwar, wie die Wahl der Situation anzeigt, als den Heimatlosen, Herumgeworfenen, Leidenden und Verlassenen<412.
It seems obvious, however, that it is the depth of Aeneas' despair and the
sense of utter helplessness which he feels that set the dominant tone of the
entire passage, and these elements, as Servius saw, are not really drawn from
the Odyssey. That Virgil portrays his hero as despairing and helpless in his
first presentation of him indicates, I think, that these traits are intended to
be looked upon as characteristic of the man at that stage of the narrative. They
are surely never characteristicof Odysseus. WLOSOKhas perceived that the
comparison produces only superficial similarities; she has shifted emphasis
from the Odysseyto the Iliad:
)>Eineweitere Bestatigung gewinnen wir aus dem Vergleich mit der
oben erwahnten Iliasstelle. Sie steht in der inneren Problematik der
vergilischen naher als die aus der Odyssee, denn auch Achill erfahrt
seinen Widerspruch zwischen SchicksalverheiBung und scheinbarer
Wirklichkeit(413.
11 Though, as I suggest below, the reader familiar with the Alexandrian writers' examination of heroes and heroism would be less surprised. He need not, however, be less
indignant. Virgil's Aeneas, though not a reaffirmation of Homeric heroism, is yet a
reaffirmation of the possibility of heroism of a different sort, more complex, more human
and humane. For the sophisticated Augustan reader the surprise would come, not in
Aeneas' unheroic appearance in the first half of the poem, as it does for Servius, but
rather in the more heroic second half.
12 WLOSOK(n. 3 above) I5.
13 WLOSOK(n. 3 above) I9.
15*
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228
W. W. DE GRUMMOND
The gain is real, yet once more the objection arises: despair and helplessness
are no more characteristic of Achilles, despite his brooding sulkiness, than of
Odysseus; thus a passage in which they are made the keynote cannot have
been inspired in the first instance by either Homeric hero.
Despair and helplessness do not seem suitable characteristics for any epic
hero; it is precisely this conviction which makes the passage objectionable in
Servius' eyes. And since he is comparing the reaction of Aeneas with that of
Odysseus, who he thinks is Virgil's model, he cannot understand why the
Roman poet should have introduced these weaknesses into the makeup of his
hero. But Aeneas, of course, is not a Homeric hero. He is far more complex and
far more liable to human inconsistencies than the Homeric heroes. It would
perhaps be an equally great exaggeration in the other direction to say that
Virgil is an Alexandrian poet: Aeneas is certainly not simply an Alexandrian
hero. Yet the fact that the Alexandrian writers had intervened between Homer
and Virgil is of essential importance in understanding the Augustan poet's
concepts of epic, of poetry, of literature, of art'4. The Greek writers of the
third century B. C. had examined heroism in a new, a more sophisticated,
light'5, and to them it appeared considerably less glamorous on the one hand,
or, alternatively, considerably less believable. Virgil was influenced, of course,
by the ideas of Callimachus, Theocritus, and other Alexandrians, but his
reexamination of the narrative and psychological possibilities of the epic
hero was inevitably stimulated chiefly by Apollonius. Had Servius thought of
the A eneid more as an Alexandrian epic and less as a Homeric one, he could
not have been surprised by Aeneas' first scene.
Apollonius' Jason is anything but a traditional epic hero. POSCHLunderscores this well in his denial of the influence of Apollonius on the very scene
we are discussing and, by implication, on the poem as a whole, at least in any
very deep way:
)>Dashellenistische Epos des Apollonius vollends, das in beilaufigem
Erzahlerton mit dem anekdotischen, fast das Komische streifenden
Orakel von dem 'Mann mit dem einen Schuh' anhebt, hat nichts von
14 For a brief but helpful statement of the effect of Euripides and of early Hellenism
upon the older currents of thought in Greece, see U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF,
Die hellenistische Dichtung, Berlin, I962 [1924] I, 68 ff. The context here is religious, but
the point holds equally well for the artistic. dn und nach dem langen unseligen Kriege,
der so viele Verstole gegen alles gbttliche und menschliche Recht gezeugt hatte, war ein
neues Geschlecht herangewachsen, das euripideisch dachte. Der Glaube nicht nur des
Pindar, sondern auch des Aischylos war dahin (p. 7I). If Apollonius cannot be viewed
as a simple continuator of Homer, how much less can Virgill For a fuller and narrower
discussion of this point, see Brooks OTIS'chapter 'From Homer to Virgil: The Obsolescence
of Epic' in: Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry, Oxford, i963, 5-40.
15 The impulse is not original with them, of course; they were nourished upon the
works of Euripides, Thucydides, Aristophanes, etc.
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Aeneas Despairing
229
dieser symbolischen Kraft. Es ist entgegen der landlaufigen Meinung
erheblich weiter entfernt von der Kunstauffassung Virgils als die
Epen Homers(16.
It is as the man with one shoe who is to bring a harsh destiny upon Pelias that
Jason is first mentioned - like Aeneas, without being named - in the statement of theme at the opening of the poem (I, 6-7):
-oa3'&v?poc,6vrLv' o0Lro&%t6t'vOL0oT0XOV.
Jason lacks the dignity of the traditional epic hero"7,a dignity which Aeneas
undeniably possesses. Yet I do not hesitate to say that in this instance P6SCHL
is wrong and >dielandldufigeMeinungeright; and I must point out that although
the influence of Apollonius on Virgil has been demonstrated or commented
upon many times18, no one has, so far as I am able to tell, connected it with
this particular scene (despite POSCHL'S
implication) or, in general, with Virgil's
presentation of a despairing and helpless hero'9. Yet Jason is the despairing
and helpless hero par excellence.
Ironically enough, it is on Jason's first entry into the narrative, conversely
to Aeneas, that we see Jason at his most courageous - comforting his mother
(I, 26I-268, 292-294):
- 7OXZLq
&)aOLT &Y&POVTO
TR 8 ail ohqTC
0 '?XTV
apap'GCTOv rOX!iN
CrXpoc'L
MuV 6vyoq
CFaV U
aCPL7rTa-p
6Xo6
1)7r
eVtU7raOqeV x
eca XO ,CV4VOq yoo&oaxev.
cxar&p 0 T'CV [LeVe7reLOCr XTaTcp-nUvrvV avLoq
r uxe
,5CpaUpvOv,
a[Ldcdaat8' a
X?LpetM
U
ot
Tr
aLyoc
TeLpOVTO.
7CeppoceV
XOCTjCP6e
Q5yeaTrevoZ1oamXLVVpeTo
-oct a? yuvcxtxg
aplroPoLt
Y&oMaaxov raL6Ca6v
O6
OC&rap
ye
&7t6naa 7rMpjyOp6&v npOG6ek&reV.
j1e&LkXL'OLq
16 POSCHL (n. 5 above) 24.
Objections to Jason as an epic hero have often been voiced; see, for example, George
W. MOONEY'Sedition of the Argonautica, London, I9I2, 39; F. A. WRIGHT, History of
Later Greek Literature, London, I932, IOO; E. A. BARBER, in the entry on Apollonius,
Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford, 1949, 70.
18 Markus HYGI, Vergil Aeneis und die hellenistische Dichtung, Bern, 1952, 9-I09;
MOONEY (n. I7 above) 30, 43-45;
on Virgil, II, London,
CONINGTON'S
commentary
i8768, 20-24;
HEINZE (n. 4 above) in his index, p. 494, lists some thirty references to
Apollonius, most of which deal in one way or another with his influence on Virgil.
19 HEINZE (n. 4 above) in n. 2 on p. 76 does touch upon the passage of the Aeneid in
question. There he compares i, 9I (ptaesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem) with
both Homer (Od. E 305, I1. 0 628) and Apollonius, 2, 580, where the Greek in question is
utdp xeyoa,q yap a,u.xocog Qv 6X,,poq; in most twentieth-century editions of the
Argonautica this is line 578.
17
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W. W. DE GRUMMOND
230
Here it is Alcimede, the hero's mother, who wishes that she had already died,
at a certain time in the past (I, 278-282):
'MA
6b?XoV X?LV t[iocp,
Lx=C eyc6 JMCxO xocx'v
OcUYtLXX7r0 VtJUV JIS
&T Keu7OtVTOg &xouao
cCX-O4q
eP?vt,
XY?O&V r xa9CFac,
tV,
ocUprO6q
&P
Vere-a TEOa rPxUaOC
,,
,
,,E
,
xepaLv.,
'rsxvov iov . . ."
Thereafter almost any appearance of Jason, chosen at random, will serve as
an illustration of the despairing and helpless hero; despair and helplessness
are constant characteristics in his makeup, ever near the surface and ready
to reveal themselves: they are essential to the poet's concept of his hero. I select
four instances, one from each book:
I, 460-462:
ev,' cxu' AIaov'La7 ~te' Ms>7A)OC
exca-
7CopCpupe6xev
-rov8'ap'
ELV?0L OUWTC
?OLX6o.
xaTrcp6V-n
Ok VSX[aeV "JaCX
oCppCa6ts ,Leyo&CXf
2, 408-4IO:
OQ ap'
oUs
eO
?
8NV 8'?aXV
ap
8'
e 6?V
5pco ALaovoqu6o&aoc
EoqelaoctovTaoc.
0t?
O?rF30?VOCv
M&pxa6?
8'??Ct?v
vcov xOCxOrjny.
3, 422-425:
Q ?ap 'c 0 ae MyOCOV
7r&pOq OLLOCTOC Ma
xOCxO6rzyn.
&a,uxavcOv
&8oyyo4
odau-toq
O'U8 7CI ZXX?V
fouXSv8'0a4L 7ro?Uva-rpcPOC
ZPOVOV,
pa?CXSOq67COUNXaOL, e7
'pyOV.
teYO C?OCLVeTO
and 4, I3I6-I3I8:
a?X
t?LeLx[ZOLq
l4
a
ov s,auv
e7reCF6LV
0'490upovolov
CTV4O0LeVOV
7rpOeet7rov,
xavb Pep0Xkqro;.
OCS609
"Ko,usUope,T'L7c-'s7rLrOao
.. 121
Jason's weakness, then, is clear. Apollonius' reasons for making him so
are perhaps less clear22, but in any case the Greek poet has surely made no
20 The witty intent of such a presentation seems to me evident. Jason is an ironical
hero, almost an anti-hero. Detractors of the poem (cf. the quotation from POSCHL above)
have generally missed this point, or denied it. For an excellent appreciative essay, see
E. V. RIEU'S introduction to his English translation of the poem (Harmondsworth, 1959).
Since this interpretation is not essential for my point in this paper, I shall press it no
further.
21 Other instances, if they are desired, are at i, I286; 2, 885; 3, 1221; 4, I49; there are
22 Cf. n. 17 above.
yet others.
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Aeneas Despairing
23I
attempt to integrate this weakness, with all its psychological potentialities,
into the makeup of a true epic hero. Virgil, on the other hand, intent upon
portraying a good, serious man who successfully overcomes human obstacles
in his struggle to achieve pietas, has seen the possiblities offered by the exploration of the tendency to despair and helplessness within the context of, and in
the person of, a truly worthy epic hero. As always, Virgil has combined and
disguised his sources - by transforming them. The words of Odysseus and
Achilles in the face of disaster are poetically more memorable than those of
Jason, and it is not surprising that Virgil has chosen to recall the Homeric
texts rather than that of Apollonius. The physical situation of Aeneas, likewise,
is closer to those of the older poet's heroes than to any in the Argonautica.
Neither of these points should be allowed to obscure the fact that at the more
profound psychological levels, it is upon Apollonius, more than upon Homer,
that Virgil is building. Here, as in other places, Aeneas is an Alexandrian hero;
he is Jason strengthened. Aeneas turns out to be a stronger hero than Jason
because he is a better man. Through his pietas he accomplishes feats which are
beyond the ken of Jason, who is a mere Alexandrian sophisticate and no epic
hero at all. But psychologicallyAeneas has more than a touch of kinship with
Jason - and little indeed with Odysseus or Achilles. It is not rare for Virgil
to use different sources for external and internal (i. e., physical and psychological) models in the same scene. An interesting example, one in which the prototypes are both found in Apollonius but in different episodes, is the Dido and
Aeneas story. The psychological study of Dido is clearly founded upon that
of Medea in book III of Apollonius' poem, but the narrative apologue for the
story is just as clearly the stay of the Argonauts at Lemnos in book I, relating
the amour of Jason and Hypsipyle23. Virgil's historical sources, of course,
lie entirely elsewhere.
aware that the similarities between the passage in the Odyssey
WLOSOK,
referredto by Servius and that in the Aeneid are only superficial, turned to the
Iliad for a more searching elucidation of )>dieinnere Problematik 24. This
stress upon the resemblance between Achilles and Aeneas, illuminating in
some particulars, has led her astray, I think, in her discussion of one other point
in this passage. Aeneas, in his very first words in the poem, wishes that he
might have died at Troy under the eyes of his elders. Then he becomes more
specific: he wishes that he had fallen at the hands of Diomedes, boldest of the
Greeks(I, 96-98):
o Danaum fortissimegentis
Tydide! mene Iliacis occumberecampis
non potuisse tuaque animam hanc effunderedextra...
23
Cf. HEINZE (n. 4 above) ii8.
24
N. I3 above.
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/
232
W. W.
DE GRUMMOND
Why Diomedes? Why not Achilles? It is obvious that this question was pondered, but not resolved, in antiquity, for Servius says (ad loc.):
sane quaeriturcur Diomedemfortissimum dixerit, cum post
Achillem et Aiacem ipse sit tertius; unde et Sallustius ait
'primum GraecorumAchillem'. multi dicunt ideo fortissimum,
quia iuxta Homerumet Veneremvulneravitet Martem. alii
ad gentemreferunt,quod Achilles Thessalus fuit, Aiax
Graecus,Diomedes Danaus. multi ad excusationemAeneae
volunt fortissimum dictum, a quo eum constat esse superatum,
ut luvenalis 'vel quo Tydides percussit pondere coxam Aeneae'
[Juvenal, I5, 66].
Later commentators have, as WLOSOKsays 25, been content to point to II. Z, 98,
against which she quotes I1. EL,2I. She adduces two new arguments:
)>Erstenskommt es Vergil an dieser Stelle auf die Parallele zwischen
Aeneas und Achill an... Die Absicht wiirde verdunkelt, wenn
gleichzeitig an den friiheren Gegensatz erinnert wiirde. Zweitens
verbindet Vergil die Rettung des Aeneas durch Poseidon im Gegensatz zu Homer nicht mit der Schicksalsbestimmung, sondern laBt
sie an der einzigen Stelle, wo darauf Bezug genommen wird, in der
Antwort des Neptun an Venus V 799ff., mehr als ordnungstiftende
MaBnahmeerscheinen, da er das Wiiten des Achill in den troischen
Flulssen eigens voranstellt. Die Rettung durch Venus hingegen wird
ausdrticklich in den Dienst der Fata gestellt und mit
IV 227ff....
der Mission des Aeneas motiviert. Und eben darum geht es im vorliegenden Zusammenhang. Hinter der Beschw6rung des Diomedes
verbirgt sich somit auch ein indirekter Aufschrei zur gottlichen
Mutter (vergleichbar dem aus Aen. II 664f.), der den Auftritt der
Venus vor Juppiter vorbereitet26.((
Both of these objections fall, however, if it is Jason and not Achilles who is
Virgil's internal model in this scene. The second, somewhat tenuous in any
case, becomes wholly irrelevant 27. The first is more important because it raises
more directly an issue which affects the reading of the poem as a whole. For
one thing, the error here rests upon the practice of interpreting Virgil too
exclusively in the light of Homer. Virgil is stimulated by and draws upon a
bewildering array of sources, Greek, Roman, and probably others as well.
These sources, in turn, are likely to be concealed by Virgil's own originality,
25 WLOSOK (n. 3 above) i8, n. I5.
26 Ibid.
27 WLOSOK'Slast sentence in the passage quoted is, of course, valid, but it does not
affect the question of Virgil's model.
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233
Aeneas Despairing
for he not only combines and reshapes them, but also redirects them, turns
them to his own ends - and these ends can often be understood, not by any
examination of the source, no matter how thorough, but only through study
of the structure and thought of Virgil's poem. His purposes in having Aeneas
speak of Diomedes rather than Achilles and give him precedence over all
other Greek heroes in martial valor are, I think, positive, not negative, and
can be elucidated only within the context of the Aeneid itself. Far from avoiding
mention of Achilles, Virgil is introducing Diomedes into the poem as early and
as emphatically as he reasonably can - for both symbolically and structurally
Diomedes is important in the Aeneid, far more important than Achilles28.
Virgil saw that Diomedes, and Diomedes alone of the great Greek heroes,
offered the possibility of development beyond the point to which he had been
brought by the Homeric poems and by recognized later Greek tradition. The
need for a character who could be so expanded and altered was crucial in
Virgil's intent to demonstrate that Troy, not Greece, represented the side of
righteousness and that, in the end, its cause was destined to triumph. For the
Roman poet wished to show that experience would lead any reasonable man,
even one who had believed deeply in the Greeks' undertaking, to see that the
Trojans (i. e. the Romans) were right and to accept the path that was destined
inevitably to lead on to the greatness of Augustan Rome. The number of Greek
warriorswhose authority was sufficiently great to make the symbolism effective
was limited. Achilles was dead and thus not believably or usefully to be developed further. So too Agamemnon. Odysseus' postwar adventures occupied the
time span of the A eneid and were too well known to be ignored; the same is
true of Menelaus. Besides this, neither Odysseus nor Menelaus is one of the
really great fighters on the field of battle; Virgil required a warrior whose
conversion to peace, to the Augustan Peace as it were, would be striking. Ajax,
too, was dead - and lacked imagination in any case. This left Diomedes:
there was no other.
The tradition that Diomedes settled in Italy existed, of course, independently
of Virgil29. This is only one more instance of Virgil's perceiving unseen possibilities in the already existing tradition and developing them to the full within
the context of his own work. The homage to Diomedes placed in the mouth
of Aeneas in his very first speech in the poem, then, is a foreshadowing of
important events to come. It is Diomedes, not Achilles, to whom Aeneas is
comparable. Though as despairing, as helpless as Jason when he first appears
For a brief study of the portrayal of Diomedes
*Virgil's Diomedes , Phoenix 2I, I967, 40-43.
29 It was known to Timaeus more than two centuries
of the sources see BETHE, RE V, i, Stuttgart, I903,
'Excursus I ad librum XI' in his edition of the Aeneid,
28
in the Aeneid, -
see my article
before the A eneid. For a discussion
Cf. also HEYNE'S
coll. 820-822.
vol. IV, Paris, I8203.
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234
ROBERT E. COLTON
in the poem, Aeneas, like Diomedes, will, in the course of the Aeneid, found
a new life in Italy for himself and his people, a stable life dedicated to peace
and understanding and achieved through heroic pietas.
Florida State University
W. W. DE GRUMMOND
ECHOES OF MARTIAL
IN JUVENAL'S FOURTEENTH SATIRE
The theme of Juvenal's Fourteenth Satire is the power of parental example'.
The poem may be divided into two main parts. In the first part (i-io6),
Juvenal warns that children imitate the vices of their parents. If a father
gambles, or is a glutton, or treats his slaves cruelly, or is addicted to the building
of villas, or belongs to a narrowreligious sect, his son will follow his bad example.
If a mother shamelessly commits adultery, her daughter also will become an
adulteress. It is the duty of parents, then, to bring up their offspring in homes
that are morally stainless; the greatest reverence is owed to children.
In the secondpart of the poem (I07-33I),
Juvenal preachesvehemently
against the one vice in which parents actually give their children systematic
instruction: greed (avaritia). This vice, he declares, has two sides, stinginess
and acquisitiveness. He goes on to show that the insatiable craving for
wealth is a form of madness. In order to amass wealth, men engage in dangerous
and degrading occupations, and do not hesitate to commit crime, even the
crime of murder. The amassing of wealth, however, leads only to unhappiness,
since wealthy men live in constant dread of losing their possessions.
In the present paper we shall point out those passages in Juvenal's Fourteenth Satire which owe something to the epigrams of Juvenal's friend Martial2.
In the first part of the poem, three passages are of interest to us. The first
has to do with gambling (4):
1 On the Fourteenth Satire see G. HIGHET,
Juvenal the Satirist, Oxford I954, I45-I48,
A. SERAFINI, Studio sulla satira di Giovenale, Florence I957, 60-62;
E. N. O'NEIL, The Structure of Juvenal's Fourteenth Satire, CP 55, I960, 25I-253;
W. S. ANDERSON, Anger in Juvenal and Seneca, University of California Publications in
J. P. STEIN, The Unity and Scope of Juvenal's
Classical Philology i9, I964, I90-I9I;
Fourteenth Satire, CP 65, I970, 34-36. For an early American version of the poem see
L. M. KAISER, An Unpublished Translation of Juvenal I4 by John Quincy Adams, CJ 65,
I970, 3IO-3I6.
2 On the literary relationship of the two poets see H. NETTLESHIP,
The Life and Poems
of Juvenal, Journal of Philology i6, i888, 4I-66; H. L. WILSON, The Literary Influence
282-284;
Hermes, 105. Band, Heft 2 (1977) ? Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, D-6200 Wiesbaden
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