What are the two obstacles/monsters that Odysseus has to choose from next?

The Roman Empire has been classified as perhaps the greatest empire of the ancient earth. Some take fifty-fifty gone so far equally to merits it is the greatest empire in the history of flesh. The Romans were unbelievably patriotic, and proud of their vast empire. This inevitably led them to compare themselves to those that had come before.

As a writer at this time, Virgil was not immune to Roman patriotism. In his Aeneid, Virgil highlights the comparison between the Romans and their cultural predecessors, the Greeks. He draws literary parallels to Homer to emphasize his indicate. The characters of Aeneas and Odysseus are microcosms of their respective cultures. Through a comparison of the hero Aeneas to the hero Odysseus, Virgil shows that the Romans are the superior civilisation.

In the Aeneid and the Odyssey, Aeneas and Odysseus both undergo a parallel journey with the ultimate purpose of returning (in Aeneas' case establishing) a home. Notwithstanding, throughout their journeys, the deportment of the ii heroes are vastly different.

Aeneas embodies the Roman value of duty. He is given a job by the Gods, told direct by Mercury: to leave Carthage and constitute an empire in Rome. Immediately later on receiving this message, Aeneas is prepared to obey, "As the sharp admonition and command from heaven had shaken him awake, he now burned only to be gone, to leave that land of the sweet life backside." (N.A. 1093, 364) Information technology is Aeneas' instinct to obey the command of the Gods.

Every bit the end of this sentence shows, Aeneas is willing to obey despite the fact that he knows he will be leaving "the sugariness life behind": leaving his lover, Dido and the good and peaceful life he could take had. "Duty-spring, Aeneas, though he struggled with desire…took the grade heaven gave him and went back to the armada." (North.A. 1097, 520-526) Aeneas sacrifices his personal happiness – his individual life – for the skilful of his people and his public duty.

Odysseus, on the other mitt, is not driven past whatever sense of duty. He leaves Troy to return abode to Ithaca, yet does not attain his destination for ten years. Even when he does arrive, he does then without whatever of his original crew. Odysseus is driven purely by self-interest, and often abandons those he is indebted to and responsible for. He strays multiple times from his path: on the island of the Cyclops, with Circe and with Calypso, all the while putting his followers in danger and betraying his waiting wife.

Odysseus only returns to Ithaca and his married woman at the order of the Gods, when he has had his fill of bliss with Calypso. All of Odysseus' actions are fuelled past cocky-involvement; he puts his individual life above his public duty, a trait peculiarly abhorred by the Romans. Thus Virgil uses the comparison of Aeneas' sense of duty to Odysseus' self-involvement to propel the Roman civilization in a higher place and beyond that of the Greeks.

Homer's works are function of the Trojan cycle, and represent two major themes: the Iliad is war, and the Odyssey is a journey. Virgil takes these ii concepts and combines them in the Aeneid, which is a journey followed past a war. Yet Virgil'due south Aeneas and Homer's Odysseus arroyo state of war in vastly unlike ways.

Aeneas fights for the future, to create an empire for his son, and to continue the legacy of Troy. As he explains to Dido, "Priam's bang-up hall should stand once more." (N.A 1095, 449-450) Aeneas fights for a purpose greater than himself. As he is told by his begetter in the Underworld, "What glories follow Dardan generations in after years, and from Italian blood what famous children in your line will come, souls of the future, living in our proper noun." (Northward.A 1120, 619-622)

Aeneas knows that his battles are meant to benefit others, and he accepts this and fights harder for it. Unlike Aeneas, Odysseus fights for himself, to satisfy his own cocky-interest. Throughout his journey, Odysseus purposefully involves himself in the disharmonize in society to reach celebrity for himself. On the island of the Cyclops, Odysseus could have avoided conflict with Polyphemos, and the eventual vengeance of Poseidon, had he not been and then focused on personal glory.

Even in one case he has reclaimed his house from the suitors, Odysseus sees fit to kill them all despite their surrender and offer of compensation, "Not for the whole treasure of your fathers…would I hold my hand. In that location volition be killing till the score is paid." (Northward.A 496, 61-64) Odysseus' motivation towards the suitors was his own revenge, not but the saving of his wife.

Do good for others through Odysseus' actions is merely a past-product of his own personal benefit; information technology is never beginning in his listen to fight for the cause of others, as he is always focused on his own self-involvement. Aeneas fights his battles for others, for the future, and ultimately to create. Odysseus fights for himself, and the consequence is always destruction.

Virgil uses this equally a metaphor for the comparison between cultures. Rome is focused on a greater purpose and creates the building of a vast empire and cosmos of an enormous united culture; whereas Greece is selfish, and destroys: the sacking of Troy followed by the internal destruction of the Peloponnesian war.

There is a reason that figures go corking in the history of a culture. These infamous heroes often embody the platonic of that culture, the values it most wishes to uphold, and the image information technology wants to present. To compare the heroes of a culture is to compare the cultures themselves, and in Virgil's Aeneid, he is able to do only that.

He compares his hero Aeneas, father of Rome, to the Greek Odysseus, and every time – specially from the Roman perspective – Aeneas is the victor. Aeneas is the platonic Roman hero, and in many means has also highly influenced our contemporary notions of a hero. The comparative triumph of Aeneas over Odysseus is Virgil's declaration of the triumph of Roman culture.

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