Aeneas as Hero and Founder of Rome in Virgil's Aeneid

Introduction: Aeneas as a Hero of Destiny

Aeneas is said to possess spiritual and godlike qualities that make him fit for his role as hero and destined founder of Rome. Critics see this achievement as proceeding both from his destiny and his own actions. He is the son of the Trojan mortal Anchises and Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, and as such enjoys special divine protection while remaining mortal.

His most outstanding quality is his respect for and fidelity to prophecy. Ever aware of his destiny and his role in the founding of a nation, he always takes this into consideration in every action he takes. This awareness and devotion to his noble destiny enable him to endure much suffering and difficulty, from the defeat at Troy to his final duel with Turnus in Italy.

His ability and decision to keep his focus on that destiny give him the power to ward off the weakening effects of frustration and the restless emotions that war against his duties. That image is ever before him, stronger and more compelling than any failure or difficulty he faces. This quality of endurance and single-mindedness alone makes him deserving of the favor of the gods and worthy of recognition as a graceful, noble hero. As Virgil's Aeneid presents him, Aeneas is a figure whose inner discipline defines his heroism as much as his deeds in battle.

Endurance, Compassion, and Leadership

Despite his single-mindedness, Aeneas has much room in his heart for the condition of others. He shows compassion in many ways and on many occasions. When his crew grows tired, dejected, and discouraged during their journey to Italy, he delivers a speech to lift their dwindling spirits, reminding them of how far they have already traveled and suffered for one cause:

"Endure! Conquer! Jove will soon dispose to future good our past and present woes. / What greater ills hereafter can you bear? / Resume your courage and dismiss your care / Endure the hardships of your present state; / Live and reserve yourselves for better fate." (Book I)

He speaks these encouraging words with a smile, yet deep within he himself feels apprehensive and in the grip of anguish. But that is precisely what courage means to him: not the absence of fear or agony, but the decision to go on despite them.

He demonstrates this compassion on other occasions as well — for example, by allowing the crippled and the unwilling to remain behind (Book V), and in the underworld by acknowledging the lot of the unburied dead. He has compassion for both the living and the dead, and he carries these lessons with him into the wars he later engages in, ensuring the burial of allies and enemies alike.

Aeneas and Queen Dido: Duty Over Desire

In Carthage, Aeneas meets and attracts the Phoenician princess Dido, who is amazed at his heroic accomplishments. They live together for a time. Before the arrival of Aeneas, Dido had become a widow when her husband Sychaeus was killed by her brother Pygmalion. She had been a strong and able ruler of Carthage, a city on the coast of North Africa, and had resolved not to remarry so as to preserve the memory of her murdered husband. Driven to Tyre, her native land, by her brother, she nonetheless never lost her grip and control over her responsibilities to those she governed.

When Aeneas arrived, Dido was immediately stricken as though mad. She tells her sister that something within her had been rekindled. She risks everything for Aeneas, and their life together causes her to compromise the memory of her deceased husband. This costs her the loyalty of her subjects and the alliance of her local African chieftains, who view Aeneas — a foreigner — as a military threat. Yet Dido remains deeply obsessed with him:

"Let us make, instead of war, an everlasting peace and plighted wedding. / You have what you were bent upon: she burns with love; the frenzy now is in her bones. / Then let us rule this people — you and I with equal auspices..." (Book IV, lines 130–136)

Although he indulges in an affair with Queen Dido, Aeneas is roused from the grips of passion when Jupiter reminds him of his son Ascanius, to whom he is deeply devoted. Momentarily dazed by his passionate relationship with the obsessed Queen, Aeneas' inherent sense of order and duty returns, and he decides to sacrifice his longing for Dido. He could have chosen to remain in Carthage — not only with a Queen he already loves, but also spared from further bloodshed and the hardships of war.

This choice is the most acute evidence of Aeneas' strong and virtuous character, because it is only after he leaves Dido that his destiny to lay the foundations of Rome is revealed to him with full clarity. He makes the decision partly by his own will and partly by the force of destiny. Thus Aeneas rejects the tempting option of staying put and remaining with a woman who is madly in love with him — not to mention the guilt he must have struggled against in being responsible for Dido's eventual suicide. But his highest consideration is loyalty to duty and to destiny, subordinating his genuine romantic love to the will of the gods, as he expresses to Dido in Books IV and V. This and other situations that illustrate the same devotion and selflessness have earned him the epithet "pious Aeneas" — a quality that sharply contrasts the disobedient and discordant behaviors of Juno and Turnus.

Conclusion: The Virtuous Founder

Turnus is as irrational and ill-fated as Queen Dido, with both of them falling at the hand of the heroic and virtuous Aeneas. Both are slaves to passion where Aeneas is governed by duty. Throughout the epic, Aeneas demonstrates that true heroism, as Virgil conceives it, is not merely military prowess but the disciplined subordination of personal desire to a higher purpose. His endurance, compassion, filial loyalty, and unfailing devotion to his destiny collectively earn him the title "pious Aeneas" — the ideal Roman hero and the fitting founder of the civilization that would become Rome.