The Aeneid by Virgil (Cliff Notes)

By Paul Rice

One day I said to myself, "I should read the Cliff Notes to the Aeneid." Later that same day, without looking for them, the Fates put this literally in my hands.

This is the tale of Aeneas, Trojan survivor of their final war, who goes on a shorter Odysseus-like voyage after escaping Troy, settles in the land along the Tiber which would become Rome, and with his Trojans, and Etruscan and Pallanteum allies, fights the somewhat reluctant Latins, and the Rutulians, led by Turnus. The first half of the poem is the voyage of the Trojan survivors. The second half is largely a buildup to a battle between Aeneas and Turnus, with the prize being the founding of Rome, and the hand of the daughter of the King of the Latins. Virgil wrote this 12 volume poem on commission to his former college buddy, Augustus. He wrote it with the intention of it becoming a national epic, and succeeded.

As far back as the fifth century BCE, the Romans claimed ancestry to Aeneas and the surviving Trojans.

The end of the Trojan War was the 12th century, give or take. The Romans' other foundation myth is Romulus and Remus -- sons of Mars and a Vestal Virgin, later raised by a wolf -- with the claim Romulus founded Rome in 743 BCE. The intervening four centuries are a bit of a mystery.

The Aeneid, coming after the Republic was gone, was unable to influence the Republic, but probably captured the values of the early Imperial society: duty to state, control of one's emotions, honor of family. It's largely a tale of sacrifice of personal happiness for the betterment of the many. It was highly acclaimed, widely read, and enthusiastically endorsed when it was published.

The gods appear a little less frequently than in Homer's works, but are as manipulative as usual, trying hard to steer the course of human affairs to their own ends. The gods pre-ordain many predictions which -- as Virgil was writing after the fact -- become true. Carthage will rise and fall. Carthage will be Rome's biggest enemy, and a Carthaginian champion will occupy Italy for many years. After years of strife, Augustus will come to power, and his last battle will be a naval one. Virgil exhibits considerable sycophantism to his patron Augustus, painting him the pre-ordained, direct descendant of Aeneas who is the ideal leader and will bring peace to the Mediterranean basin. It's easy to predict the future when you're writing about it in the past tense.

[Looking at the big picture, this is all just a continuation of the story started by Eris, Goddess of Discord, and her infamous golden apple. Indeed, Eris's mischief not only causes the Trojan War, but even leads directly to the Punic Wars. That one golden apple sure caused a lot of trouble -- all because of the vanity of women. And men don't get off free, for when Paris was offered three temptations, he choose lust; that is, the beauty of Helen.

So as the story goes, the two founding societies of western civilization -- arguably the most advanced civilization on the planet -- possibly Greece and certainly Rome came about as a result of Eris's little toss of an apple.

So is the moral of the story that our ancestors passed to us that strife is the root of all progress? Or perhaps it is better stated, discord is the cause of all progress. And if one thinks of harmony as equality, and discord as difference, it is no surprise, for in thermodynamic equilibrium there can be no further progress. It is only through a difference in energy states that we can create useful work.

Another conclusion might be vanity and lust drive everything we do: our unequivocal drive to proliferate ourselves. Or as Willie Dixon so eloquently put it, "Everybody's fighting for a spoonful."

(Or perhaps I'm over-reading this. Perhaps Virgil wrote the poem just trying to make a few denarii, or trying to score chicks. Which takes us back to my previous comment.)]

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