The Theme in the Work
The poem calls Aeneas pious, and piety, in the Aeneid, means duty: what is owed to the gods, to the father, to the son, to the guest, and to the dead. It rarely appears as feeling. It appears as gesture: who carries whom, who performs the rite, who keeps the given word.
In Book II, Aeneas leaves Troy with Anchises on his shoulders, and it is the father who carries the Penates, because the son, stained with blood, may not touch them. He loses Creusa in the flight and only notices her absence at the meeting point. In Book III, the voice of Polydorus, killed by the Thracian king for gold, shows what happens to whoever violates hospitality, and Aeneas does not decide alone: he brings the matter to the leaders and to his father and leaves the land stained.
Duties come into conflict. In Book IV, Mercury rebukes Aeneas for building the city of another people, forgetful of his kingdom and of Ascanius, to whom Italy is owed, and the departure, which he carries out shaken by great love, ends in the death of Dido. In Book V, the games at Anchises' tomb, a year after his death, show duty as a rite carried out in the midst of flight: seeing the serpent come out of the tomb, Aeneas renews the honors with greater zeal. In Book VI, he supports the request to see his father in Avernus for what he did for him in the flames, but first buries Misenus, because the unburied cannot cross the river and the dead friend would contaminate the fleet.
The war of the final books shows the duty that binds fathers and sons. In Book IX, Euryalus sets out on the raid without saying goodbye to his mother, who had followed him from Troy, and asks Ascanius to look after her so that he can go more boldly. In Book X, Pallas falls before Turnus, and Aeneas refuses to ransom Mago in the young man's name; when he kills Lausus, who threw himself in front of his wounded father, he returns to him the arms and the body, because he recognizes in him the filial piety that is his own. In Book XI, before the body of Pallas, he laments having failed the word he gave to Evander: "this is my great faith".
Duty in the Aeneid has a price, and the poem shows it through names: Creusa, Dido, Palinurus, Euryalus, Pallas. Aeneas's piety is not gentleness; it is fidelity to a list of obligations that do not always fit together. In Book XII, he nearly yields to Turnus's plea, which invokes Anchises, and kills when he sees Pallas's baldric: the poem does not decide whether this is duty toward a dead man or the loss of measure.
Where It Appears
- Book II: Aeneas carries Anchises on his shoulders, and Anchises carries the Penates because his son, stained with blood, may not touch them.
- Book III: Polydorus reveals to Aeneas that the Thracian king killed him for gold, and Aeneas takes the case to the leaders and to his father before deciding to leave the land stained.
- Book IV: Mercury rebukes Aeneas for building Carthage, forgetful of his kingdom and of Ascanius, and Aeneas orders the fleet readied even though he is shaken by great love.
- Book V: Aeneas celebrates at Anchises' tomb the games for the anniversary of his father's death and, on seeing the serpent, renews the honors with greater zeal.
- Book VI: Aeneas reminds the Sibyl that he lifted his father out of the flames on his shoulders, asks to see him in Avernus, and first buries Misenus.
- Book IX: Euryalus refuses to stay behind on the raid and asks Ascanius to look after the mother he leaves without a farewell.
- Book X: Aeneas refuses Mago's ransom in Pallas's name and returns to Lausus his arms and body, recognizing in him filial piety.
- Book XI: Aeneas covers the body of Pallas with a cloak woven by Dido and laments having failed the word he gave to Evander.
Passages
Aeneas supports the request to see his father in what he has already done for him.
Ire ad conspectum cari genitoris et ora / Contingat; doceas iter, et sacra ostia pandas. / Illum ego per flammas et mille sequentia tela / Eripui his humeris, medioque ex hoste recepi, may it be granted to me to go and see the face of my dear father; show the way and open the sacred gates. I carried him out of there on these shoulders, through flames and a thousand spears that came after, and rescued him from the midst of the enemy
Mercury holds Aeneas to account for the kingdom he forgot when he built Carthage.
Tu nunc Carthaginis altae / Fundamenta locas, pulchramque uxorius urbem / Exstruis? heu! regni rerumque oblite tuarum!, you now lay the foundations of lofty Carthage and, submissive to a woman, build a fair city? Alas, forgetful of your kingdom and your affairs!
Euryalus leaves his mother without a farewell and entrusts her care to Ascanius.
Unum oro: genitrix Priami de gente vetusta / Est mihi, quam miseram tenuit non Ilia tellus / Mecum excedentem, non moenia regis Acestae; / Hanc ego nunc ignaram hujus quodcumque pericli est, / Inque salutatam linquo; nox et tua testis / Dextera, quod nequeam lacrymas perferre parentis. / At tu, oro, solare inopem, et succurre relictae; / Hanc sine me spem ferre tui, audentior ibo / In casus omnes, only one thing I ask: I have a mother of ancient Priam's line, whom neither the land of Ilium nor the walls of King Acestes kept back, poor woman, when she left with me. I leave her now without knowing any danger this may be, and without a farewell; the night and your right hand are witnesses that I could not bear my mother's tears. But you, I beg, console the destitute one and come to the aid of the abandoned; let me carry this hope in you with me, and I will go more boldly into all dangers.
Aeneas returns the body of Lausus and recognizes in him his own piety.
Quid tibi nunc, miserande puer, pro laudibus istis, / Quid pius Aeneas tanta dabit indole dignum? / Arma, quibus laetatus, habe tua: teque parentum / Manibus et cineri (si qua est ea cura) remitto. / Hoc tamen infelix miseram solabere mortem; / Aeneae magni dextra cadis, what will the pious Aeneas now give you in return for such praise, poor boy, what will he give worthy of such a noble nature? Keep the arms in which you took pride; and I return you to the spirits and ashes of your fathers, if that matters to them. Yet you will have this comfort in your unhappy death: you fall by the hand of great Aeneas.
Before the body of Pallas, Aeneas weighs what he had promised Evander.
Hi nostri reditus, exspectatique triumphi? / Haec mea magna fides!, is this our return, are these the triumphs we awaited? This is my great faith!
In the end, the memory of Pallas overcomes the plea of Turnus.
Tune hinc spoliis indute meorum / Eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas / Immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit, will you, clad in the spoils of my own men, escape me from here? Pallas, Pallas sacrifices you with this blow and exacts the penalty from your guilty blood.