Aeneas Tragic Deaths
Trent Soares CH 201 Lin Xing Critical Paper #1 The Train Tracks of Aeneas Tragic Deaths Aeneas was never happy in his life, it seemed he always had a deep emptiness inside of him. In any case it was inevitable that he always contained a strong love to his family name and devotion to gods (Pietas). A focused man can seem unstoppable as presented in all ancient Greece stories especially in Virgil’s books. Being so, it is easy to understand that Aeneas must do whatever it takes to reach his goal. “I be Aeneas, duty-bound, known, above high air of heaven by my fame, carrying with me in my ships our gods of hearth and home, saved from the enemy. I look for Italy to be my fatherland (pg 63).” Even though he is the hero and protagonist he will have to betray, deceive, do what he must to make it to his destination in Italy his service to Troy. Which is the reason death seems to follow Aeneas on his journey, sometimes loyal, but mostly heartbreaking. I believe that these tragic deaths have a huge importance in the Aeneid, and I could also argue that in some cases it wasn’t Aeneas being a bad hero. He was just following orders to his destiny. Aeneas may have they ability to make his own decisions but Juno, and Jupiter heavily influence those verdicts. I feel that in “the Tragic Queen of Carthage” Dido and Aeneas are puzzle pieces in what they want to happen. I mean just look at the title; this story is going to have a tragic death. Just two puppets in what they chose of their fate. It all starts with the orders of Cupid. The love romance between Aeneas and Dido only starts because Cupid strikes Dido with his arrow. If not for that, Dido would still be morning over the death of her ex-husband Sychaeus. After swearing that she would never marry again, it would have to take the magical powers of cupids love to persuade Dido to fall for another man. Juno also