Pallas Represent Of Violence According To Aeneid
According to Aeneid Book 10, lines 595-603, the engravings on Pallas’ belt is a literal and
visual representation of the violent and gory murder of Aegyptus’ fifty sons by the hand of
Danaus’ daughters on their wedding night (Aeneid 10.595-603). The reason behind why Pallas
chose to wear a belt with those designs on it is unknown because the answer to that is not
mentioned in the text. However, if I didn’t know the story behind the belt and had to make one
reasonable guess as to why Pallas would wear it, I would say that it probably represented the
amount of violence and prevalent battles that he was fighting in at that time and his status as a
fierce, determined, and aggressive warrior (Aeneid 10.445-495). However, the belt …show more content…
I made that assumption based on the fact that when people
look at frightening things, feelings of fear and intimidation can result. This may sound unusual
and unrelated, but Pallas having those graphic and violent engravings on his belt actually
reminds me of Entellus back in Book 5, because I remember hearing during one of our lectures
on that book that Entellus wanted to wear his huge, intimidating gloves in his fight with Dares
because he probably wanted to show Dares how tough he was (Aeneid 5.450). Based on both
situations, I think it’s possible that during Virgil’s time, some warriors of both combat sports and
actual battles liked to show off what they’ve got through their equipment because it could easily
instill reverence, awe, and fear into onlookers and enemies or opponents, and cause them to have
a certain respect for that warrior’s credentials.
The Augustan values in Aeneid that this belt and the situation of Aeneas vs …show more content…
Nobody would ever want to feel responsible for someone’s death,
especially the death of a child, and even Evander wished that his son didn’t have to die
before him (Aeneid 11.185). I know that Aeneas found taking care of Pallas a huge
responsibility, especially because of how distressed Evander was while and after Pallas was
turned over to him (Aeneid, 8.655-665). After Aeneas witnessed that, he probably thought:
“I’m making a very important commitment here and must not let harm come to him.” I think
that a lot of Aeneas’ grief stemmed from the fact that he couldn’t have done anything to prevent
the tragedy of Pallas from taking place, and was reminded of that grief when he noticed the
belt.
Of course, we must not forget that Juno played a role in leading Aeneas to kill Turnus by
sending down one of her furies which crippled Turnus and gave Aeneas the upper hand
(Aeneid, 12.1020-1045). I also don’t think that Aeneas seeing the belt of Pallas was
visual representation of the violent and gory murder of Aegyptus’ fifty sons by the hand of
Danaus’ daughters on their wedding night (Aeneid 10.595-603). The reason behind why Pallas
chose to wear a belt with those designs on it is unknown because the answer to that is not
mentioned in the text. However, if I didn’t know the story behind the belt and had to make one
reasonable guess as to why Pallas would wear it, I would say that it probably represented the
amount of violence and prevalent battles that he was fighting in at that time and his status as a
fierce, determined, and aggressive warrior (Aeneid 10.445-495). However, the belt …show more content…
I made that assumption based on the fact that when people
look at frightening things, feelings of fear and intimidation can result. This may sound unusual
and unrelated, but Pallas having those graphic and violent engravings on his belt actually
reminds me of Entellus back in Book 5, because I remember hearing during one of our lectures
on that book that Entellus wanted to wear his huge, intimidating gloves in his fight with Dares
because he probably wanted to show Dares how tough he was (Aeneid 5.450). Based on both
situations, I think it’s possible that during Virgil’s time, some warriors of both combat sports and
actual battles liked to show off what they’ve got through their equipment because it could easily
instill reverence, awe, and fear into onlookers and enemies or opponents, and cause them to have
a certain respect for that warrior’s credentials.
The Augustan values in Aeneid that this belt and the situation of Aeneas vs …show more content…
Nobody would ever want to feel responsible for someone’s death,
especially the death of a child, and even Evander wished that his son didn’t have to die
before him (Aeneid 11.185). I know that Aeneas found taking care of Pallas a huge
responsibility, especially because of how distressed Evander was while and after Pallas was
turned over to him (Aeneid, 8.655-665). After Aeneas witnessed that, he probably thought:
“I’m making a very important commitment here and must not let harm come to him.” I think
that a lot of Aeneas’ grief stemmed from the fact that he couldn’t have done anything to prevent
the tragedy of Pallas from taking place, and was reminded of that grief when he noticed the
belt.
Of course, we must not forget that Juno played a role in leading Aeneas to kill Turnus by
sending down one of her furies which crippled Turnus and gave Aeneas the upper hand
(Aeneid, 12.1020-1045). I also don’t think that Aeneas seeing the belt of Pallas was