The presentation of death in Vergil’s work, The Aeneid, indicates the inescapable will of the gods. Written as Roman ktisis poetry, or a “foundation myth”, Vergil wrote The Aeneid to strengthen the political influence of Augustus and provide the citizens of Rome with an ethnic identity (Mianowski 68). To fulfill this purpose, throughout the poem, the themes and events Vergil presents are distinctly Roman. In The Aeneid, the scenes detailing Laocoon and his sons’ deaths, and Creusa’s suicide, show that Romans view the concept of death as a tool to serve the Gods’ purposes. Not only did The Aeneid provide the Roman citizens with a common cultural bond, it also influenced the image of the afterlife in other notable works.
Creusa’s death, which …show more content…
While some human deaths in the Aeneid are sacrifices to fate, some are “sacrificed to specific divinities for specific purposes” (Genovese 24) The beginning of the scene shows Laocoon “sacrificing a massive bull” when huge serpents enter the scene (Vergil 81). The description of the serpents sent by Neptune with their “blood-red crests” and “snaking over the sea” serve to intimidate the reader and foreshadow the impending doom on Laocoon and his children (Vergil 81). The way Virgil presents the snakes makes it clear that they are there intentionally to fulfil a role in Laocoon’s death, after which they hide in the temple of Minerva. The snakes hiding in Minerva’s temple serves as a symbol of Minerva and Neptune’s alliance to remove the final resistance towards the unavoidable fate of Troy (Mianowski 72). Laocoon’s death is nothing personal and hardly heroic, merely a needed execution to demonstrate the Gods’ divine power. When Aeneas witnesses Laocoon’s death, he correctly interprets it as a sign that the gods no longer support the city of Troy. However, the citizens interpret Laocoon’s death as a punishment for refusing the Greek gift and demand the horse be brought into the city. These conflicting interpretations of the Gods’ punishment prompt Aeneas to eventually escape the doomed city, while the citizens who misinterpreted Laocoon’s death …show more content…
Heavily derived from The Aeneid, the work is the most influential depiction of the afterlife. Although they are written over 1,400 years apart, the two works share many similarities in their views of death and the afterlife. In both works, the Underworld is structured with souls separated into good, evil, and neutral sectors based on their actions during life. Dante’s hell, however, is much more clearly defined compared to Vergil’s broad categories, with physical barriers separating the different circles of hell. In Inferno, hell is segmented into circles based upon the sins of incontinence, violence, fraud, and betrayal, which are further subdivided into sections that map the seven deadly sins: gluttony, wrath, sloth, avarice, lust, envy, and pride. The weight of the sin is also considered: the closer to the core of Hell, the eviler the sin. In Vergil’s underworld, the souls are not categorized based on the weight of their sins. However, they are still placed in hell because of violations of his society’s ethical code. The cheaters, hoarders, adulterers, and betrayers in Vergil’s hell are the forebears of the categories Dante uses to divide his Hell. The defined separation of the sinners in Dante’s hell is reflective of the Christian Church, which held great social power during the Middle Ages. Compared to Vergil’s society, the Church of Dante’s time had a much more severe view on