The two topics of my choice are:
Fate,Fortune, and Free Will
Augustine, Dante, and Sin
Fate, Fortune, and Free Will
Aeneas is bound by fate to become the founder of the Roman race, but he is also allowed to achieve this through free will. ‘Twould issue well. But am swayed by fate ’Queen Dido is also influenced by both fate and free will. She falls in love with Aeneas and even offers to share her kingdom with the Trojans with him . Although it is everyone's fate to die, she dies out of her free will when she decides to commit suicide . ‘O relics sweet while God and fate were kind. Receive my spirit, and free me from this woe .’ Her love for Aeneas eventually leads to her downfall, which is fate since she does not choose to fall madly and passionately in love with Aeneas. Characters in the Aeneid determine their fate through their actions. Turnus is a weak character who is unable to fight for what he deems right. He is unable to fight Aeneas on so many occasions and the two become lifetime enemies. When Turnus arrogantly dresses in a belt belonging to Aeneas's friend, he drives Aeneas into a passionate rage causing Aeneas to kill him . Turnus's character and not fate is, therefore, responsible for what happens to him. Nisus and Euralysus, who are at first focused on reconnaissance become overtaken by greed and decide not only to loot the Latin men in their sleep, but they take a step further and kill them for fortune ad glory, an act that leads them to their death. ‘Till fortune school to endure defeat. .’
Augustine, Dante, and Sin
‘Could I only find pleasure in what was unlawful, and only because it was unlawful .’ One of Dante’s rules in the inferno is contrapasso, which states that for every crime there must be a befitting and equal punishment . Punishment is always derived from the offense and not from the consequences of the crime itself. ‘Even when they sin against thee, they are also committing impiety against their own souls .’This is to say that there are various levels of crime which are all punished differently. The common belief is that a crime is punished depending on the consequences of the crime to the society. ‘It is only logical that hell should be portrayed as the perfect execution of God’s justice.' There is a weak and vigorous sin though the sin might be the same. For example, Capenus receives more punishment since he is still proud. Dante's punishers in hell are ancient creatures in non-biblical mythology which include beasts and heroes such as Ulysses and Geryon . Sin is described as violence either to the self, to others or directly against God. Hell is divided into seven circles and those who sin against others such as bandits are punished in the second ring of the seventh circle. ‘So once more along the outer edge of that seventh circle I walked all alone, where the mournful people were sitting .’ Those who commit violence against themselves such as those who commit suicide are sanctioned in the second circle. The third circle which is located between the first and second circle punishes three sets of violators which include those who offend God directly such as blasphemers those who violate nature such as sodomites and those who break God's offspring which includes the economy and industry . According to Dante, lust even between same sex relations is permissible until when it becomes too much or obsessive.
Works cited
Augustine, Saint Bishop of Hippo. and Albert Cook Outler. The confessions of St. Augustine. Ney York: Dover Publications, 2002. Print. <https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=1TfCAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=confessions+by+augustine&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=hell&f=false>.
Dante, Alighieri, Robert M Durling and Ronal L Martinez. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print. <https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=uEu3yvJwrhsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+divine+comedy+by+dante&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=seventh%20circle&f=false>.
Virgil. and Charles J Billson. Aeneid. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print. <https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=uX8zO_eCzxkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=aeneid&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=aeneas%20phallas&f=false>.
