Virgil and Homer were two authors who did excellent work that gave so much detail about the Romans and the Greeks. The odyssey was a written work that gave a reflection about the journey of one of the victorious heroes who came back from the Trojan War. Shrewd Odysseus was a true reflection of the society that existed in Greece during Homers time. On the other hand, Aeneid was a narrative that was created by Virgil who part of the roman society. The primary reason behind the creation of Aeneid was to create a national hero who would be used to unite the nation and form an identity for the people.
The poem was about Aeneas who by then was the Trojan prince. The prince found a new kingdom in the Italian empire. Moreover, the Trojan hero was the person behind the findings of the new race of Italians whom he believed that would conquer the world in the future. The two authors used their creativity in poem writing to show the world how the people who were behind the two Trojan heroes played a vital role in their final success. Of most importance to the story of the two Trojans were he women who helped the two heroes to achieve so much for the society. The two poems were used to give an illustration of how the feminine had an influence in the success of their men. Moreover, they depict the path that was followed by women to achieve power, create passion within women as well as taking right positions in the society.
The two factions are both similar and different in a number of ways: when they both decided to set of for their respective journey, they did so with an intention of returning back home upon completing their missions. The actions that were carried out by the two heroes differed sharply during the course of their respective journeys. Since Aeneas was a typical Roman, he had to embody the Roman values, one of which was to stick and remain loyal to their duties. His actions and duties were given and directed to him by the gods under the direction of the mercury. The duty that was given to Aenea was to leave cathage and immediately find and establish anew empire in Rome. Since Aenea was one of those who believed, trusted and obeyed the gods, he immediately left to pursue the new lands. In as much as he had enjoyed stayed in his land, especially due to the sweetness of life in that area, he had to obey the call and leave the land. The most painful thing to Aenea during that moment was the fact that he was leaving his lover, known as Dido as well as the peaceful and tranquility of life he enjoyed in his land.
Aenea was so obedient to the gods to an extent that he didnot have a second thought once he had been given the mandate to execute his duties. He had his personal desires but he decided that he was not going to let his desires stop from completing the mission for which he had been assigned. He made a sacrifice to let go of his personal life, ambitions and happiness in order to do what the gods wanted him to do for his society.
Contrary to the duty abiding Aenea, his counterpart Odysseus was not dedicated to the duties that were assigned to him at all. His only focus was to get his personal satisfaction asopposed to working for the benefit of his people. More than often, he left Ithaca and went back home to satisfy his desires. He took so long to get to his destination. Even after ten year, he was still not able to get to his destination. By the time he managed to get his destination, he had no any member of his original crew with him. His lack of commitment to his people is what led to him getting to his final destination without his people. His only desire was to achieve his personal and self-interest. At some point Odysseus abandoned those whom he was given the responsibility to lead. He strayed away from his path of mission on several occasions.
One of the occasions when he strayed from his path was when they were at the Cyclops islands where his actions put his followers in real danger but he did not care so much about that. Odysseus was such a promiscuous person because he slept with so many different women on a number of occasions. His promiscuous activities led to endangering the life of his wife. He only left his promiscuous duties to return to Ithaca where he had been sent by the gods only after receiving such directions. Before the gods issued directions to him, he could not get away from his stray activities. Of course he ensured that whatever he did in secret had to be done to hos full before getting back to Ithaca. His actions differ from those that were done by Aenea because he is driven by self-interest as opposed to his counterpart who gave the public interest the first priority. The Romans were not pleased with the way Odysseus their leader was behaving towards them because they expected him to lead the way and show them the right direction. Therefore Virgil uses the art of comparison to show how the two could have been similar in a number of ways but at the same time differ sharply from one another. While Aenea was dedicated to serving the public interest, Odyssey was mean, self-loving and egocentric.
In both scenarios, the two cases begin at the point where they draw much closer to the end of their journey. Aeneas destination was in Italy where he reached within a very short span of time. On the other hand, Odysseus would be in Ithaca after a very short time of just a few days due to his promiscuous nature. Their voyage adventures are told by no one except the heroes themselves but they are given in a flashback. In both flashbacks that are given, the depiction that is given is that of the fall of the Troy. Both epics give a picture where the journey taken by the two heroes are delayed by their wives.
Odysseus spends close to one year with Circe but takes several years to be with Calypso. On the other hand, Aenea also spends a better part of a year with Dido. Odysseus seemed to have been confused between the two women he had in his life. He loved Circe but again Calypso also fascinated him a lot. Moreover, Calypso tried her best to interest Odyssey so that he could marry him despite his heart being in love with Circe. His love for his wife could not let him get married to Calypso because he wanted to get married to him. For the case of Aenea, his wife Dido loved him so much but again he had a mission to accomplish. His call to serve his people could not allow him to stay much longer with Dido his wife.
The Greek woman is depicted as one who was always acting as a child and refused to grow up from that stage of life. Women in Greek were confined by their men within certain quarters where they viewed as flower girls who were never allowed to be part of any social activities. The entire social functions such drinking, discussion on politics and athletics were all preserved from men. Women were not allowed to own anything to an extent that even the houses where they lived were considered to be of their husband and not for the wives. Women were only allowed to make formal interactions with the children and not their male counterparts. The only people who exempted from the above limitations were the prostitutes.
On the other hand, the Roman women were viewed as the center of the social life by both sexes. Moreover, they allowed enjoying a number of privileges especially from their male counterparts. Mothers were allowed to have a hand in the final decisions about their children marriages. Every woman was allowed to seek for divorce if she felt mistreated or shortchanged in her current marriage.
Bibliography
Boardman, Griffin, Murray. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World. (1986) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
Gransden, K. W. Virgil: The “Aeneid.” Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990
Henry, Elisabeth. The Vigour of Prophecy: A Study of Virgil’s Aeneid. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990
Johnson, W. R. Darkness Visible. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976
McDougall R, Suzanne Pavols. Comparison of Aeneas and Odysseus: Heroes and Journey: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003
