Saturday, September 29, 2012

Octavius and Aeneas

There are many parallels between Octavius and Aeneas and one of the more prominent ones is the idea that Octavius was descended from a god. Aeneas also had one of his parents that was a god. Both also seem to have very arrogant characteristics and personalities. Could these particular characteristics both come from the fact that are "descended" from gods? Since one parent was a mortal and the other was a god maybe they have trouble finding their meaning and who they truly are. For example, Aeneas is very arrogant when he first meets Dido and proclaims who he is. He is also like the gods in the sense that he doesn't really care when he abandons Dido and heads off to found a new city. I think Octavius portrays a more violent side of the gods based on the fact that he participated in 70 years of civil war that Rome was locked in. He eventually won the last of those wars and declared himself the ruler of Rome, which seems like a very god-like act to me. He also said that he was running a republic in Rome, but he was more of a dictator overseeing everything that went on...like he was ruling from Mt. Olympus and watching the mortals below.

No comments: