Imagery in The Aeneid Essay

The Aeneid is an epic poem written by Virgil, a Roman poet, around the late first century. The Aeneid is the story of Aeneas and his men as they flee from Troy, after it was destroyed by the Greeks. Virgils uses figurative and descriptive language throughout this epic poem to create different imageries. These imageries are seen all throughout the novel as Virgil goes into great detail. Many pages of The Aeneid are just imagery, with only a couple sentences devoted to the narrative. This imagery adds meaning to the text, therefore letting the audience better understand the narrative. The imagery of the rivalry between the gods is a constant in the text, moving the narrative along.

This rivalry between the gods looms over the narrative of The Aeneid so much that at times the story seems to be less about the actions of the human characters than about the arguing and fighting of the gods. The gods set the basis for what is to come, as their arguing and jealousy effects and disrupts the events of The Aeneid. Much of Virgils writing relies on back stories between the gods, that he suspected would be common knowledge to his audience at the time. Inferring this, Virgil puts little or no explanation into the conflict of the gods and instead uses figurative and descriptive language to illustrate the tension and rivalry between the gods. An example of this, Neptunes calming of the storm in book I.

Juno and Venuss rivalry dates back to when Venus was judged more beautiful then Juno in a beauty contest. Juno therefore tries to disrupt Aeneass journey, as he is the son on Venus, by calling on Aeolus. Juno pleas to Aeolus:

Aeolus, the Father of Gods and King of Men gave you the power to calm the waves or rouse them with your gales. A race I loathe is crossing the Tuscan sea, transporting Troy to Italy, bearing their conquered household gods- thrash your winds to fury, sink their warships, overwhelm them or break them apart, scatter their crews, drown them all!(I, 77-83).

Virgil could have just wrote one line, Aeolus, will you send a great storm at Aeneas destroying his ship and his crew? Instead he uses metonymies and other forms of figurative language. He does this to create and imagery, that adds to the readers understanding of the relationship between the gods. For example, in the above quote Virgil writes A race I loathe instead of Trojans. By writing race I loathe Virgil lets the audience know that Juno loathes the Trojan race. Virgil also writes their conquered household gods to refer to the gods helping Aeneas and his men. This use of language lets the reader know how Juno feels about Venus. In these instances Virgil is adding information to the text, by using metonymy.

Aeolus accepts and Virgil describes his actions, With such thanks, swinging his spear around he strikes home at the mountains hollow flank and out charge the winds through the breach hed made, like armies on attack in a blasting whirlwind tearing through the earth (1, 97-100). Virgil uses a simile here to create an imagery of Aeoluss attack. He relates Aeoluss conjuring of the winds to armies on attack in a blasting whirlwind tearing through the earth. This is used to get across the viciousness of the attack, by relating the wind to humans. The simile also creates an image of war, to the reader. Virgil does this in hope that his audience will imagine the wind as an enemy to Aeneas and the storm as an attack on his ship. This gets across the fact that Juno is attacking Aeneas and wants him dead.

Aeoluss attack damages the ships and pushes them off course. As the storm intensifies, Neptune enters:

And the mighty god stirred to his depths, lifts his head from the crests and serene in power, gazing out over all his realm, he sees Aeneas squadrons scattered across the ocean, Trojans overwhelmed by the surf and the wild crashing skies. He summons the East- and Westwind, takes them to task: What insolence! Trusting so to your lofty birth? You winds, you dare make heaven and earth a chaos, raising such a riot of waves without my blessing (I,148-157).

Virgil continues treating the winds like people. Neptune summons and talks directly to the wind. Neptune even reprimands the winds, as if they were actually people that could feel and think. He is able to do this because he already has referred the winds as an army, using simile. This continues the imagery of the fighting and rivalry between the gods.

Neptune eventually calms the winds and the remaining ships head towards land. Virgil writes a simile to explain Neptunes calming of the winds. He writes:

Just as all too often, some huge crowd is seized by a vast uprising, the rabble runs amok, all slaves to passion, rocks, firebrands flying. Rage finds them arms but then, if they chance to see a man among them, one whose devotion and public service lend him weight, they there, stock-still with their ears alert as he rules their furor with his words and calms their passion.(1, 175-181).

This simile again is humanizing the acts of the gods. This is a recurring element of the book as Virgil does this so the audience can witness the rivalry and jealousy of the gods that drives the narrative of The Aeneid.