The Aeneid: Purgatory
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Book 6 of VirgilÆs Aeneid provides a picture of purgatory that is aimed at demonstrating to Aeneas the solution to human suffering. The solution is to lead a life ruled by ration that controls human passion and desire. As Hardie maintains, ôVirgil is concerned from the first chapter to show how the narrative is manipulated to make it easier for the patriotic Roman reader to sympathize with AeneasÆ actionsö (270). Virgil hoped to do so in order to show Romans how to properly conduct themselves in order to be saved in the afterlife. By making this glorification of RomeÆs history and future accessible to the common Roman, Virgil broadened his potential audience for saved souls. VirgilÆs depiction of purgatory is meant to illustrate the damnation unsaved souls suffer for eternity but it also shows that some, like Aeneas, are saved and have everlasting life in the cycle of cleansing of memory and rebirth. However, it also expresses the foundation for the conduct necessary to assure the immortality of Rome. The design of purgatory by Virgil is meant to exhibit the damnation of souls that did not bridle their desires and passions in life. At the beginning of Book 6, we see that there is a relief that features DaedalusÆ escape from Crete to Italy. However, the image of the labyrinth is significant to Aeneas, because it demonstrates that one must walk a maze-like journey through life while keeping desire in check. As Miller argues, ôà
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types of condemned in them. In the Mournful Fields are the ôso callÆd loversö (Virgil Book VI). Each group of condemned is located in a hierarchy. In place and punishment, each group has committed different sins that have condemned them to the underworld, ôThe next, in place and punishment, are they / Who prodigally throw their souls away; / Fools, who, repining at their wretched state, / And loathing anxious life, subornÆd their fate. / With late repentance now they would retrieve / The bodies they forsook, and wish to liveö (Virgil Book VI). This also shows that once one transgresses the rules of achieving eternal life, one is condemned to suffer regardless of their crime or pleas to live again.
The choice of whether to live a life of self-control and assure oneÆs place in the afterlife or live a life of passion and desire and be condemned to the underworld is up to the individual, Virgil seems to argue. At one point the Sybil explains, ôNight rushes down, and headlong drives the day: / æT is here, in different paths, the way divides: / The right to PlutoÆs golden palace guides; / The left to that unhappy region tends, / Which to the depth of Tartarus descends; / The seat of night profound, and punishÆd fiendsö (Virgil B
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1811
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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