s has some other claim than its immediate interest.There is another aspect that differentiates the Aeneid from the poetry of Homer. It is the aspect of peace, a peace developed through order, which we seldom see in Homer. He, however, emulated Homer’s epics to argue this new idea. Vergilius’ first obstacle in writing a heroic poem was his enormous admiration of Homer which prompted him to feel that many of his effect should be Homeric. It was a formidable task. Nonetheless, he persevered and often competed with Homer in his own ground; it is in such passages that he is most open to criticism, for he had little of Homer’s understanding of the fury and frenzy of war. But he had to make Aeneas a great warrior in order to achieve his purpose. He laboriously and conscientiously tries to recreate in his own sensitive and melodious language what Homer had done so naturally and so brilliantly. He tries his utmost to make his battles interesting by varying them with the usage of contemporary devices of warfare such as cavalry, siege engines and battering rams. But these are not enough, and over his battles, there hangs a sense of effort. The slayings of men in Homer have their own vitality and certainly much more poetry than a passage like of Vergilius: “Caedicus now cut down Alcathous, Sacrator Hydaspes, and Rapo Parthenius and also Orses, a warrior of the toughest strength. Messapus killed Clonius and the son of Lycaon, Erichaetes” (X, 747-49). The faint ghostly figures behind the resounding names have no part in the story; their fates are without pathos or interest. This passage bears no relation to experience and is purely literary. Vergilius wrote it, because he felt the poem demanded it. Moreover, even when he is more successful than here, his meditative, highly educated self seems to impose barriers between the Homeric original and his attempt to reproduce it in new circumstances. To illustrate...
