, Homer tells the fatal pursuit of Hector by Achilles impeccably by relating that they did not run for a sacrificial ox or a tripod such as are given for prizes in foot races, “No, they ran for the life of Hektor, breaker of horses”(Iliad XXII, 161). This point is true and magnificently made. It comes straight out of the old heroic world where the qualities needed for athletic prowess are needed also for war, and all that differs between the two kinds of race is the sake for which is run. Vergilius tries to emulate this effect when Aeneas Pursues Turnus: “For in very truth they strove to gain no trivial prize in sport, but it was for the life-blood of Turnus that they vied” (XII, 764-65). The Latin eloquence makes its point clearly enough, but it hardly arouses our pity and horror as Homer’s direct approach does. The imagery of the race is so true for Homer and is somehow not so real for Vergilius. Perhaps, it was due to the times he lived in; his world was weary of war and was ready to sacrifice its liberty, so that it might enjoy peace under Augustus.Finally, poetry like Vergilius’ sack of Troy almost inevitably raises great questions about the nature of heroism and the worth of the old heroic ideal. If war is really like this, Homer can hardly have been right in treating warriors as if they were supermen. Vergilius does not shirk any of the questions raised by his story and implicitly criticizes the heroic ideal by showing to what baseness it can degenerate. His Trojans are noble enough, but they lack the qualities necessary to victory and cannot be called heroes. His Greeks, whose names and actions come from the Homeric and post-Homeric epics, are not redeemed by nobility, mercy, or chivalry. The agent, Sinon, who secures the introduction of the Wooden Horse into Troy, is a master of perjured falsehood who does not shrink from invoking the most holy powers to confirm his lies, or form w...
