In The Aeneid, Virgil introduces the post-Homeric epic, an epic that immortalizes both the glory of a hero and the founding of a people. The scope of the Aeneid can be paralleled with the scope of Aeschylus' Oresteia, which explores the origins of a social institution, the Areopagus of Athens, and presents this origin as coinciding with a change in the archaic matriarchal society governed by blood ties to a civilized patriarchal society governed by a court. Likewise, in the Aeneid, the founding of a civilization brings with it its own destructive consequence: the symbolic death of Turnus, and with it, the disappearance of an entire way of being. Virgil offers Turnus as a foil to Aeneas, in terms of character and culture, and Turnus' death, although relayed with compassion, is necessary to effect this transition from an archaic past to the creation of Roman civilization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Virgil articulates the conflict between the existing structures of the house and the city, a conflict that appears throughout the Aeneid, through his characterization of Aeneas and Turnus. . In counterpoint to Aeneas and his essentially political orientation, Virgil gives Turnus a domestic character. These associations arise in their actions during the battle: Turnus chooses to burn Aeneas' ships instead of burning down the Trojans' new fortress. In contrast, looking towards Latium, Aeneas sees “the city / freed from the stress of war, intact, at rest. / Immediately the image of a greater struggle inflamed him” (12.751-4). Although this is his "promised land", Aeneas sets fire to the walls of Latium, blaming this kingdom for its peace, rest and walls, and recognizing that something must fall to allow something else to arise ( 7.153). This, Aeneas’ “greatest work,” impels him to action (7.55). While Aeneas razes the walls, structural images of domesticity, Turnus razes the ships, symbols of imperialism, conquest and the expansion of civilizations. To further support the characterization of Turnus as oikos-centered, Turnus is championed by both Amata, the matriarch of Latium, and Juno, the goddess of marriage and the home. Aeneas' entry into the city will violate Virgil's image of the tender housewife, "her first task in maintaining life," and force the dismantling of the family structure (8.536). As Queen Amata watches from her high palace and fails to see the Rutulians and Turnus, she commits suicide; her daughter Lavinia tears her shiny hair and cheeks; “King Latinus defiles his old hair with dirty dust” (12.813, 819). The social order of domestic life must be sacrificed for the genesis of a new and manifestly political Roman order. If Aeneas stands apart from the attractions of the domestic sphere, why does family play such an important role in the Aeneid? How can this vision of Aeneas, the debaser of the home, be reconciled with Virgil's tale of an epic hero who carries his father and his household gods on his back and his young son in his hand as he s fled, an exile from Troy? Although Aeneas has filial piety and fatherly love, these characteristics are analogous to his historical and political duty. For Aeneas, preserving his genealogical lineage and founding a civilization is far more important than preserving a house. As such, his sons' sons, endowed with unlimited wealth, unlimited time, and endless empire, were instrumental in establishing "Roman domination of nations" (1.390 , 6.1134). But in this too, retaining Anchisesand Ascanius, we must fall by the wayside. Aeneas travels by night through the burning remains of his captured city, fearing for his son and father, "while his wife Cresa follows him and, upon reaching the safety of the sanctuary, discovers that she alone/[is] missing" of her husband, of her son, of her companions” (2.984, 1002-3). Cresa is the first in a line of people sacrificed for the completion of Aeneas' greatest work. -marriage with Aeneas, calls into question Aeneas' piety and exposes his apparent contradiction: This is the right hand, this is the oath of him who carries with him, it is said, the domestic gods of his country, which bore on his shoulders his father weakened by the years? (4.823-6) Finally, Lavinia, whose hand, land and kingdom inspire the Rutuli and Trojans to war, is not pursued by Aeneas out of love or desire for family, as in the case of Turnus, whose “love drives him] wild” and makes him “still keener now for battle,” but through a desire for civilization and walls (12.95-6). Aeneas' three marriages traced throughout the Aeneid show increasing distortions of house and hearth. Domestic holiness is necessary above all to enable divine prophecies to be fulfilled historically, and it is always secondary to political compulsion. Aeneas doesn't just carry his father on his back. He carries a greater work: on his shoulder he lifts up the fame and fortune of his sons' sons” (8.954-5). Besides the juxtaposition of the domestic/matriarchal and political/patriarchal orientations of Turnus and Aeneas, Virgil depicts Turnus as tied to the past but paints Aeneas with an eye toward the future. Turnus incites his men to fight by recalling the glory of their home and their past, saying: "Let each remember his wife and his home, remember the brilliant deeds. and the glories of his ancestors" (10.390-2). When inspiring his men, Aeneas looks instead to the future: Perhaps one day you will even remember our adversities with pleasure. Through so many crises and calamities, we are heading towards Latium... Hold on, and preserve yourself for better days” (1.283-9) Linked to this opposition of past and future is the identification of Turnus with traditional royalty. , insular and autonomous, while Aeneas is identified with a new system of society and political organization, that of the empire. The founding of this empire requires a break with tradition and custom, symbolically captured by the desecration of the. 'wild olive tree of Faunus, where the Latins once hung votive vestments and offerings "... Unmindful of this custom, the Teucrians had taken the trunk of the sacred tree to clean the field, laying it bare for battle. " (12.1020-3). As he prepares to overtake Turnus, Aeneas cannot wrest his spear from the deep root of the tree. Turnus calls out to the Faun and the Earth to hold back the steel, citing the rites he has observed, the rites that "the men of Aeneas have desecrated by war" (12.1032-3). But with the help of Venus, Aeneas recovers his spear. Custom, embodied in the tree, gives way, and thus, the profanities necessary for the establishment of a civilization are legitimized, allowing the transition from a traditional and archaic worldview to one focused on what is to come . Analogous to this characterization of Turnus as a dweller in the past and Aeneas as creator of the future is the depiction of Turnus as representative of a more anarchic society, which will be supplanted by the ordered society that Aeneas will found, although this order is first darkened by war and conflicts. King Latinus welcomes the Teucrians to his palace, asking them not to forget that the Latins have no need: “.