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 that of Aeschylus' Oresteia, which explores the origins of a social institution, the Areopagus of Athens, and presents this origin as coinciding with the transition from the archaic matriarchal society governed by blood ties to a civilized patriarchal society governed by a court. Similarly, in the Aeneid, the foundation of a civilization brings with it a 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 character and culture, and Turnus' death, though conveyed with compassion, is necessary to make 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Virgil articulates the conflict between the existing structures of house and 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 nature. These associations arise in their actions during the battle: Turnus chooses to burn Aeneas' ships instead of setting fire to the Trojans' newfound fortress. Looking instead towards Lazio, Aeneas sees «the city / free from the worries of war, intact, restful. / Immediately the image of a greater struggle was kindled in him" (12.751-4). Although this is supposed to be his "promised land," Aeneas sets fire to the walls of Latium, berating this kingdom for its peace, rest, and walls, and recognizing that something must fall to allow something else to rise (7.153). This, Aeneas's "greatest toil," drives him to action (7:55). While Aeneas demolishes walls, structural images of domesticity, Turnus demolishes ships, symbols of imperialism, conquest and the spread of civilizations. To further support the characterization of Turnus as oikos-centric, Turnus is supported by both Amata, the matriarch of Latium, and Juno, the goddess of marriage and the hearth. Aeneas's entry into the city will violate the Virgilian image of the tender housewife by the hearth, "her first task to sustain life", and will force the disintegration of the family structure (8.536). As Queen Amata looks out from her high palace and cannot see the Rutuli and Turnus, she commits suicide; her daughter Lavinia tears her bright hair and cheeks; “The Latin king 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, clearly political Roman order. If Aeneas distinguishes himself from the pressures of the domestic sphere, why does the family play such an important role in the Aeneid? How does one reconcile this view of Aeneas as family detractor with Virgil's tale of an epic hero who carries his father and his family's gods on his back and his young son by the hand as he flees, into exile from Troy? Although Aeneas has filial piety and paternal love, these characteristics are analogous to his historical and political duty. For Aeneas, the preservation of his genealogical line and the foundation of a civilization are far more important than the preservation of a family unit. As such, his sons, with unlimited fortune, unlimited time, and an endless empire, play an instrumental role in bringing about the Roman "government of the nations" (1.390, 6.1134). Yet even in this, in preserving Anchises and Ascanius, one must fall by the wayside. Aeneas travels through the remains at nightfiery of his captured city, fearing for his son and father, "while his wife Cresa follows him and, once reaching the safety of the sanctuary, discovers that she alone / [has] disappeared" missing from her husband, son, companions " (2.984, 1002-3). Cresa is the first of a series of people sacrificed for the completion of Aeneas' great work." Dido, victim of a quasi-marriage with Aeneas, questions Aeneas' piety and exposes its apparent contradiction: This is the right hand, this is the pledge of the one who brings with him, so they say, the domestic gods of his land, who carried on their shoulders his father weakened by the years?" (4.823-6) Finally, Lavinia, whose hand, land and kingdom inspires the Rutuli and Trojans to war, is persecuted by Aeneas not out of love or desire for family, as in the case of Turnus, whose "love drives him wild" and makes him "even more eager to fight", but through the desire for civilization and walls (12.95-6) shows three marriages of Aeneas growing distortions of the family and the home. Domestic sanctity is necessary primarily to allow divine prophecies to achieve historical realization, and is always secondary to political constraint. Aeneas does not simply carry his father on his shoulders on his shoulders / raises the fame and destiny of his children's children" (8.954-5). In addition to the juxtaposition of the domestic/matriarchal and political/patriarchal orientations of Turnus and Aeneas, Virgil portrays Turnus as tied to the past but paints Aeneas with an eye toward the future. Turnus spurs his men into battle by remembering the glory of their home and the past, saying: "Let each / remember wife and home, remember the / bright deeds and glories of his ancestors" (10.390-2). In inspiring his men, Aeneas instead looks to the future: Perhaps one day you will also remember these adversities of ours with pleasure. Through many crises and calamities Let us set course towards Lazio... Resist, and save yourselves for better days" (1.283-9). Linked to this opposition between past and future is Turnus' identification with traditional, insular and autonomous kingship, while Aeneas is identified with a new system of government, social and political organization, that of the empire. The foundation of this empire requires a break with tradition and custom, symbolically symbolized by the desecration of the wild olive tree of Faunus, where once the Latins hung votive clothes and offerings. "...Heedless of this custom, the Teucrians had taken away the trunk of the sacred tree to clear the field, to lay it bare for the battle" (12,1020-3). prepares to round Turnus, Aeneas is unable to free his spear from the deep root of the tree. Turnus calls upon Faunus and the Earth to hold the steel steady, citing the rites he has observed, the rites that "Aeneas' men have desecrated by war" (12.1032-3). But with the help of Venus, Aeneas finds his spear again. Custom, embodied in the tree, gives way and thus the vulgarity necessary to found a civilization is legitimized, allowing the transition from the traditional and archaic worldview to a worldview that looks towards what is to come. Similar to this characterization of Turnus as an inhabitant of the past and Aeneas as the creator of the future is the portrait of Turnus as representing a more lawless society, which will be supplanted by the ordered society that Aeneas will found, although this order will first be overshadowed by wars and conflicts . King Latin welcomes the Teucrians into his palace, asking them not to forget that the Latins need: "No law and no brake on justice; They keep themselves under control with their own will And with the customs of their ancient god" (7.269- 71) Virgil presents the Rutuli, who violated the truce, and Turnus, "led by the Furies", as being held back.