In Books 5 and 9 of the Aenied, their actions are considered immoral in ancient Roman standards but that is overshadowed by their loving devotion to each other. Apparently Vergil and his culture were fascinated by and had great admiration for romantic love therefore, the Aeneid is basically a poem of grief and love. In Book 5, Nisus trips Salius in a race so Euryalus can win. To Romans, this is a contemptible action but Euryalus is allowed to keep first prize because of his beauty and Nisus’ actions are justified since he was motivated by love for Euryalus. This episode shows Vergil’s tendency to identify psychologically with his characters (sympathy). Even analysis of the metrical patterns of the lines in episode confirms these conclusions. Apparently, passages which were “empathetic-sympathetic” had a lower proportion of dactyl
In Books 5 and 9 of the Aenied, their actions are considered immoral in ancient Roman standards but that is overshadowed by their loving devotion to each other. Apparently Vergil and his culture were fascinated by and had great admiration for romantic love therefore, the Aeneid is basically a poem of grief and love. In Book 5, Nisus trips Salius in a race so Euryalus can win. To Romans, this is a contemptible action but Euryalus is allowed to keep first prize because of his beauty and Nisus’ actions are justified since he was motivated by love for Euryalus. This episode shows Vergil’s tendency to identify psychologically with his characters (sympathy). Even analysis of the metrical patterns of the lines in episode confirms these conclusions. Apparently, passages which were “empathetic-sympathetic” had a lower proportion of dactyl