『アエネイス』における英雄と死

<p>Many heroes die fighting in the Aeneid, and their deaths have no small part in this epic which sings, unlike the Homeric poems, of a new human community destined to be born by divine will. What, then, is the significance of their deaths? In this paper, I discuss the question chiefly by comparing these deaths with the (heroic) deaths in the Iliad. 1. In the 12th book of the Iliad, Sarpedon says to Glaucus that one must go to fight because 'a thousand shapes of death surround him and no man can escape them'[326-7]. The speech expresses a heroic code and shows a view that the pursuit of undying fame means nothing but a resolute defiance to the death so inevitable to human beings. But this view, however common to many Homeric heroes, is not always in accord with the descriptions of their actual deaths in the poem : Sarpedon dies a heroic death indeed in the 16th book, but Patroclus in the same book tries to withdraw 'to escape the doom(ker) '[817]. Above all, Hector's running away from Achilles around the wall of Troy in the 22nd book is very impressive. Homer does not hesitate to describe other great heroes' fear of death : Ajax, Menelaus and even Achilles are terrified of facing their death in fight. 2. Now let us look to the battle scenes is the Aeneid. Although a similar ideal of heroic death remains alive and 'mors pulchra' is mentioned three times as that to which warriors aspire, Virgil does not always follow the Homeric example of showing the paradoxical fact that even a hero wants to save himself from dying. For instance, in the second book, Priam, when he sees his son murdered by Pyrrhus, tries to attack him defiantly and is killed at once. In this scene the old king is said to be 'trembling'[trementem : 550]in front of the enemy, but his quavering, as the poet suggests, is not from fear but from age. Nisus in the 9th book also has to see his dearest one killed before his eyes. Although he is frightened[exterritus : 424] at this moment, the terror, which is caused by the danger imminent to Euryalus, not to himself, does not prevent him from dashing to die immediately after the death of his friend. The death of Pallas in the 10th book is very like Sarpedon's. There is no inconsistency between the speech and the action of this young hero, and he is described as feeling no more fear at the moment of being killed by Turnus than when he accepts the challenge of this stronger enemy. Lausus in the same book, as well as Camilla in the next are also exempt from the experience of terror. Although a suspicion may be aroused that Mezentius, when wounded by Aeneas, falls into a panic[cf. trepidanti : 10. 788], it is noted that his actions are explained by the poet in physical rather than mental terms[inutilis, in...ligatus : 794]. In fact, Mezentius feels a violent pain only after his son is killed[850]and he still defies the enemy by saying that he is not afraid of his own death[880]. Unlike these heroes, Turnus and Aeneas are struck with the horror of death. In the last scene of the poem[12. 646, 894-5], Turnus fears because he begins to be aware not only of his mortality, but also of some mysterious power which forces him to die. It is the sight of Priam's terrible death in the second book that makes Aeneas look mortality in the face and begin to think of survival. 3. Thus, in the Aeneid, all the heroes except Aeneas and Turnus die in battle without fearing death, but why? To determine the reason, let us return to the Iliad and consider the motif of fear in the death scenes of the three heroes in relation to the whole story. The deaths of Sarpedon and Patroclus can be contrasted, since the former does not fear death, while the latter does. This contrast, which can be seen in the 16th book in the separate men, is also transferred in the 22th book to one character : Hector, who defies and then fears death, is re-acting</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>