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rugbat t1_j6mdgfo wrote

Reply to comment by Equal_Caregiver_4909 in TIL That the character who first said the phrase "fortune favours the bold" - Turnus, in the Aeneid, spends the rest of the story suffering military defeats before he's killed and heads to the underworld, miserable, at the end of the last book. by Equal_Caregiver_4909

Probably the rest of Roman history up to that point. Virgil was writing an epic origin story for the Roman people. It's like a Roman version of Exodus, giving the people an awesome and coherent origin, instead of the mundane and messy real one.

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Danhuangmao t1_j6mj1r3 wrote

Not sure about that. He was basing the work closely on The Odyssey and The Illiad, neither of which tells massive multi-generational tales (in fact, The Illiad doesn’t even cover the whole Trojan war - just the 9th year of it, of 10).

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Equal_Caregiver_4909 OP t1_j6mjsl8 wrote

It was also written for Augustus, who claimed to be a descendant of Aeneas, and so character flaws in Aeneas can be seen as veiled criticisms of the current leader.

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