by Zachary Garber

Created on: January 14, 2008

Literature defines a nation because it paints an artistic portrait that exists long after the nation has pasted into obscurity. The Iliad provides a picture of Greek life and The Aeneid similarly provides a picture of Roman life, thereby affording later generations the opportunity to glimpse aspects of those societies. Though Homer's Iliad is an oral epic and The Aeneid is a written one, the two are easily comparable. In both novels, the gods intervene in the affairs of men for personal benefit.

In both epics, the hero's mother retrieves a new set of armour from the God's blacksmith. In The Iliad, Hector kills Patrocles, wearing Achilles' armour; Hector then steals the armour from Patrocles and wears it as his own. Hephaestus, indebted to Thetis for saving him after Zeus threw him from Olympus, makes a second impenetrable set of armour for Achilles. The shield, "great and strong" and "a gleaming circuit in three layers(and) five thicknesses," glistens with divine images; the baldric "of silver" lies with his armour (Homer, Book XVIII). Thetis, in preparation for Achilles' fight with the Trojans and with Hector, brings the armour to Achilles. Similarly, in The Aeneid, while Aeneas is on an embassy to seek help from the Etruscans in the Trojan fight against Laurentum, Venus outfits him with armour made by Vulcan, her husband, to prepare him for the upcoming war. She "crown'd with charms/ Breaks thro' the clouds, and brings the fated arms" to Aeneas to prepare him for the battle (Virgil, Book VIII). In both cases, the gods interfere in the affairs of humans by outfitting their mortal children with exemplary armour unmatched by other humans, thereby giving them an unfair advantage in upcoming battles. Also in both cases, the mothers of the tragic heroes are the gods who involve themselves. However, the two cases of divine intervention differ as well. Whereas Hephaestus in the Iliad carves themes of man from history, "two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of men", Vulcan carves events from the future"warriors issuing from the Julian line" and the wolf with the two "martial twins", an allusion to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome (Homer XVIII, Virgil Book VIII). Homer hopes to glorify humanity and its romp through history, but Virgil hopes to engender good favor with his Roman leaders by foretelling their great triumphs. Therefore, the gods' intervention is both comparable and yet different in the epic arming of the mortal characters.

In both novels,

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