“I am Aeneas, duty-bound, and known
Above high air of heaven by my fame,
Carrying with me in my ships our gods
Of hearth and home, saved from the enemy.”
Virgil, The Aeneid, I
Pious Aeneas. The phrase appears again and again in The Aeneid. Virgil is intent on sketching in his epic hero the beautiful features of a pious man.
Robert Fitzgerald often translates the sonorous Latin ‘pius Aeneas’ as ‘Aeneas, duty-bound.’ The word duty conveys an essential aspect of piety: that something is owed or due to someone. Someone divine. …
The rest of this Wednesday Quote and reflection is at Bacon from Acorns.
