Heroism Regained
Paul Krause on Abraham, Aeneas & Our Heroic Tradition
Of the great epic poems, in the contest between Homer and Virgil, which reigns supreme? It is easy to suggest Homer. T. S. Eliot, however, knew that Virgil was much more central to the Western tradition than Homer was. It is true that Hector was one of the nine worthies of the medieval world, but it was "pious" Aeneas whom Western men should emulate; it was pious Aeneas who taught us about suffering and greatness rather than Achilles or Odysseus; and it was Virgil, not Homer, whom Dante selected as his pilgrim poet guide through hell and purgatory precisely because of the centrality of love in Aeneas's journey.
Two Pious Wanderers
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Paul Krause is the editor of VoegelinView and author of The Odyssey of Love: A Christian Guide to the Great Books (2021).
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on literature from the online archives
30.2—March/April 2017
on Reading Don Quixote in Its Original Christian Context by Luis Cortest
24.1—January/February 2011
Ruminations on the Monstrous Envy of the Soul-Devouring State by Anthony Esolen
20.6—July/August 2007
The Beowulf Poet Was a Shrewd Christian Apologist by Douglas Wilson
more from the online archives
18.8—October 2005
European Islam & the Doubtful Future of Christian Europe by William Murchison
33.1—January/February 2020
on the Consequences of One Birth Before Roe v. Wade by Craig Kellogg Galer
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
