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
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Paul Krause is the editor of VoegelinView and author of The Odyssey of Love: A Christian Guide to the Great Books (2021).
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