Spatial and spiritual exile in Vergil's Aeneid

Abstract

For Homer, Cicero, and Ovid, exile is equivalent to death, or even worse. Vergil's Aeneas is torn between his old homeland of Troy and the new home he must create in Italy, but he overcomes his nostalgia. Aeneas is consoled by the Stoic doctrine that he is obeying Fate, which governs the entire world, and by the Cynic view that he can carry his true self and identity with him anywhere he goes. In Book 6 of the Aeneid, he is given a revelation about reincarnation that is based on the Republics of Plato and Cicero. This teaching that all of life is an exile from heaven contrasts sharply with the worldly mission of conquest that Aeneas must follow in Italy. Vergil's sympathies lie with the exile rather than the conqueror.