The writer focuses on the subject of love and selects passages from the Aeneid and Heroides involving Aeneas' journey from burning Troy to the shores of Italy and his love relationship with Dido, since love represents the subject over which the auctores disagree the most and which thus reveals the inconsistencies and imperfections of revered ancient texts. .
Aeneas the Hero.
Aeneas the Hero enters Chaucer's dream vision as an image on the wall of the glamorous temple of Venus, a decorated wall depicting events of the Aeneid including "the best-known love-story of the Middle Ages-, the story of Aeneas and Dido. Reading the inscription that he sees on a brass tablet in the temple, Geffrey', Chaucer's dreamer/narrator, recalls the opening lines of the Aeneid: .
I wol now say, if I kan,.
The armes and also the man.
That first came, thorgh his destanee,.
Fugityfe of Troy contree,.
In Itayle with ful coche pyne,.
Unto the strondes of Lavyne (ll. 143-48).
The inscription strictly following the opening lines of Virgil's great epic and the subsequent summary of events concerning the end of the Troy war and Aeneas' escape from the burning citadel indicate that Chaucer begins his rendering of the love-story by adhering to the Virgilian tradition. .
Aeneas the Hero or Aeneas the True, the pius Aeneas "as Virgil calls his hero, is the example of true manhood. He reflects the qualities acquired by the adherence to two essential rules of conduct in the ancient world: the Greek rule of avoiding excess and the Roman rule of being pius "loyal to deities, homeland, family, and friends. He is the valiant warrior, faithful husband of Creusa whom "he lovede as hys lyfe- (l. 175), leader of a new nation, founder of a city, and a man to whom rulers of ancient Rome and medieval Europe will trace their royal lineage. He follows "hys destanye- (l. 188), the glorious path designed for him by the gods, until his encounter with Dido, the Queen of Carthage.
