Augustine's "Aeneid"

Rival Plot-lines in Virgil's and Augustine's works

One particular theory argues that Augustine intends for his work to be a reworking of the story of Aeneas in effect, a retelling with new themes and motives:

Aeneas

black and white picture of Aeneas
  • Carnality in Carthage
  • Recalls his defeat and escape at Troy
  • Leaves Dido to fulfill his destiny
  • Discovers his fatum in Italy
  • Allies with Etruscans and Latins
  • Visits his father Anchises in the Underworld
  • Anchises teaches Aeneas his destiny
  • Aeneas pledged to marry Lavania
  • The madness of civil war between Aeneas and the Latins
  • Aeneas kills Turnus
  • The epic breaks off with a sense of "uneasy watchfulness"

Augustine

black and white painting of Augustine
  • Carnality in Carthage
  • Recalls his study and love of Virgil's Aeneid
  • Discovers his fatum in Rome and Milan
  • Allies with Manicheans and Neo-Platonists
  • Discovers his spiritual father Ambrose
  • Ambrose teaches Augustine the truths of Christian preaching
  • Augustine puts away his concubine
  • The conversion of Augustine - an internal civil war
  • Monica dies, leaving Augustine
  • Augustine is left in book 9 to mourn but also rejoice in Christian victory

Another Argument for the structure of Augustine's Confessions suggests the following pattern: Augustine ascends from his base life, ever higher and closer to God:

Primal Origins (Bk 12-13)

Universal Time (Bk 11)

Universal Memory, Primal Memory (Bk 10)

Christian Awareness of Death and Loss (Bk 9)

Christian Awareness of Logos/ Mystical Vision (Bk 9)

Conversion, Baptism, Christian Redirection (Bk 8)

"Aenediac" Wanderings, Cities, False Ideologies

"Aenediac" Privileging of the Sensual, Carnal, Venial

"Aenediac" Search for Personal Freedom

Infancy's Primal Cries

Adapted from Form, Robert J. Augustine and the Making of a Christian Literature.

Lewiston: Edwin Mellen P, 1995