The whole ancient world is tragic because the only way to bring happiness and peace is through imposition of power. Aeneas is the hero of pietas , which includes the meaning of pity; he conquers with tears in his eyes because he knows what his conquests cost. His motto is sunt lacrimae rerum — “here are the tears of things,” “here they weep for how the world goes” (Fitzgerald). At Carthage, where he speaks these words, he thinks he’s found a people of tears as he is a man of tears. The whole ancient world is tragic because it is still under law.
But we are not under law but under grace. And we hope for peace on earth established by the sword of the Spirit. Therefore, the Christian world is comic. Our conquest does not have “victims,” since we pursue peace through raising people rather than killing them. Therefore we conquer without tears of regret.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
More from Books
Continue reading related articles
Imperium Sine Fine?
Virgil calls Rome an imperium sine fine . Can he be serious? Every other city that appears in the epic — Troy, Carthage, Latium — is doomed. How can Rome escape? How has the world changed to make a permanent city possible? Perhaps I’m looking for too much philosophy from…
Aeschylus
After reading through a stack of papers on Aeschylus’s Oresteian trilogy, a few thoughts have occurred to me, mainly having to do with my unbegun and doubtless forever unfinished work on the atonement, sacrifice, and so on. Essentially, these thoughts all boil down to one question: What would Aeschylus have…
Yeats on the Classical World
Yeats said that the classical world was fundamentally tragic, with the Oedipus myth as the founding myth — the man kills his father and marries his mother. Yeats would have been better off pointing to the myth of Zeus, for that truly is the founding myth of the Olympian order,…
In Medias Res
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.