Who states that Creusa's main concern is to dampen emotions rather than heighten them?

Study for The Aeneid Modern Scholarship Test. Explore key themes, characters, and historical context through flashcards and engaging questions with explanations. Get ready for your exam!

Multiple Choice

Who states that Creusa's main concern is to dampen emotions rather than heighten them?

Explanation:
The idea being tested is how scholars read Creusa’s intervention in the narrative as shaping Aeneas’s response. Richard Jenkyns argues that Creusa’s ghost is concerned with dampening Aeneas’s emotions to keep him focused on his destined mission. This reading frames the scene as a reinforcement of Roman virtue—pietas and self-control—where grief is tempered so the hero can proceed and fulfill fate rather than be overwhelmed by emotion. Jenkyns’s emphasis is on how this moment uses Creusa to steer the epic toward duty over sentimentality. Other scholars may foreground gendered voice or stylistic aspects, but Jenkyns centers the moral psychology of restraint as the crucial function of Creusa’s message.

The idea being tested is how scholars read Creusa’s intervention in the narrative as shaping Aeneas’s response. Richard Jenkyns argues that Creusa’s ghost is concerned with dampening Aeneas’s emotions to keep him focused on his destined mission. This reading frames the scene as a reinforcement of Roman virtue—pietas and self-control—where grief is tempered so the hero can proceed and fulfill fate rather than be overwhelmed by emotion. Jenkyns’s emphasis is on how this moment uses Creusa to steer the epic toward duty over sentimentality. Other scholars may foreground gendered voice or stylistic aspects, but Jenkyns centers the moral psychology of restraint as the crucial function of Creusa’s message.

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