I am occasionally asked why I love Virgil as I do and the answer is complicated. The final line of Adam Parry's essay, "The Two Voices of Virgil's Aeneid," comes close to an answer and is, I think, appropriate on this, the day of the passing of Nelson Mandela.
"The Aeneid," Parry wrote, "enforces the fine paradox that all the wonders of the most powerful institution the world has ever known are not necessarily of greater importance than the emptiness of human suffering."
Amen, and rest in peace...
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