Which scholar asserts that the Homeric heroes are great individuals, but Aeneas must be the social man for collective success?

Which scholar asserts that the Homeric heroes are great individuals, but Aeneas must be the social man for collective success?

• A. RD Williams - Greek heroism vs Roman heroism
• B. Ian Du Quesnay - Homeric influence
• C. Simon Swain - Book 6
• D. Richard Rutherford - Homeric influence

Answer: (B)

Homeric influence shapes Vergilian heroism by taking the model of formidable, individual-driven glory from Homer and reframing it for Rome’s collective project. The scholarly view in question argues that while Homeric heroes are great in their own right, Vergil makes Aeneas embody a social function: his strength lies in founding and sustaining a community, guiding a fate that serves the many rather than the hero’s personal fame. This means Aeneas’s value is measured by his duty to the future city and its people, not by personal triumphs. Ian Du Quesnay is the scholar who foregrounds this interweaving of Homeric template with a social, state-building aim, highlighting how the influence of Homer is repurposed to justify and dramatize Rome’s collective success. The other scholars speak to Homeric influence or to heroism in broader terms, but they do not articulate this specific pairing of Homeric greatness with Aeneas’s social mission as clearly.