Venus Soliciting Vulcan to Make Armor for Her Son Aeneas

Monologue by Holden Overbeck '24

Fall 2020

It is the night before battle, the stars bask in the blue ocean of the night sky, while the waves gracefully embrace the Italian sandy shores. The Trojans rest in Latium, a foreign army in a foreign land, ready for war and blood. All is calm before the storm.

From up above, floating in the clouds, Venus peers down at her son, the fated Aeneas. The goddess of love and beauty cannot but help to worry for her child, for he is the leader of the Trojan army, and he will face great warriors and extreme peril. She must do something. She must help her son.

She calls to her husband, in hopes of a favor. She must persuade him, for the sake of Aeneas.

“Vulcan,” she says. “O God of Fire, and Smithery. O my powerful husband. I ask with all my heart, I ask for all your might, I ask you to cast arms for my son, Aeneas.”

The mighty and robust Vulcan looks upon the child of Venus, seeing not her but her misdeeds. He is reminded of her infidelity. He sees her sin, her treachery, her adultery, all manifested into this boy. But the pain subsides upon his glance to his wife, his love, the goddess of beauty, elegant and enchanting.

“I will do as you ask,” he says. Vulcan calls upon his men, his thunderous voice commands them to forge. It is within the great Volcano Etna that Vulcan's Cyclopses begin crafting.

A helmet, a corselet, a sword, a spear, and a shield, in which Vulcan has depicted the Roman glory that awaits in Italy. Tales of Romulus, Augustun, and Caesar to indicate where the boy can lead his people to greatness. Tools for a hero, they are for Venus to give to her son.

The night of next morrow, Venus embarks down to the human world and visits Aeneas in the midst of dark. She moves swiftly, and finds him under the moon, ruminating before his slumber. A glance, smile, and greeting occur, before she bestows upon him the prodigious arms of battle. He accepts her gifts with pride and honor.

Venus orates to Aeneas, “The gods favor you my son. Everything will be alright.”

After a last embrace, they depart each other in good faith. As the fate of Rome’s beginning, starts with the eminent fate of the hero, Aeneas.