Moses's Staff and Aeneas's Shield

Book excerpt: Moses' Staff and Aeneas' Shield uses two emblems to symbolize the important differences between the tragic but triumphant heroism of Virgil's Aeneid and the kenotic heroism of Moses in the Exodus story of Aeneas' shield and Moses' staff. The shield of Aeneas represents Rome's imperial destiny to rule the earth's peoples by strength, and Aeneas' personal destiny to end in triumph as a warrior. In contrast, the staff of Moses represents the saving wonders the Lord works through him to save the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and bind them to himself in covenant, and his mission to go beyond being simply a wonder worker to "a man of words" who preaches the Lord's Torah.