What does Llewellyn Morgan say about the portrayal of war in the epic?

• A. War is ghastly but necessary.
• B. War is glorious and uplifting.
• C. War is a minor issue.
• D. War is inconsequential.

Answer: (A)

War in the epic is shown as a brutal and haunting reality, full of destruction and human cost, yet it is justified by a larger, divinely sanctioned purpose. Llewellyn Morgan argues that Vergil treats warfare not as an occasion for floating heroism or simple celebration, but as a grim ordeal that tests characters and shapes history. The violence and suffering are real and unsettling, but they serve the teleology of Rome’s founding and the restoration of order under fate and prophecy. In this reading, the horror of war is acknowledged and lingering, but its necessity is what gives the narrative its driving momentum and moral weight. The other possibilities miss this balance; they either sanitize war, treat it as inconsequential, or elevate it into unambiguous glory, whereas Morgan emphasizes both the atrocity and the imperative that makes war essential in the epic.