There was a period of about six months between the day I learned I had been drafted and my actual entry into the army, in which the world around me went really strange. I was a celebrity of sorts, I suppose, but not one to be envied. The truth was that I did not know how to handle the situation and neither did anyone else, and the result was everything changed, long before it should have.
    Everyone looked at me with sad eyes, and wanted to know how I felt. I felt fine and said so. No, they meant how I really felt. They wanted me to tell them I was scared stiff and I sure as hell wasn’t about to do that. I could only assume that I was terrified, because I had adopted a strange stoic air, smiled a lot and affected casual poses. The only way I knew how to handle fear was to go into denial and that I did, a tortoise with its head permanently inside its shell. As a result, I had no idea of how I really felt because I truly did not know what to expect. After all, I had only books and movies to guide me, and they weren’t always helpful.

Arms and the man I sing, who first from Troy,
Fate exiled, reached the shores of Italy.
On land and deep much tossed, the hero felt
Heaven’s lash, for cruel Juno’s mindful wrath…
…Perhaps even these things will some day be pleasant to remember…
…I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts…
… Woman is always fickle and changing…
… The way down to Hell is easy…
… Love conquers all…
… Before the door—the opening doors of hell—
Grief and the Venging Cares have set their couch;
There wane Diseases dwell and dolorous Eld,
Fear, ill-advising Famine, loathly Want,
Dread shapes to look upon—and Death and Toil,
Then Death’s own brother Sleep, and Evil Joys
Of mind, and on the threshold full in view
Death-dealing Warfare.
    All of which only goes to show why Dante was wise to choose Virgil as his tour-guide through Hell.
    Virgil was a Roman and The Aeneid is the story linking the brave Romans to the brave Trojans, hoping to give their history the same mythological credibility that Homer and the Trojan War gave the Greeks. It is the origin of the story of the Trojan Horse, contrived by the clever warrior of Odysseus upon whom Virgil modelled his hero. Aeneas escapes burning Troy, carrying his father on his back, and does the Odyssey thing, in which the only highlight is his romance with the Carthaginian Queen Dido. Poor Dido, so in love, stands on her funeral pyre as Aeneas finally sails away and falls on her sword when he goes out of sight. Eventually, Aeneas and his refugees land on the Italian coast and generate an aristocracy that all future Romans will aspire to.