How does the stag scene in Aeneid 1 (180-197) characterise Aeneas?

Aeneas is presented like a hunter here: the stag is a prey animal so Aeneas becomes the predator. Aeneas kills seven stags, having just landed in Carthage - he is the foreigner, the 'guest-friend' (hospes), but he does not behave in a friendly way, instead being violent. Note military language: 'corripuit', 'sagittas', 'arcum', 'victor' - Contrast this with the natural language that links the stags with nature: 'nemora', 'pascitur'. Sometimes the juxtaposition is just in one sentence: 'per vallis pascitur agmen'. Nature collides with the violence of war to give a real sense of destruction: Aeneas lands in a foreign land and tears it apart.On the other hand, it is clear that he kills the stags to feed his men. The last line shows that he divided it among ALL of his companions ('socios partitur in omnes'). Does this then show Aeneas as a good leader, making a sacrifice that had to be made?Summary: We can see this as a metaphor for the wider military destruction to come later in the Aeneid - thus making Aeneid seem violent and dangerous - or as a representation of Aeneas as a leader who looks after his troops. You might like to consider pro- vs anti-Aeneas interpretations more broadly, and what these mean for our reading of the text and its purpose. E.g. if Aeneas is aligned with Augustus, then an anti-Aeneas reading would suggest Virgil's distaste for the new empire.