What Role Does Fate Play In The Aeneid

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In Virgil’s Aeneid, the gods and goddesses play a direct role in the fates of characters and serve as guides as they fulfill their destinies, but at certain times they can be petty and cruelly bent on the destructions of the heroes. Throughout the epic, the role of fate directs the main action of the gods and goddesses as they compete with one another to see their desired outcome. Neither man nor divine intervention can change this outcome. Resistance is futile. For example, Dido cannot get Aeneas to stay with her in Carthage forever. Juno can delay Aeneas’s arrival in Latium for a little while but not forever. As the hero and object of fate, although Aeneas makes his some of his own decisions, there is no single aspect of his life that is untouched by fate, prophecy, or destiny. Various gods and goddesses interfere within Aeneas’s life, but as the epic leads to believe, not even gods and goddesses can alter …show more content…
Juno’s anger stems from the judgment of Paris, an event where Paris, a Trojan like Aeneas, must choose the most beautiful goddess, and he doesn’t choose her. She also resents the fact that by prophecy, Aeneas’s descendants would one day destroy her beloved city of Carthage. Nevertheless, she tries her best to alter the course of Aeneas’s fate for her own reasons. For example, Juno is able to persuade Aeolus, the god of winds, to create a windstorm to destroy Aeneas and his ships while his is on his way to Italy. However, through the power of another goddess, Venus, Aeneas’s mother, manages to calm the storm and leave Aeneas with seven ships. This scene is a perfect example of how the gods and goddesses are able to intervene in mortal lives easily, but unable to change the inevitable. Throughout the epic, Juno continues to intervene in Aeneas’ life, always being stopped short of reaching her
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