Fate in the Aeneid

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  • Importance of fate and destiny
    • Aeneas is fated to find Rome
      • Zeus announced in Book 1 that Aeneas is fated to 'wage a great war in Italy and crush it's fierce tribes'
      • Aeneas is to complete this mission no matter what he feels or wants to do therefore limiting his free will
      • Anchises in book 6 shows Aeneas the pagent of future Romans which Aeneas ' mission will lead to exist
      • He is not only encouraged by gods but by mortals too such as Hector and Creusa
        • Creusa states that there is a 'kingdom and a royal bride' waiting for him
        • Hector states 'Look for a great city to establish for them'
    • fate (or destiny) is an all-powerful force—what fate decrees will happen, must happen.
    • Juno announces at the beginning that Carthage is fated to be overthrown by the Trojans hence why she has so much hatred for them as she has much love for Carthage
      • 'from the blood of Troy, a race of men who in days to come would overthrow this Tyrian Citadel'
      • Once Juno realises she can not stop Aeneas' fate she tries to delay it
      • At the end of the epic, she drops her grudge against the Trojans and accepts fate as long as they adopt the Latin name, race and language
    • The theme of fate also helps to link the story of Aeneas with the real-life time of Augustus Caesar,
      • ruled the Roman Empire when the Aeneid was written
      • Aeneas's destiny is to begin the civilization that will become Rome, and to begin the line of kings that will result in Augustus.
      • the poem endows Augustus's government with invulnerable, divinely sanctioned power: Augustus was fated to rule, in a destiny that stretches all the way back to his great ancestor!
      • Fate justifies not only the poem's plot, but also Augustus's government.
    • I shall not command Italians to bow to Trojans, nor do I seek the scepter for myself. May both nations, undefeated, under equal laws, march together toward an eternal pact of peace.
      • Aeneas in Book 12
    • Aeneas must work to conquer all obstacles, harnessing his strength and that of his people to fulfill his destiny and give rise to the Roman people
    • The Sibyl has just frantically revealed to Aeneas that a bloody, hard-fought war lies in his future, but the hero remains undaunted.
      • Aeneas’s measured reaction shows that he has come to accept that his fate is the founding of Rome no matter the challenges that the Sibyl has enumerated

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