Fate In The Aeneid

In the epic poem, The Aeneid, by Virgil, the use of fate and destiny are often brought up to describe different events that prosper. When looking at each different mention of the word fate or destiny, the readers are able to grasp a better concept of what this all entails.
Specially looking at book number one, titled, “A Fateful Haven” we are already given an insight that fate will play a key role in this book. The very first lines states, “I sing of warfare and a man at war. From the sea-coast Troy in early days he came to Italy by destiny, to our Lavinin western shore, a fugitive, this captain, buffeted cruelly on land as on the sea by blows from powers of the air—behind them baleful Juno in her sleepless rage” (3). The idea of destiny is

The term destiny refers to events that will necessarily happen to a particular person in their future, as in a higher power or hidden belief that someone or something else controls what happens to us. In this sentence, the “man at war” came to Italy by destiny, as in he was supposed to come there, it wasn’t a matter of choice. Continuing, the use of surrounding words helps us determine the use of fate and destiny and how important it is the characters in the translation. “And chariots were kept, and, fate permitting, Cartage would be the ruler of the world” (4). The word choice describing fate, “permitting” is important because it implies that fate has all control and allows specific things to happen if other things don’t prevent it. Paying close attention to the word choice through this epic poem, helps us as the audience understand the different themes being portrayed because it doesn’t just flat out state what the themes are but allows more ambiguity behind them. Looking further into the text, the word “destiny” comes up again on the same page, supporting the idea the throughout Aeneid, these concepts were vital to them, “For years they wandered as their destiny drove them on from one sea to the next: so

Destiny literally took them from different seas on their travels, and led them to where they need to be. One final way the use of fate is portrayed in Book one is by making it a proper noun. This adds to the suggestion that The Fates are a higher up power than just destiny, they are a person or people controlling things. “The Fates forbid me, am I to suppose?” (4) I was curious as to why the decided to capitalize this particular example of the word fate, so I did some research. I remember that this also occurred in a previous book I read that incorporated the famous black and white paintings by Goya and it was appropriate titled, “The Fates”. We can infer that this painting represents the Goddesses of Destiny. The first Goddess is name Clotho, the second is Lachesis, and finally Atropos who is specifically the Goddess of Death. The fourth figure in the middle represents an average person. Each Goddess is holding something to represent their powers. Clotho is holding a doll or small child to symbolize life. Lachesis is holding a lens to symbolize time. Atropos is holding scissors to symbolize how she can cut the thread or line to life. The fourth figure with his hands