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The Role Of Fate In The Aeneid

839 Words4 Pages

Nathalie Lozano
The Personality of Aeneas or Fate?
Throughout the twelve books of “The Aeneid,” Virgil describes Aeneas the protagonist as the virtuous one. This explains his duty as a faithful servant to the Gods. A theme in this piece of literature is fate, what I would like to discuss is how Virgil molds Aeneas personality and what moments he did get moved by fate, and in which case did personality determine fate itself.
The role of Aeneas is of a loyal servant of fate and of the gods. The way Virgil explains Aeneas character may seem as submissive, but this could be mistaken with faithfulness to obtaining his goal. In Book I, Virgil calls him "the dedicated man," and when Aeneas introduces himself to Dido, he describes himself as "duty-bound." …show more content…

Virgil does give Aenea’s human characteristics and flaws, this allowed us to view him as more than a symbolic figure. For example, Aeneas demonstrates his human emotions, when he sees the panels in Juno 's temple portraying scenes from the Trojan War, the murals made his eyes tear while feeling a deep empathetic connection towards his soldiers who died at war. Earlier in Book I, he spoke to his countrymen before their feast on shore, he described himself as “burdened and sick at heart." Putting aside his emotions, his focus toward his duty as the Trojan leader didn’t permit him to show insecurity.
The deceitful invasion of Troy by the Greeks in Book II, was presented to us by Aenea’s saddened narrative of the incident. Aeneas gives a vivid explanation of the city burning in flames, adding a visual impact to his memory of the defeat. Virgil’s human relevancy to the epic was portrayed through Aeneas in this passage. The awareness of suffering and the tragic life events he had been destined to be in was ultimately going to be felt and determined through his personal traits. Humane qualities are expressed by Aeneas himself, to not only be a man of determination, but also as a man who

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