Virgil's Treatment Of Women In The Aeneid

In the Aeneid, Virgil depicts women as irrational beings, emotional creatures, and sources of suffering. Though women are not granted the role of protagonist, they drive the plot, functioning as both obstacles and guides for the men on their journey. Juno’s blind rage compels her to make every effort to impede Aeneas from realizing his fate; Venus’s maternal instinct impels her to do everything in her power to achieve the opposite. Dido is a distraction for Aeneas, but she also provides respite for him and his crew. Virgil repeatedly treats women dismissively, portraying them as less reasonable and important than their male counterparts, yet they play a more integral role to the storyline than the men do. All throughout, Aeneas is simply reacting to the

Juno is aware that her quest may be hopeless, so her determination is irrational, yet she can not relinquish her pride. Jupiter, her husband and the king of the gods, does not take Juno’s fury seriously, in spite of it prompting her to seize every opportunity to hinder the Trojans. Jupiter reassures a distraught mother, Venus, who begs him for his assistance, that Juno “will mend her ways, and favor [the Trojans] as I do” (I:78). Virgil often refers to Juno only as her relation to Jupiter, addressing her as “Sister and wife of Jove” (I:69) and “Jove’s dear consort” (IV:137). In contrast, Jupiter is described as “the father of gods and men” (I:344) and “the author of men and the world” (XII:1074). The juxtaposition between the titles afforded to these characters offers a clue to how Virgil views them: Juno is simply a hysterical wife while Jupiter is a powerful leader. Jupiter could halt Juno’s shenanigans if he wanted, as he holds a more prominent position than she does, but instead he dismisses her as petty and frivolous—striving in vain to thwart