'Aeneas Is Little More Than A Puppet Controlled By The Whims Of The Gods' Is This A Fair Assessment Of Aeneas In Books 1,2,4 And 6 Of Virgil's Aeneid?

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Akshay Bhutiani

Harrow School

Latin GCSE Coursework

Candidate Number: 2351

Akshay Bhutiani

Latin GCSE Coursework

‘Aeneas Is Little More Than A Puppet Controlled By The Whims Of The Gods’ Is This A Fair Assessment Of Aeneas In Books 1,2,4 And 6 Of Virgil’s Aeneid?

        As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary a ‘puppet’ is “a kind of doll that can be made to move by various means as an entertainment” or “a person who is entirely controlled by another.” A ‘whim’ is “a sudden fancy or impulse.” The statement under discussion therefore seeks to present Aeneas as a person with little control upon the course of his life. In my opinion it likens him to a chess piece, or a member of The Truman Show. Is such an appraisal justified? I intend to investigate what control Aeneas has over his life, his actions, his emotions, his thoughts and feelings, essentially does Aeneas have free will or is he just a plaything of the Gods?

        Fate plays a crucial role in the Aeneid, it dictates the outcome of the epic and the events that shape Aeneas’ life. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘fate’ as, ‘the supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events’ or ‘a power thought to control all events and impossible to resist’ or ‘a person’s destiny’.  The Romans agreed with this concept of fate. They believed that Fates decided fate, the broad pattern of events in the mortal world. The checkpoints in life were decided, but the routes to these were not chosen. The Fates were personified in mythology as the daughters of Jupiter and Themis, who presided over peoples’ lives and deaths. They decided amongst them the length of a person’s life, the course of their life (i.e. the good and bad events) and the method of the death. The scale of fate over hundreds and thousands of years is revealed when Jupiter shows Venus ‘ The Book of Fate’. This shows that fate has been predetermined and is unalterable. Jupiter appears to be the keeper of fate and therefore the arbiter.

        The Aeneid clearly emphasises that fate design cannot be changed. Even the Gods and Goddesses, divine powers, have no role to play in Fate and are unable to interfere with it. Fate represents a series of checkpoints through which a mortal must and will pass at certain predetermined times. However, the route between these checkpoints is not straight and remains undecided. So it is possible for the Gods and Goddesses to guide the mortal towards the checkpoints and away from them, so long as they are reached at the destined time. Therefore the Gods and Goddesses can intervene, but not interfere. This is shown most prominently when Aeneas sees Helen ‘lurking behind the threshold of Vesta’s temple’ (Book 2, page 48). This happens just after Aeneas has considered the fates of his father, wife and son. Aeneas describes his feelings, ‘A flame of anger blazed through my heart, a fury to avenge the downfall of my country, to punish her wicked crimes. There’s no honour in punishing women, but to blot out that evil – that’s a job worth doing, and I shall be praised for punishing this one – she richly deserves it. And I shall enjoy the pleasure of glutting my hatred and avenging my loved ones.’(Book 2, page 48) Aeneas is on the point of murdering Helen when his mother, Venus, appears and tells Aeneas to be more concerned with the safety of his family and to focus upon escape rather than vengeance. She shows him a supernatural vision of hostile deities destroying the city and convincing him that armed resistance is futile. ‘Look at those piles of rubble, where stone has been levered from stone, and those billowing clouds of dust and smoke – it’s Neptune battering the walls with his mighty trident and demolishing the foundations; it’s Neptune digging up every stone of the city!’ (Book 2, page 49) Neptune’s actions are another example of the Gods interfering in the mortal lives.

During the destruction the power of fate and role of the Gods is shown wholly when Neptune is ‘digging up every stone of the city’, Juno is ‘calling up reserves from the fleet’ and Athena is, ‘bestriding the citadel…with the grim Gorgan’s head on her shield’ whilst even Jupiter is, ‘injecting the Greeks with courage and strength to win, and inciting the Gods to attack Troy.’ More intriguingly Apollo gifts to Cassandra the faculty for foresight, however even this is useless in preventing the fall of Troy as no believed that her prediction was true. So the fated fall of Troy was unavoidable and the Gods were unable to interfere in it.

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        Another example of this is that Juno was keen to make Carthage, his beloved city, into a ‘supreme power in the world, if only Fate would allow it.’ She was already aware that ‘a new race, rising from Trojan blood (referring to Aeneas) would… come to destroy all Her African kingdom.’ This phrase is concluded with the words ‘for so fate had decided’. This reinforces my argument.

        A good example of the Fates is that Aneas’ wife Crusea dies whilst fleeing Troy as Aneas connot take her on the rest of his journey, as he will find a new ‘wife’ ...

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