When Aeneas and the Sybil pass through the entrance of the underworld they experience the issues of mankind. ‘…Old Age, forlorn, Fear, Hunger…’are just some of those mentioned. The people must suffer first before being rewarded. Aeneas struggles to understand the different places where each soul goes after they die. The Sybil explains to him that where the souls are placed in the underworld, depends on whether they lived a good moral life or not.
Most of the events of the Aeneid are initiated by the gods and fate. The connection between the gods and fate is a complex one and the two seem to be unavoidably linked. The gods cannot change fate but they can try hindering or helping it as much as possible. Juno attempts to hinder Aeneas and the Trojans at every turn; however it does not affect their fate. Jupiter, the king of the gods is the opposite of his wife in that he uses various methods to help, not hinder, the progress of fate. For both gods and mortals, fate always wins in the end. The direction and destination of Aeneas's course are preordained, and his various sufferings and glories in battle and at sea over the course of the epic merely delay this fixed destiny. Aeneas is destined to settle in Italy and become a great leader.
Aeneas is forced to suffer immensely throughout his journey. His first wife, Creusa, dies while Troy burns. With Creusa dead in Troy, Aeneas is free both legally and morally to marry another woman when he finally does arrive in Italy. This is very important, because the Italians establish family lines through the mother, and Aeneas will need to marry an Italian princess in order for his descendants to found Rome in the future. His lover, Dido, commits suicide because Aeneas leaves her. His father dies, so that he can tell him of his future descendants and he loses many minor characters right the way through the Aeneid, including Misenus and Palinurus. Aeneas' readiness to part with everything dear to him shows his acceptance to fate and its dominant role in his life.
The three characters Deiphobus, Misenus and Palinurus all show the theme of fate in Virgils Aeneid. It may well have been Deiphobus’ fate to die in the battle of Troy because when Aeneas meets him in the underworld Deiphobus is used almost in a symbolic manner to help Aeneas on his journey to build a new greater city than Troy. Misenus’ death shows how ones fate or downfall can be associated with ones nature and qualities. Through Palinurus' death, Virgil exposes the intensity of the sacrifices that must be made to ensure that fate is carried out. Although not just fate is obvious in Palinurus’ death as the gods undeniably had a role to play, namely Venus, Neptune and Somnus.
Fate is included by Virgil in the Aeneid to emphasize through the story that the foundation of Rome was divinely ordered, and that the city was destined to become a great empire. If not for Fate, Aeneas probably would have died in Troy. If not for Fate he would have lived out his days with Dido, Queen of Carthage, never founding the city from which Rome would one day spring. The list goes on; Fate is, undoubtedly, a major aspect in the Aeneid.
