Divine Intervention Between Aeneas And Aschises - 2082 Words

In the Aeneid, Virgil includes multiple aspects of divine intervention between Aeneas and many characters like Dido, Turnas, and Aschises. Many of these interactions seem like they determine the characters fate; but fate is predetermined. Aeneas has a prophecy, that he will found Rome and it will be a great Empire for hundreds of years. The goddesses Juno and Venus interfere with his journey multiple times, but in the end he does indeed found Rome, despite their interferences. This is strategically done by Virgil to represent Augustus and to create Pietas for the Roman citizens. Augustus commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid. Augustus wanted the people of Rome to know what a great empire it is, and how it was founded by god-like figures, and that it was the gods and goddesses choice that the fate of Rome came about how it was that day. A flaw in Augustus’s plan erupted when Virgil dies, and requests the Aeneid be destroyed. This act implies that Virgil does not believe in wh at he wrote, and thinks divine intervention and fate is false. Virgil’s audience believed in virtues like pietas and stoicism, but often does not live by these ideals. The same goes for Rome’s fate though the Aeneid. They believed that it is a great empire founded by the will of the gods, but that fact does not change anything in most of the Roman’s daily lives; therefore it does not change their fate either. Aeneas is faced with many different challenges during his journey to found, what will become