Themes in the Aeneid

Fate and Free Will

The theme of Fate is hugely important in the Aeneid. When we see the souls of future Roman heroes in the underworld, waiting to be born, or the exciting images of Roman history on Aeneas's shield, these strongly suggest that the Trojans are going to be successful. You might think that this takes away from the poem's suspense, but that's kind of missing the point. You see, the ancients had a pretty nuanced view of Fate. As the goddess Juno never gets tired of reminding us in the Aeneid, destiny may determine that the Trojans will found a city in Italy, but it doesn't stipulate how they end up doing it. Juno uses that as her angle to give the Trojans an incredible amount of trouble. The flip-side of this is that, even though the ancients believed in Fate, this didn't mean that they disbelieved in Free Will. Thus, when Aeneas tells Dido, "I sail for Italy not of my own free will," he doesn't mean that the Fates are forcing him to go there. What he means is, he has an obligation to go there, which he is choosing to live up to. For more on this issue, see the theme of Duty.

(Juno):
"Give up what I began?
Am I defeated? Am I impotent
To keep the king of Teucrians from Italy?
The Fates forbid me, am I to suppose?" (1.56-59)

Power

Virgil wrote the Aeneid during a period when Roman territory had just experienced significant expansion, first under Julius Caesar, and then, more recently, under Caesar Augustus (a.k.a. Octavian), the first Roman Emperor. Just as importantly, Augustus had also consolidated political authority in himself, putting an end to the years of brutal civil war that followed the death of Julius Caesar. The spirit of these heady days is reflected in Jupiter and Anchises's predictions that Roman power will expand to the limits of the earth. (This contradicts Jupiter's idea that the Romans will have "empire without end." And yet, the Aeneid argues that "with great power comes great responsibility." This can be seen in Anchises's instructions to Aeneas that he must not only "battle down the proud" but also "spare the conquered." Among the positive aspects of Roman power, as depicted in the Aeneid, is the lasting peace (eventually known as the PaxRomana) it brought to the various countries under its dominion.

(Jupiter):
"[…] young Romulus
Will take the leadership, build walls of Mars,
And call by his own name his people Romans.
For these I set no limits, world or time,
But make the gift of empire without end." (1.371-375)

Love

The Aeneid is deeply respectful of love – a respect shading into fear. That is because it recognizes that love is an extremely powerful, and unpredictable, force. From the very first moments when Dido becomes infatuated with Aeneas, the poet keeps reminding us that her love will be her destruction. Part of the problem seems to be that love is a private emotion between two people, and, as such, can stand in the way of broader, more political goals – just as Dido's love affair with Aeneas distracts him from his mission to found a new city. And yet, this same emotion can also motivate acts of selfless courage, as when the Trojan warrior Nisus sacrifices himself in an unsuccessful attempt to save his friend, Euryalus.

“And more than anyone, the Phoenician queen,
Luckless, already given over to ruin,
Marveled and could not have enough: she burned
With pleasure in the boy and in the gifts. […]
And she with all her eyes and heart embraced him,
Fondling him at times upon her breast,
Oblivious of how great a god sat there
To her undoing.” (1.971-974, 978-981)

“And Dido, fated queen, drew out the night
With talk of various matters, while she drank
Long draughts of love. Often she asked of Priam,
Often of Hector; now of the armor Memnon,
The son of Dawn, had worn; now of the team
Diomedes drove; now of the huge Achilles.” (1.1021-1026)

Warfare
In his transition from the first half of the Aeneid, which is mostly about travel and adventures, to the second half, which is mostly about war, Virgil announces that "A greater history opens before my eyes, / A greater task awaits me." And yet, this is not because he views war as romantic; instead, the Aeneid portrays war in an extremely negative light, as the product of those horrible spirits of vengeance, the Furies. It is because war is so awful that Virgil respects Aeneas for having to go through it. Overall, Virgil's attitude toward war seems a bit different than Homer, his precursor in the epic genre. Homer sees war as a permanent facet of human life, whereas Virgil seems to look forward to an era in which the Roman Empire, by extending its control over all nations, will bring an end to war. That said, how do you think this state of affairs is going to come about? Through war, lots of war.
Wars at an end, harsh centuries then will soften,
Ancient Fides and Vesta, Quirinus
With Brother Remus, will be lawgivers,
And grim with iron frames, the Gates of War
Will then be shut: inside, unholy Furor,
Squatting on cruel weapons, hands enchained
Behind him by a hundred links of bronze,
Will grind his teeth and howl with bloodied mouth. (1.391-398)
(Coroebus):
'We'll take their shields and put on their insignia!
Trickery, bravery: who asks, in war?
The enemy will arm us.' (2.516-518)
We all went after him, our swords at play,
But here, here first, from the temple gable's height,
We met a hail of missiles from our friends,
Pitiful execution, by their error,
Who thought us Greek from our Greek plumes and shields. (2.540-544)

Duty

In the Aeneid, the themes of Duty, Religion, and Family are very closely intertwined. The nexus of all these ideas comes in the epithet "pius," by which Virgil regularly refers to Aeneas. Although it's related to our word "pious," this Latin word also includes a strong sense of "devotion to one's family." So, when Aeneas is on his mission to Italy, he is performing a service for his gods, for his ancestors, for his descendents, and for the other Trojans under his command. Some of the Aeneid's main drama arises from conflicts between Aeneas's sense of duty and her personal desires – as when he temporarily falls under the spell of Dido. In the end, though, duty wins out – though Virgil doesn't shy away from depicting how painful this can be.

So ran the speech. Burdened and sick at heart,
He feigned hope in his look, and inwardly
Contained his anguish. […]
Aeneas, more than any, secretly
Mourned for them all (1.284-286, 300-301)
(Aeneas):
"I am Aeneas, duty-bound, and known
Above high air of heaven by my fame,
Carrying with me in my ships our gods
Of hearth and home, saved from the enemy.
I look for Italy to be my fatherland,
And my descent is from all-highest Jove." (1.519-524)
Amazed, and shocked to the bottom of his soul
By what his eyes had seen, Aeneas felt
His hackles rise, his voice choke in his throat.
As the sharp admonition and command
From heaven had shaken him awake, he now
Burned only to be gone, to leave that land
Of the sweet life behind. (4.379-395)