Aeneid's Themes

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Themes of The Aeneid

“I sing of warfare and a man at war.
From the sea-coast of Troy in early days
He came to Italy by destiny,
To our Lavinian western shore,
A fugitive, this captain, buffeted
Cruelly on land as on the sea
By blows for powers of the air- behind them
Baleful Juno in her sleepless rage.
And cruel losses were his lot in war,
Till he could found a city and bring home
His gods to Laetium, land of the Latin race,
The Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome.
Tell me the causes now, O Muse, how galled
In her divine pride, and how sore at heart
From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled him—
A man apart, devoted to his mission—
To undergo so many perilous days
And enter on so many trials. Can anger
Black as this prey on the minds of heaven?”
(1-19)

This quote lays out the foundation of the story for us and shows us how important fate will be throughout the story. The use of the past tense tells us that Virgil is presenting us with a story of history, the end is certain because it already happened. Aeneas, spends the first half of the epic wandering in search of a new home and the second half at war fighting to establish this homeland. Lines 2 through 4 summarize Aeneas's first mission in the epic, to emigrate from Troy to Italy, as a fate already accomplished. Even though we do not learn Aeneas's name in these lines, we learn much about him. Most importantly, we learn that Aeneas is “a man apart, devoted to his mission.” In this opening passage, Virgil mentions the divine obstacle that will plague Aeneas throughout his quest: the “sleepless rage” of the “queen of gods,” Juno. Aeneas will suffer in the face of storms at sea and, later, a war on land, and Virgil attributes both these impediments to Juno's cruelty. In line 13, the poet asks the muse to inform him of the causes of Juno's anger. The primary conflict in the Aeneid is Juno's vindictive anger against the forces of ...