It will not be permitted me – so be it – to keep a man from rule in Italy by changeless fate Lavinia waits his bride. If I can sway no heavenly hearts I’ll rouse the world below. Well, if my powers fall short, I need not falter over asking for help wherever help may lie. In Book XII, Juno claims, “Mars had the power to kill the giant race of Lapiths, and the Father of Gods himself gave up old Calydon to Diana’s wrath: and what great sins brought Calydon or Lapiths justice so rough? How differently with me, the great consort of Jove, who nerved myself to leave no risk unventured, lent myself to every indignity.

For these reasons, I wish to dive deep into analysis and synthesis on a particular passage in the Aeneid which I believe truly displays Juno’s character and actions in a way that can relate to the work as a whole. There is no denying that Juno plays a vital role in the epic and her wrath, through cause and effect, is responsible for the main actions and interests in the Aeneid. She, in her bitterness and perverseness, is the divine opposer to Aeneas who is fate-driven in his journey to found Rome. Juno, as the antagonist in the epic, is the main retarder of advancement in the Aeneid. The Aeneid employs both of these motives of powers which are supplied by Fate, who ordained Aeneas to be the founder of Rome, and Juno who is persistent in making Aeneas suffer in his journey to Italy.

These include either divine intervention by gods and goddesses who took an active role in participating in mortal events (such as in the Odyssey), or simply by the unavoidable force that is Fate (such as in Oedipus the King). These events add hurdles that allow the intensity of the epic to increase in a way that parallels many other works by the Greeks or Romans. He creates a drama that stresses countermotion to the series of events that are set to transpire, in a way that will not allow them travel in a straightforward line. Virgil does an outstanding job at making the Aeneid filled with contradictory dynamics.

The aeneid by virgil