Your Fated to Read This

    Fate is often presented in fifth and eighth century works as a deity equivalent to Zeus, the king of gods, and greater than the lesser gods that fall under Zeus’ reign, and is the defining principle in how history is made. Fate transpires through prophecies that never fulfills themselves quite how is expected. These prophecies directly affect the people who sometimes try to outrun their destiny themselves, but also by the gods who allow their ego to believe that with their intervention in the matter fate can be avoided and their desired wishes will be the outcome.  Therefore, Fate foretold through prophecies to the Greek and Roman people of the fifth and eighth century, despite what the gods and people try to do to prevent, change, or help it, fate is inevitable; and ultimately the surrounding people suffer the most.

    As Virgil’s The Aeneid begins, a prophecy is being given foretelling about the goddess Juno’s prized city Carthage. There are to be men born from the Trojan bloodline that will one day destroy her beloved city. As Aeneas flees from his home, Troy, that has just been defeated by the Greeks, he is arriving closer to Carthage. Juno’s fear of the fate of her island causes her to approach Aeolus the god of wind by saying “A race I loathe is crossing the Tuscan Sea, transporting/ Troy to Italy, bearing their conquered household gods-/thrash you winds to fury, sink their warships, overwhelm them/or break them apart, scatter their crews, drown them all!” (The Aeneid 49.80-83). The trojans survive with the help of Fate in the form of Neptune who commands the winds to leave for they nor Aeolus have any control over the sea. Even though Aeneas and his men went through the struggle of battling the winds they themselves are fated to something and will survive whatever trials come upon them because of Fate. Juno continues to take every opportunity she can to delay the Trojans, but because of their fate to build the future Roman Empire they will continue to survive. However, Juno in her selfish and vengeful fits of rage continue to make life more difficult for the Trojans over the course of ten years when the same result would be yielded no matter what she did or didn’t do.

    When Aeneas and his men finally land on Carthage, they are greeted by Queen Dido. Venus, Aeneas’ meddlesome mother, who knows that her son is destined to start the future Roman empire, but does not know how, wants her son to be accepted by Dido and her people because she believes it is crucial to his fate. Therefore, she sends her other son Cupid in the form of Aeneas’ son Ascanius to “poison” Dido to fall in love with Aeneas to grant them passage on Carthage. After this manipulation stems another ploy plotted by Juno in which Venus aids, in which Juno describes “Dido and Troy’s commander will make their way/ to the same cave for shelter. And I’ll be there, /…I’ll bind them in lasting marriage, make them one” (The Aeneid 131.152-155). While they both have different intentions for interfering, Venus in hopes that her son would remain protected while on Carthage, and Juno in hopes of this finally preventing him from destroying her island, they both use Dido as a pawn in the spirit of furthering their own plans. However, Fate as always has the last word and presents itself this time in the form Mercury sent by Jupiter in a dream to Aeneas telling him “Blind to your own realm, oblivious to your fate/the King of Gods, whose power sways earth and sky/he is the one who sends me down form brilliant Olympus/bearing commands for you through the racing winds/…you owe him Italy’s realm, the land of Rome” (The Aeneid 136-137.333-343). Therefore, Aeneas leaves Carthage to go on and fulfill his destiny. Dido, left in her love stricken manner, is distraught over Aeneas leaving and goes about killing herself tragically. This further affects the people of Carthage leaving them without a ruler.

    An example outside of the Roman works of The Aeneid of the tragic endings that come from the knowledge of fate is found in the Greek Play Oedipus the King by Sophocles. From birth Oedipus learns of a prophecy he describes by saying,

“…Loxias once declared it was

my fate, to lie with my mother and take

the blood of my father on my hands.

That’s why I’ve lived far from Corinth/ all these years”

(Oedipus the King 994-998).

He explains his reasoning for leaving his believed homelands, however Oedipus does not know that the people he calls mother and father are not his actual parents, nor where the lands he came from his actual home.  Therefore, when he leaves and stumbles among a man traveling with his slaves and he kills them, Oedipus does not realize that he has killed his actual father. When Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx and marries the Queen Jocasta of Thebes, he is marrying his mother. Oedipus is fated through this prophecy to kill his father and marry his mother, and despite his efforts to outrun it he sets himself up to fulfill it because no matter what Oedipus did, he would still end up in the same situation because it is his fate. This leaves Oedipus blind after stabbing his eyes, motherless and widowed after Jocasta hangs herself, the townspeople confused and distraught by the events that have unfolded in front of their eyes, and Oedipus’ children with a legacy that Oedipus believes will leave them single for the rest of their lives.

    As prophecies are being told throughout the Greek and Roman works of the fifth and eighth century, people and the gods are constantly trying to prevent, change, or help the inevitable fate, but to no avail. Juno in The Aeneid persistently tries to stop Aeneas from destroying her prized island of Carthage first, by enlisting the help of the wind god to stop his ships. Then interferes next by enlisting Venus’ help to marry Dido and Aeneas. Ultimately fate intervenes in the form of Neptune and Mercury because it is unpreventable. Oedipus experiences the same misfortune despite his best efforts to outrun his fated prophecy, but it only ends in tragedy. In the end, the interference of others with fate does not affect the overall outcome of events because it’s fate… it is inevitable despite how hard you try.