Fate and Free Will

The Theme in the Work

The Aeneid opens by saying that the hero reaches Italy "a fugitive by fate," and in Book I Jupiter guarantees Venus an empire without limit of space or time. The end is stated before the story moves, and the poem follows the path, full of error, delay and cost.

Fate arrives in pieces and through intermediaries. In Book II, the ghost of Hector gives Aeneas the task of carrying the Penates and founding walls after crossing the sea, and Aeneas, instead of obeying, takes up arms, thinking it fine to die fighting. He sets out only afterward, when Venus shows him the gods bringing down the city and a sign from heaven overcomes the refusal of Anchises. In Book III, Apollo's oracle orders them to seek "the ancient mother," Anchises reads Crete, and the reading costs a city and a plague before the Penates correct it. The poem thus separates the word of the gods, which does not err, from the interpretation of men, which does.

The gods themselves obey. Juno knows that fate is against her: in Book I she says that the fates block her and, in Book VII, she admits that Lavinia will indeed be Aeneas's wife and decides to delay the marriage and make it dearer, for if she cannot bend the gods above, she will move Acheron. In Book X, Jupiter consoles Hercules by reminding him that each has his day, and cites the death of Sarpedon, his own son. In Book XII, he weighs the destinies of Aeneas and of Turnus on an equal scale, and Juno yields.

What remains for men is the space of how. In Book IV, Aeneas tells Dido that he does not sail for Italy of his own will, and the poem leaves open whether the sentence is restrained grief or an excuse. In Book IX, Nisus asks whether the ardor that drives him to the night raid comes from the gods or whether each person makes a god of his own desire. In Book XII, Turnus dismisses his sister Juturna, saying that the fates prevail and that he prefers to go meet Aeneas rather than be seen as unworthy: he accepts destiny in words and chooses the manner of fulfilling it.

The Aeneid does not argue whether there is destiny; it argues what destiny leaves in the hands of those who fulfill it. The outcome is fixed, the price is not: in Book V, Neptune promises that only one life will be lost on the crossing and takes Palinurus, and in Book IV the narrator says that Dido dies neither by fate nor by a deserved death, but before her time. The poem also sustains the opposite reading, that destiny serves as an excuse for whoever commands: the Aeneas who invokes it before Dido invokes Pallas, not the fates, when in Book XII he kills a man who asks for his life.

Where It Appears

• Book I: Jupiter promises Venus that the Romans will have an empire without limit of space or time, and Juno acknowledges that fate prevents her from keeping Aeneas away from Italy.
• Book II: The ghost of Hector orders Aeneas to flee and carry the Penates to found walls beyond the sea, and Aeneas, before obeying, takes up arms for no reason.
• Book III: Anchises reads Apollo's oracle as Crete, and the Penates correct the error after the plague: the promised land is Hesperia.
• Book IV: Mercury rebukes Aeneas for building Carthage, and Aeneas tells Dido that he does not sail for Italy of his own will.
• Book V: Neptune promises Venus that only one life will be lost on the crossing, and Sleep throws Palinurus into the sea.
• Book VI: The Sibyl says that the golden bough will yield without effort to the one whom the fates call, and Aeneas breaks it off while he hesitates.
• Book VII: Juno admits that Lavinia will be Aeneas's wife and decides to delay the marriage: if she cannot bend the gods above, she will move Acheron.
• Book VIII: The god of the Tiber promises Aeneas a certain home and certain Penates, and the white sow with her litter appears on the bank as a sign.
• Book IX: Cybele obtains from Jupiter that the pine ships from Ida turn into nymphs upon arriving in Italy, and Nisus asks whether his ardor comes from the gods or from his own desire.
• Book X: Jupiter tells the council that the fates will find the way, and consoles Hercules by reminding him that each has his day.
• Book XI: Diana, who knows that Camilla will die, laments that she was dragged into war, and Apollo grants Aruns Camilla's death but denies him his safe return.
• Book XII: Jupiter weighs the fates of Aeneas and Turnus on an equal scale, Juno yields, and Turnus tells Juturna that the fates prevail.

Passages

Jupiter gives the guarantee that sustains the whole poem.

Hector changes Aeneas's duty: it is no longer a matter of defending Troy, but of founding another city.

Aeneas removes from himself the decision to leave, before Dido.

Nisus doubts where his own ardor comes from.

Jupiter confesses the limit of his own power before each person's appointed day.

Turnus accepts fate in words and chooses the way to meet it.