Juno Case

In Book 1 of the Aeneid, Juno commands Aeolus to ‘whip up your winds’ and overwhelm the Trojan ships and ‘sink them’ and Aeolus obeys her. This is important because it sets Juno up as the enemy goddess to Aeneas and confirms Virgil’s statement ‘so heavy was the cost of founding the Roman race. This event is also important because it allows us to see the model Roman characteristics displayed by the Roman hero Aeneas. We are able to see his role as a comforter and encourager to his comrades as he rouses their spirit and reminds them that fate had already decreed their success despite his ‘misery deep in his heart’ and we also able to him as a provider when he shoots seven stags for each of his ships. Virgil is also able to add dimension to Aeneas’ character in order to make him more relatable to the Roman audience. He does this by showing that Aeneas has human feelings when he makes Aeneas when he sees the mural that depicts the Trojan War in the temple of Juno.

The intervention of Neptune of calming the waves is also important to the Aeneid as it sets up the reason as to why Aeneas was in Carthage to begin with. Aeneas being in Carthage is important in many ways. It allows Vigil to explain the hatred between the Carthaginians’ and the Romans which lead to the three Punic Wars. In anger, Dido prays for there to be ‘no love between our peoples and no treaties’ and calls for an ‘unknown avenger’ (Hannibal) to harry the race of Dardanus (Romans). Aeneas’ being in Carthage also allows Virgil to set him up as being a pious man, a virtue as to which all Roman men should strive to obtain. Aeneas is held in the strongest passions of all, a love that is reciprocated and he is expected to leave that love in order to fulfil his destiny of arriving in Italy for his son, Aschanius. At Mercury’s prompting, Aeneas leaves Dido despite the ‘great anguish in his heart’, the sacrificing of personal happiness for the fulfilment of his destiny allows Virgil to tell the audience that the welfare of the state should be the most important thing in a Romans life. This intervention is important because had Mercury not intervened, Aeneas would’ve stayed in Carthage and abandoned his mission which we know is possible because he was already starting to wear Carthaginian clothes. Pietas is loyalty to the gods, state and family, Virgil inserted this event into the Aeneas to remind the Romans of Mark Anthony’s betrayal to the Roman Empire as he chose Cleopatra and Egypt over his state