The Aeneid: The Greek Gods

GREEK GODS

The Greek mythology is said to have emerged from Homer’s famous works, such as “Odyssey” and “Iliad”. He has set high standards for epic conventions which has influenced many Greek writers, for instance Virgil. One of the most important components in traditional epic conventions is ‘intervention of Gods’. The term “deus ex machine” means an unexpected intervention by a character or object, which helps in resolving a problem which throughout the text seems unsolvable. In the ancient Greek religion, there are a total of twelve major deities; these are- Zeus, Hera, Poisedon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and Dionysus. In Classical literature, the intervention of the gods helps in resolving the main conflict or entangling the same and exaggerating it.

They determine the destiny of mortals, including Aeneas himself, whose mother Venus is a goddess herself. In this text, the King among the Gods is Jupiter. The other gods cannot act against his will, as he upholds the destiny. The maximum that other gods can do is to postpone the outcome temporarily. This epic was greatly influenced by Homeric conventions. There are multiple parallels between Homer’s “Iliad” and Virgil’s “The Aeneid”. “The Aeneid” involves much more divine intervention than “Iliad”. Juno has always despised the Trojans, since Paris picked Venus as the ‘fairest woman’ among Juno, Venus and Minerva. Another reason for her hatred towards Aeneas is the prophecy which states that Trojans will destroy her favorite city, that is, Carthage. Thus, Aeneas becomes a victim of Juno’s wrath. The scene where Juno intervenes by persuading Aeolus to destroy Aeneas’s fleet while he is on his way to Italy, has parallelism to Homer’s “Odyssey” where Odysseus sails back home when he is disrupted by a terrible storm, which is caused by Neptune, who also has his reasons for being spiteful towards