see entire series on Virgil's Aeneid here
Before we finally leave Book V, there are a few short but important passages which are key to understanding Roman destiny. After the funeral games for Anchises, Juno puts it into the minds of the Trojan women to set fire to the ships – as if Fate could be averted by adverse circumstances. In the face of this misfortune, one of Aeneas’ companions (Nautes) gives his commander some advice:
Where our fates may lead, or lead us back,
Whatever comes,
All Fortune can be mastered by endurance.
(V.918)
It is this steadfast stoicism which drives Aeneas forward, even into the cave of the Cumean Sibyl in book VI. This is the “Sibyl feared by men” from whom he was earlier instructed to seek counsel. The problem with the Sibyl, however, was simply this: she would have the prophecies committed to leaves, which the wind would scatter before sense could be made of them. And doesn’t that simply typify the problem of mortals understanding the will of the gods? How shall Aeneas know for certain the course of action he should take, when all too often the messages from the gods are unclear? He knows his fate, but he does not know how his fortune will bring his fate to pass. And so with his men he goes to seek the prophetess.
She is transformed before them as the god possesses her: “her breast heaved, her wild heart grew large with passion” (VI.79). While the Trojans look on, she cries out to them:
Trojan Aeneas, are you slow? Be quick,
The great mouths of the god’s house, thunderstruck,
Will never open till you pray!
(VI.84)
Aeneas prays, and tells the god that he asks “no kingdom other than fate allows me” (VI.107). He is seeking to have his will, his desires, aligned with those of Jupiter, of Fate. The Sibyl, for her part, “sang out riddles” (VI.150), but riddles in which Virgil gives us a vision of what the Roman Empire must be. “A first way to safety / Will open where you reckon on it least/ From a Greek city” (VI.145) This is one of the key elements of empire: there must be alliances with non-Trojans. Tribalism can have no part in true Empire; Rome must be able to unite both Trojan and non-Trojan. The wars of the past, the memory of the Greeks, must be forgotten, if Aeneas is to found an eternal city.
Aeneas is also to see into the future, but must gather a branch “sacred to Juno of the lower world” (VI.222). As I’ve said before, all great heroes have to face Hades. ("He descended into hell"). Down into the underworld he goes, where deep beneath the earth he sees the future glory of Rome. But before he sees the future glory, he must pass by all the powers of the underworld: Chaos and the Infernal Fiery Stream, the jaws of Orcus, pale Disease, Dread, Death and his brother Sleep, and death-bringing War. The list goes on in lines 365 to 400. It is not simply that Aeneas goes past this house of horrors of the underworld for amusement sake. It is a sign that Rome must learn the lesson of Nautes: all these things can be mastered by endurance. All the irrational forces of the underworld must be faced and conquered, or at least accommodated and endured. Only men who can show such endurance will be fit to rule the world.
Once in the region of the shades he meets Palinurus, who fell overboard at the end of book V. He pleads with Aeneas to give him funeral rites so that he can pass properly through deathly regions, yet the Sibyl tells him “Abandon hope by prayer to make the gods change their decrees” (VI. 506). This is perhaps one of the greatest conundrums of Roman religious belief as expressed in the Aeneid. Compare this with the Old Testament notions of God “repenting” of a certain course of action, yet having a steadfast covenant. Or with subsequent Christian difficulties around the notion of “the will of God”.
Does prayer change heaven’s decrees?
Next: Aeneas and the future of Rome
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