The Aeneid

Immortal Intervention In The Mortal World College

Throughout Greek literature, the divine has always played a significant role in the development of the mortal world. In The Aeneid of Virgil, it is clear that though the story takes place on earth, the central plot revolves around the actions of the immortal. The gods, knowing they cannot alter fate, interfere and create havoc in the human world, manipulating individuals for their own selfish purposes. This godly intervention strips the humans of their rights and reduces their identities to mere puppets to the gods. Though Virgil’s story serves as a glimpse into the founding of Rome, petty arguments between the gods drive the discovery of this civilization and as a result, undermine the grandiosity of the creation of one of history’s greatest empires.

The first instance of godly intervention is seen when Neptune takes control of the rising storm caused by Aeolus’s winds. As Aeneas’s ships are swallowed by raging waters,“Neptune speaks and, quicker than his tongue,brings quiet to the swollen waters, setsthe gathered clouds to flight, calls back the sun.Together, then, Cymothoë and Triton,thrusting, dislodged the ships from jagged crags…the god himself takes up his tridentto lift the galleys, and he clears a channelacross the...

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