Which of the Prophetic Passages in the Aeneid Is the Most Effective

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Prophecy is a key theme in the Aeneid and takes many forms, including dreams, visitations from the dead, mysterious signs and omens, as well as direct visitations from the gods or their divine messengers. These windows into the future orient mortal characters towards fate as they try to glean, sometimes clearly and sometimes dimly, what is to come. Virgil’s audience, however, hear these predictions with the advantage of hindsight, looking backward to observe the realisation of an already accomplished fate. As observers who know about the future, the audience is in the same position as the gods, and the tension between the audiences’ and the characters’ perspectives therefore emulates the difference between the position of mortals and that of gods. All three prophetic passages are effective in some way, Jupiter’s prophecy in Book 1, that given by Achises about the future leaders in Book 6 and the description of the shield in Book 8. However, which is the most effective? The first prophetic passage takes place in Book 1. Venus is distressed by the rough treatment her son and the rest of the Trojans have received at Juno’s hands. For example, Venus angrily questions ‘what crime have these Trojans committed that they should suffer all this loss of life and the whole world be closed to them?’ Venus continues to protest that her father has forgotten his oath that a race would emerge from the remnants of troy to rule a great empire. Jupiter calms her fears and in an extremely condensed survey lays out the destined future of Aeneas, the Trojans and the Roman people. The prophecy mainly proceeds in five or six-line increments: Aeneas, who is destined for immortality, will wage war in Italy and found Lavinium, where he will reign for three years. Ascanius will succeed him and reign for thirty years in the new settlement Alba Longa. Here, his descendants will live for three

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