Aeneas and Creusa

     

   Aeneas Fleeing from Troy- Pompeo Betoni

     George E. Duckworth's article from The Classical Journal "Fate and Free Will in Vergil's 'Aeneid'" explains the hero of Vergil's epic, Aeneas, and his relationship with fate and freewill when he states that "Aeneas, far from being a weak character or a puppet in the hands of Fate, is in every way a worthy hero of the epic which bears his name...There is no lack of strong feeling in Aeneas, but he has subordinated his feelings to the gods and Fate." Aeneas is not one to go blindly along with Fate. He has the free will to choose his destiny and, due to his strong sense of pietas, chooses the path that leads to the foundation of Rome. Pietas, in the simplest way, means duty. However, the true definition goes much further than that. It is a deeply felt sense of duty to religion, politics and country, Gods, and family. Aeneas feels a powerful amount of loyalty, devotion, and respect to all of those listed. He even refers to himself, such as when he met Venus, as "pious Aeneas."

     It could be argued that he goes through with his journey to found Rome because the gods and Fate demanded it of him, yet one can disobey the gods and so could have Aeneas. There are many myths that show mortals, or even demi-gods, disobeying the commands of the immortals. One such example could be the story of Phaetheon and Apollo or even Cupid and Psyche. Certainly, these poor souls receive terrible punishments or have awful things happen, but they had the power to choose their actions. Instead, he chose to undertake the task for the benefit of his family and people.

      Aeneas, right from the very beginning, is seen to be an active part of his own destiny. However, the gods do have some influence over his life. I believe that there is no one true answer and it could be debated for a long time whether it is all fate or all free will. There must be a mixture of the two. The gods adjust small factors in his life to make getting to the ultimate destination, the founding site of Rome, that much closer. Is this fate? Are gods subjected to fate? An example of the meddling of the gods is found in book two of The Aeneid when Aeneas meets Creusa's shade.

     Creusa was Aeneas' wife in Troy. She was with him the entire time during their flight from the city until, at the last moment, she disappeared. Aeneas desperately searched for her, but to no avail. She is dead and appeared before him as a shade. Her death and appearance brings up several questions in the debate of fate verses free will in the Aeneid, but the main one is as follows: "Did Creusa die by accident and therefore free Aeneas to marry later on or did she have to die because Aeneas needed to be free to marry at the end of the journey?"

"Then thus the ghost began to soothe my grief
'Nor tears, nor cries, can give the dead relief.
Desist, my much-lov'd lord,'t indulge your pain;
You bear no more than what the gods ordain.
My fates permit me not from hence to fly;
Nor he, the great controller of the sky.
Long wand'ring ways for you the pow'rs decree;
On land hard labors, and a length of sea.
Then, after many painful years are past,
On Latium's happy shore you shall be cast,
Where gentle Tiber from his bed beholds
The flow'ry meadows, and the feeding folds.
There end your toils; and there your fates provide
A quiet kingdom, and a royal bride:
There fortune shall the Trojan line restore,
And you for lost Creusa weep no more."

(source.) 

"Then thus the ghost began to soothe my grief
'Nor tears, nor cries, can give the dead relief.
Desist, my much-lov'd lord,'t indulge your pain;"  

•  Creusa begins by attempting to soothe Aeneas in his grief. She tells him not to mourn or "indulge" in his pain. They are still in the middle of the battle here and it is dangerous for him to waste time with his pain at her loss. The tears of the living do not relieve the dead of anything. This is similar to other cultures that believe that mourning the dead actually harms them in the afterlife. Clearly, whatever she has to say is important for her shade to linger after death. She has been sent (by the Gods or by her own love of Aeneas?) to explain what is to come for Aeneas and the Trojans.

"You bear no more than what the gods ordain.
My fates permit me not from hence to fly;
Nor he, the great controller of the sky."

•  Here we see that whatever Aeneas is feeling/facing has been ordained by the gods. They are meddling in his life right from the beginning of his trials. Creusa explains that she is not allowed to fly (leave) from where she lingers by the fates and "he, the great controller of the sky." "He, the great controller of the sky" alludes to Zeus the king of the Gods of Mt. Olympus. Since Creusa is not allowed to leave, she must have some wisdom to give Aeneas. This is supported by the fact that after her speech is completed, she fades away. Words like "permit" and "ordain" help lend a sense of gravitas to the scene. Gravitas here refers to a weight or importance that the scene has.

"Long wand'ring ways for you the pow'rs decree;
On land hard labors, and a length of sea.
Then, after many painful years are past, 
On Latium's happy shore you shall be cast"

•  This foreshadows the events to come later in the epic. Creusa's shade tells him briefly of his upcoming labors during many "painful years." The fact that she can see what is to come calls into question whether the events are Fate or due to Aeneas' free will to create the path he follows. Regardless, what is to come will come.

"Where gentle Tiber from his bed beholds
The flow'ry meadows, and the feeding folds.
There end your toils; and there your fates provide
A quiet kingdom, and a royal bride:
There fortune shall the Trojan line restore,
And you for lost Creusa weep no more."

•  Creusa admits here that Aeneas will remarry and found another kingdom. This is the point where fate verses free will comes into play again. Did Creusa die by accident and therefore free Aeneas to marry later on? Her death may have altered the course of events. Or did she have to die because Aeneas needed to be free to marry? A Greek soldier may have come along and killed her for simply being a Trojan woman, but it is equally understandable to wonder if Juno, the Queen of the Gods,  prompted him to do so out of hatred for Aeneas. 

      The debate on Creusa and Aeneas in regards to fate and free will is a difficult one to point as being completely one way or the other. The only way to know exactly what was meant here would be to ask the author, Vergil. Seeing that he is long since deceased we have only speculation and analysis to sway us, as readers, one way or the other.

The Shadow of Creusa Appears to Aeneas 

Giuseppe Maria Mitelli