Fate and Human Responsibility in the Aeneid If you plan to write an epic about great heroism, don't use the Aeneid as your primary guide. It's not that heroism isn't found in the Aeneid, it's just difficult to demonstrate. First of all, Virgil writes a story in a fatalistic universe, where every action and every event is under the divine control of Jupiter. Fatalism “is all-pervading in Virgil…in it [the Aeneid] the words fatum and fata occur about 120 times” (Bailey 204). And in the first three books alone, "the word 'Fatum' or 'Fairy' occurs more than forty times" (Sellar 334). Venus praises Jupiter as the one who: "commands and governs the events of gods and men...". (1:321-21). Furthermore, Phoebus tells Aeneas that "the king of the gods assigns destinies, rotating every event...". (3:484-87). So every time Aeneas wins a battle, every time Aeneas needs help, every time Aeneas catches a cold, Jupiter is in control. And while not all events are fatal (e.g. Dido's suicide), most events are under the control of the gods. Aeneas even admits that he does not have free will (4:491-92), because he is headed to Lazio. If a universe is predestined, how can anyone be responsible for their actions? The very idea of ​​fatalism obliterates any notion of heroism because it removes the potential for human responsibility. Why should Aeneas be praised for conquering Lazio? Why should Aeneas be called a hero? The interesting paradox of the Aeneid is the idea of ​​human responsibility intertwined with fatalism. Although Aeneas knows that "fate has promised" his settlement in Latium (1:286-87), he does not sit back and wait for Jupiter to drag them all to Latium; is constantly looking to settle there. And... in the center of the sheet... the Aeneid. L'ERMA, by BRETDCHNEIDER, ROME, 1983.Henry, Elisabeth. The vigor of prophecy, a study on Virgil's Aeneid. Bristol Classical Press, Great Britain, 1989.Lyne, ROAM Further entries in Virgil's Aeneid. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.Poschl, Viktor. Virgil's art, image and symbol in the Aeneid. Trans. Gerda Seligson, Greenwood Press, Connecticut 1986. Paschalis, Michael. Virgil's Aeneid: semantic relations and proper names. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997. Sellar, WY The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1877.Silvestris, Bernardus. Commentary on the first six books of Virgil's Aeneid. Translated by Schreiber and Maresca. University of Nebraska Press. London, 1979. Quinn, Kenneth. Virgil's Aeneid, a critical description. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. 1968.