The following outstanding article was submitted by a Guest Blogger:
Early in Virgil's epic adventure tale we find the author calling upon his Muse to help him understand why the Queen of the gods (Juno) looked down upon the struggling mortal (Aeneas) with such outrage. Juno, we learn, favored the people of Carthage, whom she hoped would "rule the nations of the Earth, if only the Fates were willing." [The Aeneid, Robert Fagles, trans., Book I, lines 20-21]
In the same introductory context we overhear Juno plotting strategy to oppose Aeneas and his men. She thinks to herself, "Defeated am I? Give up the fight? Powerless now to keep that Trojan king from Italy? Ah...but of course. The Fates bar my way." [Fagles, Bk. I, 46-48]
One can't help but wonder how it is that the Queen of the gods, Juno, who is sister and wife of Jupiter [=Jove, =Zeus] would be obliged to make her terrible power and dark plans subject to the Fates! As modern readers we are also curious about the consistent use of the plural (fata in Latin, not fatum) where we would probably speak of "Fate" in the singular, as a purely impersonal and abstract force. Not Virgil!
The answer to the question, "Who or what are the Fates?" came to be explained by the Greek authors before it was known to Roman readers. The Greek playwrights often invoked the role of the Fates in human destiny, as does Virgil. But the Greek plays (the source of religious information for the common folk, who considered those performances to be religious ceremonies containing inspired truths) did not all express the same ideas about the role of Fate and the gods. A wise teacher named Socrates told his students that one can't be expected to believe all that the Greek dramatists say because some of it is inconsistent, and that requires a clear thinker to believe contradictory things. Such "atheistic" views prompted the Athenian elders to judge Socrates guilty of perverting the minds of their youth, and to sentence him to die, by way of a cocktail of poison hemlock.
Whether inconsistent or not, the Greek plays failed to make good sense about the power relationships between the various gods with each other, and between the gods and the Fates. Modern students of comparative religion classify the ancient religions along the lines of a sort of pyramid of ideas, the earliest being "polytheism," followed by "henotheism," and finally by "monotheism," the religion of the Jews. Greek and Roman teaching about the gods belonged in the intermediate category; henotheism being the belief in multiple gods, but among which was recognized one more powerful deity whose authority ruled over the others. That individual was Zeus to the Greeks, and Jupiter to the Romans.
All very interesting. But where does Fate fit into this picture? And in the setting of the life of Aeneas, what about the very high level deity (Juno) who has acknowledged to herself that her actions and efforts to defeat the Trojan leader will be dependent on whether the Fates will allow her to attain her goal? So, just who is in charge here?
From Greek authors we learn that the Fates (fata in the Aeneid) were not an abstraction. They consisted of three persons who were gods. Like the other deities they lived far above the world of ordinary mortals. These three ladies had special duties which occupied their full attention, mention of which struck terror into the hearts of ordinary folk. They were known as the Moirae (the Greek title); their individual identities were also familiar. Lachesis, Chlotho, and Atropos carried out perpetual tasks which required spinning yarn or thread from wool, and then weaving the thread into a tapestry. When the design of that work called for a change in pattern, the god Atropos brandished her scissors and cut the yarn at that place. Of course this action was more than merely finishing a line of the woven work. Each thread was the lifeline of some mortal, so when that thread was cut, the human individual promptly (and inexorably) died. No wonder that Atropos was especially feared by mortals! But still worse was the fact that these three ladies, the Fates, were completely immune to the pleas and the protests of human beings, as well as those of the other gods.
We can understand how it was that there is no mention of votive offerings or sacrifices to this trio of gods. To do so would have been a complete waste of time. We can make one slight adjustment in our modern thinking at this point. We often speak of "blind Fate." That isn't quite correct. The three ladies who were the Fates were certainly not blind. They just cared nothing for the plights or desires which motivated human actions. Likewise, they saw no reason to comply with threats or requests from other deities.
What we (along with Socrates) are inclined to ask about is how the "power politics" among the various gods worked, especially when it came to the Fates. And in relationship to Jupiter, who stood at the top of the pyramid of authority. Who had the last word? The answer to this was never really explained in satisfying detail by the Greek quasi-religious plays. But we come to an episode in the Aeneid which does shed a good deal of light on these questions.
As warfare is underway on the ground in Italia, the great god Jupiter convenes an assembly of the gods:
"Now the gates of mighty Olympus' house are flung wide open.
The father of Gods and King of Men convenes a council
high in his starry home, as throned aloft he gazes
down on the earth, the Trojan camp and Latin ranks.
The gods take seats in the mansion, entering there
through doors to East and West, and Jove starts in:
'You great gods of the sky,
why have you turned against your own resolve?
Why do you battle so? Such warring hearts!
I ordered Italy not to fight with Troy.
What's this conflict flouting my command?' "
[Flagles, Aeneid, Bk. X, 1-11]
And so we learn that Jupiter has specifically ordered that there is to be no repeat of the Battle for Troy on land, in Italia. Jupiter does not approve of the manipulation of the "checkerboard" of human lives by his subordinate deities, with the result that blood will be shed again on a large scale, to resolve the issue of mortal rule of the land below. But Jupiter is well aware of the foment brewing among his fellow gods, so he allows them to speak their views. As would be expected, "golden Venus is far from brief" as she replies to Jupiter. But Juno is impatiently waiting her turn, and when it comes, she unleashes a great blast of expected fury.
So, now the stage is set. Will Jupiter rule for, or against the pending war between these two parties on land, and the two royal queens in the audience of the gods, in Olympus? And no less with respect to our primary interest here, what about the Fates? Are they to be ruled as subordinate to Jupiter, along with the allies of Juno and Venus?
The answer is not long in coming. Jupiter issues his ruling, no doubt still seated on his royal throne:
"Then the almighty Father, power that rules the world,
begins, and as he speaks the lofty house of the gods
falls silent, earth rocks to its roots, the heights
of the sky are hushed and the Western breezes drop
and the Ocean calms its waters into peace: 'So then,
take what I say to heart and stamp it in your minds.
Since it is not allowed that Latins and Trojans
join in pacts of peace, and there is no end
to your eternal clashes---now, whatever the luck
of each man today, and whatever hope he follows,
Trojan or Italian, I make no choice between them.
Whether Italy's happy fate lays siege to the camp
or the Trojans' folly, the deadly prophecies they follow.
Nor do I exempt the Italians. How each man weaves
his web will bring him to glory or to grief.
King Jupiter is the king to all alike.
The Fates will find the way.' "
[Fagles, Aeneid, Bk X, 121-137, emphasis supplied]
Wow! What a brilliant denouement! In a single stroke, Virgil manages to resolve the age-old uncertainty as to whether Jupiter (Zeus) is the true sovereign over mortal lives and events, or whether it is the Fates whose choices rule all these things. Note the double meaning of the phrase which Jupiter uses to tell us just how it will work: "How each man weaves his web will bring him to glory or to grief."
That "weaving" is, obviously, the very image of the work of the Fates, whose pattern determines the destinies of each mortal, including each one of the soldiers from Troy, and from Latium. So, is Jupiter just wrong about who actually makes the choices for this or that line in the woven fabric of life? No, not at all. In this succinct passage, Virgil manages to resolve the question of freedom versus destiny by decreeing that each individual soldier will make what are for him his own choices. But those choices are part, in each instance, of the larger fabric woven by the Fates. Thus, even though the outcome appears (on a mortal level) to be determined solely by the success or failure of the leaders in battle and those who follow them, the view from Olympus is that "the Fates will find the way..." i.e. they will weave the pattern as they always have, not subject to the desires or cries from the heat of battle below.
But this outcome is decreed by the royal order of Jupiter, himself. So the resolution which Virgil supplies retains the sovereignty of the King of the Universe, and the independence of the Fates, along with the necessity for each individual human being to make what will certainly seem to each mortal as his own independent choices.
The solution here explained by Virgil far outdoes, for philosophical profundity, all of the "tag lines" and hints from the Greek plays and poets. The unsettled question of human destiny has been answered.
References: "Moirae" from Wikipedia, and Bullfinch's Mythology.
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