Fate is one of the few inevitabilities in life. It is an inevitability that, although often causing happiness and prosperity, can also cause hardships and suffering. The latter is what happens with Juturna in Virgil’s Aeneid (translated by Stanley Lombardo). Near the end of Book 12, the Latin army is nearing its defeat, as their leader, Turnus, will soon meet his fate of death by the hands of Aeneas (the Trojan leader). The Trojans and Latins have been at war at this point, as the Trojans had settled on Latin land, destined by fate to create an empire. Juno, a goddess against the Trojans, instigated a war between the two sides, despite Jupiter, ruler of the gods, making it clear that fate had the Trojans creating an empire on Latin land.
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Virgil uses words such as “terrible,” “ill-omened,” and “death” to describe the fiend that came as an owl as an omen for Turnus’s nearing death. The use of these words gives the speech a more despairing, hopeless, and generally dark tone, as they are used to describe the very thing that ultimately caused so much despair and hopelessness for Juturna. These words, as a result, help to emphasize Juturna’s suffering, which evokes sympathy from the reader. She also uses words such as “sorrow,” “shadows,” “haughty” (to describe Jupiter), and “hard” (to describe her own life). These words focus more on her general situation, despair, hopelessness, and how she was filled with sorrow and wanted to “go through the shadows” with Turnus (Virgil, book 12, lines 1068-1069). These words also have a generally dark, despairing, and hopeless tone, further emphasizing the hopelessness of Juturna and the Latins. These words also evoke sympathy from the reader for Juturna, as well as show the inevitability of fate, as she is using these very despairing and hopeless words to self-pity and refer to Turnus’s fate that she has no control of. The diction, specifically with very hopeless and despairing words relating to grief and sadness, that Virgil uses in this passage helps him to achieve the effects of Juturna’s …show more content…
Her speech also contributes to the work as a whole, specifically by emphasizing the theme that anyone, no matter how powerful, can, and often does, suffer and go through hardships. Juturna was a god, given immortal abilities and everlasting life, yet even she, in all her divine power, went through a lot of suffering due to her brother’s inevitable fate of death. She went through so much suffering, in fact, that she even implied that she wanted to die and not live forever anymore, and brought up how her life was going to be difficult and miserable without her brother. She was more powerful than any human, yet was still suffering greatly, and just as much as any human might suffer in a similar situation, such as the Latins and Trojans with the war. Her suffering was shown through her rhetorical questions, hopeless and despairing diction, and mix of short and long sentences throughout her speech. These elements of her speech helped Virgil achieve the effects of the speech, but more importantly, allowed Virgil to use the speech to contribute to a much bigger theme about suffering. This theme is that suffering is something that can be, and almost always is, experienced by everyone, no matter who or how
Virgil uses words such as “terrible,” “ill-omened,” and “death” to describe the fiend that came as an owl as an omen for Turnus’s nearing death. The use of these words gives the speech a more despairing, hopeless, and generally dark tone, as they are used to describe the very thing that ultimately caused so much despair and hopelessness for Juturna. These words, as a result, help to emphasize Juturna’s suffering, which evokes sympathy from the reader. She also uses words such as “sorrow,” “shadows,” “haughty” (to describe Jupiter), and “hard” (to describe her own life). These words focus more on her general situation, despair, hopelessness, and how she was filled with sorrow and wanted to “go through the shadows” with Turnus (Virgil, book 12, lines 1068-1069). These words also have a generally dark, despairing, and hopeless tone, further emphasizing the hopelessness of Juturna and the Latins. These words also evoke sympathy from the reader for Juturna, as well as show the inevitability of fate, as she is using these very despairing and hopeless words to self-pity and refer to Turnus’s fate that she has no control of. The diction, specifically with very hopeless and despairing words relating to grief and sadness, that Virgil uses in this passage helps him to achieve the effects of Juturna’s …show more content…
Her speech also contributes to the work as a whole, specifically by emphasizing the theme that anyone, no matter how powerful, can, and often does, suffer and go through hardships. Juturna was a god, given immortal abilities and everlasting life, yet even she, in all her divine power, went through a lot of suffering due to her brother’s inevitable fate of death. She went through so much suffering, in fact, that she even implied that she wanted to die and not live forever anymore, and brought up how her life was going to be difficult and miserable without her brother. She was more powerful than any human, yet was still suffering greatly, and just as much as any human might suffer in a similar situation, such as the Latins and Trojans with the war. Her suffering was shown through her rhetorical questions, hopeless and despairing diction, and mix of short and long sentences throughout her speech. These elements of her speech helped Virgil achieve the effects of the speech, but more importantly, allowed Virgil to use the speech to contribute to a much bigger theme about suffering. This theme is that suffering is something that can be, and almost always is, experienced by everyone, no matter who or how