The Aeneid

Conflicts of land between the current inhabitants and new-comers are something seen in history. The examples range everywhere from the Native Americans who lost their homeland of America to the Spanish and British, or the Israeli people who refused to give land back to the Palestinians who fled their homeland back in 1948.

Why do we allow such treatment of the original inhabitants of lands? Some may say, like in the Aeneid, that it is the divine right for a group of people to take ownership of land, and others use ethnicity or religion to devalue a group of people in order to take ownership. When Aeneas first arrives in Italy to establish his city he immediately went about it, and did so without any consultation with the native population. Since for him it was for divine reasons.
It is the above reasons that are the basis of comparison in Fontaine’s article. The Trojans were forced from Troy after the Trojan War, but they were told by Apollo that they would find a new homeland in Italy. In more recent history of North America’s colonization by different European countries was done for the sake of religious tolerance, thus it was the colonists “divine right” to take over the land that was inhabited by
Juno’s hatred of the Trojans has relevance to the events of both the Aeneid and other land conflicts in history. This can be seen as Jews were turned away from their homes in Europe during World War II because of the Nazi party. The only reason the Nazi party was successful was that they were able to spread their hatred, and they were able to control the people in Germany at the time. This can happen because of a figure like Hitler. Someone who is able to “whip the people into a frenzy”, or because of someone like Turnus who was able to be a leader on the battlefield and win (plus he was possessed by Juno’s demon friend so he is super angry at everything and everyone like a scene