Within both the Aeneid and Illiad

Within both The Aeneid and Iliad, there is a strong urge to present a world in which wars are glorious, the gods have a direct hand in human events, and these deities influence fate. Through the representation of two similarly “blessed” protagonists, Achilles and Aeneas, the reader is able to view the ways in which these two cultural issues intertwine and attempt to create a picture of the ancient world which is at once brutally real and filled with the magical and supernatural of the gods. Throughout both The Aeneid and Iliad, each of the main characters are “chosen” by the gods in some way and have gained favor not only because of their birth but also because they are destined to fulfill a certain fate or prove themselves in some other way. This essay will argue that each author’s representation of the gods having a direct influence on he lives of mortals is symbolic of this glory age in which each author was trying to capture. It will also explore the ways these two protagonists are different and similar in terms of the societies they are shown to be living in as seen in both works.
The gods in both The Iliad and The Aeneid are shown not only to have a direct impact in the lives of mortals, but also, they are shown to be choosy about who they wish to help. The Greek gods had favorite humans and intervened in human affairs, but they did not live within the human heart. The fallibility of the gods is apparent in both works since they are capable of being defeated and have emotional impulses that drive them to make decisions. Although The Iliad and The Aeneid were written in completely different eras with different political structures and cultural systems, both Homer and Virgil would have had a similar understanding of the gods and these characters. Both pieces were written during times of political and social struggles, and this could be part of the reason why both texts, particularly Homer’s are heavily invested in depicting a golden era where mighty heroes of