The Aeneid

Question

Why did Juno hate Aeneas and his Trojans?

Synthesized answer

Juno hated Aeneas and the Trojans for several reasons. She held a long-standing grudge from the war she waged for Greece against the Trojan state [5]. Additionally, deep in her heart, the fate of Paris and the slight to her beauty remained a cause for her anger [5]. She was also resentful of the grace bestowed upon Ganymede and her "injur'd bed" [5]. These factors combined to ignite her vengeance [5].

Juno also felt that her own power and fame were being diminished by the Trojans' success. She was vexed that they had escaped Troy's destruction and were now destined to reign in Italy, a course she believed Fate and Jove had set [3]. She felt her efforts to thwart them had been in vain and that her rage was spent without achieving her goals [3, 4]. She questioned why she, the consort of Jove, had waged such a long and unsuccessful war against the Trojans, only to be "foil'd" by a mortal man [4]. Juno believed that if native power was insufficient, she should seek help from elsewhere, even Hell [4].

Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.

From the book

sters, and their dark retreat. This Fury, fit for her intent, she chose; One who delights in wars and human woes. Ev’n Pluto hates his own misshapen race; Her sister Furies fly her hideous face; So frightful are the forms the monster takes, So fierce the hissings of her speckled snakes. Her Juno finds, and thus inflames her spite: “O virgin daughter of eternal Night, Give me this once thy labour, to sustain My right, and execute my just disdain. Let not the Trojans, with a feign’d pretence Of proffer’d peace, delude the Latian prince.…
Passage [365]
r celestial sire, By substituting mares produc’d on earth, Whose wombs conceiv’d a more than mortal birth. These draw the chariot which Latinus sends, And the rich present to the prince commends. Sublime on stately steeds the Trojans borne, To their expecting lord with peace return. But jealous Juno, from Pachynus’ height, As she from Argos took her airy flight, Beheld with envious eyes this hateful sight. She saw the Trojan and his joyful train Descend upon the shore, desert the main, Design a town, and, with unhop’d success, Th’…
Passage [362]
b’ring still with endless discontent, The Queen of Heav’n did thus her fury vent: “Then am I vanquish’d? must I yield?” said she, “And must the Trojans reign in Italy? So Fate will have it, and Jove adds his force; Nor can my pow’r divert their happy course. Could angry Pallas, with revengeful spleen, The Grecian navy burn, and drown the men? She, for the fault of one offending foe, The bolts of Jove himself presum’d to throw: With whirlwinds from beneath she toss’d the ship, And bare expos’d the bosom of the deep; Then, as an…
Passage [5]
d Juno must in vain contend, Her rage disarm’d, her empire at an end. Breathless and tir’d, is all my fury spent? Or does my glutted spleen at length relent? As if ’twere little from their town to chase, I thro’ the seas pursued their exil’d race; Ingag’d the heav’ns, oppos’d the stormy main; But billows roar’d, and tempests rag’d in vain. What have my Scyllas and my Syrtes done, When these they overpass, and those they shun? On Tiber’s shores they land, secure of fate, Triumphant o’er the storms and Juno’s hate. Mars could in mutual blood the…
Passage [363]
it was in fate; Nor could forget the war she wag’d of late For conqu’ring Greece against the Trojan state. Besides, long causes working in her mind, And secret seeds of envy, lay behind; Deep graven in her heart the doom remain’d Of partial Paris, and her form disdain’d; The grace bestow’d on ravish’d Ganymed, Electra’s glories, and her injur’d bed. Each was a cause alone; and all combin’d To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind. For this, far distant from the Latian coast She drove the remnants of the Trojan host; And…
Passage [4]

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