The Aeneid - Juno - Character Sketch

For some reason, I feel proud of the homework I just did.  I had to write in the point of view of an assigned character.  I got Juno, the Queen of the Gods and the main divine antagonist throughout "The Aeneid."  I figured I would share the thing I am proud of.  But honestly, I think I'm proud of my procrastination.

Juno (Books 1, 2, and 3)

My name is Juno.  I am the Queen of the Gods, the wife and sister of Jupiter, and the daughter of Saturn.  When I think of the man named Aeneas, I feel anger.  I want to rationalize my actions toward him in the years prior to his arrival to Carthage.  I do not believe that anything I did was wrong.  I only strove to protect the city that I loved from the men who came from the city that I loathed.

Before the Trojan War, a prince of Troy, Paris, claimed that the goddess Venus was more beautiful than I.  My beauty is something that I take pride in, and he challenged that.  I will never forgive the city of Troy for slighting my divine beauty.  Once the city was defeated and the war ended, a group of men escaped.  That group was led by Aeneas, son of Venus.  The fact that he was the son of the goddess who was a rival of mine would not have been enough to fuel the rage I felt toward him.  I had heard that his descendants were destined to destroy my beloved city of Carthage, which I could not tolerate.

Aeneas and his followers were to travel for years before they could reach his final destiny.  I only wanted to protect my city longer, if possible.  This was where I kept my belongings, such as my armor and chariot.  I wanted to keep Aeneas far away from all of this.  I had hoped that by making his travels more difficult, he would eventually give up, or settle somewhere far from Carthage and never go near it.

One time, Jupiter had allowed Pallas Athene to do terrible things to my Argives all because of Ajax, the son of Oileus. He had allowed her to shatter his ships and send winds to churn the sea and impale him on a rock. But I am the Queen of the Gods.  I find myself to be more important, and closer to Jupiter.  But he won’t allow any race of men who will worship me to survive.  Why shouldn’t I be able to save those who do worship me?

When I believed that Aeneas was too close to Carthage, I met with Aeolus, who is the god of the winds.  I asked him to use the wind to bring a great storm upon Aeneas and to overwhelm and sink their ships. I wanted him to scatter their bodies across the sea.  I offered him fourteen nymphs of the rarest beauty.  They most beautiful of them all was Deiopea.  I told him I would marry them so that she would stay with him and make him beautiful children for all of her life.  Aeolus agreed to my request, and Aeneas and his men suffered a terrible storm.  Watching this gave me much delight, but my delight was cut short by Neptune.  Neptune decided that he didn’t want his waters to be churned, so he calmed them and sent Aeolus away.  This annoyed me.  Once Aeneas was on land, he could find Carthage more quickly.

After Aeneas made it to land, I watched him and my city.  I saw Venus tell her son all about Queen Dido, and protect him as he entered my city.  I was angered by her involvement.  But my husband had sent Mercury to tell Queen Dido to welcome Aeneas and his men.  I was forced to watch as Aeneas wooed the Queen bye telling her of his terrible adventures.  I watched as Venus sent her son to make sure that Queen Dido fell in love with Aeneas.  After thinking it over, it wouldn’t be bad if they fell in love.  Aeneas wouldn’t destroy Carthage if he loved the Queen, would he?

I loved the city of Carthage, so it only makes sense that I wanted to protect it, right?  I never told Paris of Troy to say that Venus was more beautiful.  I got angry about that, but only because he was so obviously wrong.  I wanted to keep Aeneas far away from Carthage, and he got too close.  Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.  How else could I have ensured that I would be worshipped without trying to eliminate those who would destroy my followers?  If other gods and goddesses are able to meddle in the lives of mortals to help themselves, I can too.  Why, I’m more entitled, because I am the Queen of the Gods.  I just know that anyone else in my position would have done the exact same things that I had done.