wer ofthe gods; while he was fleeing from the Cyclops he yelled "If I could takeyour life I would and take your time away, and hurl you down to hell! The godof earthquake could not heal you there!"2 For this affront, Poseidon decidedto make Odysseus' journey home a long and difficult one. The god of the seasends a storm his way but Odysseus survives with the nereid Ino's gift andguidance. After Poseidon departs, he finally reaches Skheria's shore withAthena's help. The opening scenes in the Aeneid corresponds to Homer's sequence. Aeneasand the Trojans are on their ships, heading to found a new city after manytravails. The eventual founding of the city has been agreed upon by Jupiter,and thus the Trojan's "[d]estiny is unaltered"3 regardless of what calamitybefalls them. However, Juno is worried that the Trojans' descendants willeventually surpass the Greeks, "root up her Libyan empire"4, and "enslave thechildren of Agamemnon"5; so she convinces Aeolus to release to some winds todestroy them now. The winds are so fierce that they need a "heap of mountains[laid] upon them" and even then "[b]ehind the bars they bellow, mightilyfretting: the mountain is one immense murmur."6 Aeolus releases them bypushing his spear at the flank of the mountain, and "in a solid mass, [they]hurl themselves through the gates" and they nearly devastate the Trojans.Neptune quiets the winds and the seas, and then rides away. Odysseus and the Trojans have much in common. Both are plagued by gods(the former by Poseidon and the latter by Juno). Despite their troubles, bothare also guaranteed eventual success, for their accomplishments have beenordained by the supreme God, and this cannot be denied. However, thedistinction between the source of their difficulties is an important one.Odysseus willingly invited disaster by flaunting the power of the gods. If hehad not done so and followed custom as he should, he would have returned homemuch sooner with...
