In The Aeneid, Aeneas and a group of Trojans escape Troy, wandering through the Mediterranean in hopes of coming across the land promised to them. At many places they stop and start to build new homes, only to be told that is not the ending place. Eventually they acquire a prophecy, telling them to return to the land of their forefathers. However, a plague strikes and decimates their population and crops for a year not too long after their arrival. The infestation is the gods’ way of trying to hurry the Trojans along.
Anchises possibly knew something was not right when the plague hits, for he declares, “Double back on the sea lanes, back to Delos now, Apollo’s oracle! … Pray for the god’s good will and ask him there: where will they end, our backbreaking labors? Where can we turn from help for our toil? What new course do we set” (108)? If Crete is supposed to be the end of the Trojans’ journey, why are they still afflicted? Their hardships are supposed to be over!
The plague is a sign from the gods, who are trying to direct the Trojans on the right course. Anchises wrongly interprets Apollo’s prophecy, believing they are to settle in Crete. Instead of outright saying the Trojans were in the wrong place, Apollo, or another god, sends the plague to try and direct them and get them to realize their mistake, or prompt Anchises’ memory to remember Cassandra’s prophecy. However, since Cassandra was fated to never be believed until after her prophecies came true, it does not occur to him. According to Anchises,
Cassandra alone made such a prophecy to me … Now I recall she’d reveal our destination, Hesperia: time and again repeating it by name, repeating the name of Italy. But who believed a Trojan expedition could reach Italian shores? Who was moved by Cassandra’s visions then? (109)
This statement summed up where the exiles were supposed to go, and why Italy had not occurred to the people sooner. While Apollo was hoping they would remember this foretelling, he eventually realizes that, with Cassandra’s curse, they most likely would not, so he has the household gods visit Aeneas in a dream, telling him the correct destination. Anchises would have most likely gone on disregarding the prophecy, since he believed it false, not even considering it a possibility. In addition, the first phrase could indicate that only Anchises was aware of Cassandra’s prophecy, so therefore the only one able to recall it. He also appears more knowledgeable in Troy’s ancestry, for he forms connections quicker than the others, as evidenced with leading the people to Crete. For example, Aeneas asks him, “Where is this city? Where is the land Apollo calls us wanderers to, the land of our return” to which his father “mulling over our old traditions, answers: ‘… An island rises in mid-sea--Crete, great Jove’s own land where the first Mount Ida rears, the cradle of our people’” (107). If Aeneas was not going to figure out that his race came from two places, he needed direction, so that his people would eventually reach the appointed country.
The gods, wanting the Trojans to reach their destination, decided to directly reveal it to them. “[N]o, you must leave this home. These are not the shores Apollo of Delos urged. He never commanded you to settle here on Crete” (109). Why should the gods care whether or not the Trojans reach Italy within that year or five? Since Apollo is the god of prophecy, he most likely foresaw the other hardships the wanderers would encounter, and so hurrying them off the island by telling them the truth is the best option.
The epidemic is a forewarning for the Trojans that they had not settled down in the right area, and that they were to continue their peregrination. Since Anchises’ misinterpretation of Apollo’s prophecy led them to the wrong location, they needed to be set on the right track. In an attempt for this to happen, the plague wreaked havoc on the city. Anchises suspected something amiss, but did not fully perceive the full meaning of the disaster. As a result, Aeneas received a dream with the true destination, which helped Anchises remember the prophecy Cassandra made to him and steer the Trojans on the correct course.
I must say I find this analysis very interesting, as well as intriguing. I had never really thought much about the plague when I first read about it. My first impressions were something along the lines of "Huh, maybe this is just a strike of bad luck, and the guys took it a bit too personal," but as I read through what you had to say about the matter, I was finding myself lining my perspective up more and more with yours. And it gets me thinking about the other events in the story. There are some that we know have a specific meaning (because it either blatantly tells us or we figure it out), but there are other events that seem so minute (and maybe they are) and may have such a big meaning behind them. We may never know... But, very intriguing analysis of the plague!
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