Fates

Their fates were entwined.

The Fates lead the willing, and drag the unwilling.

Our fates are interwoven.

Here were her arms and her chariot; the goddess, even then, strove and nurtured this place to be a kingdom for the nations, if only the fates allowed.

But she had heard that an offspring, led by Trojan blood, would one day overturn the Tyrian citadels; from this would come a nation ruling widely and proud in war, for the destruction of Libya: thus the Fates spun out their destiny.

Enraged by these things as well, she kept the Trojans, all that were left of the Greeks and indomitable Achilles, far away from Latium, tossed by the wide ocean; they wandered for many years, driven by the Fates, all around the seas.

Scarcely out of sight of the land of Sicily, they joyfully set sail on the deep, rushing into the salt spray with their bronze-capped prows, when Juno, cherishing her eternal wound in her breast, said to herself: "Am I vanquished, to give up on my plan, and unable to turn away the king of the Teucrians from Italy? Surely I am forbidden by the Fates."

Scarce out of sight of Sicily, they set / their sails to sea, and merrily ploughed the main, / with brazen beaks, when Juno, harbouring yet / within her breast the ever-ranking pain, / mused thus: "Must I then from the work refrain, / nor keep this Trojan from the Latin throne, / baffled, forsooth, because the Fates constrain?"

"Through shifting hazards, by the Fates' decree, / to Latin shores we steer, our promised land to see. / There quiet settlements the Fates display, / there Troy her ruined fortunes shall repair. / Bear up; reserve you for a happier day."

"Firm are thy fates, sweet daughter; spare thy fears. / Thou yet shalt see Lavinium's walls arise, / and bear thy brave AEneas to the skies. / My purpose shifts not."