The Humanity of the Gods in Virgil's Aeneid

The main role the gods play in the Aeneid is that of politicians - immensely powerful ones individually, but limited in their ability to influence the events among the mortals and thus forced into negotiations and intrigues to further their own agendas. In many ways - feelings, actions, emotions - the gods mirror the mortals, with one noticeable difference: the gods never cooperate with one another in any undertaking, while humans do so repeatedly. Most likely, this difference stems from the fact that the gods are immensely powerful and immensely jealous of any attempt to infringe on that power, which cooperation would imply by showing that another god can do the same thing as them. Humans, on the other hand, are well aware of their limitations and thus pool their resources and abilities often to achieve their goals. The result is that humans are successful in their undertakings more often than the gods are.

The gods exhibit plenty of character traits that can be easily attributed to humans. Juno is a prime example: incensed by the possibility of the surviving Trojans establishing a new successful empire in Italy, which would mean fewer worshipful offerings to her, Juno schemes and plots behind her husband's back to prevent this from happening, beginning with bribing Aeolus with one of her daughters to release the winds and drown the Trojan fleet and never stopping until the preordained establishment of Rome actually takes place. It is necessary to note, however, that neither Juno nor Venus - who, being Aeneas's mother, is strongly interested in the success of the Trojans' mission - apply their powers directly to the events. Instead, they do it through intermediaries, Juno going through other gods and Venus mostly appealing directly to her father, Jove, king of the gods, since he was the one who preordained Aeneas's ultimate success.

Even the gods who have no interest in the events either way are jealously guarded about other deities infringing on their domain. Neptune is a prime example in this case: he neither favors nor stands against the Trojan expedition, but he is incensed by what he sees as Aeolus's insolence of releasing the winds upon the sea - Neptune's exclusive domain. Following this confrontation, Neptune is somewhat supportive of Aeneas's success, not because he has any admiration for or any bloodline connection to the mortal but rather to spite his sister Juno who had the audacity to go over his head in relation to anything that happens on or in the ocean.

One other notable difference between humans and the gods is that humans, aware of their own limitations and thus defers to the beings that control things beyond human control, base the bulk of their actions on their belief in fate. Aeneas and his comrades could have given up plenty of times throughout the story, considering what they had to overcome. Nevertheless, they persevered because it was preordained by Jove for them to settle in Italy. The gods, on the other hand, do not see fate as the end all - be all. Juno's scheming is a prime example of that.