“Fléctere si néqueo súperos Acheronta movebo.”

“If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.”

These are the words written by my master – the only one I would ever name so – with
which Hera professed once again her hatred toward Aeneas.
Virgil calls her Juno, of course. Many are the names of the Thirteen, for any human mind
can only understand a single part of their vastness, and therefore they are seen differently
by different eyes.
In this case, the concept of Juno does not differ much from the concept of Hera. Similar
cultures share similar views, and Aeneas is proof of how tightly connected Greece and
Rome are.

He came from the burning ruins of Troy and fought alongside Hector against the
Achaeans, and just like Hector failed to save his city.
He knew the old names of the Thirteen, even if not the oldest, which no man can
pronounce or understand, and brought his knowledge of them with him to Italy.

Aeneas, dutiful, respectful of the gods and their laws, so different from the other
contestants, so pious and straightforward, what could such a man want after his long,
well-spent life, after his children and grandchildren, after he sowed the seed of an empire?

A chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the only one he truly loved, the one he had to
abandon to bear the weight of a world-changing prophecy.
Dido, broken and abandoned, who threw herself on Aeneas's sword, deserves another
life.
If Aeneas must raise Hell to give it to her, he will.
And Hera, who watched gently over Dido and her city once, might decide to help him
this time.

Life

It has always been strange to think that Aphrodite was Aeneas's mother. Should he not
have been more flirtatious, more brazen, and more unpredictable, given his origin?
Maybe education is more important than blood after all.

Aeneas spent his first five years among the nymphs, creatures as wise as they are reserved,
who taught him a profound respect for life and for the powers that surround our world.
After that, he was brought back to his father, Anchises, a simple shepherd who had had
the divine luck of laying with Aphrodite. He was a righteous man, even if ignorant, and
raised his child to be respectful of laws and customs, mortal or divine.

You know what happened next. Troy was attacked and, after a ten-year-long siege,
burned to the ground.
Carrying his injured father on his shoulders and clutching his son's hand, Aeneas jumped
on a ship and sailed away, as ordered by the gods.

A full recount of his journey has been written by my master, Virgil, and I shall not spoil it
with a pretentious synopsis. Suffice it to say that he spent one year with Dido, queen of
Cartago, and that she loved him truly.
When the gods forced him to leave, she could not bear to lose him and preferred to lose
all instead.

He reached Italy, founded a city, and from that city and from his blood came a line of
kings who reigned over Rome, the greatest of the empires of old. This much is well
known.

Regalia

No living soul before me has ever crossed Hell, but many resourceful heroes have
reached the Nether to consult with the dead.
Aeneas was one of those, and the golden bough he still carries with him was the gift he
gave a minor deity to obtain access to the underworld.

Other than that, as a proper demigod, he wears armor crafted by Hephaestus, who forged
his mighty sword as well. Despite the size, they are lighter than they should be and even
sturdier than they look.