The epic poem The Aeneid, by Vergil, perfectly illustrates how the opening of a story can set up the rest of the story. There are several major themes of the story that are set up in the first few lines, from the the difficulty in founding a new city and following the fates to insanity in considering the wrath of Juno to the piousness of Aeneas for following his fate despite this opposition.
Firstly, the poem begins by describing the overarching story, as is typical for an epic poem at this time. Following the invocation of a muse, the story progresses quickly into the poet asking, in essence, "oh, how hard was it to found the Roman state!" Throughout the text, this is a theme: Aeneas is fated, ultimately, to reach Italy and found the new country of Rome that would eventually develop into the empire that it was when the story was written (and to which, and the ruler of which, Augustus, there are frequent references within the story regarding the definite fated future). This is illustrated several times, from when he is told by the ghost of Hector, the hero of Troy, to seek out Italy to when he goes to the underworld and is shown by the ghost of his father his future line. Specifically, his father mentions Gaius Julius Caesar and his adoptive son Augustus (both heads of the Roman empire), who track their heritage back to Iulus, Aeneas' son, thus their family name. The great fate of Rome is contrasted with the difficulty in founding it, and this contrast is established by the poem's proclamations of the difficulty of Aeneas' tale in the opening lines of the poem.
Secondly, poem mentions the wrath of Juno, and asks "what could drive a god to such insane madness?" This introduces the second concept, amens and furens, or madness and passionate anger, which consistently appears throughout the text. In addition to Juno, this theme is mentioned with regards to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, in battle; Dido, Aeneas' brief tragic love, in her passion; and Turnus, the major secondary hero of the latter half of the poem, also with regards to his fury in battle. Here, Juno is portrayed as a passionately angry deity, as which she continues to be portrayed for the majority of the poem, thus introducing a series of mindlessly passionate characters that lead to their downfall (or, in Juno's case, as she is a god, the downfall of all her champions as well as her personal interests).
Thirdly, the poem introduces Aeneas himself. Strangely, the piousness of Aeneas is illustrated in the beginning of the book by contrast: he is introduced shouting to a storm that is destroying his ships that he should have died in the Trojan War, illustrating his deep internal passions, but when much of his band survives the storm, he takes on a brave facade and stands before his troops announcing that this occasion will seem less sad at future times than it does at this time; despite his internal grief, he carries on honorably for the sake of his men, his gods (the penates) and his destiny. Thus is introduced the characterization of Aeneas as the very principle of pietas, of piety: despite being so filled with grief that he wishes he were dead, Aeneas carries on for the good of his people and for the sake of his destiny. This characterization of Aeneas is one of the most major themes of the story, such that the times when he diverges from his piety - when he kills Turnus at the conclusion of the story in a fit of anger, for instance - are some of the most notable points of the play.
The Aeneid has more than three themes, of course, and these other themes are introduced in the beginning lines as well. However, the difficulty of founding a new country and reaching one's fate in the face of fierce and insane opposition and the piousness demonstrated by Aeneas in persevering despite repeated setbacks and the enticing nature of ceasing his long, weary journey is one of the strongest themes of the poem. This, more than any other theme, is the theme that perpetuates throughout the book which the introductory lines best illustrate: the greatness of then-modern Rome, the difficulty of its creation, and, therefore, the greatness of the man who began it.
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