Comparing Dido And Aeneas

After she falls in love with Aeneas, Dido disregards the vow that she made to her suitors. While Aeneas and Dido go hunting, Juno sends down a storm that forces the two into a cave. In the cave, Dido makes love to Aeneas and calls the affair a marriage. Shortly after this incident, news spreads beyond her kingdom that the Carthaginian leader has abandoned her obligations as a ruler. When the news reaches Iarbas, one of Dido’s suitors, the African king expresses his anger (IV 264-274). Dido’s love for Aeneas has caused her to ignore basic agreements that she has established. Not only did Dido lie to Iarbas, but she has also forgotten to keep the promise that she made to herself to not marry another man (IV 19-35). Dido has abandoned her own reputation. Instead of taking responsibility for the choices she has made, Dido continues her pursuit of the Trojan hero.

To begin, Virgil depicts Queen Dido as an emotional person. When her lover Aeneas leaves her to build Rome, Dido curses him and prepares to burn all of his possessions, only to later kill herself. Before Dido ends her life in The Aeneid “Book IV: The Passion of the Queen,” she curses Aeneas by yelling,

She confronts him asking, “Can our love/Not hold you…?” (Virgil 983). She says that if Aeneas leaves her, then she is a “dying woman” (Virgil 984). When Aeneas persists in his decision to leave, she insults him and angrily sends him away. She calls him a “liar and cheat” (Virgil 985). Dido’s heart is broken at Virgil’s forsaking of her. She becomes inflicted by a “fatal madness” and is “resolved to die” (Virgil 988). After praying for enmity between her descendants and Aeneas’, she climbs atop a pyre of Aeneas’ belongings and stabs herself. Love becomes an obsessive passion to Dido; her life is empty without it. She does not have the will to live forsaken by her lover. She kills herself for love. The poet exclaims, “Unconscionable Love,/To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!” (Virgil 986).

In every great epic, love plays a key role in bringing people together but also destroying plenty in its way. Even though Dido is characterized as this powerful leader, she slowly starts to fall as her passion for Aeneas starts to grow. As Aeneas tells his story to all the people, Dido slowly starts falling more and more in love with Aeneas. Throughout this Book you slowly start to see the demise of Queen Dido. "Towers, half-built, rose no farther; men no longer trained in arms... Projects were broken off, laid over, and the menacing huge walls with cranes unmoving stood against the sky". Virgil provides images of how Carthage is being affected by the downfall of Queen Dido. Dido is so infatuated with love that she cannot see how she is running Carthage to the ground for the love of Aeneas. The goddess Juno, the queen of gods, saw this as an opportunity to keep Aeneas from reaching Italy. Dido even broke her vow of chastity and surrenders to her desires for Aeneas. “Dido had no further qualms as to impressions given and set abroad; She thought no longer of a secret love but called it marriage”. This statement demonstrates how she is becoming

Dido has a passionate desire and lust for Aeneas. Cupid has lit a flame in her heart, and it continually grows and desires to be with Aeneas. Dido is hesitant to pursue a meaningful relationship with Aeneas because she had vowed to never remarry upon the death of Sychaeus. Dido becomes consumed with herself and her lust for Aeneas. In her splendor, she begins to forego many of her duties, and the city of Carthage begins to see the effects. Juno sees this as an opportune time to toy with the fates. She proposes, to Venus, that they work together in order

Dido is one of the many characters who are responsible for her own death. Before the appearance of Aeneas in Carthage, Dido was married to another man, Sychaeus. However, Sychaeus was murdered by Dido’s brother who was jealous of his power and money leaving Dido a widow (Aen, 4.23-25). As a widow, Dido made a vow “Never to pledge [herself] in marriage again” showing her commitment to her first and only husband who she passionately loved (Aen,4.19). The importance of this to Dido’s death is that she broke her vow on account that Aeneas was the first man that she has loved since Sychaeus. However, this love is artificial because it is not her love but love created by Venus. Even though she has this passion for Aeneas flowing through her veins, she questions herself and whether it will be worthy to love this man and break the vow. Dido is responsible for her own death because she was unable to clear her mind and see the dangers of falling in love with Aeneas and the greater the danger of breaking her vow to Sychaeus. One reason that she decides

Dido first falls in love with Aeneas after being infected by Cupid at Venus’ command. When Cupid first arrives in Carthage, disguised as Ascanius, Dido watches him from afar as he interacts with deceived Aeneas. As she watches, she becomes entranced with the sight and “the more she looks the more the fire grows,” signaling that Cupid’s hold over her has grown stronger (853,71). Aeneas’ tale of woe only strengthens her adoration of him until she is “consumed by the fire buried in her heart” (3, 127). Tentative thoughts of remarrying after her husband Sychaeus’ death begin to cross her mind and she finally recognizes the “old flame” that is slowly consuming her, suddenly marrying Aeneas one night (30, 128). Yet this fire is short lived and, ultimately, Dido’s downfall. Jove grows anxious for Aeneas to continue on his journey and commands Mercury to pass along the message that Aeneas and the Trojans must leave Carthage. Aeneas pleads with Dido that he leaves not of his own volition and that he must obey the gods’ wishes, but Dido is furious, alternating between pleading with him to stay and cursing him should he go. Firm in his decision, Aeneas returns to his ships while Dido is brought to her chambers. Grief stricken and “fixed on dying,” Dido begins to construct a funeral pyre in her courtyard (595, 144). As she stands before her creation, she laments her choice to trust Aeneas and the Trojans when

Aeneas is perfectly fine with this decision and tries to sneak away from Dido, despite her love for him. Soon Dido finds out and she feels betrayed, saying that he can’t leave on behalf of their marriage. Aeneas says that it was a fake wedding only to satisfy the gods and Dido loses her mind, cursing everything of Aeneas. She demands him to leave, and when he dies on his ship, she will be there to haunt his every move. Aeneas soon becomes very aware of Dido’s sudden behavior and, despite his love for her, he leaves with his fleet. Dido becomes infuriated and falls into another state of depression. She curses him one last time, saying, “I hope and pray that on some grinding reef midway at sea you’ll drink your punishment and call and call on Dido’s name!” (Virgil 4.506-508). Soon, with help from the gods, Aeneas falls overboard and drowns with Dido’s name on his last breath. Dido, content and slightly broken inside after hearing of Aeneas’ death, she assembles all of his things that he did not take with him on his voyage together. Queen Dido lights the things on fire, and proceeds to stab herself, her body falling into the flames. That is the end of Book IV of the Aeneid. But the most important moral of this section was that no matter how many times he betrayed her and destroyed her heart, Dido still loved Aeneas; and women across the world are experiencing the exact same thing.

The other important female figure—Venus, the goddess of love—attempts to cover up her selfish desires when she pretends to worry about Aeneas safety and well-being when all she desires is for someone from her lineage to found Rome so that she can get praise. This is depicted when Jupiter tells Venus, "My Cytherea, that 's enough of fear; your children 's fate is firm; you 'll surely see the walls I promised you, Lavinium 's city; and you shall carry your great son, Aeneas, high as heaven 's stars" (Virgil 1: 358-362). Venus is so obsessed with making sure Aeneas arrives in Italy safely—so that he can found Rome—that she obstructs the order in the human world by making Queen Dido fall in love with Aeneas. This is evident when Virgil reveals Venus 's plan: "… Cupid, changed in form and feature… inflame the queen to madness and insinuate a fire in Dido 's very bones" (Virgil

The legalization of marijuana is an issue that consistently discussed and debated, not only in North America, but throughout the entire world. Despite being illegal in every country, marijuana remains the most widely used illicit drug in the world. The popularity of this drug is the cause for the continuous legalization debate, resulting in various legislations pertaining to the consumption of the substance. Every country has its own stance on the issue, however, the Netherlands has a unique policy on marijuana use: it is decriminalized, classified as a "soft drug" and possession is limited to 5 grams in public or 30 grams in a private area. There are also Dutch

Throughout the beginning of the Aeneid Dido, the queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, son of Venus and leader of the Trojans have an intimate relationship that ends in death. The relationship begins in Book I when Venus, the goddess of love, has her other son Cupid fill Dido with passion for Aeneas, to ensure Aeneas's safety in this new land. "Meanwhile Venus/Plotted new stratagems, that Cupid, changed/ In form and feature, should appear instead/ Of young Ascanius, and by his gifts/ Inspire the queen to passion, with his fire/ Burning her very bones." (693) Venus did this to protect Aeneas and his son, in fear that Dido would have otherwise been cruel to them.

He perceived it more as a romantic fling; Aeneas only engaged in a relationship with Dido out of lust. Although Aeneas acts like Dido’s husband by building walls for Carthage, he never explicitly accepts the position. He only stays in Carthage because of the benefits made available to him: Dido’s love and her luxurious gifts. When he is about to leave, Dido berates him for deceiving her in their “marriage.” Adamant that he never entered upon a marriage, Aeneas replies, “Do not think/I meant to be deceitful and slip away./I never held the torches of a bridegroom,/Never entered upon the pact of marriage” (IV, 465-8). His response to Dido reveals Aeneas’s ignorance in their relationship; he never realizes her deep obsession with him. When he leaves, he wants to console her, but does not act upon it because he feels he has committed no wrong and he has obligations to fulfill. Even when he visits the underworld, he still does not understand how Dido felt or how much he was at fault for her death. He asks her, “Was I, was I the cause?” (VI, 616). His ignorance as to how she felt and what she wanted shows his inability to be cognizant of others’ feelings, which makes him look stupid. The least Aeneas could have done was to have said goodbye, but instead he excuses himself by claiming the gods forced him to leave her.

From now on dido…no longer kept her love a secret…but called it marriage…‘ [4.170-174]. It take the angry prayers of a king from another land for Jupiter to intervene ‘…this is not the man promised us by his mother…it was not for this she twice rescued him from the swords of the greeks’ [4.227-230] he sends mercury to tell aeneas ‘so now you are layign foundations for the high towers of carthage and builign a a splendid city to please your wife? Have you entirely forgotten your own kingdom and your own destiny?’ [4.267-270] Aeneas is described as ‘dumb and senseless’ at the sight of mercury [280] but it reminds him of his duty and makes the decision to leave dido and carthage despite reasoning with her that ‘it is not by my own will that I search for italy’ [361]

Conversely, Virgil depicts Aeneas as a more civilized leader. Aeneas gets detoured on his trip to Italy and finds himself in Carthage. He falls in love with Dido after being stuck with her in a cave and their relationship progress quickly. Aeneas plans to stay with Dido and help rebuild her city instead of continuing his journey to conquer his own. Mercury is sent by Jupiter to remind Aeneas what he was sent out to do in the first place. “What about your own realm, your own affairs?” Mercury asked Aeneas (Virgil, 83). Aeneas was stunned, but he knew Mercury was right. This meant that it was time for him to leave

After viewing the two operas, it is clear that there are many differences and similarities between the two performances. One of the biggest differences I noticed right away was the opera scenery that each of the shows had. L’Orfeo, written by Claudio Monteverdi had a much more theatrical vibe with elaborate scenery, props, and costumes used by the performers. The backdrop changed colors and had scenery images to help with representing the setting and time of day throughout the performance. Many props were used by all roles of the cast. The costumes were more elaborate and detailed compared to that of Dido and Aeneas, written by Henry Purcell. The costumes for L’Orfeo were geared to fitting into the Greek Mythology period since the opera