Dido and Camilla - Leaders Blinded by their Passions in the Aeneid

Aeneus does not leave Carthage without regard for Dido though. Aeneus attempts to leave before anyone will know they are gone, but he is caught and explains to Dido, “My quest to Italy is not of my own motion.” (Virgil, Book 4, line 391-392) With this Aeneus leaves Carthage driven by duty and obligation.

If there is anything to learn from failed relationships, whether it be with a best friend or a significant other, the idea that one of the partners may not have put enough effort into the relationship is ever present, which soon causes the other to feel neglected and drift away. But women continue to pour their heart out to try and make their partner happy; however, in the end, they fall short of their love and end up heartbroken. Book IV of the Aeneid is a prime example of this because Queen Dido promises to love only Aeneas forever. But as he leaves Carthage to fulfill his destiny, Dido, along with many women in the world, have their heart broken despite the effort they put into their relationship.

Aeneas was a good leader because he was brave, strong, and selfless. The Aeneid was written by Virgil during the reign of Augustus in 19 BCE, and the character of Aeneas was meant to represent Augustus and suggest that Augustus was a direct descendant of Aeneas. Many historians think that Virgil sounded a bit sarcastic when stating how great Aeneas was, implying he himself was not a fan of Emperor Augustus. Throughout the book, Aeneas is referred to as “The Great and Good” and other phrases along those lines, and is always spoken of as a great hero. He does things such as kill deer for his men, or survive a terrible storm, and he even has the approval of the great god Jupiter. Aeneas is a demigod, (his mother is Venus), making him more powerful and respected than any other Trojan men. The Romans valued physical and mental strength, both of which Aeneas has.

While the ending of The Aeneid might be seen to have multiple significances, I believe that Virgil ended the poem the way he did to make a statement about the use of power to achieve dominance and rulership: namely, that a lust for nothing but power will ultimately consume. The poem ends with Turnus and Aeneas facing each other one-on-one on the battlefield. However, it should be noted that there are fundamental differences between the philosophies of the two combatants which should first be grasped to fully understand the significance of Aeneas’s actions in ending the war. Before the battle between Aeneas and Turnus begins, the reader gets a glimpse of Turnus’s philosophy regarding the stakes of the battle. “Either I’ll send, with my hand, this deserter of Asia, this Dardan, / Down to the Pit of the Damned—and the Latins can sit down and watch while / My lone sword is refuting the charge of dishonor we all share; / Or you [Latinus] must share my defeat. And Lavinia must go as this man’s wife.” (12.14-17) Turnus believes that in war, there is no possible outcome but for one leader and his entire army to be wiped out in the other side’s pursuit of honor and glory. Aeneas’s views on the battle are displayed earlier in the poem, when he journeys down into the underworld and is instructed in Trojan battle philosophy by his deceased father Anchises. “You, who are Roman, recall how to govern mankind with your power. / That will be your special ‘Arts’: the enforcement of peace as

The Aeneid, the famous epic poem written by Virgil, depicts the struggle of establishing an empire. The beginning of The Aeneid introduces Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus, whose fate is to find a new home in Italy after the fall of Troy. Throughout the perilous journey, Aeneas faces great obstacles as he strives to fulfill his prophecy and gradually transform into the ideal Virgilian hero. To emphasize his growth, I will discuss three themes in this essay: the extent of free will as it relates to fate, the influence of divine beings on mortals, and the principles of morality. All of these ideas serve as an understanding as to why Aeneas is unable to act on his own accord. This leads me to defend the view that humans require the positive guidance of a mentor figure to resist their self-indulgence.

Humanity continues to puzzle those that observe it, as it continually shifts and changes. Few aspects remain constant in a race of nonstop deviation, but the fact that amiable individuals typically lead less successful lives compared to those that are self-centered stays true consistently. Kindness is a trait of unsuccessful people because the kind people get taken advantage of, having morals is a drawback, and success follows the insensitive.

The ideal virtue in Roman culture was piety, also known as pietas. Pietas had three components: duty to your country, duty to your family, and duty to the gods. When a person followed these guidelines in Ancient Rome, they were considered to have piety. Throughout Aeneas’ journey, the three components to pietas are demonstrated by actions taken by Aeneas’ character. In the epic poem, The Aeneid, the idea of pietas is central to the epic, opposing the Greek ideal of furor, or passionate desire/senseless fury. In this essay, I will analyze the moments in the epic that demonstrate how Aeneas uses these three components of pietas, and how this epic celebrates the shift from Greek ideals to Roman ideals.

The Aeneid was written during the time of Augustus (27 BC), the first Emperor of Rome. After Caesar’s death in 44BC, Augustus had the immense task of bringing Rome back to her original stability and unity that had been shattered during the Civil Wars and decline of her Republic. In the establishment of this empire Augustus had legislation encouraging marriage and the birth of children. Thus it makes sense that Virgil’s The Aeneid promoted the theme of marriage in a beneficial light. In Book 12 Aeneas was fated to marry Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus of Latium. By marrying Lavinia Aeneas would be in alliance with Latinus, conquering Latium to further the founding of Rome. Aeneas explains this alliance with the following: “May both nations, undefeated, under equal laws, / march together toward an eternal pact of peace. / I shall bestow the gods and their sacred rites. / My father-in-law Latinus will retain his armies, / my father-in-law, his power, his rightful rule. / The men of Troy will erect a city for me— / Lavinia will give its walls her name.” This shows that through the alliance, not only would Aeneas rise in power and land, but it also describes the unity and peacefulness that would result from the alliance. Therefore, The Aeneid promoted political marriages due to the benefits and success that resulted from those marital alliances.

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

In Book Four, Virgil describes how Dido, utterly heartbroken by Aeneas’ desertion, prays to the gods to curse him (TA: 12.973-4): … let him be plagued in war by a nation proud in arms, torn from his borders, wrenched from Iulus’ embrace, let him grovel for help and watch his people die a shameful death… may he never enjoy his realm… let him die before his day, unburied on some desolate beach. In this instance, Dido’s prophecy does not come to pass in the epic although there is an anxiety created for the reader that this fate is a possibility for Aeneas. However ‘The Punic Wars’, which broke out between Rome and Carthage in the 3rd and 2nd Centuries B.C. (Lazenby, 1996: XV) would seem to be the fulfillment of the curse Dido places on Aeneas and his future when he abandons her and sails to Italy to fulfill his fate. The internal failure of Dido’s curse reminds us however that Aeneas is a slave to an altogether more important and powerful prophecy: the prophecy of Rome.

In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus can be seen as the “leader” of his society. As can be compared to today’s society being a leader doesn’t make you superior or a good person. As a matter of fact a leader usually establishes more negative things than positive for their society. Being a leader can lead to fueds due to someone having too much power. Additionally, leaders can develop to show too much hubris, which is known to be a terrible characteristic. Not only that but being the head of a society also leads to major impacts between small groups such as family. This can occur by simply trying to do something for the better. The play shows numerous negative traits of a leader that can be compared to today’s society.

Additionally, Dido neglects other responsibilities when Aeneas is constructing homes in Carthage. Virgil composes, “Soon / as his winged feet touched down on the first huts in sight / he

After this short injunction, we are swept back to the current story with Aeneas, and his arrival at Carthage. Venus appears to Aeneas in the woods and explains to him about Dido, queen of Carthage, and the violent, bloody story behind her fated throne. The citizens of Carthage are actually descendents of Phoenicians who have traveled and settled in this land (modern day Libya). Dido is made the queen of all the citizens of Carthage after her husband, Sychaeus, was murdered.

The protagonist of the Aeneid and known hero to many, Aeneas, was a man of many virtues. His courage and obedience towards the Roman gods are clearly shown all throughout the book, as well as his passion for justice. When he leaves his lover, Dido, at the bidding of the gods, he shows obedience even when it went against his own will. The time Aeneas travels into the underworld to find his deceased father, it shows great bravery. It is even seen by the example of the crew of Aeneas that he was an incredible person, judging by how loyal they were to him. But, even with all these wonderful attributes, Aeneas wasn’t the entirely heroic person we believe him to be.

Elyssa_Dido fled from her brother Pygmalion, the king of Tyre, after he killed her husband. The post benefited from the vast market for the goods that it traded and grew in importance quickly. It first had warehouses in which raw metals and finished metal products which the Phoenicians used and had made were stored. Carthage then started making metal products for Spain. These products were cheap due to they traded these cheap goods to Spain for the raw metals. Carthage soon became a huge trading empire, containing much of