Dido's 'Aeneid': Summary

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.

Aeneas is son of Anchises, the prince of Dardaria and Venus, goddess of beauty and love. Aeneas was a Trojan military leader during the Trojan War. Aeneas was also one of the lone survivors after the siege of Troy. After the fall of Troy, Aeneas is divinely lead to Carthage by Juno because she has a grudge against the Trojans. While in Carthage, queen Dido falls deeply in love with Aeneas. Jupiter afraid that Aeneas is abandoning his destiny sends Mercury to order Aeneas to leave Carthage and travel to Italy. Once he arrives in Italy he is visited by his father’s ghost which tells him he needs to travel to the Underworld. Aeneas ends up going to the Underworld to

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

Many people seem to be under the impression that the Aeneid is a celebration of Roman glory, led by the hero of fate Aeneas. I find these preconceived ideas hard to reconcile with my actual reading of the text. For starters, I have a hard time viewing Aeneas as a hero at all. Almost any other main characters in the epic, from Dido to Camilla to Turnus, have more heroic qualities than Aeneas. This is especially noteworthy because many of these characters are his enemies. In addition, Aeneas is presented as a man with no free will. He is not so much bound to duty as he is shielded by it. It offers a convenient way for hum to dodge crucial moral questions. Although this doesn’t necessarily make

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

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.

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

Eventually however, Aeneas' fate catches up with him and he must leave Carthage. After idling along in Carthage, Aeneas is reminded of his duty by the God Mercury; he is required to go on to found Italy. Although he attempts to leave in secret, Dido is not a fool:

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.

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.

Once Dido’s and Aeneas’ “love” has been set on its course, he receives word from the god Mercury to return to his duties for Troy, “Blind to your own realm, oblivious to your fate!” (Virgil, p.136) Aeneas desires the love of Dido, but recognizes his obligation to found Rome. This is where a complication arises regarding fate. Aeneas strayed from his destiny, moving alongside his desires rather than uniting his aspirations with his obligations, thus creating conflict within his life and difficulties weighing the importance of his obligations and desires. The pressures of fate and the gods were not in Aeneas’ control; however, it was his own decision to fall in love with Dido and ignore his mission, even if momentarily. As humans we are obligated to one another regardless of desire.

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.

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

Aeneas is focused on his goal throughout because he knows he is fate’s dutiful servant. This aspect readily comes out in his description as “a man apart, devoted to his mission, a dedicated man.” In addition, Aeneas tells his loved one Dido that his duties are supreme to any other affair he might be having. Aside from commitment to duty, Aeneas faces stiff opposition and enmity but he does not lose faith on his fate (Griffith 309). His faith gains momentum when he sees the beautiful temple Dido constructs for Juno.

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.