Book IV of the Aeneid is the most studied of the entire work by students today. But it is Dido, rather than Aeneas, that demands such attention. Virgil sets her in the mold of a tragic Greek heroine, who falls from happiness to disaster through a combination of her character and circumstance. Throughout this Book, Dido’s behaviour is compared (both implicitly and explicitly) to the great works of Classical tragedy.
Task 1: given the context, what do the quotes about Dido show us regarding her characterisation?
Quote | Classical Context | Dido’s Characterisation |
‘…raved around the whole city like a Bacchant..’ [line 301] | The Bacchae by Euripedes tells the story of Dionysus’ female followers, the Bacchants, who in a divine frenzy tear apart King Pentheus of Thebes. | Dido has lost her wits and has entered a frenzy, but this time the gods have conspired against her and it will be her that is torn apart. |
‘She would be like Pentheus in his frenzy when he was seeing columns of Furies and a double sun and two cities of Thebes’ [lines 469-470] | In the Bacchae, Pentheus is driven mad by Dionysus, whom the god dresses as a woman. His madness is evident when he claims to see two suns in the sky. Dionysus leads him into a trap at the mercy of the Bacchants. | |
‘…or like Orestes… driven in flight across the stage by his own mother…while the avenging Furies sat at the door.’ [lines 471-473] | In Aeschylus’ Oresteiatrilogy, Orestes is forced to kill his mother, Clytemnestra, in revenge for her murder of her husband Agamemnon. He is haunted by her ghost and then pursued by the vengeful goddesses known as the Furies. | |
‘Could I not have taken him and torn him limb from limb and scattered the pieces in the sea?’ [lines 600-601] | The epic poem Argonautica, by Apollonius, tells of how Medea helped Jason escape by cutting apart her brother and throwing the pieces in the sea to slow the pursuit of her father. | |
‘Could I not have… served his flesh at his father’s table?’ [lines 601-602] | Atreus, father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, fed his brother Thyestes his sons in revenge for Thyestes having an affair with Atreus’ wife. Once Thyestes had finished, Atreus revealed the truth. |
N.B. there is a copy of this table in the appendix of your Aeneid Book IV booklet.
The Medea Motiff
The iconic tragic heroine of Greek mythology is Medea, the subject of a play by the same name by Euripedes and a major character in Apollonius’ Argonautica.
Task 2: note the parallels below using the Aeneid:
Argonautica | Aeneid |
Jason arrives in Cholcis (where Medea lives) and is disguised in a mist by Hera | |
Hera thinks Medea might prove useful and convinces Aphrodite and Eros to make her fall in love with Jason. Eros uses an arrow to do so. | |
Medea is a priestess of Hecate (a goddess associated with witchcraft). | |
Jason and Medea marry in a sacred cave. | |
When Jason decides to abandon Medea, she is described as ‘seething with anger’. She longs to burn Jason’s ship and then throw herself into the flames. |
N.B. there is a copy of this table in the appendix of your Aeneid Book IV booklet.
Dido provides two links with the Roman past. The first is with the Punic Wars and the Roman arch nemesis, Hannibal. Dido invokes him with the words, “Arise from my dead bones, O my unknown avenger, and harry the race of Dardanus with fire and sword wherever they may settle, now and in the future, whenever our strength allows it.” The Punic Wars rear their heads in Book 6 in the pageant of heroes. Scipio Africanus (victor over Hannibal, 202 BC) and Scipio Aemilianus (sacker of Carthage, 146 BC) are alluded to with the line ‘…the two Scipios, both of them thunderbolts of war, the bane of Libya…’
Dido and Cleopatra
The second is a reminder of an opponent of Rome from living memory (in Virgil’s day): Cleopatra.
Task 3: note the following about Cleopatra and complete the parallels with Dido:
Cleopatra | Dido |
A wealthy African Queen in Egypt, who came from a Greek dynasty. | |
She ruled on her own without a husband as king. | |
She received and hosted both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony | |
She had a reputation for being a passionate seductress, who had a child with Julius Caesar and became Mark Antony’s lover |
N.B. there is a copy of this table in the appendix of your Aeneid Book IV booklet.
When Octavian came to power after the battle of Actium, he presented his war as one fought against a foreign enemy (Cleopatra) not a Roman enemy (Mark Antony). It was far safer to present it as this way. In Book 8, Aeneas’ shield depicts the battle in the centre. Antony’s army is described as follows:
‘On the other side, with the wealth of the barbarian world and warriors in all kinds of different armour, came Antony in triumph from the shores of the Red Sea and the peoples of the Dawn. With him sailed Egypt and the power of the East from as far as distant Bactria, and there bring up the rear was the greatest outrage of all, his Egyptian wife!’
No mention is made of Mark Antony’s Roman legions. He might even be seen as the victim, enticed by a foreign queen away from the proper path of Roman duty. But Virgil’s Aeneas just escapes a similar fate.