Book Four: Dido and Aeneas

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Aeneas’ Character In Book IV: The Bad Aeneas does NOT think that the consummation in the cave means that Dido and he are married. Aeneas, unlike Dido, is NOT at the mercy of the gods yet succumbs to his passions anyway. Aeneas is not necessarily cruel but he is certainly bad at expressing his emotions. His speeches with Creusa, Venus and Dido all show that he is not good at saying what he feels. His suppression of his emotions is very Stoic. Aeneas only expresses his love for Dido in Book VI when he sees her in the Underworld. By this stage it is obviously too late.

Aeneas’ Character in Book IV: The Good? Aeneas is lonely when he arrives in Carthage. His wife and father have died and he has the memory of a great woman fresh in his mind. Aeneas misinterprets the great frieze in the temple of Juno as a sign of pity rather than as a celebration of a defeated enemy. Aeneas does forget the founding of a new city for his people but he does this while helping someone else to found one. Irony. It is perhaps understandable that he takes this easier option. Aeneas leaves because he is commanded by the gods to do so.

Dido: A Sympathetic Figure Dido does think the consummation in the cave means that she is married to Aeneas. This is also how Juno and Venus refer to it. Dido is certainly presented sympathetically in Book I. She is a just law giver and she is also beautiful. Dido is a woman equal to Aeneas which makes the tragedy of her death greater. Dido has strong maternal instincts towards Iulus and so it is particularly cruel that Cupid disguises himself as the boy. Dido is at the mercy of two spiteful goddesses acting out their own personal vendettas against each other. Dido is clearly compared to Diana in her beauty. Tragically this huntress becomes the hunted. She is wounded by the arrow of Cupid. Book IV clearly references Greek Tragedy and thus Dido is perhaps supposed to be one of the great tragic heroines of this genre.

Dido: A More Complex Character Dido becomes impassioned and uses violent rhetoric when she is crossed. She begins to resemble the frightening figures of Greek Tragedy such as Medea. This similarity to Medea is reinforced when she resorts to magic in order to curse Aeneas. She is clearly marked out as foreign and female (“other”) by this. Dido is an epicurean; someone who does not believe in divine intervention so for whom Aeneas’ plea to Fate seems particularly hollow. Did she neglect her city and people or is that just what Rumour says? How important was univiratus (loyalty to one man) to Dido, and therefore how bad is her “betrayal” of her first husband?

Imagery and Genre in Book IV The metaphorical repetition of the imagery of fire and wounds become literal when Dido stabs herself and then is burned on a funeral pyre. Aeneas is almost silent in this book. It is Dido who is most fully characterised by her long soliloquies. Book IV is not “epic” in its genre, it is influenced by several genres and therefore is quite revolutionary. The genres are: Love Elegy: A woman is abandoned by her feckless lover and she laments. The ignorance of our protagonist (Dido) in the face of a divine plan leads to a great tragedy. This is one of the key concepts in Greek Tragedy. Love becomes a valid topic for an epic poem. This is radical.

Literary Parallels in Book IV Orpheus and Eurydice (this story features in Virgil’s Georgics). When Eurydice dies, Orpheus is so distraught that he is allowed to go to the Underworld to retrieve her as long as he does not look back at her for the entire journey back to Earth. He does and loses her forever. This story will be strongly evoked in Book VI. Medea and Jason Medea is abandoned by Jason after she helps him retrieve the Golden Fleece and escape her father. In revenge she kills their children. Dido kills no one except herself, and Aeneas must leave by the order of the gods. Themselves Dido and Aeneas becomes one of the most famous stories from the entire epics inspiring poetry, art and music.

Symbols and Symbolism in Book IV The cave is a symbol for Dido and Aeneas’ removal from reality. The covered nature of the cave makes it deliberately ambiguous as to whether Dido and Aeneas were married or not. The storm which takes place during this scene symbolises emotional turmoil. This storm is also a foreboding sign perhaps hinting at the terrible consequences of this hopeless love affair.

The Historical Importance of Book IV There is a clear parallel to be drawn between Dido (the African queen) and Aeneas (the Roman general led astray) and Antony and Cleopatra. This comparison between Aeneas and the effeminate Antony and, crucially, the defeated enemy against Augustus is troubling. The curse that Dido utters against Aeneas foreshadows Rome’s war against Hannibal and gives those Punic Wars a legendary foundation. This is very much in line with the Fatalistic view of history that runs through The Aeneid.