The Downfall of a Heroine

Clare Hernandez

Ms. Moon

Literary Tradition I

15 November 2017

The Downfall of a Heroine

In the epic the Aeneid, Virgil creates the character of Dido as a strong and determined woman who ruins herself in a hopeless love affair. When Aeneas arrives in Carthage, Dido is at first complacent and merely admires him. It is only after the gods interfere that she is overwhelmed with an intense desire toward Aeneas and all of her former duties and responsibilities to her kingdom are thrown by the wayside. On her own, Dido would not have been so pathetic and hopeless in love but would have retained her power and composure; however, she is deceived by the deities into becoming enslaved by her passions. The beginning of the Aeneid shows Dido to be a very self-reliant and independent woman, something uncommon in the ancient epics, and it is only after being blinded by the gods that she loses her sense of responsibility and loyalty and is driven to extremes.

         Virgil portrays Dido as a strong-minded woman with leadership qualities. After fleeing her homeland of Tyre and a life of “hardship and forced wandering” (Aeneid I.858), she leads her people to found the city of Carthage. She oversees the city’s construction, and proceeds to rule her people with justice and equity: “...she moved / Amid her people, cheering on the toil / Of a kingdom in the making… she began to give them / Judgements and rulings, to apportion work / With fairness, or assign some tasks by lot…” (I.685-692). She even takes over as military leader, ensuring that the harbors of her city are secure and “to protect / Our frontiers with guards.” (I.765-766) Dido refuses to marry any of the many suitors who try to win her favor, desiring instead to remain true to the memory of her deceased husband Sychaeus. She poses as a unique character: an unmarried woman who rules a kingdom successfully. Thus, when Aeneas arrives, Venus and the other gods must use their power to force Dido to break her own.

        When Aeneas and his men land on the shores of Carthage, Dido is welcoming and benevolent, and is in a clear state of mind to make sound judgements. However, as so often happens when things are going well, the gods enter the scene and Juno and Venus decide to cause trouble. Venus, worried that Juno would try to incite the Phoenicians against Aeneas, sends her son Cupid down disguised as Aeneas’ son Ascanius in order to “ensnare” Dido, “pin her down in passion,” and “dupe her into sorcery.” (I.921-922, 940). Thus the disguised Cupid arrives at the feast in Carthage and while embracing the queen, slowly beings “to make Sychaeus fade / From Dido’s memory bit by bit…” meanwhile awakening a “new love, a living love” toward Aeneas. (I.982-984) This is the downfall of the greatness of Dido, because for the rest of the story she is utterly blinded by her lustful love toward the Trojan hero.

        After urging Aeneas to tell his entire story up till his arrival at Carthage, Dido is completely overwhelmed with a growing love and desire toward him. She “...ached with longing… a wound / Or inward fire eating her away. The manhood of the man, his pride of birth, / Came home to her time and again; his looks, / His words remained with her to haunt her mind, / And desire for him gave her no rest.” (I.1-7) She hesitates still, however, for the slight memory of her husband is ever present, but her sister Anna “...fanned the flame, already kindled” (I.76) when she encouraged the match. Dido lives almost as a ghost of her former self, “roaming through all the city” and “burning in her madness.” (IV.95-96) She allows the city’s progress to fall by the wayside and neglects entirely her responsibilities as queen of Carthage: “Towers, half-built, rose / No farther; men no longer trained in arms / Or toiled to make harbors and battlements / Impregnable. Projects were broken off, / Laid over, and the menacing huge wall / With cranes unmoving stood against the sky.” (IV.121-126) Thus everything that Dido had worked so hard to achieve before Venus ruined her is now also reduced to ruin.

        Noticing the deprecating state of Dido, Juno proposes a sort of peace-making plan with Venus in which he would cause both the Phoenician queen and the Trojan warrior to find themselves together alone and their union would be sealed. This was really just Juno’s ploy to prevent Aeneas from reaching his goal in Italy. Thus while the two are hunting, a heavy storm breaks out and Dido and Aeneas take cover in a cave. There they were united physically through Juno’s intervention and Dido, in an effort to hide her fault, “... thought no longer of a secret love / But called it marriage.” (IV.236-237) Shortly thereafter, rumors spread rapidly about the country of the two ruler’ lustful relationship and lack of responsibility towards their kingdoms. Word eventually reaches Jupiter himself, who sends Mercury to give Aeneas a wake-up call about his real mission to reach Italy. Aeneas is shocked “to the bottom of his soul” (IV.379) into reality but is at a loss as to how to explain to Dido that he must leave Carthage without crushing her completely.

        He settles upon making preparations in secret and approaching Dido when the time is right. However, she suspects something is amiss and when she approaches Aeneas and learns of his departure, she pours forth her soul in desperation and despair. Although she is unaware of Venus’ influence on her mind, Dido understands that since she met Aeneas, everything else that she had lived previously for and held dear has lost its meaning. “Because of you, Libyans and nomad kings / Detest me, my own Tyrians are hostile; Because of you, I lost my integrity        / And that admired name by which alone / I made my way once toward the stars… Why do I live on?... utterly defeated, / Utterly bereft.” (IV.438-454) Aeneas, although he struggles to fight down “the emotion in his heart” (IV.457), makes clear that there was no real marriage - “I never held the torches of a bridegroom / Never entered upon the pact of marriage,” (IV.467-468) and firmly states that his mission to reach Italy is his life’s dream and one which he must accomplish. Dido, overwhelmed by her false passions, responds in a rage blaspheming against the gods and wishing him dead. Aeneas is torn with love and desire to comfort her, but he knows he must obey the gods and accomplish his mission thus “his will stood fast.” (IV.621)