The Theme in the Work
The passion of the Aeneid has a mistress, Dido, and a divine origin. In Book I, Venus fears the instability of the Tyrians and the wrath of Juno, and has Cupid take the form of Ascanius to kindle Dido's love for Aeneas: binding the queen through love is protecting her son. Passion is born as a goddess's weapon, and the narrator already calls Dido unhappy when she asks Aeneas to tell her everything and drinks in a long love.
In Book IV, the fire works from within: the queen does not sleep, confesses to her sister Anna that she recognizes the traces of the old flame, and swears she would prefer to be swallowed by the earth rather than violate her chastity, and it is Anna who undoes the oath with practical arguments. In the cave, during the storm Juno stirred up, she calls what she has lived a marriage, and the narrator says that with this name she covers her guilt. The romance is hardly staged: the only direct dialogue between the two is the one at the break.
The break shows two measures of love. Dido, upon discovering the fleet, recalls the joined hands and what she lost for his sake, and "guest" is the only name of a husband that remains to her. Aeneas answers with steady eyes that he never promised marriage and that he is not going to Italy of his own will; the narrator later says that he groans, shaken by great love, but she sees only his immobility and calls him the son of tigers. When he leaves, she climbs the pyre, recalls that she founded the city and avenged her husband, and says she would have been too happy if the Trojan ships had never touched her shore.
In Book VI, in the Fields of Mourning, where those consumed by love dwell, Aeneas swears he left her shore against his will, and Dido, eyes on the ground, does not answer and flees to the grove where Sychaeus matches her love. The silence supports two readings: a refusal of the excuse, or a conversation that no longer interests her. In another register, the love of Nisus for Euryalus, which gives the victory to his friend in Book V, leads the two to death in Book IX, where Nisus says that Euryalus only loved his unhappy friend too much.
The poem treats passion as a force that the gods kindle and men pay for, and it does not take sides between the two loyalties that collide: Dido's to Sychaeus, which she breaks when she yields, and Aeneas's to fate. For that reason no one comes out clean: Dido is wounded by a fire that two gods set alight, Venus and Juno, and Aeneas is the man whom Mercury must rebuke twice and who, even so, groans. The opposite reading also holds: Dido's passion is her own, born from what she heard at table and not only from Cupid's dart, and Aeneas's loyalty appears only after Mercury's rebuke.
Where It Appears
- Book I: Venus has Cupid take the form of Ascanius to inflame Dido for Aeneas, because she fears the instability of the Tyrians and the wrath of Juno.
- Book I: Dido prolongs the night of the banquet with questions about Troy and asks Aeneas to tell her everything from the beginning.
- Book IV: Dido confesses to her sister Anna that she recognizes the traces of the old flame, and Anna undoes, with practical arguments, the oath of fidelity to Sychaeus.
- Book IV: Dido and Aeneas enter the same cave during the storm Juno stirs up, and Dido calls what they shared a marriage.
- Book IV: Dido discovers the preparations of the fleet, accuses Aeneas of treachery, and hears from him that he is not going to Italy of his own will.
- Book IV: Dido, seeing the empty harbor, calls upon the Furies and an avenger born from her bones.
- Book IV: Dido climbs the pyre and asks that the Dardanian see the fire from the open sea and carry the omen of her death.
- Book VI: Aeneas finds Dido in the Fields of Mourning and swears he left against his will, and she flees to the grove where Sychaeus matches her love.
- Book VII: Allecto, at Juno's command, inflames Amata and Turnus, and the fury she plants turns the Trojans' welcome in Latium into war.
- Book IX: Nisus returns to fetch Euryalus, captured by the enemy, and dies beside him, because love for his companion weighs more than the mission.
- Book XII: Aeneas sees Pallas's baldric on Turnus, is seized by fury, and kills the enemy who asks him for his life.
Passages
Venus explains why she wants to inflame Dido.
Quocirca capere ante dolis et cingere flamma / Reginam meditor, for this reason I plan to take the queen first with cunning and surround her with fire.
Book I closes with Dido drinking in a long love.
Nec non et vario noctem sermone trahebat / Infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem, and the unhappy Dido prolonged the night in varied conversation, and drank in a long love.
Dido recognizes in herself the traces of the old flame.
Anna (fatebor enim), miseri post fata Sichaei / Conjugis, et sparsos fraterna caede Penates, / Solus hic inflexit sensus, animusque labantem / Impulit: agnosco veteris vestigia flammae, Anna (I confess it), after the fate of the wretched Sychaeus, my husband, and the Penates scattered by my brother's murder, only this man has swayed my feelings and pushed my wavering spirit: I recognize the traces of the old flame.
The narrator names what happens in the cave.
Ille dies primus leti primusque malorum / Causa fuit: neque enim specie famave movetur, / Nec jam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem; / Conjugium vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam, that day was the first cause of death and of evils: for she is no longer moved by appearance or reputation, nor does she now contemplate a furtive love; she calls it marriage, and with this name she covers her guilt.
On the pyre, Dido takes stock of her life.
Dulces exuviae, dum fata deusque sinebant, / Accipite hanc animam, meque his exsolvite curis. / Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi: / Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago. / Urbem praeclaram statui; mea moenia vidi; / Ulta virum, poenas inimico a fratre recepi; / Felix, heu! nimium felix, si littora tantum / Nunquam Dardaniae tetigissent nostra carinae!, sweet relics, while the fates and the god allowed, receive this soul and free me from these cares. I have lived, and I have run the course that fortune gave me: and now my great shade will go beneath the earth. I founded a glorious city; I saw my walls; I avenged my husband and exacted the penalty from my enemy brother; happy, alas, too happy, if only the Dardanian keels had never touched our shore!
In the Fields of Mourning, Dido does not answer Aeneas.
Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat; / Nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur, / Quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes. / Tandem proripuit sese, atque inimica refugit / In nemus umbriferum, conjux ubi pristinus illi / Respondet curis, aequatque Sichaeus amorem, turned away, she kept her eyes fixed on the ground, and her face is no more moved by the conversation begun than if it were hard flint or a Marpesian crag. At last she tore herself away and fled, hostile, into the shady grove, where her former husband answers her cares and Sychaeus matches her love.