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The Aeneas–Dido Episode as an Attack on Aeneas' Mission and Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Steven Farron
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Extract

Since antiquity the Aeneas—Dido episode has generally been recognized as the most powerful and memorable part of the Aeneid. During the past several decades there has been a considerable amount of argument as to whether it shows Aeneas' mission in a favourable or unfavourable light. Yet this problem has not been studied systematically. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate systematically that Vergil deliberately protrays Aeneas' mission as brutal and destructive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , April 1980 , pp. 34 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1980

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References

Notes

1. As Arthur Pease (P. Vergilii Maronis, Aeneidos, Liber Quartus, 1935; Darmstadt, 1967, p. 84) explaining iamdudum in 4. 1, ‘in I, 613 the word obstipuit may suggest a sudden but deep initial impression’.

2. G & R 8 (1961), 57–8Google Scholar.

3. P. Vergilii Maronis Aeneidos, Liber Quartus (Oxford, 1955), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

4. As to this question of the status of their affair, it must be remembered that ‘Roman law in Vergil's day did not draw the sharp line we draw between people who are respectably married and people who are not. The old religious marriage had yielded much ground to marriage by common consent. In such a relationship the parties might regard themselves as entering on marriage from the outset’ (Quinn, Kenneth, Latin Explorations (London, 1963), p. 38Google Scholar).

5. The Aeneid (Oxford, 1930), p. 132Google Scholar.

6. P. Vergilii Maronis, Aeneidos, Liber Quintus (Oxford, 1960), pp. 36–7Google Scholar. But there is no proof for his assertion that it refers only to the Trojans' thoughts about Dido's attitude.

7. Poschl, Viktor, The An of Vergil (Ann Arbor, 1966), pp. 60–68Google Scholar.

8. Since the primary meaning of infelix is unlucky, it reinforces the portrayal of Dido as a victim. Infelix is applied to many characters in the Aeneid. ‘It constantly expresses the poet's own sympathies’ (Pease, n. 1 above, p. 145). Dido is also described as miserable (misera) in 4. 315, 420, 429, 697; extremely miserable (miserrima) in 4. 117 and ‘destined to die’ (moritura) in 4. 308, 415, 519, 604.

9. Note 3 above, p. ix.

10. In 6. 851, which is arguably the highpoint of the entire epic, Anchises addresses Aeneas as tu Romane (i.e. the archetypal Roman). For an excellent, concise discussion of the nature of literary symbolism, see Poschl, n. 7 above, pp. 21–2. Perret, J. (Virgile (Paris, 1965), pp. 107–8)Google Scholar asserts ‘the Carthaginian episode does not symbolize only the Punic Wars, of which it is the immediate prefiguration… it represents the entire category of ordeals … in which the Roman destiny triumphed …’ As for the view that Dido represented Cleopatra, I have not dealt with it since I can see absolutely no evidence for it in the text.

11. Contra in 1. 13 is, of course, political as well as symbolic.

12. Divus Iulius (Oxford, 1971), pp. 243–5Google Scholar.

13. A good example of awareness of such violations, and censure of them, is Livy, 42. 47.

14. Walsh, P., Livy, His Historical Aims and Methods (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 66, 144–5, 151–2Google Scholar.

15. Note 3 above, p. xiii.

16. 5. 295, 344; 9. 179, 433.

17. Poschl, n. 7 above, pp. 98–9.

18. This has been best analysed by Heinze, Richard, Virgils Epische Technik (3rd edn. 1915Google Scholar, rpt. Darmstadt, 1965), pp. 169–70, 362–74; and Otis, Brooks, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford, 1964), pp. 41–105Google Scholar.

19. As attested by Tacitus, , Dialogus 13Google Scholar. 2.

20. The Aristaeus frame, which ends Georgic 4, is narrated in a bland, objective manner, very different from the elliptical, emphatic, sympathetic style of the Orpheus—Eurydice story (Otis, n. 18 above, pp. 194–212).

21. Note 18 above, p. 118.

22. New Studies of a Great Inheritance (London, 1921), pp. 147–8Google Scholar. The influence of Catullus' Ariadne on Vergil's depiction of Dido has received considerable attention: Abel, D.CB 38 (1962), 57–61Google Scholar; Gonnelli, G., Giornale Italiano di Filologia 15 (1962), 225–53Google Scholar; Oksala, P., Arctos 3 (1962), 167–97Google Scholar.

23. It should not be surprising that such sentimentality should coexist with the brutalities of Roman slavery and the gladiatorial shows. Such a combination of extreme sentimentality and brutality is not uncommon.

24. 1. 20. 5; 35. 4; 4. 16. 3; 17. 1.

25. 2. 8; 4. 4 (twice); 7. 1; 8. 3; 9. 2; 32. 3; 33. 3.

26. Plutarch, , Cato the Younger 21Google Scholar. 2.

27. Ibid. 29. 3. Also interesting is the overriding importance attributed by Cicero and his correspondents to his personal obligations (officium amici) to Pompey in determining the course he follows in the civil war (Ad. Att. 7. 12. 3; 9. 1. 4; 5. 3; 7A. 2; 7B. 1; 10. 2).

28. Note 18 above, p. 133.

29. The Discipline of Letters (Oxford, 1946), pp. 23–4Google Scholar.

30. The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil (3rd edn.Oxford, 1897), p. 397Google Scholar.

31. Nitchie, Elizabeth, Vergil and the English Poets (New York, 1966), p. 8Google Scholar.

32. Rand, Edward, The Magical Art of Virgil (1931Google Scholar, rpt. Connecticut, 1966), pp. 349–50.

33. Dr Johnson on Shakespeare, edited by Wimsatt, W. (Penguin, 1960), p. 60Google Scholar.

34. p. 1037 in Modern Library Edition.

35. Foreign Quarterly Review, 1842.

36. The pagination is from the edition of 1763.