3— Dido
115
1.
I should not, however, wish to assert this as confidently as the majority of
recent scholars have done. Of course, all that we know about Naevius in this
connection is preserved in Servius' comment on 4.9:
cuius
filiae
fuerint
Anna
et
Dido
Naevius
dicit
[whose daughters, Naevius says, were Anna and Dido]. We
might well assume
a
priori
that when Naevius first mentioned Carthage he also told
the story of its foundation. And it is certainly worth observing that Macrobius states
(6.2.31) that Virgil borrowed the tempest, Venus' lament and Jupiter's reassurance
in Book 1 from Naevius, but says nothing at all about Dido in this context, whereas
at 5.17.4 he makes Virgil responsible for distorting the Dido tradition and spoiling
the popular image of her purity, without mentioning any predecessor. But these
arguments
ex
silentio
are not strong enough to prove that Naevius did not recount
the story (as Lucian Müller, assumed: see L. Müller,
Q
.
Ennius
,
Eine
Einleitung
in
das
Studium
der
röm
.
Poesie
[St Petersburg, 1884] 147, and
Q
.
Ennii
carminum
reliquiae
[St Petersburg, 1884] XXIII). From Servius' comment on 4.682:
Varro
ait
non
Didonem
sed
Annam
amore
Aeneae
impulsam
se
supra
rogum
interemisse
[Varro says it was not Dido but Anna who was driven by love of Aeneas to kill
herself on the pyre] it does not follow with absolute certainty that Varro was
correcting the version that appears in Virgil; however, the most likely explanation
for his remarkable statement is that Varro, in an attempt to reconcile the historical
tradition with the poetical, asserted that, since Dido had killed herself for another
reason, then the woman whom Aeneas loved, if indeed he did leave any such person
behind in Carthage, can only have been Dido's sister Anna; this expedient would be
rather like his favourite method of assuming homonyms in order to reconcile two
mutually exclusive versions of a legend. If so, then Varro must have believed that
the tradition was more than mere poetic fiction. Unfortunately, it is impossible to
establish whether Ateius Philologus in his essay
An
amaverit
Didun
Aeneas
[Whether Aeneas loved Dido] (Charisius I p. 127 K cites this title from Pliny) dealt
116 with this alternative version, or whether he investigated the historical basis of the
tradition of Aeneas' and Dido's love (which in my view is more likely). But if the
tradition did already exist in the Republican period, then certainly Naevius is the
poet most likely to have created it (so too Meltzer - following Niebuhr and others -
in Roscher's
Lex
. I.1013); bold and shaky hypotheses of another kind are found in E.
Wörner,
Sage
von
den
Wanderungen
des
Aeneas
(Leipzig, 1882) 17ff. E. Maass
implausibly traces Ovid's story of Anna (
Fast
. 3.545ff.) back to Naevius (
Commen
-
tatio
mythographica
[Greifswald, 1886] XVII), although Naevius had no reason to
continue
mention Anna's eventual fate, and furthermore, if he had used this story, the episode
would hardly have suited the purpose which we may assume lay behind his version,
that of presenting the Punic War to some extent as the revenge of Dido's people for
Aeneas' cruel behaviour. In Ovid, Dido's heiress makes peace with Aeneas, and
Dido's people are not mentioned.
2.
Apart from Malalas (ed. Dindorf [Bonn, 1831]) 162 and Cedrenus (ed. Bekker,
[Bonn, 1838]) 1.246, who both depend on Virgil. The story has been attributed to
Timaeus, wrongly, as shown by Geffcken,
Timaios
'
Geographie
des
Westens
, 47f.,
and others.
117
3.
If Dido was the subject of the sentence
blande
atque
docte
percontat
quo
pacto
Troiam
urbem
reliquerit
[persuasively and artfully she asks how he left the
city of Troy]; against this, see F. Leo,
Geschichte
der
römischen
Literatur
(Berlin,
1913) 1.82 n. 8. There is no possibility that Aeneas then told his story in reply: we
know from the fragments that the passage was in the third person (F. Noack,
Hermes
27 [1892] 437).
4.
Did Virgil perhaps have in Philetas a predecessor in this innovation? He had
narrated in his
Hermes
(Parthen. 2), taking his cue from
Odyssey
10.14, how Aeolus


their ships were scattered as they voyaged from Ilium] from Odysseus, and how
Aeolus' daughter Polymele had fallen in love with the hero. We do not know what
Naevius made of the narrative-device (see above). Ovid ( Ars Am . 2.127) has Odys-
seus narrating Troiae casus [the fortunes of Troy] to Calypso: apparently his own
invention (on the model of Virgil; compare his iterumque iterumque [again and
again] with Aen . 4.19ff.) for the sake of the very Ovidian punchline.
118
5.
A great contrast to this is Propertius 1.15.11:
multos
illa
(
Calypso
)
dies
in
-
comptis
maesta
capillis
sederat
iniusto
multa
locuta
salo
[for many days she
(Calypso) sat there sadly, with hair unkempt, making many a complaint to the cruel
sea] etc. Propertius takes this behaviour for granted, and there is no need to postulate
any specific Hellenistic model for him. Some wretched late author, however, in a
stupid attempt to parallel the Dido story, made the goddess Calypso herself commit
suicide for love (Hygin.
Fab
. 243).
119
6.
Cf. Norman Wentworth de Witt,
The
Dido
Episode
in
the
Aeneid
of
Virgil
(Diss. Chicago, 1907), where (38ff.) there is a good discussion of the dramatic
character of the episode.
7.
Comparison with the detailed narrative in Justin 18.4 is instructive, in that
Justin provides evidence which shows how consciously Virgil strives here to pro-
duce an emotional effect, to arouse pity for Dido and indignation against Pygmalion.
Hence the repeated emphasis on Dido's love for Sychaeus and Pygmalion's cruel
deception after he had killed him, which is revealed to Dido only by the pitiful
appearance of his ghost (1.343-56); similarly, the intensification of the crime:
ante
aras
[before the altar],
incautum
superat
[he caught him off his guard],
inhumati
coniugis
[her unburied husband], and Pygmalion's epithets:
scelere
ante
alios
imma
-
nior
omnis
[a monster of unmatched wickedness],
impius
[impious],
securus
amorum
germanae
[not concerned for his sister's love],
multa
malus
simulans
(361)
[with many cruel pretences]; the tyrant is hated or feared by his own people. That
continue
the victim himself discloses the crime is hardly Virgil's own invention:


the appearance of the murdered Polydorus in Euripides' Hecuba . Justin's narrative
runs: Elissa diu fratrem propter scelus aversata ad postremum dissimulato odio
mitigatoque interim vultu fugam tacita molitur [for a long time Elissa hated her
brother because of his crime; but finally she concealed her hatred and while putting
on a calm expression she silently planned her flight]; in a much more dramatic way
Virgil allows the unhappy woman to be deceived at first by the apparition into
120 believing that her lost husband is still alive, and then the apparition itself suddenly
destroys the illusion, whereupon she immediately prepares for flight. The flight
itself is described very briefly; navis quae forte paratae corripiunt onerantque auro
(362-3) [they hastily seized some ships which happened to be ready for sailing, and
loaded them with the gold], whereas, in Justin, Dido deceives first her brother and
then his messenger - which also involves playing an impious trick with the manes of
her husband; if Virgil found that in his source (cf. Conington, introduction p. xl,
although his interpretation is not entirely correct), he has deliberately omitted the sly
deception and we can easily see why: it would have been a jarring note in his
description of the heroic wife. If Sychaeus is given a prominent rôle, it is because
this is

same reason it is also emphasized that he was Dido's first husband (345), which is
not particularly relevant to Venus' narrative at this point.
8.
Virgil has borrowed Homer's comparison of Nausicaa with Artemis leading
the nymphs in their dance (1.498ff. cf.
Od
. 6.102ff.); this is a miscalculation, as
Probus clearly explains in a well-known passage of sharp criticism (Gellius 9.9);
contrast the skilful adaptation of the comparison by Apollonius in 3.875ff.
121
9.
The mist that has veiled him like Odysseus in the city of the Phaeacians and
like Jason until he reaches the palace of Aietes (Ap. Rhod. 3.210) now melts away.
Incidentally, it is a misinterpretation of
iamdudum
erumpere
nubem
ardebant
[they
had long felt eager to break free from the cloud] at 580 to paraphrase it as 'the two
men, burning with eagerness to make themselves visible, but incapable of doing so
before the magic has disappeared of its own accord' as Cauer does (P. Cauer,
Grundfragen
der
Homerkritik
2 [Leipzig, 1909] 341). We have already been told at
122 line 514 that Aeneas and Achates had wanted to become visible,
avidi
coniungere
dextras
ardebant
[they were in burning haste to clasp their comrades' hands]: they
cannot do so, because
res
incognita
animos
turbat
[the mystery of it all perturbs
them]. As soon as Achates says at lines 582ff. that there is no longer any danger, the
mist disappears. It is clear from the question
quae
nunc
animo
sententia
surgit?
['What are the feelings that now arise in your mind?'] that it depends only on their
free will. Tasso's imitation,
Gerus
.
Lib
. 10.48f. is very instructive for understanding
this passage of Virgil.
10.
His model is of course
Od
. 6.229f., although in Homer natural means (bath-
ing, oiling, clothing) enhance Odysseus' physical appearance, and these, so to speak,
merely make Athena's influence visible. Virgil, as so often, makes the detail more
abstract and therefore less immediately convincing, refined and carefully considered
though it is. Apollonius 3.918ff. is not as good.
11. E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer 3 (Leipzig, 1914) continue
159. So Virgil himself earlier:
ut
vidi
ut
perii
[as I saw her so I was lost] (
Ecl
. 8.41),
an effect spoilt by the author of the
Ciris
429f. Also Catullus 64.86:
hunc
simulac
cupido
conspexit
lumine
virgo
regia
. . .
non
prius
ex
illo
flagrantia
declinavit
lumina
[as soon as the royal maiden saw him with desirous eyes, . . . she would not turn her
burning eyes away from him until . . . ] etc. Hellenistic love poetry was in its turn
following the example of comedy: Terence,
Phormio
111,
Eunuch
. 2.3 etc.
123
12.
The fact that Virgil only hints allusively at Aeneas' love and says very little
about his sorrow at parting arises primarily from his fear of dwelling on the weak-
ness of his hero. At the same time the artistic consideration of carefully preserving
the unity of the narrative means that Dido must be kept firmly in the foreground: cf.
'Composition' in Part II, ch. 4. I admit that this restraint causes the poet to make
sacrifices (see Drachmann's criticism of my arguments:
Nordisk
tidskrift
for
filol
. 14
[1905] 64): the reader is not explicitly informed about Aeneas' own feelings, and
learns about them in less detail than he might wish. But I cannot agree with Drach-
mann's view that the entire narrative is absurd and lacking in motivation. 'Aeneas
cannot become involved in a cheap liaison simply to pass the time, nor can he fall
seriously in love and then refuse to marry, nor can he possibly leave a broken
marriage behind him. All this was quite clear to Virgil; nevertheless there were
important reasons why he could not omit the episode . . . knowing this, we can under-
stand why Virgil is silent where he should have spoken, and why he uses his gods
instead of natural psychology.' But Virgil's Aeneas really is sincerely in love; the
poet states this clearly enough, in my view, to anyone sensitive to his hints, although
he does show consideration for his hero, since this is not a heroic deed but a
weakness: for Aeneas forgets his mission because of love, and furthermore does
wrong to Dido. According to de Witt (op. cit. n. 6 above, 28ff.) Virgil settled for the
124 'cheap liaison': 'Aeneas did not love Dido . . . it only makes matters worse that he felt
and confessed a certain affection for her.' But it is Virgil, not one of his characters,
who calls Aeneas and Dido
amantes
[lovers] at 4.221; the phrase
quando
optima
Dido
nesciat
et
tantos
rumpi
non
speret
amores
(291) [for in her ignorance and
goodness of heart Dido would never suspect that so deep a love could possibly be
broken] is part of Aeneas' own thoughts; in the Underworld Aeneas still speaks to
Dido
dulci
amore
(6.455) [with tender love]; and I see no reason whatever in all
these cases to understand
amor
as anything other than 'love', totally sincere love.
When Juno confides her plan to Venus before the hunt,
tua
si
mihi
certa
voluntas
(4.125) [if I may be sure of your compliance], Venus agrees:
non
adversata
petenti
adnuit
[to this proposal she raised no objection]: this is not a case of 'using the
goddess instead of natural psychology' - in this respect my conception of the
Virgilian gods differs radically from Drachmann's - but symbolizes the psychologi-
cal process which a realistic narrator would describe in everyday language. To the
sensibilities of a modern reader, Aeneas' behaviour may easily seem heartless and
unchivalrous, particularly if his parting words at 333ff. are not understood as Virgil
intended: Aeneas,
obnixus
curam
sub
corde
premebat
[straining to master the agony
within him] forces himself with difficulty to suppress his feelings and to allow only
his reason to speak, because he knows that this is the only way that he can remain in
control of himself. Aeneas' mastery of his deepest emotions for the sake of the will
of the gods is expressed succinctly but, provided that we take Virgil's words
continue
seriously, perfectly adequately in 345f. and 440ff. In any case, it is clear that
Aeneas' feelings are nothing like as intense as Dido's. A woman can be over-
whelmed by a love that verges on madness, but, in Virgil's view, it is not possible
for this to happen to a man worthy of the name; reason, or duty, will always prevail
in the end. In this Virgil can follow the literary tradition with a clear conscience, for,
as de Witt rightly explains, there can be
insanus
amor
[mad love] on the man's part
in comedy, pastoral and elegy, but not in heroic poetry. I should add that Virgil
certainly does not wish to make Aeneas appear innocent; but his guilt lies in begin-
ning, not in ending, the affair. For further discussion see the section on 'Characters',
Part II, ch. 2.1a below.
13. E. Rohde, op. cit. 159 n. 4.
14.
paulatim
abolere
Sychaeum
(720) [began gradually to dispel all thought of
Sychaeus].
125
15.
It has often been remarked what a great difference there is between the
emotional scene involving Venus and Amor in Virgil and the gaudy and flirtatious
piece of miniature painting that is its equivalent in Apollonius: see for example
Sainte-Beuve,
Etude
sur
Virgile
(Paris, 1857) 306ff.; we shall return to this in
another context.
16.
I do not understand why this emphasis on her fidelity to her first husband
should be regarded as 'arbitrary' (Drachmann op. cit. 65); perhaps because not all
widows in a similar position would take this attitude? But Dido is not like everyone
else, either in this matter or in any other. If we may discuss another passage at this
point, this also applies to Drachmann's remark about Dido's thoughts of revenge
(see above p. 104): 'Virgil has presented the whole course of events in a way that
would make a wish for personal revenge on Dido's part seem completely natural
and justifiable. Virgil's rejection of this motive is another example of his arbitrari-
ness.' But Virgil has portrayed Dido in such a way that the
inhumanitas
involved in,
for example, killing Ascanius and serving his dismembered limbs to his father as a
Thyestian meal, would not appear natural, however justifiable or not one might
consider such an act to be.
126 17. Cf. J. Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer 2 (Leipzig, 1886) 42.
18.
Livy 10.23.9; further evidence in G. Wissowa,
Religion
und
Kultur
der
Römer
2 (Munich 1912) 258 n. 2.
19.
It is true that he had separated from her, allegedly
pertaesus
morum
perversi
-
tatem
eius
[tired of her shrewish disposition] (Suet.
Aug
. 62), and Ovid explains
Livia's second marriage by saying that she alone was worthy of Augustus, and no
other man was worthy of her - i.e. not even her first husband (
Trist
. 2.161, cf.
Fast
.
1.65).
127
20.
This point has now been developed by H. Ahlers,
Die
Vertrautenrolle
in
der
griechischen
Tragödie
(Diss. Giessen, 1911), although he offers little more than a
chronological survey of the material.
21. For example, the

(Antonin. Liberalis 1.4); of Smyrna (id. 34.2), of Arsinoe (id. 39.3); in every case
she acts as a go-between. An extended example in the neo-Hellenistic style is Carme
in the Ciris , which, if we follow Sudhaus' happy conjecture ( Hermes 42 [1907]
491), is largely based on the Smyrna of Helvius Cinna. break
128
22.
The first conversation between Dido and Anna (6-55) was explained as a
later addition by C. Schüler,
Quaest
.
Virgil
. (Diss. Greifswald, 1883) 24ff.; Sab-
badini took up this idea and extended Schüler's conclusions to other scenes
(
L
'
Eneide
commentata
libri IV, V, VI [Turin, 1898] ixff.). His chief objection to that
conversation is that the
pax
[peace] which they seek at the altars in lines 56ff. is
something quite different from the
venia
[pardon] for which Dido is to beseech the
gods in line 50: it is release from the torments of love. This cannot be right: the
pax
that Virgil mentions here is part of the established terminology of Roman religion
and could never be understood as anything other than the
pax
deorum
[peace of the
gods]. For lines 65ff. see below; for the chronological framework see Part II, ch.
2.III.c) 'Time and Place'; it is not worth discussing the argument that in their second
conversation (416ff.) Dido does not reproach Anna for her exhortations.
23.
To secure a friendly relationship with the gods, to gain their
pax
ac
venia
129 [peace and their pardon], is the purpose of every prayer and sacrifice, if a god has
shown by
prodigia
or the like that he is angry (during a pestilence
unam
opem
aegris
corporibus
relictam
,
si
pax
veniaque
a
diis
impetrata
esset
,
credebant
[they
believed the only hope left for their ailing bodies was if they secured peace and
pardon from the gods] [Livy 1.31.7]; similarly
iussi
cum
coniugibus
ac
liberis
supplicatum
ire
pacemque
exposcere
deum
. . .
matres
crinibus
templa
verrentes
ve
-
niam
irarum
caelestium
finemque
pesti
exposcunt
[3.7.7] [they were ordered to go
and pray with their wives and children, and to ask for the peace of the gods . . . the
matrons, brushing the temples with their hair, asked for pardon from the divine
anger and an end to the plague]; cf. 4.30.10, 7.2.1 etc.; cf.
Aen
. 3.261), or if a person
fears that he may arouse divine anger by a future action
pacem
veniamque
precata
deorum
dearumque
,
si
. . .
silenda
enuntiasset
[praying for the peace and pardon of the
gods if she had proclaimed what should have been left unsaid] (Livy 39.10), or if
some danger threatens, for which people wish to assure themselves of divine assist-
ance, for example in battle (Cic.
pro
Fonteio
13.30:
illae
[i.e.
ceterae
gentes
as
opposed to the Gauls]
in
bellis
gerendis
ab
dis
immortalibus
pacem
ac
veniam
petunt
[they (i.e. other nations) in waging war ask for peace and pardon from the
immortal gods]: the
litatio
[the obtaining of favourable omens] during a sacrifice is a
guarantee that it will be granted [Livy 6.1.12]:
quod
non
litasset
. . .
neque
inventa
pace
deum
. . .
abiectus
hosti
exercitus
Romanus
esset
[since he had not obtained
favourable omens, and a Roman army had been thrown to the enemy without the
peace of the gods being obtained]; 12.7; 41.9 etc.). So too Cicero in the solemn
prooemium of his speech
pro
Rabirio
2.5:
ab
love
optimo
maximo
ceterisque
dis
deabusque
immortalibus
. . .
pacem
ac
veniam
peto
[I ask for peace and pardon from
Iuppiter Optimus Maximus and from all the other immortal gods and goddesses].
Similarly, and finally, in the prayer of the whole Roman people to the new god
Romulus:
pacem
precibus
exposcunt
,
uti
volens
propitius
suam
semper
sospitet
progeniem
[by their prayers they ask for peace, so that he may always safeguard his
own progeny willingly and propitiously] (Livy 1.16.3); cf. also
Aen
. 3.144, 370.
24.
spirantia
consulit
exta
[she consults the still breathing vitals], line 64; they
are called
vates
[seers] in the following line; thus it is a question of
hostiae
consult
-
atoriae
[victims for religious consultation], as Servius correctly explains in his
comment on 56 (cf. Wissowa 419), and the
vates
correspond to the
haruspices
.
break
130
25.
heu
vatum
ignarae
mentes
(65) [how ignorant are the minds of seers!] is
explained by Servius as
ignarae
amoris
reginae
[ignorant of the queen's love], and
in my view that is the only correct interpretation. That is also how the words were
understood by other authors in antiquity, as shown by the imitations observed by
Forbiger on Silius'
Punica
8.100:
heu
sacri
vatum
errores
[oh, the accursed delu-
sions of seers] (in his version of the story of Dido) and Apuleius
Metam
. 10.2:
heu
medicorum
ignarae
mentes
[oh, the ignorant minds of doctors]: in both cases, those
involved have no idea of what it is really all about. In Virgil, the
vates
must believe
that Dido is only anxious to overcome some religious scruple, and that is indeed the
reason for her sacrifice, but it is not the true cause of the torment and agitation in
Dido's emotions, which have already been described in lines 1-9 and which become
more and more intense independently of the acts of sacrifice.
26. Terence, Eun . 636ff.
27.
mediaque
in
voce
resistit
(76) [she checked herself with the words half-
spoken]: cf. Ap. Rhod. 3.686:

continue speaking].
28. Ap. Rhod. 3.453:



his voice rang in her ears, and the honeyed words which he spoke].
29. E. Rohde, op. cit. n. 3, 168.
30. Longus 1.13.6:

11.73:

Virg. Ecl . 2.70: semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est [your vine is half-pruned
on the leafy elm] (cf. already Sappho fr. 102 Lobel-Page; Hor. Odes 3.12.3).
131
31.
Juno's attempt to override the decrees of fate in order to help Dido and
Carthage drives Dido to her death and in the end causes the destruction of Carthage;
it is quite possible that, as Conway says in his lecture
The
teaching
of
Virgil
(London, 1912) (of which he kindly sent me a copy), the careful reader is intended
to notice this; but surely this would only make him realise how wrong it is to oppose
fate in this way. Conway attempts to find references to the marriages which Au-
gustus forced on his family and friends for political reasons, but I am not convinced.
32.
Conway op. cit. rightly draws attention to the strong contrast, which seems to
be deliberately emphasized, between the narratives of Apollonius and Virgil; this
brings out the tragic aspect of their night of love more clearly.
132
33.
See now E. Penquitt (
De
Didonis
Vergilianae
exitu
[Diss. Königsberg,
1910]) with good discussions of details, particularly the sacred objects. However, I
cannot say that I agree with his 'rhetorical' analyses of Dido's speeches; see the
section 'Rhetoric' in Part II, ch. 3.III.10.
34.
The attempts to prove that this entire passage has been thoroughly revised,
and to reconstruct an earlier version (Schüler op. cit. 27ff., Sabbadini op. cit. x ff.
and
II
primitivo
disegno
dell
'
Eneide
[Turin, 1900] 43ff., F. Vivona,
Riv
.
di
.
Filol
. 26
[1898] 428ff.) seem to me to be totally misconceived. It is only the chronology of
the events against which valid objections can be made: on this see 'Time and Place'
in Part II, ch. 2.IIIc). As for the other objections, there are some apparent oversights
on the part of the poet that are open to criticism, e.g. after
decrevit
mori
(475) [she
continue
decided to die] Dido takes the same decision again at 534ff. (although I consider that
this is sufficiently motivated by lines 531ff., and from the technical standpoint it is
easy to understand why Virgil places this recapitulation of Dido's motives immedi-
ately before she commits suicide). We might ask why Dido did not kill herself as
soon as the funeral-pyre was built (although to my mind it is quite clear that,
however firm her resolve, she only proceeds to carry it out after Aeneas' departure,
which irrevocably extinguishes every hope): the second intervention of Mercury
might be criticised as superfluous (which it may well be as far as the narrative is
concerned, but not from a technical point of view, see below 'Structure of the
Action' (Part II, ch. 2.IIIb.2). But even if all these objections were justified, they do
not prove anything at all about the original form of the book and its re-writing; all
these hypotheses are based on the presupposition that there was at least some stage
133 at which the poet must have arranged his material in exactly the way that the critic
concerned would have wished.
35.
Reitzenstein's article (
Hermes
35 [1900] 86ff.) has made it impossible to
doubt that the original of Catullus 64 was an Alexandrian poem.
134
36.
Her first reaction is to feel that the cruellest thing is his apparent intention to
leave her secretly: cf. Eur.
Med
. 575f.:


ought to have persuaded me first, before making this marriage, instead of keeping it
secret from your friends']. The reference to the data dextera quondam [your right
hand once given to me] at 307 is not adequately motivated by the earlier narrative, at
least not as well as

great pledge of the right hand clasped] in Medea 22. Her pleas are reminiscent of
Tecmessa's words of entreaty and the general sense of her whole speech


you] (Soph. Ajax 514); with fuit aut tibi quicquam dulce meum [if anything about
me gave you pleasure] cf. ibid. 520:


experience]. infensi Tyrii (321) [the Tyrians are hostile] - why? surely because she
has set foreigners above her compatriots, rather like Ovid's Phyllis in Heroides 2.82:
quod ferar externum praeposuisse meis [because I am said to have preferred a
foreigner to my own people] etc.; cf. also Medea 495:


questions are modelled, on those of Medea in that passage. Her rhetorical point
hospes , hoc solum nomen quoniam de coniuge restat (323-4) ['Guest, since this is
the only name left instead of husband'] seems to be developed from the famous
pointed phrase of Callimrnachus' Phyllis (fr. 556, Loeb edn):


483). Her concluding words are reminiscent of Hypsipyle, who lets Jason leave
since she has confident hope of a son (Apollonius 1.888ff.).
37. The Homeric phrase

['the shining sea and steep crags gave you birth'] had been used again and again in
so many forms (even by Virgil himself in Ecl . 8.43), but Virgil had no qualms about
using the formula again because he was achieving a different effect by contrasting it
with diva parens Venus [Venus your divine parent]; for similar passages see Riese continue
on Cat. 64.155: Ariadne says the same of Theseus.
num
lumina
flexit?
(369) [did he
turn his eyes?]; cf.
Med
. 470:

your friends in the face when you have wronged them], though in a different sense.
135 nusquam tuta fides [nowhere is faith secure]; cf. Med . 492:

[faith in your oaths is gone]. The complaint that the gods are not giving any support,
which was originally based on the fact that a broken oath had gone unpunished
( quamquam nil testibus illis pro feci [ Ecl . 8.20] [although their witness has bene-
fitted me not at all], cf. Asclepiades AP 5.52:


Med . 412:

gods]) appears in a different form here, since there is no oath to appeal to. It is only
at this point, when she is no longer expecting any gratitude, that Dido first explicitly
mentions all her services to Aeneas; previously she had only alluded to them in the
phrase si quid de te merui (317) [if I ever did you a service] cf. Med . 476:

etc. [I rescued you]; Ariadne in Cat. 64.149: certe ego te in medio versantem turbine
leti eripui etc. [surely I rescued you when you were swirling in a whirlpool of
death]; Phyllis, Ov. Heroides 2.107: quae tibi . . . longis erroribus acto Threicios
portus hospitiumque dedi etc. [I who gave you a harbour in Thrace and hospitality
after your long wanderings]. The ethos of the proud neque te teneo . . . i , sequere
Italiam ['I am not holding you . . . go, quest for Italy'] is that of Iliad 1.173:


away by all means, if that is what you want: I am not pleading with you to stay for
my sake']. The threat at 385ff. resembles Ap. Rhod. 3.704:


dear children and be your hateful Fury hereafter, come from Hades], but is even
closer to Medea's words at 4.383:



when you are worn out by toils: may the fleece, borne on the winds, go down to
nether darkness as insubstantial as a dream: and may my avenging Furies drive you
forthwith from your homeland']. Moreover, in Virgil's lines, the two concepts, that
the dead walk the earth (there is no allusion here to violent deaths, cf. Ovid Ibis
141ff.) and that they inhabit the underworld (Lucr. 4.41: ne forte animas Acherunte
reamur effugere aut umbras inter vivos volitare [lest we happen to think that souls
may escape from Acheron or that ghosts hover about among the living]), are not
regarded as incompatible. The words sequar atris ignibus absens [though far away, I
shall pursue you with flames of blackest pitch] at 389 refer, as Penquitt (op. cit.)
rightly says, to the living Dido, but there is certainly no reference to magic here (if
Virgil had intended that he would have expressed it more explicitly and in some
better way); the first of the explanations that Servius gives ( alii " furiarum facibus '
dicunt , hoc est ' invocatas tibi immittam diras ' [some explain 'with the torches of the
Furies' that is, 'I shall summon the Furies and send them to attack you']) is the
correct one: Dido identifies herself ( sequar [I shall pursue you]) with her curses, and
thinks of these as Furies (Erinyes), who certainly do not restrict their vengeance to
cases of murder (many examples in Rapp's article in Roscher's Lex . I. 1322ff.).
38. Dido does not however humble herself as much as Ariadne in the Alexan- soft
drian poem which can be reconstructed from Cat. 64.158ff. and Nonnus
Dion
.
46.386ff., who would have gone with her lover as his servant if she could not go
with him as his wife (Euripides' Medea only pretends to humble herself at 312ff.). It
is also obvious why Dido does not make this last attempt herself, but sends her
sister, and the passage in which she tries to persuade herself that this ploy is likely to
be successful -
solam
nam
perfidus
ille
te
colere
,
arcanos
etiam
tibi
credere
sensus
;
sola
viri
mollis
aditus
et
tempora
noras
(421-3) [for that traitor was never really
attentive to anyone but you; you alone had his full confidence, and only you ever
knew just how and when to approach this hard man tactfully] - is one of great
136 beauty. We can also hear her bitter awareness that she herself can never have
possessed Aeneas' full trust; otherwise how could he deceive her so cruelly now?
The poet leaves it to our imagination to decide how much of Dido's statement is
true: that, too, is the technique of drama. Dido's words at the end of her speech -
quam
(
veniam
)
mihi
cum
dederit
cumulatam
morte
remittam
(436) [and when he has
granted it (this indulgence) to me, I shall repay the debt, with the interest, in death] -
cannot mean that she has already taken the decision to kill herself, nor that she
expects to die of love after Aeneas' departure (as Penquitt suggests, 24ff.); she
motivates her request for a delay by saying that she would not be able to survive the
sudden separation (419ff.) and must first get used to the idea (
dum
mea
me
victam
doceat
fortuna
dolere
[until my fortune can teach me submission and the art of
grief]). The meaning of her obscure words would have been quite clear if Virgil had
written
cumulatam
vel
morte
remittam
[i.e. even in death]; I believe the meaning to
be 'I will reward it in good measure, even with my life' - although a precise
situation in which Aeneas (or Anna, if Virgil wrote
dederis
[you have granted],
which I do not believe) could ask for Dido's life is not envisaged. Cf. Terence,
Phormio
165:
ut
mihi
liceat
tam
diu
quod
amo
frui
,
iam
depecisci
morte
cupio
[in
order to be allowed to enjoy my love for so long, I am prepared to trade my death for
it].
39.
The way in which Virgil shows that death is the only possibility is derived
from Soph.
Ajax
460: I am hated by all, gods, Greeks, Trojans.



shall I face my father Telamon when I come before him? . . . but shall I go to the
Trojan walls . . . ? This cannot be . . . ' etc.]. Then Medea (admittedly in a different
context)


wretched daughters of Pelias?' etc.]. And hence Ariadne in Cat. 64.177: nam quo me
referam? . . . Idaeosne petam montes? . . . an patris auxilium sperem? . . . coniugis an fido
consoler memet amore? ['For where am I to go? . . . To the Idaean mountains? Can I
hope for help from my father? . . . Or can I console myself with the loyal love of my
husband?']. The rhetorical use of the formula by C. Gracchus (Cic. De Orat . 3.214)
quo me miser conferam , quo vertam? [Where can I go in my distress, where can I
turn?] etc. was famous; strangely enough, he is borrowing from the no doubt widely
known words of Ennius' Medea (fr. 231 Ribbeck): quo nunc me veriam? quod iter
incipiam ingredi etc. ['Where can I turn now? what road can I start to take? . . . '].
40. The idea in 604ff. comes from Apollonius 4.391:


to the ship and to cut up everything completely and to fall herself into the raging
fire]. The curses (the form si tangere portus . . . necesse est et sic fata Iovis pos -
cunt . . . at etc. [if he must reach harbour and that is required by Jupiter's ordinances . . .
nevertheless] is modelled on Od . 9.522:


return home to his own land and see his friends, may he come late']) again occur
137 first in Soph. Ajax 835:

to my aid the stern, long-striding Furies . . .]. In Apollonius they take the form of a
threat cf. Cat. 64.193: Eumenides . . . huc huc adventate , meas audite querellas etc.
[you Eumenides, come here, come here and listen to my complaints] and Phyllis

curses on the head of Demophoon] (Apollod. epit . 6.16). A similar suicide is that,
for example, of Euopis,


her misfortune]; (Parthenius 31; quoting Phylarchus). These deathbed curses are
always fulfilled; so here: the reader who half knows, half suspects this, will sense
that Dido's death is an important event not only in the story of Aeneas, but in the
history of the Roman empire, and his reactions will go far beyond sympathy for
Dido as an individual. On the significance of the curse (for which see Conway, op.
cit. 17, whose criticisms of my earlier comments are entirely justified) for the
understanding of Aeneas' attitude see below in Part Two, the section on 'Character'
(Part II, ch. 2.I.a2); for its place in the whole work see the section on 'Composition',
Part II, ch. 4.
41.
This corresponds with Ajax's prayer in Sophocles (827) that Zeus will let
Teucer be the first to find his body: the only difference is that Dido is not concerned
about burial, but wants to ensure that her eyes will be closed by her nearest and
dearest.
42.
Incubuitque
toro
(650) [she cast herself down on the bed],
os
impressa
toro
(659) [burying her face in the bed]; this is how Deianeira dies too:



bridal couch, goodbye for ever'] ( Trach . 917). Euripides provided the precedent for
this in Alcestis' farewell


(175) [rushing into the bedroom and falling upon the bed . . . 'O bed on which I gave
up my maidenhood farewell. I do not hate you. I am the only one you have de-
stroyed']. Virgil had already recalled this last phrase at 496: lectumque iugalem quo
peril [the bridal bed which was my ruin]. The situation however is close to that in
the Trachiniae : as Hyllus is fetched by the

here:

by the two-edged sword], illam . . . ferro conlapsam aspiciunt comites ensemque cru -
ore spumantem (663-5) [her servants saw her where she had fallen on the blade,
with blood foaming about the sword]; then come the lamentations of the close
relative who rushes to the scene: sinu germanam amplexa fovebat cum gemitu
(686-7) [she clasped her sister to her breast and fondled her, sobbing],


groaning and groaning]. The magnificent vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna
peregi , et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago (653) [I have lived my life and
finished the course which Fortune allotted me. Now my wraith shall pass in state to
the world below] is a touch of purely Roman heroism; Virgil perhaps got the idea
from its opposite:

earth before it is my fate to leave this life] (Soph. Antig . 896, cf. 916ff.). It is well
known that the wish si litora tantum etc. (657) [if only the Dardan ships had never
reached my coast], which seems natural here, is almost formulaic:


that the ship Argo had never skimmed across the blue Symplegades to the land of
Colchis] ( Med . 1f.) cf. Ap. Rhod. 4.32; Cat. 64.171: utinam ne . . . Gnosia Cecropiae
tetigissent litora puppes [would that the Athenian ships had never touched the
shores of Cnossos] is taken over by Virgil practically verbatim . Sabbadini's view,
that the speeches 607-29 and 651-62 cannot both have appeared in the original
138 version because their dominant moods are different, has already been discussed on
n. 34 above, 109.
43.
On the use of monologue in the
Aeneid
see the section on 'Speech' below,
Part II, ch. 3.III.
44.
Vultum
demissa
(1.561) [with lowered eyes] (modelled on Apollonius' Hyp-
sipyle,

his Medea, 3.1008) may therefore be regarded as an error of judgement.
139 45. See above n. 16 above, 110.
46. Lamentation 548-51. Then a touch of regret, 596ff.
47.
Cic.
De
Off
. 1.25.88:
nec
vero
audiendi
qui
graviter
inimicis
irascendum
putabunt
idque
magnanimi
et
fortis
viri
esse
censebunt
;
nihil
enim
laudabilius
,
nihil
magno
et
praeclaro
viro
dignius
placabilitate
atque
clementia
[nor must we listen to
those who may think that one ought to be very angry with one's enemies and
consider that appropriate to a great-hearted and good man; nothing is more praise-
worthy, nothing more worthy of a great and outstanding person than clemency and a
willingness to be placated].
48.
Arceophron in Hermesianax (Antonin. Liberalis 39), Iphis (Ovid
Met
.
14.696ff.), the

Virgil in Ecl . 8.59; Narcissus (Conon 24). Rohde, Gr . R . 80f. collects these pas-
sages. Cf. the suicides, successful or unsuccessful, in the ancient novel, Hermes 34
(1899) 497 n. 2.
140 49. Rohde, op. cit. n. 2, 121.
50.
Perhaps Phyllis in Callimachus, although in this case it also seems to have
been the result of a feeling that she had been unbearably insulted:
et
amoris
impa
-
tientia
et
quod
se
spretam
esse
credebat
[both because of impatience with her love,
and because she felt she had been spurned] (Serv. on
Ecl
. 5.10).
51.
I cite a few of the many examples: Oenone allowed Paris to go to his death.
Byblis (Parthen. 11 [= Apollonius]


suffering, and also feelling she was responsible for Caunus' desertion of her];
Cleoboea:


excessive love] (Parthen. 15); Euopis:

and shame] (Parthen. 31; quoting Phylarchus).
141
52.
We may well ask why all these complicated preparations for Dido's death
are necessary. Could she not simply sit on the
lectus
iugalis
[marriage-couch], like
Deianeira, and plunge the sword into her heart? We might put the same question to
the historical Dido, and will have to answer it on her behalf: she wanted to die not in
secret and alone, as though she had something to be ashamed of, but in a way that
would show all her people that Dido knew how to keep faith. This (hypothetical)
motivation does not, however, appear in Virgil: Dido builds the pyre secretly
pene
-
trali
in
sede
[right inside the palace], and there is nothing particularly glorious about
suicide in this context. I believe that the traditional, arresting picture of Dido offer-
ing herself to Hades with all the pomp and magnificence of a sacrifice to the dead
haunted Virgil's imagination, and it was only later that he discovered the concepts
which would motivate the effect that he was aiming at, summarised in the phrase
sic
sic
iuvat
ire
sub
umbras
(660) [this, this is the way I wish to go beneath the earth]:
the fire shall consume with her all the
exuviae
[relics] of her faithless lover and
(since Dido's palace naturally stands high up on the citadel) the flames will be seen
by Aeneas from the sea as he sails away and abandons her,
secum
ferat
omina
mortis
(662) [may he take with him the evil omens of my death]. Sabbadini excludes
everything connected with the magic ceremony (474-503, 509-21) from his hypo-
thetical 'first draft', because in his view Anna did not originally take part in the
construction of the pyre: 'Everything that Dido asks Anna to do in lines 494-7, she
does herself in lines 504-8.' But that is not true of the main task, the construction of
the pyre; besides, it is obvious that neither Dido nor Anna would have personally
carried up the
lectus
iugalis
[marriage-couch]: Anna would have instructed slaves to
do it. In that case, Dido can have seen to the
exuviae
[relics] personally, laying them
on the
torus
[couch]; and even on the strictest interpretation this is compatible with
others having actually placed all these objects on the pyre.
53.

she will perform a rite to dissolve her vows] (Timaeus 566 fr. 23 Jacoby); placatura
viri manes inferiasque ante nuptias missura [professing to placate the ghost of her
dead husband and to make a sacrifice to his shade before her marriage (sc. to
Iarbas)] (Justin. 18.6).
142
54.
Hence the ambiguous phrase
sacra
Iovi
Stygio
quae
rite
incepta
paravi
perficere
est
animus
(638) ['It is my intention to complete certain rites to Stygian
Jupiter, which I have formally prepared and begun']. It is not clear whether in the
mind of the
sacerdos
[priestess] the magic sacrifice is intended to arouse love in
Aeneas or to destroy it in Dido: this obscurity has been discussed by Dedo,
De
antiquorum
superstitione
amatoria
(Diss. Greifswald, 1904) 47ff. and by Penquitt
op. cit. 38ff., 51ff. Lines 480 and 487ff. mention both alternatives; the burning of the
exuviae
[relics] and
effigies
[portrait] seems to refer only to the latter, but the
mention of the love-charm

the former. It is hardly a case of simple confusion arising from carelessness: prep-
arations for the burning of the exuviae and effigies were essential to Dido's purpose
(see p. 105); the other alternative is mentioned to Anna so as to make her believe in continue
it - only the possibility of keeping Aeneas in Carthage could really justify such
mighty preparations and such haste. Lines 512-16 seem to have been added as an
afterthought:
quaeruntur
[are sought] and
quaeritur
[is sought] are out of place in
this context, and
ipsa
[she herself] in line 517 follows on from 509-11 more natu-
rally than from 513-16: Virgil later expanded the passage about the magic rites, no
doubt because he wanted these other alternatives to play their full part, without
being any more concerned about the resulting lack of clarity than in the passage
discussed above on p. 101. It is highly unusual, in my view, to divide the magic
sacrifice into two: the action in lines 509ff., which according to line 638 is prepara-
tory (
sacra
rite
incepta
perficere
est
animus
[I intend to complete the rites formally
begun]), and the main action at which the
hostiae
(639-40) [victims] are actually to
be sacrificed: here it is very clear why Virgil has departed from normal practice.
55.
It is also worth noting that Barce and Anna apparently believe in the power
of magic, but not Dido: otherwise she could have attempted to use it in earnest. This
shows that Virgil himself did not believe in it, any more than Horace did.
56.
The concept of Medea the magician, who was the only person who could
render harmless the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece, has become fused in
Virgil's mind with the Hesperides, a connection which Apollonius (4.1399) had
already made; Virgil uses the past forms
dabat
and
servabat
because he is thinking
of the death of the dragon described by Apollonius. It is easy to see why the

also be given to serpents so as to render them harmless (Herzog, Hermes 29 [1894]
143 625); however, this does not answer Ribbeck's objection, that this particular dragon's
task is to stay awake, and so he ought not to be put to sleep. But Virgil's intention
was to emphasize the power of the priestess; like the maga [witch] in Tibullus who
dicitur sola feros Hecatae perdomuisse canes (1.2.52) [is reputed to be the only one
to have tamed the dogs of Hecate], the maga here too could control the dragon just
as well as Medea could. Remember that Apollonius (3.532) said of her



checked the stars and paths of the sacred moon] = sistere aquam fluviis et sidera
vertere retro (489) [to stay the current of a river and reverse the movement of stars],
where the final climax spoils the sense of the magic (a divine power may stop the
passage of time - as for example in the case of Zeus and Alcmene - but it is hardly
possible to make it run backwards). For the same reason Virgil also adds mugire
videbis terram et descendere montibus ornos (490-1) [you will see the earth bellow-
ing and rowan trees marching down from the mountains]: this is not an actual
magical practice, but the phrase credits the witch with the effect of the arrival of
Hecate herself, sub pedibus mugire solum et iuga coepta moveri silvarum (6.256)
[the ground bellowed beneath their feet and the slopes of the forest-clad mountains
began to move]. One may contrast this description with the magic effects in another
passage of Virgil, those mentioned by the country girl in Ecl . 8, the invocation of
snakes in Marsus, the werewolf, the excantatio frugum [the removal of crops by
enchantment]: those belong to the everyday magic of the peasants as opposed to
heroic magic.
57. She strews the mola (517) [sacred meal] on the fire herself: in Theocritus continue
(2.18, cf. Virgil Ecl . 8.82) this is done by a serving-girl.
58. This was already observed by the ancient commentators: see Servius ad loc .
59.
It is Aeneas' sword: so Ajax kills himself with Hector's sword.
Ensem
. . .
non
hos
quaesitum
munus
in
usus
(647) [his sword . . . a gift not sought for such a use as
144 this] has been thought to be irreconcilably incompatible (see Conington
ad
loc
.)
with
exuvias
ensemque
relictum
(507) [the clothes and the sword he had left behind]
for the hypercritical reason that, in one passage, the sword 'belongs' to Aeneas, and,
in the other, to Dido, and this leads to the further objection that a sword is not a
suitable gift for a lady. It will not have been formally handed over; Aeneas hung up
his weapons in their bedchamber at Dido's request (
quaesitum
), a pledge, as it were,
of his love (cf.
Ecl
. 8.94) - it is difficult to imagine a clearer symbol of the total
surrender of a warrior - and received from Dido in return a richly decorated sword
and Tyrian garment (261).
60. Ajax 901 (chorus):

O King, your fellow-sailors']. With the preceding words compare Ajax 910:


['you met a bloody death all on your own, unprotected by your friends: and I so
stupid, so completely unknowing, noticed nothing']. break