THEMES OF BOOK IV

Dido's love for Aeneas, described as a wound and a flame, grows as she listens to Aeneas's sad story. She eventually works up the nerve to speak to her sister Anna, describing her alarm at her passion for Aeneas, and how she had never loved anyone other than Sychaeus. Weeping, she states that she'd rather die than betray Sychaeus's memory.

Virgil uses negative, violent imagery of wounds and flame to describe Dido's love for Aeneas. His metaphors foreshadow her tragic fate, even while she piously tries to resist the passion that Venus created in her.

Dido was once a match for Aeneas—a strong leader who'd founded a new city. Her character has entirely changed and she's allowed love to blind her to her other duties to her people. Love has made her impious.

IMPIOUS DIETIES

• Venus shows disrespect for fate, another sign that she might be in the wrong
• Juno asked to solidify the relationship through marriage
• Venus declares this as fate rather than what Fate itself has decreed

Is this a real wedding? Juno certainly wants it to be one—but here again we see the limits of her power. With no human witnesses, and a groom who doesn't realize he's been married, the wedding pushes the limits of legitimacy. Still, Virgil presents the scene seriously and calls it a wedding, so Dido's point of view might not be wrong.

Dido might realize that her marriage isn't quite authentic, since she's trying to cloak her guilt. Nonetheless, we see that Aeneas isn't blameless either—and perhaps he's even worse, since no god enchanted him, or since he's leading Dido on. He knows this isn't his fate, but he too has abandoned his people in favor of love.

LIMITS ON DIVINE INTERVENTION

• The king sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty
• Mercury arrives only to remind him of his mission
• Has the option to atleast send Ascanius to become king
• Gives Aenius a choice
• Rome's future v.s. Dido's love

Aeneas cowardly chooses to try to leave secretly does not reflect well on him at all, even if he is just piously obeying fate.

simply stating that personal feelings don't mean anything in the face of piously doing your duty and following fate.

The comparison of Aeneas to a tree represents his steadfast piety, but also suggests that he's unable to feel human emotions.

Throughout the poem, Virgil leaves this possibility open, much like the possibility that the gods only have the power to suggest rather than the power to make humans actually do anything.

Virgil explains a historical conflict. A century before Virgil's adulthood, Rome and Carthage waged a major war, ending in Roman troops conquering Carthage in 146BC.

Both have loving and protective goddesses (and relatives) trying to help them—but Venus's meddling works out well, and Juno's fails. Neither goddess cares whether their interventions harm others, though Juno gets all the blame. The downfall of Juno and Dido is fate, of course, but Dido's death powerfully shows that fate isn't fair.

THEMES THROUGHOUT THE BOOK

• Divine Intervention
• Limits on Divine Intervention
• Piety V.S. Furor
• Duty V.S Love