Dido, Queen of Carthage, is mad with love for Aeneas.  She is amens (out of her mind), infelix (unhappy), saucia (wounded), and furens (wild), A widow who fled from Tyre after her brother Pygmalion killed her husband, Sychaeus, she is now a queen, busy building the city of Carthage.  And she has much in common with Aeneas,  a refugee from Troy who is fated to found Italy.  

Most of Book IV of the Aeneid is from Dido’s point-of-view. The goddesses, Juno (a patron of Dido) and Venus (Aeneas’ mother),  arrange for the two lovers to take refuge from a storm in a cave and form a sexual bond, 

Juno, the goddess of marriage, says, “I will be present and join her permanently in a stable marriage.”

Their marriage in the cave mirrors the traditional ancient wedding ceremony, only in this case it is presided over by gods and nature: Earth and Juno give the sign for the wedding to begin, lightning flashes (the marriage torches), and the Upper Air, or Heaven, is the witness to the wedding, while instead of traditional marriage songs the nymphs wail instead.

And then they are married:  Juno has said so, and it is so. And very often Dido uses the word “marriage” to describe their relationship. And Aeneas is quite happy with his domestic life in Carthage. He even does construction work in the city.  This is not just a dalliance for him: Carthage becomes his city.

Two forces defeat Dido: Rumor and Zeus.  Who knew that Rumor was a goddess?  

The following is my translation:

“The goddess Fama (Rumor) went immediately through the great cities of Libya/ she is an evil than which there is nothing swifter. She grows strong with movement and soon raises herself high by her swift walking / first small with fear, but soon raises herself on breezes / and walks on the ground and hides her head in the clouds. … This horrendous monster has so many feathers on her body/ as she has  watchful eyes – mirabile dictu! – and as many tongues, as many mouths resound. “

And so Dido’s reputation is ruined. She knows that her barbarian suitors are likely to wage war.

And then Juppiter sends a message to Aeneas, saying that he must sail to Italy, where, alas, he must fight a civil war for the maiden, Lavinia, whose mother will oppose it. Another war. This is not good news.

Dido insists they qre married. Doesn’t he remember his oath? How can he leave his wife? In his last speech to  Dido, Aeneas denies  that they are married, and says he never signed a contract or made a pact.  He does, however, admit that he does not want to leave, and would not if the choice were his.

The theme of marriage – what is a marriage? -is repeated throughout the Aeneid. Dido is sure she is married. On other occasions, I have dismissed that possibility, but now her insistence seems true to me, becauase of the cave scene. Does Aeneas consider it a marriage, or did he not pick up on that?

It could go either way. Perhaps both were aware; perhaps only one.

T. S. Eliot, in his essay “What Is a Classic?” called The Aeneid the the only real classic in the Western canon. I can’t judge whether it’s the best of all classixs, but it is certainly the best Latin epic poem, an epic right up there with Homer’s.