Scanning of the line reveals that mollis with long-is modifies medullas , which is reinforced by the elegant alliteration and the pleasing pattern of vowels: the phrase features all five exactly once.
Alliteration uiuit Put differently, Virgil continues to assimilate Dido to a sacrificial victim. Instead of inspecting the entrails of animals, she ought to inspect herself. He thereby also turns himself into a haruspex who performs extispicy on his character, inviting us to join him in his exercise of invasive ethopoeia: the same surgical operation that Dido performs on the innards of the uaccae she sacrifices to learn about her future, the narrator performs on the innards of Dido for his audience.
What does he show and what do we learn, not least about us? Are we just as eager as Dido cf. Or do we rather adopt the know-it-all posture of the omniscient uates for whom the future holds no secrets?
It is a major step forward from the metaphorical fire of love at the beginning of the book to the funeral pyre at the end. But the hermeneutic challenge or opportunity created by the simile does not stop here. There are many further points of contact or correspondence between the world of the narrative and the world briefly invoked in the simile that are worth identifying and discussing.
In this case, the interface between narrative and simile is particularly complex. To begin with, incautam is a curious touch. Why does Virgil appear to apportion part of the blame for getting shot to death to the poor creature? And is there an equivalent to the unwary behaviour of the hind in how Dido has conducted herself? Is Virgil perhaps suggesting that Dido was too susceptible to the charms of Aeneas and should have been more on her guard?
At the same time, procul and incautam stand in latent contradiction to one another: the hind, presumably, would have had to be supercautious to elude a herdsman shooting at her?
Furthermore, the portrayal of the pastor in the simile likens him to Aeneas. But what are the precise correspondences between the herdsman and Aeneas? The one who has so far been shooting at deer in the Aeneid is the Trojan hero, who killed seven of them right after being washed ashore in Libya, one for each of his ships: see 1.
In hindsight, these lines acquire a proleptic force, though Aeneas focused on stags. The design is intricate: the accusative objects and verbs form a chiasmus, with the subject at the centre: a quam incautam b fixit c pastor agens telis b liquit a uolatile ferrum.
The-que in liquitque links fixit and liquit. Virgil also achieves an interlacing of words referring to the hind quam , incautam and the action of getting pierced with an arrow from afar procul , fixit ; and he uses two emphatic instances of enjambment to foreground the shepherd and his actions pastor agens telis as well as his state of mind nescius.
The position of the adverb procul enacts what the word means: it is placed at some distance from the verb it modifies fixit — as does the preposition inter , which stands between the two words it governs, i. However, the word-choice, I believe, is deliberate, designed to recall the simile of the shepherd in 2.
No longer the unwitting spectator and victim of fiery fury, Aeneas has now become the unwitting perpetrator of the same, the innocent agent of all that he abhors. Entirely against his will, half-ignorant to the very end, he destroys the woman he loves, leaving her to the agonies of the fury he has caused, ultimately to the suicide which is implied in this very simile. After he abandons Carthage and looks back from the sea at the flames that rise from the pyre, where she lies pierced by his own sword, he does not know the reason for the fire causa latet 5.
How far he has moved into the bitter world of reality from that pastoral innocence! How little he understands the destructive consequences of his actions! One important difference is that the shepherd does not pursue the hind because he does not realize that his arrow has hit the mark; Aeneas, of course, leaves Dido knowing full well the extent to which she has fallen in love with him.
Dicte without being able to shake off the lethal arrow in her side. Dictaeus refers to Mt. Dicte on Crete; Virgil places the geographical specification, which is more precise than the earlier nemora inter Cresia , in enjambment. The continuing emphasis on the Cretan setting is remarkable and has long puzzled commentators. The arrow slips easily from his flesh, pain vanishes, and strength is restored.
See Virgil, Eclogue 6, for a take on this. At Eclogue 6. Britomartis or renamed Dictynna: see Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis — There is a powerful and brutal finality to the measured phrase haeret lateri letalis harundo. Alliteration ha- , ha- and assonance -re-,-run- link the framing words haeret and harundo and alliteration and vowel-patterning a , e , i ; e , a , i link the central lateri scanning short, short, long and letalis , whereas lateri stands as dative object to haeret and letalis modifies harundo : an intricate design that conveys a tragic sense of non- closure.
The wound is fatal, but the process of dying will be prolonged, an ominous image that stands in poignant parallel to what will unfold with Dido in the rest of the book. After sagitta , tela , and ferrum , harundo is the fourth term Virgil uses to denote the fatal arrow.
Throughout, the syntax of the passage is predominantly paratactic the main verbs are underlined , but Virgil has slightly altered the rhetorical design as he moves from daytime to evening. In 74—76 we get four main verbs ducit — ostentat; incipit — resistit , of which the first two and the last two are linked by-que Sidoniasque ; mediaque , whereas incipit follows on ostentat asyndetically.
In 77—79, we get a tricolon quaerit — exposcit — pendet , with all verbs linked by-que Iliacosque ; pendetque. The lexeme moenia almost invariably recalls the last line of the proem, the altae moenia Romae 1.
Here it carries a latent accusatory charge: Aeneas ought not to be sightseeing among the walls of Carthage; he should see to his mission, which will eventually result in the walls of Rome. Virgil has arranged attributes and nouns chiastically: a Sidonias b opes b urbem a paratam. The adjective Sidonias refers to Sidon, a city in Phoenicia; the phrase Sidonias Dido retains the same spirit of remarkable generosity though now reinforced by amorous passion that animated her invitation to the shipwrecked Trojans to stay, before she had even set eyes on Aeneas 1.
The city I build is yours The asyndetic continuation of the main clauses with incipit conveys a sense of the mental effort Dido has to make to muster sufficient courage to address Aeneas, only to break off midway. Put differently, she acts like a tongue-tied teenager in love.
In the light of how Aeneas reacted to the first request to tell his tale 2. Aeneas, however, seems to oblige willingly.
Here as elsewhere in the opening of Book 4, he leads a very shadowy existence in the narrative and hardly figures as an independent agent. A striking and compelling parallel is Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 1. Mars] pastures on love his greedy sight while gazing on you, goddess [sc.
It is designed as a tricolon, with the two-que after lumen and suadent linking the three verbs: digressi [sc. Line 81 is entirely dactylic, rushing everybody off to sleep — somnos is the telos of both the verse and the action it describes and the sense of falling asleep or coming to the end of the hexameter is deftly enacted by the soothing coincidence of word accent and ictus in the final three words, linked by s-alliteration suadentia , sidera , somnos and the fact that the rhythm slows down: the two syllables of the last word and foot somnos are both long.
Dido throws herself onto the couch that Aeneas has just left and broods there, an action reflected in the enjambment of incubat , which takes the dative stratis relictis. Still, the image unsettles: Dido, demens as she is, is increasingly getting out of control. In metrical position and effect in enjambment, caesura after first foot detinet 85 mirrors incubat 82 , underscoring the switch in focus — from Dido sleeplessly brooding on her bed to fondling Ascanius in her lap. The passage belongs into a sequence that begins at 1.
The sense of the participle is causal — Dido cuddles Ascanius because he resembles his father. Beyond its literal meaning, the phrase genitoris imago resonates powerfully within the memorial culture of republican and early imperial Rome.
Imago , or, in the plural, imagines were the wax masks of deceased former magistrates that hung in the atria of noble houses and were donned by actors during the funeral processions of deceased members of the family who had held public office. This was one of the most remarkable rituals of the Roman republic, designed to celebrate family-achievement and lineage.
Both the attribute infandum and the phrase fallere amorem raise tricky problems of interpretation. What does fallere refer to here? At least three possible interpretations come to mind, depending on what precisely fallere and amor are taken to mean. One could consider reading amorem with a capital A Amorem , especially since the scene here strongly recalls 1.
It is as if Dido is keen on another dose of Love. Especially with this line resonating here, the passage subtly intimates that two sets of walls have ceased to make progress: the future of both cities, Carthage and Rome, lies forgotten. With coeptae turres , portus aut propugnacula One possible answer could be that minae , inevitably, invokes the future threats are inherently prospective and hence draws attention to the incomplete state of the building works.
The m-alliteration in minae murorum is continued by machina. But from then on, it is difficult to keep track of how many days have been passing by. Going by the imprecise temporal markers in 63 instauratque diem donis and 82—85, it is just about possible to cram the action of Aeneid 4.
Day 1: conversation between Anna and Dido; initial sacrifices Day 2: renewal of sacrifices; raging through the city; sightseeing with Aeneas; second evening banquet; Dido being left behind alone Day 3: cuddling time with Ascanius. In particular, the comment on the abandoned building works in 86—89 that concludes this section, implies that more time has elapsed than a three-day period. Still, it is important to bear in mind that Aeneas both arrives and departs during the same non-sailing season.
What has he been up to while we learn about Dido in love? It is almost as if Virgil gives his protagonist a break, after three full books in the narrative limelight. Homer, too, has long stretches in which Achilles and Odysseus all but disappear from view.
Still, developments have reached something of an impasse, and in such situations the epic poet has at his disposal a reliable source of new narrative stimuli: the gods. The action now shifts back to the divine plane, with Juno, the goddess of conjugal bonds, who has faded from the narrative after derailing the fleet of Aeneas at the very beginning of the epic accosting and confronting Venus, the goddess of erotic passion.
The two scheming divinities, one more deceitful than the other, engage in a battle of wits. Each one walks away in the belief to have fooled the other. Only Venus, of course, is right: whereas Juno dominates the conversation she gets two speeches , the goddess of love knows that she will emerge victoriously in the end. She has, after all, been briefed in the workings of destiny by none other than Jupiter see Aeneid 1.
Here is the section in outline:. The parallels, set out by Nelis and Hall, are as follows: The opening gambit includes a sarcastic comment: compare Aeneid 4. Ironically, in Apollonius, this plan consists in Aphrodite calling upon Eros to enchant Medea with desire for Jason—exactly what Venus, in Virgil, then does also to Dido, much to the displeasure of Juno.
Viewed intertextually, Venus clearly has learned a trick or two from past encounters with the queen of the gods. And, of course, in Virgil the power relation is inverted: in Apollonius, Hera and Athena are in charge and Aphrodite does their bidding see esp.
But when Juno approaches Venus in Virgil, the erotic assault on the heroine is already a fait accompli : in the Aeneid , Venus is a step ahead in the divine power struggle. In intertextual terms, then, it is payback time: this is not the Argonautica , where Aphrodite stands for sex and little else; this is the Aeneid , where Venus, apart from sex and erotic attraction, also figures as the mother of the founding-hero of the Roman people, as the daughter of Jupiter, as mistress of fate.
Within the simul-ac-clause , persensit introduces an indirect statement that falls into two parts linked by nec. In the light of our discussion of time, the per- in persensit is important: it underscores that it dawns on Juno gradually what is going on and as soon as simul ac she has become fully conscious of the dirty trick Venus and her son have been playing on Dido, she takes action.
The wording recalls 1. Henderson, per litteras , proposes Catullus Saturnia : Juno has been absent from the narrative for a while, and upon her re-entry Virgil goes out of his way to stress her important position within the Olympic pantheon: she is the wife of Jupiter and the offspring of Saturn. Some editors, however, including Conington and Pease prefer to read nomen instead of numen and to punctuate differently:.
Which reading do you prefer and why? Its accusative object is presented chiastically: adjective egregiam , noun laudem , noun spolia , adjective ampla. This sarcastic praise for a conquest that could not have been easier to achieve may deliberately recall Iliad 5, where Aphrodite saves Aeneas from Diomedes, though not without being wounded in the process, leading to much lament. What a mess the Aeneid is making of getting from Troy to Rome — wrong continent, wrong genre Later on in our passage, Mercury will refer to Jupiter as deum Ironically, Juno, who was the object of theological commentary by Virgil in the proem, has now turned into the commentator: she grudgingly concedes that Cupid has usurped what ought to be her narrative.
Juno does not seem interested in justice at all. For her, this is a matter of power and the pursuit of selfish interests. She does not remonstrate with Venus that Dido suffers unfairly.
Rather, she mocks her counterpart for a cheap victory. The difference between the human and the divine perspective is telling: mortals have much at stake in the justice of the gods; the gods themselves, however, arguably nothing. Juno points out that Dido never had a chance, whether in terms of ontology and gender a mortal femina vs. With the phrasing moenia nostra That Juno mentions moenia modified by the proud-possessive-protective nostra in the same breath arguably highlights her rhetorical gaffe.
But we may pardon the goddess for not being in top form, given her state of emotional distress: after all, the fear of Carthage she here projects onto Venus ueritam te Iuno ], with id refering to the future destruction of Carthage by the Romans. In a more conciliatory vein, she begins to question the point and purpose of the scheming, enquiring into the limit of what she considers an excessive use of divine force.
As it turns out, the reduction of Dido to a state of hopeless passion is now derailing the founding of two great cities: Carthage and Rome. Juno, for her own selfish interests to be sure, tries to offer a way out of the deadlock. She of course knows, after her consultation with Jupiter, that matters will turn out well in the end: imperium sine fine and all that.
Juno wraps her offer to Venus in impressive rhetoric: pacem aeternam pactosque hymenaeos is chiastic in terms of grammar noun: adjective; adjective: noun. What looks like a generous proposal is in fact both insidious communem and deeply problematic in terms of practical arrangement paribus auspiciis. The Scholia Danielis cited by Pease put the finger on the problem by asking whether communem means that Juno offers Venus joint rule of her city Carthage or that Tyrians and Trojans will have merged into one populus.
The former of course all but implies the latter: a joint rule of the two goddesses will ultimately result in a joint people. Juno never spells this out she only mentions marriage of their two princely and principal charges , but in effect she here suggests for Carthage what has been pre-scripted for Italy: the ethnic merging of the Trojan refugees with the indigenous population. In other words, she here again plots to derail fatum and the founding of Rome.
Taken literally, with paribus auspiciis Juno proposes that each goddess has to consult the other on anything before taking any action and that the opinion of each has exactly equal weight.
It is an interesting question of how they would have worked this in practice. But this sort of collegial arrangement is fraught with problems and can break down easily Eteocles and Polynices also initially agreed to rule in alternating years: we all know what happened at the moment the regime was supposed to change hands for the first time , and one wonders whether it would have been practicable here.
In Augustan Rome, especially, after a century of civil bloodshed had proven the difficulty of sharing power, the mode of government that Juno evokes with communem and paribus auspiciis would probably have been deemed doomed to failure. Her speech falls into three parts:. Dido conceives of herself as a figure under the sway of fickle fortune see esp. Their fortunes become personalized, allowing for the assertion of selfhood and the willfulness that make Dido and Turnus the most vivid characters in the poem.
Since Aphrodite of course favours the Trojans, Hera tells her a cock-and-bull story about needing the girdle to reconcile the estranged couple of Oceanus and Tethys. See Iliad Laughter-loving Aphrodite answered her: it is not to be nor is it seemly that I say no to your speech; for you sleep in the arms of Zeus the mightiest. She will do it justice in Virgil at below; and unlike in Homer, she is not to be deceived.
Juno is elided, just like the esse that completes locutam. The subject of auerteret is Juno; in prose, the accusative of direction Libycas oras would normally have taken the preposition ad. The chiastic design of regnum Italiae Libycas oras stylistically underscores the intended redirection, with the two geographical markers juxtaposed in the centre and Italy yielding to Libya note the homoioteleuton-cas,-ras. Since Iliad 1, nodding ab- nuat is a trademarked way of Olympian divinities to signal assent or as here dissent from above.
See also 1. When Venus asks quis In other words, Venus knows very well that what Juno here plans will never become a factum. To some degree Virgil, the retrospective prophet, has eliminated contingency from his literary universe, tracing a story that is in outline historically predetermined — which in this case means that Juno will not be able to shape history the way she wants.
With her maliciously double-layered and disingenuous gesture to fortuna , Venus reminds Juno that the successful execution of her scheme is not entirely up to them, but also secretly mocks her antagonist in the full knowledge that her scheming will be in vain.
To be knowledgeable of the future sure is a nice position to be in: here, her superior insight into the fata enables Venus to be simultaneously smug and coy. Troiaque profectis refer to the respective origins of the ethnic communities of Dido, i. The two are of course not mutually exclusive. Here the merger of two peoples is only mooted as a hypothetical possibility; but the theme dominates the second half of the Aeneid , which revolves around the merging of Trojans and Latins, again at the level of a royal couple Aeneas and Lavinia and two entire peoples.
There, too, Virgil uses both ethnic and legal terminology to describe the union See e. Iouis es], tibi fas [sc. She has absolutely no intention to consult with Jupiter any time soon.
Far from clearing her plan with her husband beforehand, she clearly intends to let him know only after the liasion between Dido and Aeneas is already a fait accompli if at all: in the end he finds out about what is going on from his son Iarbas.
The tone is both matey and dismissive, as Juno instantly moves on. With nunc her attitude changes as she sets out methodically qua ratione and briefly paucis what the two goddesses ought to do on their own and right away quod instat , contrasting with iste labor.
Perhaps Juno is rather being chummy and conspiratorial? Juno mentions Aeneas only by his bare name, without ornamental epithet, whereas Dido receives an attribute in the superlative for a similar snide innuendo see line But what is the force of miserrima , which recalls and stands in implicit contrast to the pulcherrima Virgil uses elsewhere? The-que links extulerit and retexerit. Usually it is the narrator who establishes the setting with evocative descriptions cf.
The hyperbaton of subject ego and accusative object nigrantem The word order of nigrantem commixta grandine nimbum is iconic: the hail is contained within the black cloud. In Book 1, Juno enlisted Aeolus to unleash a storm. In Book 7, she will enlist the Fury Allecto to unleash hell on earth.
Juno plans to underscore her deluge with a suitable soundtrack that will rattle heaven. Note the two elisions infundam et and caelum omne , giving metrical support to the theme of pouring rain and resounding thunder.
They are frightening, and are often taken as a means of the gods to communicate with humans. To combat this notion, Lucretius, in the final book of his De Rerum Natura , an account of the world grounded in Epicurean physics Epicurus was an atomist who dismissed divine interference in human affairs as noxious superstition , devotes a lengthy discussion of what natural phenomena might cause thunderstorms, trying to dispel any irrational fear of them.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 6. The postponed et has a double effect: a it generates the momentary impression that Dido is the dux an effect reinforced by alliteration ; and b it separates the adjective that identifies Aeneas Troianus from the noun that indicates his leadership abilities dux.
Both the elevation of Dido and the slighting of Aeneas that the word order entails are of course fully in line with how the speaker Juno sees matters more generally. The postponed et thus underpins a beautifully subtle piece of ethopoiea. The use of dux here also harks back to 1. Some have suspected line here as a repetition of 1. At the same time, the comparison with 1.
In Book 1, Juno gives Aeolus the following promise 71—73 :. Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore nymphae, quarum quae forma pulcherrima, Deiopea, conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo.
In Book 4, however, matters are less clear. Juno obviously intends to link Dido and Aeneas in wedlock and will give over Dido to Aeneas as his own. But the person whom she addresses here, as the equivalent to Aeolus, is Venus.
The awkward syntax thus continues her policy of marginalizing and eliding the Trojan hero, and it even generates an interesting ambiguity: is she giving over Dido to Aeneas or to his mother Venus or both? The former reading seems feeble; but if the meaning is supposed to be the latter, the use of the singular hymenaeus is unusual. But she is quite happy to play along. Venus] enim simulata mente locutam Why should she?
Well, the goddess of erotic desire can hardly keep a straight face when the goddess of lawful marriage engineers a romp in a cave that is to be dressed up as a legitimate wedding though it will be anything but.
It is an insidious, even perverse sense of humour that Venus puts on display here — but perfectly in character. The basic structure of the section is as follows:. Likewise, hunting in ancient thought is a sexually charged activity, but the erotics associated with hunting are of the violent, trangressing kind, as opposed to the civilized values that inform proper marital arrangements.
The intermingling of Carthaginians and Trojans raises the question whether Virgil uses the occasion to demarcate ethnic differences.
But at least on the level of the entourage, similarities outweigh differences: in fact, Virgil opts for studied symmetry in how he presents the two peoples. At first sight the same does not quite apply to the same degree to the two leaders: here differences dominate, also on the syntactical level.
As Syed points out: She is the subject of hardly a single active verb, excepting the ironically deponent progreditur in 4. For the most part, she is watched for 4. By contrast, Aeneas and Apollo to whom Aeneas is compared, are insistently active, they are the subjects of active verbs in the passage: Aeneas joins Dido 4.
In the simile, Apollo leaves Lycia 4. He renews dances 4. Just so, Aeneas, too, walks 4. But on inspection, the differentiation between Dido and Aeneas is perhaps less marked than Syed makes it out to be. It is true that Dido, throughout this passage, remains strangely out of focus and her agency marginalized.
Also in light of the fact that we later meet Aeneas as if dressed for a Punic catwalk, with a cloak aflame in Phoenician gold and purple 4. And as for syntax, just as Dido, Apollo, too, struts about in a deponent: graditur The passage, then, seems studiouly ambiguous about the countervailing dynamics of assimilation and differentiation. Moreover, over the course of the book Aurora gradually morphs from a personified concept into a mythological character. At 6—7 there is hardly any hint of her involvement with Tithonus; here, at , surgens and reliquit refers to her daily departure from the bed of her aging husband, for whom she requested immortality, while forgetting to ask for eternal youth as well; and at —85, the sad story of a love-quest that went tragically awry is alluded to explicitly, with linquens harking back to and providing a gloss on surgens and reliquit in In a sense, then, the repeated references to Aurora and the ever more concrete allusion to her myth offer a cosmic correlate to the evolving tragedy of Dido.
The section falls into three parts:. Several formal features magnify the sense of jostling excitement and expectation:. Word order: the monosyllabic verb at the outset it instantly emphasizes motion and conveys something of the hustle and bustle of the hunting party: everyone is eager to get going.
See also below on stat sonipes The two aspects go together as Austin explains, as part of a little disquisition on word accents in Latin more generally: A glance at any page of Virgil shows two normal patterns in the last two feet, either that of delecta iuventus , or that of venabula ferro : i.
The line has a bustling, agitated close instead of a calm, smooth one, and the metre itself shows the excitement of the scene, with the hounds poking about vigorously and appearing in unexpected places. The most famous member of the tribe in historical times was king Massinissa, the first king of Numibia, who lived during the time of the Second Punic War, starting out as an ally of Carthage but then switching sides and playing a key role in the battle of Zama BC , which ended the war.
The Roman general Scipio nevertheless refused to pardon his wife, the Carthaginian princess Sophonisba; to avoid the humiliation of being paraded in a Roman triumph, she committed suicide. The phrasing has precedents in Homer, Ennius, and Lucretius. Far from highlighting her sense of shame pudor , pudicitia or virginity, her prolonged presence in the room marked for encounters of the carnal kind would seem to suggest that sex is on her mind and that she longs for the physical consumation of her visceral passion in a way that is supposedly entirely alien to innocent brides.
For a moment one could therefore assume that Dido is meant, especially since both the purple and the gold evoke her hometown of Tyre — which was famous for the sea snail from which the purple dye was extracted and which she fled on ships laden with gold. The joke continues in line , where Virgil switches the subject, almost imperceptibly, from the horse mandit to Dido progreditur. This dye was greatly prized in antiquity because it did not fade but became more intense with weathering and sunlight.
The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols, and early sumptuary laws restricted their uses. Virgil may be cracking a bit of a joke here by combining this metonymy for horse with the verb stat.
The two verbs stat , mandit frame the line; note also the alliteration stat sonipes See also below on — This is very much in contrast to her magnificent entrance in Book 1, to which Virgil here gestures 1.
In our passage, which includes a simile that compares Aeneas to Apollo, the positions are reversed: Dido is out of the limelight for the time being, whereas Aeneas and his son are very much in it. Virgil, it seems, deliberately inverts the emphases and preferences of the goddess. The two phrases are interlaced according to the pattern adjective 1 Sidoniam , adjective 2 picto , noun 1 chlamydem , noun 2 limbo. The chlamys , though, a Greek type of cloak, is an appropriate hunting garment, and the quiver recalls her special association with the goddess of the hunt, Diana: see 1.
The lines are from the simile that accompanies the entry of Dido into the poem and powerfully resonates in the passage here: see below.
See Book 1. So in essence, Dido is here wearing the treasures of her dead husband to impress her would-be new consort. So from the point of view of genre, Dido is not really dressed here as befits an epic protagonist. Artemis, Lady of Maidenhood, Slayer of Tityus, golden were your weapons and your belt, and golden the car you yoked, and you put golden bridles, goddess, on your deer.
Golden is the tunic of Apollo, his mantle, his lyre, his Lyctian bow, and his quiver. Golden , too, are his sandals; for rich in gold is Apollo and also in possessions. They enter the scene together, in enjambment: incedunt. Dido is nowhere to be seen, though some translations obfuscate her eclipse. The verse design enacts the central and conspicuous leadership role of Aeneas.
The design is chiastic with Aeneas as pivot — verb: infert , accusative object: se socium , subject: Aeneas , accusative object: agmina , verb: iungit — and thereby mirrors on the figurative level what happens at the level of plot: the intermingling of the two peoples around Aeneas who stands at dead centre. One could imagine that the meeting of the two groups resulted in a huge hullabaloo, but Virgil suggests otherwise: the two elisions socium Aeneas ; atque agmina enact the smooth joining of forces by the joining of words.
If one sees the preparations for the hunt as the distorted and distorting performance of a wedding ritual, agmina iungit recalls conubio iungam stabili. In fact, it is an epic topos that goddesses work some cosmetic magic on their favourite heroes before crucial encounters with a girl: Athena prettifies Odysseus before his encounter with Nausicaa; Hera prettifies Jason before his encounter with Medea; and Venus, in Book 1, had rendered Aeneas stunning to behold before he left his protective cloud to meet Dido 1.
While Virgil mentions no divine intervention here, his use of pulcherrimus constitutes a gesture to this commonplace. The tricolon is an operative principle throughout: we get three geographical locations hibernam Lyciam , Xanthi fluenta , Delum maternam , three main verbs in the opening sequence deserit , inuisit , instaurat , three types of companions Cretes , Dryopes , picti Agathyrsi , three main verbs in the closing sequence with Apollo as subject graditur , premit , implicat — though, perhaps for the sake of variation, with a fourth tagged on but with a change in subject sonant.
Here is Argonautica 1. And as Apollo goes from his fragrant temple through holy Delos or Claros, or through Pytho or broad Lycia by the streams of Xanthus, so he went through the crowd of people, and a shout went up as they cheered with one voice. It sets up the highly resonant hibernam : see next note. See cui me moribundam deseris hospes? Apollo : Delos was the island on which Leto gave birth to her twins Diana and Apollo.
Virgil identifies the subject Apollo only at the very end of the second verse of the simile, though the geographical locations, and in particular the phrase Delum maternam , already provide fairly decisive clues. The emphasis on returning to a maternal location may aid in the subtle assimilation of Apollo to Dionysus that pervades the simile.
The-que attached to Cretes , in contrast, despite scanning long, does not link anything and is thus strictly speaking superfluous. Dido also represents the sacrifice Aeneas makes to pursue his duty. If fate were to allow him to remain in Carthage, he would rule a city beside a queen he loves without enduring the further hardships of war. Through Dido, Virgil affirms order, duty, and history at the expense of romantic love. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Aeneas Dido Turnus.
He is now faced with the bitter prospect of trying to explain to Dido as best he can why he must leave the land and the woman he loves.
He ends by telling Dido of Mercury's appearance to him with instructions from heaven; he is therefore leaveing her for Italy not of his own free will. Finally she prays for vengeance and the knowledge of vengeance. The Trojans make their preparations for departure. Dido in her misery determines to make one further appeal through her sister Anna.
But Aeneas is resolute, like and oak tree buffeted by the gales but not overthrown. She has nightmare dreams of Aeneas prusuing her, and of her utter desolation; she is like Pentheus or Orestes hounded by the Furies. A pyre is to be built burn the relics of Aeneas. Anna, not suspecting the real purpose of the pyre, performs Dido's orders. But not Dido - her anguish keeps her awake and she turns over in her distracted mind all possibilities.
Shall she go to the African suitors she has scorned? Or accompany the Trojans, alone or with an escort? Impossible: better to die; this is the proper atonement for her broken pledge to Sychaeus. Aeneas immediately awakens his men, and the Trojans depart in hot haste. She calls on the sun, the gods and the furies to avenge her, first on Aeneas personally and then on all his descendants.
In her last words, she speaks of her life's achievements and once more prays for vengeance on Aeneas. Juno therefore sends Iris to perform the rite, and Dido's life departs into the winds. Aeneas agrees, and they land near the tomb of Anchises, and are welcomed by Acestes. He proclaims a solemn sacrifice at the tomb, which is to be followed on the ninth day by contest in rowing, running, boxing and archery. Suddenly a huge snake comes forth from the tomb, tastes the offerings, and then disappears.
Aeneas recognises that this indicates the presence of Anchises' ghost at the ceremony, and the sacrifice is renewed, and followed by a ritual feast.
The course is out to sea, round a rock and home again. The competitors draw lots for postion; the starting signal is given, and the ships get under way amidst applause.
As tehy draw near the turningpoint, Gyas urges he helmsman Menoetes to steer closer in; but in fear of fouling the rock he fails to do so, and Cloanthus' ship slips past on the inside. In a fury of anger Gyas throws Menoetes overboard; eventually he manages to clamber out on the rock, while all the spectators are amused at the incident.
Sergestus slightly ahead and Mnestheus urges his men to put forward all their efforts to avoid the disgrace of coming in last. Sergestus goes in too near the turning-point and runs aground, breaking his oars on one side.
Mnesthus leaves him behind and soon overtakes Gyas too; then he set out after Cloanthus. His prayers are heard, and he reaches harbour, the winner of the race.
When this is completed, Sergestus finally manages to bring home his disabled ship, moving slowly like a maimed snake; he duly receives his fourth prize. He invites competitors for the foot-race, and many Trojans and Sicilians enter for it. He promises gifts for all the runners, and announces the prizes which will be awarded to the first three. While lying on the ground he trips up Salius who was second, so that his friend Euryalus comes up from third place to win.
Aeneas over-rules it, but he presents Salius with a consolation prize; Nisus too is given a special prize. Dares comes forward, but nobody is prepared to fight him. He claims the prize. He protests that he is now past the prime of his youth, but none the less accepts the challenge and hurls into the ring a pair of huge gauntlets with which Eryx once faught Hercules. The spectators are all shocked and amazed; Entellus makes a taunting speech, but agrees to fight with matched gauntlets.
After preliminary sparring Entellus aims a mighty blow which misses and causes him to fall flat on the ground. He is assisted to his feet, and in fury renews the fight, driving Dared all around the arena. Dares is carried away by his friends back to the ships, and Entellus receives the ox as his prize.
With a single blow he kills it in a sacrifice to Eryx, and announces his final retirement from boxing. Hippocoon hits the mast; Mnesteus' arrow cots the cord; Eurytion then shoots down the bird as it flies away. It catches fire, and then disappears like a shooting star. Aeneas recognises this as a good omen and awards Acestes first prize.
They process in three companies, young Priam the leading one, Atys another, and Iulus the third, and they give a brilliant display of intricate manoeuvres and mock battle. This is the ceremony which Iulus introduces Alba Longa, and it was handed on to Rome and called the lusus Troiae.
They are gathered on the shore weeping over Anchises' death and their endless wanderings; Iris takes on the appearance of Beroe and urges them to set fire to the ships so that they cannot wanter any more. Pyrgo tells them that this is not Beroe, but a goddess; Iris reveals her divinity and driven on now by frenzy they set the ships ablaze.
Ascanius immediately rides off and brings the women to the realization of their crime. But the Trojans cannot but out the flames, and Aeneas prays to Jupiter either to send help or to bring final destruction upon them. Jupiter hears his prayer; the flames are quenched by a thunderstorm, and all the ships are saved except for four.
Nautes advises him to leave behind some of his company in Sicily, and takes the rest onwards to Italy. As Aeneas is pondering this advice there appears to him in the night a vision of his father Anchises, who tells him to accept Nautes' advice; but before establishing his city he is to visit the underworld to meet his father and hear his destiny. After nine days of celebration in honour of the new city the Trojans say their farewells to those staying behind; sacrifices are made, and they sail for Italy.
Neptune gives his promise, but says that one life must be lost so that the others shall be safe. The seas are calmed as Neptune rides over them, attended by his retinue. During the night the god Sleep comed to Palinurus, disguised as Phorbas, and urges him to rest from his vigil.
Palinurus refuses, and Sleep casts him into the sea. When the loss of the helmsman is discovered; Aeneas takes over the control of the ship and in deep sorrow speaks his farewell to Palinurus. He gazes in admiration at the pictures on the temple doors, and is called into the temple by the Sibyl. He does do, asking to be allowed to enter into the kingdom granted to him by fare, and promising a temple and a festival to the god and a special shrine for the Sibyl.
The Sibyl describes the formidable nature of the journey, and states the two prerequisites: the acquisition of the golden bough and the expiation of pollution incurred by the death of one of Aeneas' companions. He sets about organising funeral rites for Misenus. At the entrance Aeneas and the Sibyl are confronted by various horrible shapes of personified forms of suffering, and a host of monstrous and unnatural creatures of mythology.
The shades flock to the river, and Charon ferries across those who have been buried, leaving the others to wait for a hundred years. Palinurus begs for burial, or to be taken across the Styx although unburied, but the Sibyl replies that this is impossible.
She consoles him by telling him that the cape where he died will bear his name for ever. Here are the souls of infants, the unjustly condemned, suicides and those who died from unhappy love. Here they meet the shade of Dido; Aeneas speaks to her in tones of deep affetion and remorse , but she turns from him without a word.
In grief and remorse Aeneas asks what happened, explaining that he was not able to find Deiphobus' body for burial. Deiphobus replies that Helen, his wife, had betrayed him to the vengeance of Menelaus and Odysseus; in his turn he asks Aeneas for his story.
The Sibyl interrupts to hasten Aeneas in and Deiphobus retires to his place among the shades, wishing Aeneas better fortune for his future. The Sibyl tells Aeneas that he may not enter; she describes to him the sinners and their punishments.
They are directed to Anchises. Father and son welcome each other. Anchises explains that they are waiting for rebirth, and gives an account of the soul's relationship with the body, and what happens to it after death.
Aeneas enquires about a sad figure accompanying him, and is told that this is the young Marcellus, destined to an early death. Aeneas and the Sibyl leave by the ivory gate, and Aeneas rejoins his fleet and sails north to Caieta. Iulus exlacims "We are eating our tables," and A. He makes appropriate sacrifices and Jupiter thunders in confirmation of the omen.
Ilioneus answers that fate has brought them to Italy, and offers gifts.
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