The questions you have posed are interesting, considering that I have spent the last year and a half exploring Virgil's Book IV, and trying to find out exactly those answers. My conclusions are: 1) Yes, in Dido's eyes, she did consider herself married to Aeneas. Whether of not they consummated the affair is unknown, but left only to the theatrics played out by Dido. I truly believe that Dido may have believed that their affair was in fact a mutual sharing. Dido believed that she could sway Aeneas to somehow be dissuaded from his journey and remain with her.2) In some ways, I do believe that Aeneas thought of their tryst as a cheap fling, and evidence throughout the rest of Book IV leads me to believe this way. Aeneas makes no attempt to comfort her or try to sympathize with her broken heart. Aeneas believes that Dido is in fact, crazy, and thus a threat to herself and him. Aeneas is too preoccupied with his own ventures to consider their affair as anything more than a stop on the way. My question is: Why do you think Virgil included Dido in the Aeneid? Was she merely a deterent for Aeneas? or was she a sign of Aeneas' humanness, that he could find love? What is Dido's purpose in the story, and do you think that Virgil created her just to have Aeneas turn her down? Is this Virgil's misogynist nature, creating women only to have them defeated by men?
Kristen Rhodes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body.
