They take refuge in a cave during a storm and вЂњthe high sky bears witness to their weddingвЂќ (FaglesвЂ™s translation). SUMMARY OF BOOK IV: Aeneas and Dido, queen of Carthage, begin their love affair. Dido represents Carthage, Aeneas Rome, and the doomed love affair appalls us.

But Dido is portrayed as a romantic, doomed figure from the beginning, and because she in traditionally interpreted as more sympathetic than Aeneas with all his pietas, it causes us to question VirgilвЂ™s own interpretation of events. Cleopatra, of course, commits suicide, traditionally from an aspвЂ™s bite (PlutarchвЂ™s story), as Dido does, perhaps more gorily, with a sword. Some consider the reference in Virgil a replay of the Punic Wars, with Augustus/Rome coming out ahead over the exotic east. Virgil celebrates Augustus and Rome through these allusions.Д«ut more immediately would have been the RomansвЂ™ memory of the doomed вЂњmarriageвЂќ between Antony and Cleopatra. Carthago delenda est (вЂњCarthage must be destroyedвЂќ), or a similar sentence was said to be uttered by Cato the Elder at the end of his speeches, 149 B.C.

Carthage, RomeвЂ™s great rival, was destroyed in the third of the Punic Wars. VirgilвЂ™s legend explains the enmity in terms of the love affair between Dido and Aeneas. No Roman could have read Book IV without thinking of two historical events:Д¬arthage, one of RomeвЂ™s greatest rivals and brutal enemies, was destroyed in 149 B.C. There is also a historical context for Book IV. Protagonist brings about downfall through a mistake, not because he is evil, but because he doesnвЂ™t know enough.ДЄnagorisis: a discovery [hinges on surprise) Hamartia (caused by a tragic character flaw or mistake) Peripeteia (reversal of circumstances or intention) Some of the primary elements of a tragedy are: Some of DidoвЂ™s speeches come directly from Apollonius. ApolloniusвЂ™s epyllion follows a similar path. Her love for Jason is as strong as DidoвЂ™s for Aeneas, and Jason is as obnoxiously logical as Aeneas when he explains he has to marry for power. In EuripidesвЂ™s tragedy, Medea is a witch who kills her children and her husband JasonвЂ™s new bride in revenge for JasonвЂ™s deserting her for a younger women. There are references to two Greek versions of the Medea, EuripidesвЂ™ play, and Apollonius of RhodesвЂ™s The Argonautica, an epyllion.

Many read Book IV as a tragedy within the structure of an epic. Is Virgil questioning the achievements of Rome and the teaching that Venus/love is subservient to Mars and duty? Is Aeneas, as VenusвЂ™ son, conflicted?

His speech to Dido is cold, an unfeeling response to DidoвЂ™s. And it is true that Aeneas does not come off well here. 111 Fitzgerald translation) to вЂњan oaktree hale with age.вЂќ Dido, on the other hand, is compared to a deer struck by an unwitting hunter.ДЄeneas and Dido in Christopher Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage at the National Theatre, London, 2009.Д«ut is furor or pietas more sympathetic? Many believe that Dido/ furor is sympathetic, and that Aeneas/ pietas is a betrayor. When Aeneas вЂњis buffeted by a gale of pleasвЂќ to remain in Carthage, he is compared ( IV.441 Latin, p. If Dido represents furor, tormented by love in the forms of a flame ( flamma) and a wound ( vulnus), then Aeneas is pietas. The tension between furor (madness) and pietas (duty) dominates Book IV as it does the earlier books of the Aeneid. Hence, Sex and the City.Д«elow are my notes for a class I taught on Book IV. It is the story of DidoвЂ™s love affair with Aeneas, and their working together to build the city of Carthage until Mercury reminds Aeneas that he is fated to found Rome. IвЂ™m lugging my old Latin text everywhere, translating on bicycling breaks, surreptitiously glancing at it at Starbucks (not wanting to look radically pro-print when everybody else is technological), and at a friendвЂ™s house while she watches reruns of Sex and the City.ДЄeneid Book IV fits in with Sex and the City. IвЂ™m on schedule with my reading, but two days behind on posting. It is Day 5 of my Twelve Days of Reading The Aeneid.

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