First post/First Paper Assignment

Well my first post is going to be about my first major paper topic of this semester: a comparison between a Latin classic and any modern adaptation.  I've decided to compare Book IV of the Aeneid with Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas.  I need to explore the similarities and differences in the plots, characters, etc.  I also read a bit of an interesting essay discussing the veiled allegories in Purcell's opera; mainly that Aeneas is English king James II, Juno/the sorceress is the Roman Catholic Church, and Dido is the English people.  This is a good contrast with Virgil's possible representation of Dido and Aeneas as Cleopatra and Antony; a reference which any Roman would have immediately understood.  There are some who argue that any adaptation should have many of the same elements and, more importantly, elicit the same response from the audience.  The allegories of both versions would have gotten very similar responses but then one must ask where the sympathies lie.  Purcell clearly sympathizes with Dido but Virgil's sympathies are much harder to understand.  Aeneas is after all the hero of Rome.  Yet Virgil focuses on Dido and creates a very sympathetic character; a mini tragedy of the woman called dux who is misled by Cupid and the goddesses Juno and Venus into falling into an impossible love, ultimately killing herself.  So although there is the resemblance to the highly unpopular relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, Virgil puts a more sympathetic emphasis on Dido.  Moreover, would the casual Roman have even sympathized with a woman?  Was the tragedy of Dido supposed to be a warning and/or a Stoic tale of love and a misogynistic view of emotion?  She was the queen of Carthage after all; Rome's most hated enemy.  Is it just our contemporary filter that makes us sympathetic to Dido?  Would the Romans laugh condescendingly at us and tell us we are soft?  Most likely yes.  We are appalled at violence in movies but the Romans liked to see it in person so yes, we have very different sensibilities.  Yet, I think Virgil could have simply glossed over Dido and his decision to emphasize her story is a statement unto itself even if that statement is ambiguous.