Dido's role in the Aeneid

There seem to be two basic arguments as to why Vergil focused so much on what could have been just an insignificant episode in the course of the founding of Rome.  The most compelling is that Dido serves as a counter point against Aeneas' pietas (not piety in an religious sense but rather loyalty or devotion, especially towards one's country).  Dido and Aeneas meet each other as equals; both have been exiled, are destined to establish a new city, lost their mates, and are dux.  An important detail that is easy to miss is Dido's devotion to her deceased husband and her refusal to even consider any suitors.  This is classic Roman pietas.  Her mental state, however, immediately begins to fall apart in Book IV.  The first line begins with At regina iamdudum (But the queen already) so before we even read the verb it is abundantly clear that it has already happened.  This is also in sharp contrast to the last word of Book III Aeneas . . . quievit (Aeneas was calm/quiet).  There are a series of similes describing Dido and Aeneas.  The first portrays Dido as a deer wounded in the woods, then Aeneas is equated to the god Apollo, then Dido is compared to a Baccant, Aeneas to an oak, and finally Dido as madmen pursued by the furies.  As she is consumed by love she neglects her duties as a leader; the city walls are no longer being built (walls are an important image for power in the Aeneid).  Dido's passions are in stark contrast to Aeneas' steadfastness.  The Romans were overwhelming Stoic - they praised the moderation of emotion - and Dido's unrelenting laments, especially coming a person of duty, would be highly suspect.  Aeneas' duty is to found Rome (some would even say that Rome is the true protagonist) and how can he disregard Jupiter's orders to leave Carthage or ignore his father's ghost telling him that he is denying his offspring of their inheritance.  Romans placed the highest emphasis on the Mos Maiorum - the custom of the ancestors; the duty of the pater familias.  Dido eventually calls herself impia and realizes how far she has fallen and her suicide redeems her pietas, or does it?  Does she kill herself out of love or out of impia?  When Aeneas later sees Dido in the underworld she ignores him and walks away with her first husband, her true love, the one she was devoted to.  Thus Vergil did redeem her.

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.