Skip to main content

The Rare Exception of Dido-Rachael Gregson

 


Book Four definitely brought something to my attention, and that is the fact that aside from the goddesses the females in the Aeneid just aren't that special. Excluding Juno and Venus, who both play major roles moving the writing forward, the women are very dull characters that are only there for a scene or two. To put this into explanation, Creusa would serve as a great example. She's only there for a few seconds in Book II to clarify the existence of the son, and her purpose is to merely die so that Aeneas's character can be strengthened.

With all this in mind, can you really blame me for getting excited when Dido is introduced? It's even more interesting once readers realize that she's one of the few characters with enough gall to defy fate and the gods themselves. Despite it being set in stone that Aeneas is leaving for Carthage to start a new empire, Dido doesn't care to object against the will of the gods; her love for him surpasses her fear of the gods. 

However, the presence of Dido serves much deeper purposes than just the add-in of a very unique and courageous female during those times. The relationship between her and Aeneas is the personification of the relationship between Rome and Carthage itself. Through Dido, Vigil is able to show how truly human our protagonist actually is, regardless of how perfect the book portrayed him before. There's a moment where he is torn between love and his duty, and he becomes so much more relatable as a character when he chooses to carry on to Carthage. 

While Dido does make Aeneas stand out even more as the main, I think she's a notable hero herself. Even though she never had the blessing of the gods in the first place, she never let that stop her from sacrificing everything she has for love. 

Commented on posts by Abbie Hedden and Kaitlyn Terry.

Comments

  1. Ian BlairNovember 16, 2020 at 5:10 PM

    I think Dido as a character could have been used as more than just a cause to get Aeneas out of Carthage. It seems as though Virgil excluded having a consistent mortal female character, maybe he was afraid of what Roman society would think? I'm not entirely sure how the Romans would have reacted to something like a female lead, but it may be that, like the Greeks, men and women were supposed to have assigned "roles" in society and breaking those roles caused dissension. Good post!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovers of Wisdom, Not Power—Lily Caswell

In Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates talks about the possibility of having a well-governed city. However, he also talks about how that particular form of government is impossible to have. A well-governed city becomes a possibility only if you can discover a better way of life for your future rulers than holding office.” (Plato, p 215) Maybe his version of a better life was for those in office to not be lovers of power, since it would then become a fight among rival lovers. Socrates gets to the point that the only rulers who don’t love power are true philosophers. Philosophers are lovers of wisdom and knowledge and not power, ergo they are the perfect rulers. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely, so I’m thinking that maybe the trick to being a good ruler is for you to be a philosophical person who loves wisdom and not power. I commented on Jamie’s and Isabelle’s posts.
4 comments
Read more

How to Make a Clone - Clabo

I found books three and four to be very cringy. I mean, to me the idea of structurally producing good soldiers/guardians through heavy censorship is somewhat inhumane. I feel as if human beings should be allowed to experience every bit of knowledge they can at some point in their lives. To me, it seems as if the guardians are being guarded against information throughout their entire lives so they can solely fulfill the duties they were birthed into.  However, the influence and importance Plato places on poetry and music do make me wonder what it would be like if we had the same values as our military today. What if the United States military invested in the souls of its soldiers and placed within them emotional and intellectual values outside of what they have learned previously. Perhaps the military instills values and principles within soldiers to fulfill the same purpose as the guardians would in Plato's Republic and that is to only be that which the government wants you to be....
5 comments
Read more

Dystopian Origins Uncovered ////// Isabelle Ferguson

  I think that ideas eventually run out of originality and circle back to the original idea. During this week's reading, many of Socrates’ suggestions for a place of perfection reminded me of some novels I’ve read depicting dystopian worlds. Disclaimer: There are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.        To begin, in  The  Giver  by Lois Lowry censorship is a major theme. The novel is centered around a boy who is receiving memories withheld from the population! The government in The Giver is especially careful to censor the memories that may cause strife, anger, fear, sadness, etc. In the adults, this society is cemented. So, the government is especially strict with the youth. Socrates talks about verses to “obliterate” to prevent the descriptions from doing “harm to our future warriors” for the better half of Book III (Plato, page 44). The warriors he speaks of are the youth. He goes on to list the multitude of verses that should be done ...
7 comments
Read more