Aeneid 4:". . varium et mutabile semper femina"

Woman is "a thing that is always changing, shifting like the wind." (Book 4)

It doesn’t take a genius to see a pattern emerge in the Aeneid with regard to women: The good ones (Creusa) are dead; the powerful ones become mad, enraged, irrational; the bad ones are just evil (the Harpies); the rest are open to influence, weak willed (as when the Trojan women burn the ships at the urging of the goddess).

Or is that too simplistic? Are women in the Aeneid also catalysts who actually drive the narrative, and help “unroll the scroll of fate?” After all, Aeneas would never have escaped without the urging of Venus; he would have died there trying to take as many Greeks with him as he could. Without the rage of Juno/Hera, there would be no conflict. Aeneas it seems can do nothing of himself, at least in 1-6, without a woman urging him on.

Discuss some of the possible ways of looking at gender in Book 4 - how does love change both Aeneas and Dido? What consequences their relationship have for both the Carthaginians and the Trojans (Romans)?

Comments

[lynda]

Again, as it lives in on in our subconscious, women are trouble. Those were the times, which continue now in novelas.
The tradition of the Conflagration of Hera and the Insipidness of all those other mortal women/Dido is carried from Homer to the Aeneid. This must've meant something to the Greeks/Romans, or were there just no good roles for women that survived the weather.

The power of Hera, now Juno, blows Aeneas around, to the point where I cease to believe he could carry the story without her. Aeneas is blind to his own motivations and could use analysis. He is another lost wanderer, like that of his father.
And what's up with his mother. Can't she fight it out with Juno.

Although, then as is today, as love was different for Dido than it was for Aeneas might be the same today. He's just not that much into her. The "good" wife is dead and Dido's fatal attraction is too much for him to bear. Aeneas is off to the race for glory, and ends up another frenzied, soon to be dead, war hero.

Virgil's patron must not have seen the parallel.

[Nikki]

Comparing some of Homer's mortal women to Virgil's Dido mortal woman (in book 4) I see a distinct difference. Women like Andromache and Helen seem to sit back, take in what is happening, and accept the fate that is mapped out for them. They seem to really not act out; everything is left up to fate.
With Dido, it's another story. True she is under a spell, but her actions are so dramatic and extreme. When Aeneas decides he must leave because it is his duty and he plays down his relationship with Dido, she becomes enraged. She calls upon an early death to Aeneas and shortly thereafter she violently kills herself. This relationship (put forth by the spell of Juno)has turned Dido into a very ferocious, angry, and vengeful person. Whereas, Aeneas just sneeks off because he is tormented by the apparition of Apollo; one that appears during Aeneas' sleep, saying that Aeneas needs to "Be on your way. Enough delays. An ever and inconstant thing is woman" (786-788).
So for myself, I am inferring that this self-inflicted and tragic end to Dido foreshadows to a downfall of the Carthaginians. While a postive outcome for the Trojans is evident since Aeneas turns himself around in the last half of the story(Yes, I am still working on my reading).
One thing I do see that is similar in both Homer and Virgil is the direct action that the goddesses take to get what they want. Even if amounts to being deceitful and conniving.

[martin]

I see love in the Aeneid as another outside force acting upon the mortals, much like the gods, that prevent the mortals freewill or innate destiny. After all, Virgil's message seems to be that fate is inevitable and demands obedience. It seems that love is at odds with fate. Dido abandons her civic responsibilities when as she becomes distracted with Aeneas, abandoning Carthridge. It seems her emotions errode her self control. Virgil describes her love as an,"consumed by the fire buried in her heart (IV,3). At one point she herself is fearfull that her subjects have grown to dislike her because of her selfish actions. I really do not see Dido as "the good wife" no more than Aeneas was the good husband. After all her motives were self centered as she desired to strengthen the might of Carthage. Both Aeneas and Dido abandoned thier duty/fate by indulging in the flesh, which always has consequences.

[Erica]

One way of looking at gender in Book IV is to see that lines are being clearly drawn as to what characteristics separate men and women. The love story of Dido and Aeneas sets up the perfect situation in which to explain the strengths and weaknesses in men and women, and ultimately portray men as the stronger, community driven gender. It is hard to judge Dido’s actions towards Aeneas in Book IV because she is under the love spell of Cupid, and her actions are not of her own will. Before Aeneas, Dido was a strong woman, a queen. She was devoted to her husband even after his death and vowed never to marry again. This image of Dido is established and then we read the lines…woman is “a thing that is always changing, shifting like the wind.” This line seems to imply that even if Dido was not under Cupid’s spell she would act the same towards Aeneas. Her lovesickness was ultimately unavoidable. Aeneas also falls in love, but realizes that his destiny will not allow for him and Dido to live together. The idea of Aeneas’ departure torments Dido and begins to make her irrational, ill, and she abandon’s her civic duties all in the name of love. Aeneas however, is sensitive and desperately tries to calm Dido, but knows that his duty must come even before his love for Dido. Thus, Aeneas is portrayed as the sensitive, but duty driven hero; and Dido is portrayed as weak with the sickness of love that kills her in the end. The consequence of their love for the Carthaginians is the loss of their queen and abandonment by Aeneas. The Trojans however, benefit from the love story because Aeneas chooses to follow his destiny and establish Rome.

[Libby]

I think that it is easy for us to read this chapter and think of Dido as a representation of a weak and pathetic woman. Knowing the reproductions of her actions, the ultimate destruction of Cartridge, we can easily say she was selfish. But maybe her suicide was more of a noble attempt to save her country. Even though it does not say it specifically in the text, maybe she wanted to end her life because she knew she would not be the queen she had once been. If we look at it in this light, she is not weak and pathetic but strong and determined. I realize this is a stretch and it is probably the feminist inside of me that refuses to read any woman as feeble (if I can help it). Despite even this, however, we as readers cannot deny the consequences of this relationship for everyone involved. For the Carthaginians it ends in the destruction of their city but for the Trojans it seems as just another hiccup on the road to their destination. Although the experience seems to have affected Aeneas and his relationship with women. It seems that for the most part the women in this epic are very emotional and are driven by their emotions. Not only does this affect them, but more importantly it affects Aeneas. The whole reason he is doing any of this is because of the persistence of a woman. Whether or not Virgil intended this to happen, we cannot deny the presence of women in the epic.

[Karen]

In Book 1 Venus sends Cupid down to infect Dido with the flames of love, but she does so because she's worried about the fate of Aeneas. He is her son after all, and Juno is out of control, bouncing Aeneas and the Trojans from one place to another with storms, and other hardships. Once Dido is infected by Cupid for want of a better way to put it, she feels that love burn within her, but she actually wishes the earth would open up and swallow her before she breaks her vow to her dead husband Sychaeus. It is actually her sister, trying to be the voice of reason, out of genuine concern for Dido and her people, who talks Dido into pursuing a marriage with Aeneas because both the Trojans and the Phoenicians would benefit by forming an alliance. And I can't forget that Dido is where she is in the first place because of the lechery of her brother Pygmalion, having murdered Sychaeus, which forced Dido to flee her homeland before she met the same fate. Dido is a capable leader until she is undone by the meddling of Venus and Cupid, even though it is done to protect Aeneas by making the Phoenicians friendly toward the Trojans. Of course Juno can’t miss a chance to capitalize on the situation and suggests to Venus that they nudge the couple toward a marriage, under the guise of sealing a truce between the two goddesses, but Juno’s real motivation is to deny Aeneas and his descendants their destiny. Still, once Dido is finally abandoned by Aeneas, her suicide is spiteful in nature and that negates her legitimacy by comparison to the men.

I feel should mention the Sibyl, the priestess of Apollo, who guides Aeneas through the underworld, even though that comes after book 4. Without her help he might never have understood the importance of fulfilling his destiny by delivering his people to Italy and founding a new Troy. She imparts the information which allows him to retrieve the Golden Bough, and make the voyage to the land of the dead even though the living usually aren’t permitted. So she is important as a conduit, but once there in the underworld it is his father, Anchises, that provides the illumination which finally drives the point home for Aeneas. The Sibyl comes across as erratic in nature, very forceful, such that she reminds me of the witches in Macbeth, so I can’t help but feel this serves to diminish her in comparison to Anchises who appears to me much more logical and level headed.

Jove too, when compared to Juno, definitely behaves much more calm and logically.

So what does it all mean for the Phoenicians & the Trojans? Given the fact that King Iarbus granted Dido the land on which she built her city, and that he had proposed marriage to her which she rejected, only to favor Aeneas and then commit suicide, it seems to me the Phoenicians would me marked for ruin. It was Rumor, given a feminine reference as “she” I’d like to point out, who spread the word of Dido’s infidelity on the lips of every mortal, and when word reached Iarbus, he complained with a prayer to Jove. So Jove sent Mercury to spook Aeneas into getting a move on for Italy, which shook him out of his idleness. Without the Trojans to lend their protection to the Phoenicians, it seems to me they are doomed.

While I do see that there are varying degrees of good and bad on both sides of the masculine and feminine issue, and I see that the women do help propel the story and destiny, my feeling is that it must be the hero’s story which means it is for the men to resolve the chaos instigated by the unruly females.

[Trudy]

In his explanation of how he writes women characters so well, Nicholson’s character in As Good as it Gets say, “Well..., I think of a man, and then I take away reason and accountability."

Nicholson’s character sounds a lot like Virgil. As I see it, neither Virgil nor Homer had much regard for their women characters. Whether goddesses or mortals, the women are as Sean stated good and dead, powerful but mad, evil just for evil’s sake, or weak willed.

I’m not certain what Virgil was attempting in his characterizations of the women in Aeneid. But it follows the same pattern of Homer. The primary problem for the mortal men is the jealousy between the goddesses. Juno seems to start the trouble because (1) Carthage is her favorite city and (2) she in involved in an ongoing battle with Venus. Whatever –it’s trite. Why aren’t the male gods fighting with each other over something as mindless as a beauty contest? Despite, how the gods feel or interfere, or, in the case of Zeus, have the final word, it is the goddesses who cause the most destruction.

Dido is no more than Lois Lane, Octopussy, or Vicky Vale. She is used to show Aeneid’s power and piety. What a great and dutiful man he must be to leave his love because he must go and build a new world for his people. Look! Upon in the sky! It’s Superman! -- No it’s Batman! No it’s Spiderman! It’s James Bond! It’s Hector! What the hell –pick your hero –he’s the one that must forego love for the race. And none of the women are of any consequence.

Virgil creates Dido as a character that the reader respects and admires. As an immigrant, on the run from a treacherous brother, she built the city of Carthage. Even before Venus’s spell, we know that Dido is loving – she invites the Trojans to live equally amongst her people. And, of course, she loves Aeneas –our hero. Cracks in her character appear as she begins to let the building of her city lag as she entertains Aeneas. She has been convinced that he might stay and join forces with her. But, the gods (goddesses) have other plans for Aeneas: which he is made aware of by a visit from Apollo. Dido, on the other hand, receives no visit from Juno to make her aware of Aeneas’ pending departure. Why not? Why wouldn’t Virgil send a god (goddess) to Dido to prepare her –thus enabling her to get back to running her city? That only seems like the fair and good thing to do.

Dido is both powerful and weak willed –which makes little sense. Aeneas is pious; a good man –obedient. Therefore, he is able to go forth and discover Roman. Dido, on the other hand, allows love to weaken her, ruin Carthage and she has forgotten her promise of chastity following her husband’s death. As a result, she must fall on Aeneas’ sword and burn on the pyre. I guess if the story was written from a woman’s point of view we might see more equity between the two characters.

[sean]

I can understand the diversity and vehemence of opinion when reading Book 4. If you read it from a modern and feminist-informed point of you, it is not a great leap to reach the kinds of conclusions that both Trudy and Lynda share: that the story is male-oriented, overtly misogynistic. Still, I think we can complicate things somewhat. Libby noted that "But maybe her suicide was more of a noble attempt to save her country. Even though it does not say it specifically in the text, maybe she wanted to end her life because she knew she would not be the queen she had once been" and Karen paid close attention to the variety of roles that female figures play throughout the narrative. We must also mention Venus - who keeps Aeneas going, and without whom Aeneas would be perpetually lost. And the later books of the Aeneid will force us to somewhat reevaluate Vergil's apparent interest in gender when we encounter Camilla, and Nisus and Euryalis. I keep coming back to the notion of multiple perspectives: this is a defining feature of epic. If we take Book 4 on its own, in isolation, then we can conclude that women represent obstacles to be overcome, or random "x-factors" which cannot be controlled, like the Trojan women who burn the ships, or the figure of Fortune herself, always portrayed as feminine, cruel and fickle. Yet, I refuse to see Dido as a mere prop, any more than Andromache in the The Iliad (who gets the last word,it should be remembered). Dido is called throughout "infelix" (Latin) - variously translated by Fagles as "unfortunate," "doomed," "tragic." And tragic she is, and it is no coincidence that she is first called so at the moment she holds Cupid disguised as Acanius in her arms. . . She had chosen out of duty to her people to be a leader, and deliberately eschew the traditional gender roles for women after the death of her first husband (whom she clings to in the afterlife, refusing even to speak to Aeneas in his journey to the underworld). In other words, she built a city and ruled a people, but she unfortunately, like Aeneas himself to some degree, like Helen too, got caught in a web of events not of her own making. Fate is the strongest force of all in the Aeneid, and all are pushed inexorably into its sweep. What we object to just as much as the apparently asymmeticral gender stereotypes in ancient epics is the notion that we are not ultimately in control of our own destinies. At least, those who do control their own destinies do so from positions of limitation and inconsequence: the peasant, the slave, the foot soldier. Those whom Fate has marked out, like Aeneas, like Turnus, like Helen of Troy, like Achilles and Hector - get to do big things, but the outcome is fore-ordained by powers much greater than themselves. And some - like Turnus - are Fated to resist Fate: that is their destiny. The outcome of the Aeneid is never in doubt, but our curiosity is aroused - how will it happen, and who and what will be destroyed. So the hero remains the hero, but the hero is not always what or who we would want to be. Dido's lot may be a tragic one, but it is not without pathos, and a sad beauty.

[Candace]

Throughout the epic, Aeneas and several other characters constantly experience the opposition between personal, individual desire and the role of public authority. Though Virgil stresses Aeneas’ inner struggle between individual desire and public authority, Dido also seems to have a great struggle with her own individual desires and the role of public authority. Instead of having a separation between her individual desires and public authority, Dido combines the two to help her benefit from both in the end. She uses her role as a public authority figure to receive respect from her loyal subjects of Carthage, the divine gods, and most importantly, Aeneas. Yet while achieving these many levels of respect, Dido in turn uses her public authority to practice individuality for herself and to subvert the authority of the role of the stereotypical woman and the authority of the Divine.

The tragic character of Dido is unlike any other female character in literature. Rather than following the traditional role of a woman, Virgil decides to subvert the traditional role and create a new role for the heroine of his epic poem. Most women in literature are often described as emotional, dependent upon men, sensual, and unlearned. By keeping this concept present, the role of the woman has been classified to this one specific model. However, Virgil decides to challenge tradition and bring forth a new woman with the role of Dido. Like most women, Dido is emotional, sensual in that she is “consumed with passion to her core”, and subjective to her surroundings (IV.L.144). However, at the same time, Dido is unlike other leading women since she is independent from men, strong-willed, knowledgeable and cunning, carries a role of public authority, and is an equal to man, especially Aeneas. By being independent, Dido opposes the traditional notion of the woman needing to lean upon the man’s shoulder for support. Education and cleverness allows Dido to achieve the land needed to rebuild her own country’s culture, Phoenicia, in the city of Carthage. Dido proves her leadership by gathering her people and leading them to a new land to sew their culture upon: “And captaining the venture was a woman” (I.L.498). But most importantly, Dido is Aeneas’ equal in all matters including the inner struggle with public authority and individual desire. For these reasons, Dido becomes Virgil’s subversion to the past authority.

Dido maintains a unique role throughout the epic story of Aeneas. She is immediately introduced as a public authority figure, a heroine for her people, the Phoenicians. Dido, who is now the Queen of Carthage, has led her people away from the cruelty of her brother Pygmalion, and established a new city:
"Impelled by this, Dido laid her plans to get away and equip her company … And captaining the venture was a woman. They sailed to a place where today you’ll see stone walls going higher
and the citadel of Carthage, the new town
(I.L.491-501)
Hence, Dido proves herself to the divine gods and to her people that she can establish and handle an authoritative position, unlike other women. On the other hand, though, Dido also demonstrates the power and influence any woman can have over a man, especially a woman in an authoritative position. With Aeneas, for example, Dido shows that she can seduce him to do what she wants and desires, like almost any woman can with a man. But Dido’s seduction powers are more extensive than most women’s powers of seducement. For instance, it takes the divine intervention of the god Mercury to show Aeneas that he is being held captive by Dido’s bewitchment. Mercury states, “Is it for you to lay the stones for Carthage’s high walls, tame husband that you are, and build their city? Oblivious of your own world, your own kingdom?” (IV.L.361-64). Besides the building of her city, Dido also has influenced Aeneas to wear the colors of Phoenicia, “the swordhilt … adorned with yellow jasper; and the cloak aglow with Tyrian dye upon his shoulders”, instead of his colors, the colors of Troy. From this moment, through the authoritative role as Queen of Carthage and now her personal desire as wife of Aeneas, Dido has become the roadblock for Aeneas’ mission: The establishment of Trojan culture in the city of Rome.

Despite Dido’s attempt to keep her public role of authority separate from her personal, individual desires, the struggle between the two ends in a merging of each to create Dido’s subversion to authority. She desires separation between them, but since that cannot take place, she has to subvert all other authority presented to her. For example, with the marriage to Aeneas, Dido challenges the need for human witnesses at the ceremony in order for it to be official. Aeneas, on the other hand, understands the presence of human authority for the sacrament of marriage, and therefore does not recognize their marriage as true: “I never held the torches of a bridegroom, never entered upon the pact of marriage” (IV.L.467-68). Yet with this denial of marriage, Aeneas only gives Dido an even greater opportunity to subvert the authority surrounding her. She can now use her own authority to challenge Aeneas and the gods to create her new personal, individual authority away from them. Dido has become Virgil’s epitome of a public authority figure and a subversive figure all in one.

Once Dido has finished establishing herself in the eyes of the public as one with authority, she must prove her own authority to the gods. Rather than proving herself in a traditional manner, Dido decides to subvert the authority of the divine by killing herself in a poetic, yet tragic manner before her time is due: “For since she died, not at her fated span not as she merited, but before her time” (IV.L.963-64). Secondly, Dido subverts the role of the traditional woman by committing suicide in a masculine fashion. By taking the sword, a man’s weapon, piercing her fragile skin before due time, “crumpled over the steel blade”, and allowing her blood to flow upon Trojan clothing, “and the blade aflush with red blood drenched her hands”, Dido has officially claimed herself as an individual (IV.L.921-22). Though her death is tragic, in the end Dido demonstrates the need to subvert the “other”, even when you are an authority figure, in order to create a new set of standards or a new role of authority to achieve personal happiness.

Virgil creates Dido to illustrate the complications between the role of a public authority figure in the Roman era and the struggle to follow one’s personal, individual desires. Dido maintains a public role of authority by acting as the Queen of Carthage and by receiving acceptance of her authority from both the divine gods and Aeneas. On the other hand, Dido uses her authoritative position to subvert the authority of her “others”. She challenges the role of classical stereotypical woman by being characterized as strong, independent, knowledgeable, clever, and an equal to man. Secondly, she subverts the authority of the divine by influencing Aeneas to stay in Carthage and by killing herself before her time was merited by Fate. Without the character of Dido, Virgil would not have been able to stress the importance of keeping one’s public life separate from their private life. However through Dido, Virgil demonstrates that the separation of the two is nearly impossible. But with Dido, Virgil is able to establish the need to have one specific authority, the prestige of Dido as Queen, challenge another specific authority, the prestige of Aeneas or the gods, in order to create and establish a new authority.

[Liliana]

It is difficult not to notice that book after book, the women of The Aeneid are portrayed as women with no voice or reason. Yes, Juno has power, but she is out of control and moves players around in a devious manner, for she does anything she can to get what she wants. On the other hand, Jove carries the voice of reason and at times acts like a peacemaker: “The right time for war will come—don’t rush it now” (10.295).

As for Dido and Aeneas’love affair, it becomes a downfall for Dido and a wake-up call for Aeneas. The tables turn as it becomes tragic to see Dido, who was once a powerful woman, become the weaker of the two. At this point, Aeneas realizes that not even love can stop him and that he must move on to fulfill his duty. This scene is one that parallels or comes close to what we see today. I could not stop to think about Aeneas as a parallel to the Desmond character in season 3--episode 8 of the television series “Lost.” --transcript: http://www.lost-tv.com/transcripts/Flashes_Before_Your_Eyes.htm