The tradition of Ancient Greek drama attributes all events of characters’ lives to the will of gods. Be it love or hatred, bravery or anger, everything in a nature of a mere human could be reinforced or eliminated by unconscious infusion of god’s intention. A love story of Aeneas and Dido, the first queen of Carthage, is a perfect example of such intrusion.
Aeneas and Dido were both high-minded people with different fates. While Aeneas was to found a new state in a distant land, Dido was to rule wisely her own kingdom. When Dido fell deeply in love, her sufferings were described sincerely and gently by Vergil: “… like a wounded doe caught all of guard by a hunter stalking the woods of Crete, who strikes her from afar and leaves with winging steel in her flesh …” (The Aeneid, book IV, p.125). She was an innocent creature affected by strong feeling as she prayed for the Almighty Father to bring her conscious back.
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"The Aeneid Themes".
In this story, Juno was the fatal evil force: she managed to arrange a “marriage” between Aeneas and Dido and made them forget about their purposes. Evil Rumor made things even worse. Rumor is impersonated and depicted very expressively as an omnipresent beast with many ears, eyes, and voices. It is interesting that ill fate was personified and thus a reader tends to sympathize characters. Although Dido will make a fatal decision and descent to the underworld in eternal misery, we somehow feel that she deserves a better fate – so our feeling is similar to Aeneas’ when he saw her.
Although there are always evil forces affecting our decisions, they are but trials of our moral strength. Since men always make the final choice, even gods could surrender to our will.
