ABSTRACT
In Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Aeneid 4 plays an important role in the friendship between the two protagonists, Lila and Lenù. Learning Latin, and then Greek, Lenù repeatedly comes back to the story of Dido to understand her own life and connection to Lila. Through the prism of My Brilliant Friend, I reconstruct ancient stories of female friendships present in the shadows of ancient works focusing on male heroes such as the Aeneid, Metamorphoses, and Odyssey.
