ABSTRACT
The fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid is mainly Dido. It falls, into three acts, each beginning with Queen Dido on stage. The moment Virgil chooses for what he has till now withheld: a clear emphatic statement on the poet's own authority that Aeneas is in love with Dido. This chapter focuses on Dido; the passing reflection that those who think ill of Aeneas for deserting Dido are often the same people who think ill of Mark Antony for not deserting Cleopatra. But in Aeneid iv the suicide of Dido is only the final episode of a series of episodes, all of which are part of the poem. In different ways Dido and Aeneas are equally heroic in the end. Aeneas by reason of a resolute facing of realities. Dido by a resolute acting out, not under the impetus of a momentary impulse, but deliberately over a period of time, the consequences of a position hysterically assumed.
