The aeneid: book 4

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The aeneid book 4

• Tori Frederick
• Eyanna Gruver
• Noah Kustrin
• Michelle Lipski

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SUMMARY
At the beginning of Book 4, Dido expresses her
love for Aeneas to her sister, Anna. Since Didos
previous husband, Sychaeus, cheated her by
death, Dido vowed to never marry again. However,
while talking to her sister she realized that she
loved Aeneas so much that the promise she
previously made didnt matter anymore. Anna even
suggests that if Dido marries Aeneas the city of
Carthage will become a great kingdom. After
taking all of this in, Dido realizes that Anna is
right. Then Anna and Dido begin to make
offerings to the gods (slaughtering sheep),
especially to Juno because she is the guardian of
marriage. However, Dido remains unsatisfied and
chooses to put the work of the city on hold.
When Juno sees what this love has done to Dido,
she decides to find a way to make peace, instead
of war. She believes that if Aeneas and Dido
marry there will be peace between the Trojans and
Tyrians. After deciding what to do, Juno makes
a peace offering to Venus this will end their
feud. Even though Venus knows that Juno is trying
to keep Aeneas from going to Italy, she agrees to
what Juno requests and says, Ill follow. Juno
planned to make peace by creating a storm when
Dido and Aeneas are hunting in the woods
together. This intense storm will cause the two
to flee and end up in the same cave. In that
particular cave, Juno planned to await them and,
eventually marry them.
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SUMMARY
When dawn rises Dido, Aeneas, and Ascanius plan
to get ready to go out hunting. Dido is dressed
as a beautiful huntress, while Aeneas is dressed
as Apollo. In the meantime, a storm hits the area
in which they are hunting. They all flee to the
nearest caves for protection. Ironically, just as
Juno planned, Dido and Aeneas end up in the same
cave. Given the signal, Juno flashes lightning
and the sea nymphs begin to shout while the two
make love in the cave. Once all is said and done,
Dido calls this miracle marriage however, Aeneas
does not. As time goes on, Rumor spreads
throughout the entire city that the two are
officially married. When King Iarbus hears of
this word, he becomes infuriated. Iarbus is angry
because he had previously asked Dido to marry
him but because of the promise she made to
herself, Dido refused and now she was married
to Aeneas. Because he is so upset over the whole
ordeal, Iarbus prays to Jove. When Jove hears his
sons desperate words, he orders Mercury to find
Aeneas and figure his true fate. Mercury follows
the commands obediently and flies down to find
Aeneas, clothed in a new, purple, hand-woven
cloak from Dido, watching over the building of
new houses and fortresses. Mercury brings the
word of his father to Aeneas and tells him to go
to Italy, where he is destined to be. However,
Aeneas is unsure as to what to do. He does not
want to leave Dido. Eventually, Dido finds out
about Mercurys words through Rumor, and she
becomes extremely infuriated. Dido confronts her
husband about the situation and asks him how he
planned to keep this from her. She even tried to
convince him to stay by telling him that the
Nomad princes and Tyrian people were hostile to
her. Dido makes one last attempt to try and
convince Aeneas to stay by saying that she at
least wanted a son to remind her of him if he did
end up leaving. Aeneas finally tells Dido that
he never meant to hide anything from her and that
he didnt want to leave her. He didnt want to
even leave the city of Troy in the first place,
let alone
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SUMMARY
go to Italy. However, it was fate that was
controlling everything. All awhile Aeneas was
speaking, Dido just stood there in silence. She
didnt believe anything that he was saying. She
begins to wish that bad things will happen to
Aeneas and his ships while on their journey.
Then, suddenly, she stops her speech. Although
Aeneas longed to soothe Didos sorrow, he left to
go to Italy. Upset from everything that was
going on at the moment, Dido turned to her sister
once again. In tears, Dido went to Anna begging
her to go and try to get Aeneas to stay home.
Again, Anna obeys her sisters wishes and tries
to convince Aeneas to return to Dido. However,
because of what the Fates have in store for
Aeneas, he will not return. Distraught and
angered once again, Dido begins to concoct a plan
to commit suicide. Instead of telling Anna of her
plans, she says that she found a magical remedy
to make Aeneas fall in love her once more. Dido
requests that Anna gathers all of Aeneass
belongings and burns them on a pyre, and Anna
fulfills her sisters requests. As night fell
and Dido was laying in her bed, she began to
wonder if she should join the Trojans on the
ships or if she should have the Carthaginians
charge them. After much thought she decides to do
neither. In the meantime, Aeneas is asleep on one
of his ships. In his dreams appears Mercury.
Mercury tells Aeneas to leave before he faces any
danger with the Tyrians. He quickly awakes and
gathers his men. As dawn is quickly approaching,
they all row their way into sea. When she wakes,
Dido sees that the shore is abandoned. She begins
to think of hunting Aeneas down she also wonders
why she just didnt butcher all of his comrades.
Dido prays to Juno to guard her in her death and
to place a curse on the Trojans and Aeneas in
war.
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SUMMARY
Dido called to her last husbands nurse, Barce,
and told her to prepare Anna for the ceremony.
Dido mounted the pyre, took out a sword, and
prayed to the god. Soon after, Didos words were
gone and her people could see the blood foaming
from her bloodstained sword. Then her sister
heard the news. All along, without her knowledge,
she had been helping Dido plan her own death.
After the ceremony, Juno sent Iris down to take
Dido to the Underworld. So she cut off a lock of
Didos hair and let her life pass in the winds.
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INTERVENTIONS

• Juno offers to make a peace treaty with Venus and
  end their fight
• Venus really knows that Juno is just trying to
  keep Aeneas from going to Italy, but she lets
  Juno go ahead with her plans. This leads Juno to
  intervene with the lives of Dido and Aeneas.
• Juno tries to make peace between Trojans and
  Tyrians by marrying Dido and Aeneas.
• After the marriage, Rumor spread throughout the
  city and King Iarbus finds out about the new
  couple. He is angered because after he asked Dido
  to marry him, she said no. He goes and complains
  to Jupiter which leads Mercury to intervene in
  Aeneas life.
• Mercury tells Aeneas that he must go to Italy
• Aeneas isn't sure how to tell Dido about the
  news. When she does find out, they begin to
  fight, and Aeneas ends up going to Italy with his
  comrades.

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INTERVENTIONS

• Mercury visits Aeneas in his dreams
• In the night, Mercury goes and tells Aeneas that
  he and his troops need to leave in order to avoid
  any danger from the Tyrians. When Dido wakes up
  in the morning to see that abandoned shores, it
  is like the last straw for her. She begins to
  foreshadow that the men may face harsh struggles
  while in war in Italy.
• Juno sends Iris to take Dido to the Underworld
• Because there was such an importance to bury the
  dead properly, Juno sent Iris down to Dido so
  that she may be properly sent to the Underworld.
  She does this by cutting off a lock of Didos
  hair and letting her life pass in the winds.

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MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT

• In our opinion, the most significant event in
  Book 4 was Aeneas important decision to follow
  the order of Mercury and go to Italy to fulfill
  his fate.
• We felt that it was so significant because this
  caused the queen of Carthage, Dido, to commit
  suicide. Her death may change some things to the
  Carthaginian people.

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IMPORTANT QUOTES EXPLAINED
1- Let us make, instead of war, an everlasting
peace and plighted wedding. You have what you
were bent upon she burns with love the frenzy
now is in her bones. Then let us rule this people
you and I - with equal auspices

Juno to
Venus
It is important because this is showing how Juno
is attempting to make peace between Trojans and
Tyrians she is also trying to end the fight with
herself and Venus. This foreshadows the
marriage of Dido and Aeneas.
2- Deceiver, did you even hope to hide so harsh
a crime, to leave this land of mine without a
word? Can nothing hold you back neither your
love, the hand you pledged, nor even the cruel
death the lies in wait for Dido
Dido to Aeneas These are the harsh words that
Dido expresses to Aeneas when she finds out the
he is fated to go to Italy. It is important
because, in this quote, Dido foreshadows that she
will be the victim of a cruel death.
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IMPORTANT QUOTES EXPLAINED
3- Why not flee this land headlong, while
there is time? You soon will see the waters
churned by wreckage, ferocious torches blaze, and
beaches flame, if morning find you lingering on
this coast. Be on your way. Enough delays.
Mercury to Aeneas (while Aeneas is
sleeping) This quote is important because
Mercury is warning Aeneas that if he doesnt
leave there will big trouble coming his way.
Right after Mercury says this, it leads Aeneas
to get his men and start rowing out to sea. When
Dido wakes the following morning, she sees the
abandoned shores she prays to Juno and asks her
to place a curse on Aeneas. This foreshadows
that Aeneas and his men may face some hard times
while in Italy.
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NEW CHARACTERS

• Anna Didos sister
• Has good intentions, but somehow always seems to
  be in disastrous situations
• Unknowingly, she was tricked into helping Dido
  commit suicide
• King Iarbus Son of Hammon
• Built many temples and shrines for Jupiter
• Asked Dido for her hand in marriage, but Dido
  denied his request
• Experiences extreme rage when he finds out about
  the marriage between Dido and Aeneas
• After finding out about the couple, he prays to
  Jove which causes the intervention of Mercury

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS - MORTALS

• Aeneas
• Protagonist
• Motivator of his men
• Respects the gods
• Marries Dido to gain peace between the Trojans
  and Tyrians
• His trip to Italy, will allow him to fulfill his
  fate
• Dido
• Queen of Carthage
• Leaves Tyre after her husband was killed by her
  brother, Pygmalion
• She falls in love with Aeneas, and breaks her
  promise to herself
• After Dido leaves to fulfill his fate in Italy,
  she becomes enraged
• So enraged, she commits suicide

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS - DEITIES

• Jupiter
• Ruler of the Gods
• Peacemaker
• Favors the Trojans
• Just as in the Iliad, he is the father figure
  that many of the gods and goddesses cry and
  complain to.
• Juno
• Queen of the Gods
• Can be labeled as another antagonist to Aeneas
• Tries to do her best to delay him from destroying
  Carthage, as fate has planned. (creating storms,
  casting him under love spells)
• She tries as hard as she can to make everything
  to go in her favor, but it kills her to know that
  fate controls everything.
• Venus
• Aeneas mother
• Dislikes Juno often feuding with her, as well

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EPIC CONVENTIONS

• Epithets
• Aeneas Trojan Chief(tain), Dardan Chief(tain)
• Venus Cytherea, Primal Earth
• Jupiter All-able Jove
• Long Speeches
• Many of the characters make long speeches
• Praying or making offerings to the gods
• Expressing their emotions
• Gods and Goddesses
• Many interventions throughout the entire book
• They are often looking to finds ways to control
  fate

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FORESHADOWING

• Juno suggests to Venus that they make a wonderful
  wedding between Dido and Aeneas.
• This hints that the two goddesses will intervene
  and make the marriage a reality.
• When Dido is confronting Aeneas about leaving for
  Italy, she says to him, Can nothing hold you
  back neither your love, the hand you pledged,
  nor even the cruel death the lies in wait for
  Dido
• Here, it is foreshadowed that Dido will die a
  horrible death however, it is unknown if that
  death would be murder or suicide.
• Many, many prophecies of ancient seers now
  terrify her with their awful warnings. And in her
  dreams it is the fierce Aeneas himself who drives
  her to insanity.
• Virgil foreshadows that Aeneas will be the
  reason why Dido commits suicide.

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FORESHADOWING

• Dido pleads to Juno that a curse be set on Aeneas
  and the Trojans. She demands that he suffers in
  war and struggles with audacious nations and
  watch his peoples shameful slaughter.
• Dido is foreshadowing that when the Trojans
  reach Italy, they will be faced with many
  struggles.

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SYMBOLISM

• Weather (harsh storms)
• Control of the Gods
• Juno sends a storm along the path of Dido and
  Aeneas.
• This shows her great power and will to do as she
  pleases.
• Fire
• Love
• I know too well the signs of the old flame
  Dido
• The flame represents the feeling of love. Because
  of her previous marriage, Dido is expressing that
  she understands what real love is.
• Destruction
• I should have carried my torches to his camp and
  filled his decks with fire
• The flame and fire represents Didos anger
  towards Aeneas when she sees the abandoned
  shores. Therefore, Dido is enraged and wanted to
  destroy Aeneas and his ships.

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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Can you figure the figurative language?

• swift as whirlwinds
• tremendous turmoil
• the setting stars invite to sleep
• dying Dido
• so deep the roots it reaches down to Tartarus
  

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CLASS DISCUSSION

• As Aeneas was given his Fate, he was still
  thinking about the possibilities of staying with
  Dido. Were you ever in a situation, similar to
  Aeneas, where the decision was already made for
  you but you wanted to choose the other option?
  Explain.