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Inter quas Phoenissa recens a volnere Dido

errabat silva in magna; quam Troius heros

ut primum iuxta stetit adgnovitque per umbras

obscuram, qualem primo qui surgere mense

aut videt, aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam,

demisit lacrimas, dulcique adfatus amore est:          455

Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo

venerat exstinctam, ferroque extrema secutam?

Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro,

per superos, et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,

invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.                                460

Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,

per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,

imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi

hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.

Siste gradum, teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.     465

Quem fugis? Extremum fato, quod te adloquor, hoc est.'

Talibus Aeneas ardentem et torva tuentem

lenibat dictis animum, lacrimasque ciebat.

Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat,

nec magis incepto voltum sermone movetur,             470

quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.

landem corripuit sese, atque inimica refugit

in nemus umbriferum, coniunx ubi pristinus illi

respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.

Summary by Thomas Jenkins

A famous scene, roughly modelled on Ajax' similarly chilly reception of Odysseus in the Underworld in the Odyssey. Catching sight of his previous lover, Aeneas is surprised [or at least feigns surprise] that he was the cause of Dido's suicide; he repeats his protestations of innocence and again avers that the commands of the gods drove him from Carthage, not lack of affection for Dido. She, in turn, gives one of the most marvelously calculated and brutal responses in classical literature, entirely wordless. Fixing her eyes on the ground—out of hatred, presumably—she endures the impassioned speech of Aeneas, and then runs back to safety, the loving arms of her former husband Sichaeus.

Aeneas's last utterance to Dido—"this is the last opportunity that fate [fatum] allows for me to address you"—agains brings up the theme of destiny in the Aeneid. How much choice does Aeneas have in any of his trials? (Or how often does Aeneas use fate as a convenient excuse?)

Related content

Virgil, Aeneid 6.450–474 (Dryden's translation), read by Kathleen M. Coleman