CHAPTER ONE FIDES AND THE RIGHT HAND The Dido episode of the Aeneid has been studied for the most part in its relation to the tradition of amatory narrative. Because Vergil's poetry relies heavily on literary reminiscence to create its effect, it must be a task of the scholarship to trace the influence of earlier literature. But even after literary imitations are securely identified and the determination is made whether they are allusive merely or structural, 1 one must further consider how Vergil in­ tegrates the imitations into the ensemble of his own poem. If such considerations are not entertained, the simple recognition of imita­ tions can lead to the obfuscation and misunderstanding of what the poet is saying. This unfortunately had been the case in the criticism on the Dido episode. Emphasis has been placed on Dido as a sen­ timental heroine at the expense of a fact obvious to every reader of the poem, namely that Vergil also presents her as a political woman, the ruler of a city destined to be the rival of Rome. It is the hope of this study to offer a somewhat more balanced view of the Dido episode. Its purpose is first to take up the question of how the literary reminiscences in the narrative of the rupture of relations between Dido and Aeneas are integrated into the larger context of the Dido episode. From the perspective which this examination pro­ vides, it will further consider the relationship between the episode at Carthage and the Aeneid as a whole. It is a commonplace of the scholarship on the Dido episode that the lament and complaints of Dido over the departure of Aeneas reverberate with the echoes of the Medeas of Euripides and Apollonius and the Ariadne of Catullus. 2 Richard Heinze's remarks give the classic formulation of the judgment of the scholar­ ship on Vergil's treatment of the matter. Virgil hat weder das Bediirfniss gehabt noch die Verpflichtung gefiihlt, im Ausdruck, den Dido ihren Empfindungen gibt, original zu sein. Trotz der grossen Lucken der erhaltenen alteren Literatur gibt es kaum einen wesentlichen Zug in diesem Bild, den wir nicht aus Virgils Vorgangern belegen konnten. (p. 113) 2 FIDES AND THE RIGHT HAND We learn that Vergil reproduces the work of his predecessors, and this knowledge in turn explains the form and content of what Dido says. To the conclusions of the scholarship it should also be added that Vergil's imitation is structural as well as allusive. The nar­ rative is modeled on the pattern of the Medea and Ariadne stories. The epic hero, in a set of circumstances that thwart his progress, finds the way out of his difficulties by the help of a woman who falls in love with him. They become lovers, but he eventually leaves her. The story-pattern is a common one, but the repetition in the same order of the same themes which form the lament of the abandoned woman in Apollonius and Catullus demonstrates Vergil's im­ mediate sources. 3 These themes moreover can be traced back from Apollonius and Catullus to Euripides' Medea. The Dido of Aeneid 4 then is conceived as a sentimental heroine in the Greek manner, and the primary influence on Vergil is to be found in the Hellenistic tradition of love narrative. 4 There are, however, certain instances in which a comparison with the earlier literature fails to provide an explanation for Dido's words. These are crucial passages which affect our understanding of the nature of the relationship between Dido and Aeneas and which seem to go to the heart of Vergil's conception of the episode. A case in point is Dido's complaint about the faithlessness of Aeneas. .. iam iam nee maxima luno nee Saturnius haec oculis pater aspicit aequis. nusquam tuta fides. eiectum litore, egentem excepi et regni demens in parte locavi. amissam classem, socios a morte reduxi (heu furiis incensa feror!): nunc augur Apollo, nunc Lyciae sortes, nunc et love missus ab ipso interpres divum fert horrida iussa per auras. (A. 4.371-378) Heinze (p. 135, n. 2) notes the parallel of nusquam tutafides (v. 373) with Medea's opxwv OE cppouo71 1tlatt~ (Med. 492) and remarks that '' Die Klage iiber den mangelnden Beistand der Gotter, urspriinglich <lurch die Straflosigkeit der Eidesverletzung be­ griindet. .. ist hier anders gewendet, weil an keinen Schwur ap­ pelliert werden konnte. " 5 With the words opxwv oE cppouo71 1tfott~ Medea refers to the oath of marriage whichjason had made to her, .