She notably asks him “why do I stay, until Pygmalion, my brother, destroys the city, or Iarbas the Gaetulian takes me captive?” (4.325-4.326) Here, her mention of Iarbas basically makes it clear that she is afraid of what he may do to her, essentially; his aforementioned lament to Jupiter only states that she “scorned marriage with him.” (4.213-4.214) This dialogue carries the implication that she needs Aeneas to protect her, and Carthage, from male “threats.” Dido also states that “if I’d at least conceived a child of [Aeneas’s] before [he] fled, if a little Aeneas were playing about my halls, whose face might still recall [his], I’d not feel myself so utterly deceived and forsaken.” (4.328-4.330) Essentially, she is trying to appeal to Aeneas through the idea of having a child, implying that Aeneas would not have to stay in Carthage and parent said child with Dido. This idea does subvert the traditional family structure, although it also perpetuates the often-harmful concept that mothers should have sole responsibility over their children. The relationship between Dido and Aeneas is not objectively a “marriage” - the narrative heavily implies that they consummated said relationship in a cave, but they never exchanged vows or participated in any traditional marriage rituals. Dido is said to “no longer [think] of a secret affair: …show more content…
(4.450) She asks her sister, Anna, to build a funeral pyre, supposedly to “destroy all memories of that wicked man,” and to “free [her] from loving him.” (4.476-4.496) However, said pyre is actually a part of her plan to commit suicide - as Dido dies, Anna laments her deception, saying that Dido “should have summoned [her] to the same fate” and that her suicide had “extinguished” both of them. (4.678-4.683) Anna and Dido had an extremely close relationship - Dido went to Anna for advice many times throughout the piece - an idea which reflects both the literal and feminist definition of sisterhood, and one which makes it all the more tragic when this relationship is destroyed by Dido’s