Destiny, Love, and Suffering: The Relationship between Aeneas and Dido

The wretched love affair of Aeneas and Dido is one of the most prominent events in The Aeneid by Virgil. In The Aeneid, love is represented in the same manner as the gods. Love is shown as an outside force acting upon mortals, not a function of the individual's free will or inherent identity. It is Aeneas' fate and civic responsibility to get to Italy in order to establish the Roman line and eventual Empire and because of these duties, love is something Aeneas can never fully succumb to. To Virgil, love is a force at odds with law and fate, and it distracts its victims from their respon…