Dido has discovered that Aeneas, without telling her, has been preparing to leave. Hear her reaction here and see the illustrated blog post here.
A royal hunt follows a gorgeous levee: a great storm rocks all of nature which is matched by the storm of passion between Dido and Aeneas, sheltering in their cave. Hear one of Virgil’s greatest set-pieces in Latin and follow it in English here.
Dido loves Aeneas, the Trojan stranger. Virgil tells the story here.
Aeneas is destined to begin a love affair which will have disastrous consequences with Dido, the Queen of the new Phoenician city of Carthage, which she is in the process of building on the North African coast. Now his mother the Goddess Venus, in human disguise, tells him why Dido was forced to leave her homeland.
The fresco of Venus arising from the waves is from Pompeii.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
After stabbing herself, Dido lingers on in pain until Juno, Queen of the Gods, takes pity and sends Iris, the Goddess of the rainbow to set her finally free. See and hear the passage here.
Roman boxers fought with gloves designed to inflict the maximum damage on one another: the cestus, heavy leather strapping studded with lead around knuckles and forearms. In the games that Aeneas holds in Book 5 of the Aeneid in memory of his father, Anchises, Entellus, a great athlete but now old and slow, takes on Dares, the fast and nimble young champion.
The illustration shows the aftermath of the bout in a Roman mosaic. Learn the significance of the bull, and hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English, here.