The Dead Dido

The text is an analysis of the story of Dido as shown in Virgil’s Aeneid. The author presents pre-Virgiliansources of the history of the Phoenician queen, recounts the three principal versions of Dido’s biography andsets the Virgil’s narration against the opinions of ancient commentators (Servius, Macrobius) and other Romanwriters reminiscing about Dido’s ill-fated past. All the testimonies bring out the uncontestable claim that it wasVirgil who first wrote about the tragic love entanglement between Aeneas and Dido, a story which rapidly gainedpopularity upon the publication of the Aeneid. The article discusses Virgil’s subversive understanding ofgender and the conventional traits of national character (Roman and barbaric, as typified in Roman literature)