The Sword of Dido: Pain and Aristocratic Distinctiveness

Since the beginning of Vergilian critical scholarship more than a hundred years ago, scholars have directed their attention to the complex texture of the Aeneid. The Aeneid is an arrangement of densely woven threads of poetic pictures and subtle meanings. Essential in this mental landscape is Vergil’s exceptional sensibility to words and images. The depth of Vergil’s rich texture comes to the surface in his use of words. The imaginative intensity of his choice of words blends with intellectual vigor and the capacity to feel and empathize. Vergil’s words and images, their placement in the narrative, and their intricate interconnections unveil an enigmatic sense of structure. For Vergil, the word is mental activity in intricate placement to be deciphered by the reader. More precisely, the choice of word is the representation of a state of mind. This is nowhere more evident than in the character of Dido, notably in Dido’s suicide by the sword. Images of death and the act of suicide by the sword are standard vocabulary in élite cultures in which the sword represents male aristocratic identity. My aim is to explore the power of images for the sword for Dido as a uniquely Vergilian vision. In particular, I shall set Vergil’s imagery beside the anonymous French