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Who Was Responsible For Dido's Death

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Who Was Responsible For Dido's Death
Dido tragically committed suicide after Aeneas left to continue his adventure. Although she was manipulated by the gods, she is ultimately responsible for her own fate. Dido was affected by many tragic events that were completely out of her control. However, these events were created with the intent of either helping Aeneas get to Italy or to prevent him from getting to Italy. Cupid made her fall in love with Aeneas, because Venus wanted to guarantee Aeneas’ safety (1.782-821). Juno gets her to make love with Aeneas in cave in order to get Aeneas to stay at Carthage (4.202-218). Mercury reminds Aeneas about his journey because Jupiter wants him to get to Italy (4.247-297). After Aeneas left Carthage the gods left Dido alone; she was no longer a key determinant of Aeneas continuing his journey. These events are similar to that of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. They cause a large amount of damage and then they stop. Assuming you survive one of these uncontrollable events, what you do next is your …show more content…
After all, if Aeneas refused to leave Dido would have never committed suicide. Keep in mind that Aeneas didn’t really have a choice and didn’t even want to leave. He was commanded to go by the almighty gods (4.247-297). So if anyone in that argument held the blame it would need to be the gods, since Venus and Juno manipulated Dido and Jupiter caused Aeneas to leave Carthage. To be fair Aeneas did try to sneak out of Carthage (4.345-366), but can you really blame him? Dido behaved in a very irrational manner when she confronted Aeneas and he said that he was going to continue his journey to Italy (4.452-487). Did she expect him to just forget about his mission, his destiny? Honestly with Dido, she may have thought such. She called the time she had sex with Aeneas in a cave a Marriage
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