Dido's Internal Conflict In The Aeneid

In The Aeneid many conflicts arise and it is constantly. Just the battle scenes alone have numerous counts of external conflict. Moral conflict can be seen between the Gods such as when Juno and Venus decide Dido and Aeneas’s fate. Finally intellectual conflict can be seen when Iarbas hears rumors about Dido and the action he takes. There is one conflict that I would like to focus on and that is Aeneas’ internal conflict. I think Aeneas has a lot of internal conflict throughout the story. At the beginning of the story Aeneas cries out, not only because he was being thrown around in the see, but because he was broken at the fact that he couldn’t save his king, his family, his people, or his homeland. Virgil writes,

“At once Aeneas, limbs limp in the chill of fear, groans and lifting both his palms toward the stars cries out: “Three, four times blest, my comrades lucky to die beneath the soaring walls of Troy—before their parents’ eyes! If only I’d gone down under your right hand—Diomedes, strongest Greek afield—and poured out my life on the battle grounds of Troy! Where raging Hector lies, pierced by Achilles’ spear, where mighty Sarpedon lies, where the Simois River swallows down and churns beneath its tides so many shields and helmets and corpses of the brave!” (984).”

He’s not sure whether to fight on or go back and save his family. Luckily Aeneas mother, Venus talks him into going back. Aeneas