Dido's Obstacles In The Aeneid

As we read stories about different heroes, we come to know that the heroes usually struggle to achieve their missions; but in the epic The Aeneid, not only does the hero of the poem suffer, but the characters, who cause his suffering, also face their own problems. In The Aeneid, obstacles are placed in Aeneas’s way as he journeys to fulfill his destiny, and as he faces these obstacles, he comes face to face with emotional characters. The characters: Juno, Dido, and Turnus, are portrayed as characters, struggling with emotions, who are unable to make decisions because of their foggy mindset and in return cause problems for Aeneas. One of Aeneas’s biggest issues, is a goddess named Juno, who is not happy with the destiny Aeneas is to fulfill.

After Aeneas and his troops land near Libya, Aeneas meets Dido, who presents him with another challenge. Dido is a widow who was once married to a rich husband, Sychaeus, who was killed by Dido’s greedy brother, Pygmalion. After the tragic death of her husband, Dido escapes to Libya and starts to build a new settlement there. After hearing about each others past struggles, the two characters, Aeneas and Dido, show compassion for one another and build a relationship until a messenger is sent to remind Aeneas’s of his destiny. The emotions between the two love birds affects both characters, as one commits suicide, and the other forgets about his destiny. While in love with Aeneas, Juno forgets her responsibilities toward her people and her city, which is still being constructed. The love between the two demonstrates how two characters can completely forget about their duties when in love and how the emotion of love can end up destroying them. An example of how Dido struggles with love is given in Book IV, lines (636-638) when Virgil states, “she now thought voice could be heard And words could be made out, her husband’s words.” After Aeneas’s changes his aim back to his destiny, Dido struggles and is even shown as a delusional characters who hears her dead husband’s voice calling to her. Before the arrival of Aeneas, Dido was well on her way to building a great community and had an oath to live as a widow, but she allows her emotions to get in the way and ends up causing her own