DIDO: WIFE AND QUEEN.

Despite the scholarly rehabilitation of Dido and the women of Roman literature in general, it is still claimed that Dido irresponsibly abdicates her public role to cavort with Aeneas. This characterization has roots in the propaganda about Cleopatra with Antony and Caesar. But as in the case of Cleopatra, we would do well to question it. This article argues for a reconsideration of Dido in the Aeneid, starting with her activities but expanding into her mental state, behavior, and motivations. It follows the approach of Julia Hejduk's 2009 article "Jupiter's Aeneid: Fama and Imperium," which she describes as "defamiliarization: that is, [the] attempt to meet Virgil's Jupiter, both in his own actions and speeches and in what is said of him, as if we were encountering him for the first time" (280). This method allows us to encounter a Dido who, rather than wallowing in sexual idleness, moves into the roles of wife and queen after her marriage to Aeneas, who accordingly takes on those of husband and king. It is only after his abandonment of her and of his roles in Carthage that Dido loses the ability to act in any way other than for her self-destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]