Harun Kiani

C+E Dr. Daniels

Essay #1

Gender Representations Played in the Aeneid & Heroides VII

Ask someone about the roles of women during the times of ancient Greece and

Rome, they will almost certainly tell you about the ideal women of that time period. A

woman who stays at home, stays out of politics, raises children, possesses feminine traits,

and so on so forth. Likewise, upon asking about men, they would describe a man who is

active in politics, a warrior, a ruler of the family, etc. These gender representations are

broken (not completely) in Vergils poem, the Aeneid, and in Ovids Heroides VII. Both

intentionally portray Dido (who is represented as all women) as a threat to gender roles in

Roman society while also providing an example of the ideal Roman values. The Aeneid is

used as a means to describe the nationality of the Romans and to serve as a warning as to

what happens when a womens roles exceeds beyond what is expected of her. The Heroides

VII gives us an insight on the mind of Dido and further establishes the representation of

women.

Dido is the queen of Carthage. She is portrayed as Aeneas's equal and

feminine counterpart. She is an strong, determined, and independent woman who possesses

heroic dimensions. Like Aeneas, she fled her homeland. She possesses the qualities of a

leader that Aeneas respects and hopes to employ when he founds Rome.

Although Dido is admired in the beginning for her ability to rule a nation and

her status of celibacy, she surrenders to her love for Aeneas which results in an erosion of her
moral character. She fulfills the role of city building and being the mother of her people.

Although she has been celibate, her relationship with Aeneas provokes her to abandon her

celibacy. An abandonment of her celibate lifestyle, after she had already deserted the

stereotypical role of women in favor of being a political ruler, causes the audience to think

low of her.

Dido represents girls ability to lose their minds over love, but as queen of

Carthage, Dido also presents an direct, political threat to the destiny of the foundation of

Rome, for if she had been successful in convincing Aeneas to stay along with her in Carthage

he could have retained his Trojan identification and in no way might have founded Rome.

Dido attempts to persuade Aeneas to remain with her, by taking him with her among her

buildings, showed her Sidonian wealth, her walls prepared (Book IV, l. 1045) and offers

that the Trojans join (the Carthaginians) on equal terms. Dido is the woman for whom his

Trojanness defines him, as she gets to know him better by asking questions about Troy and

the entire scene prior to their first meeting is a description of the events of the Trojan War.

As Aeneas is to be the founder of Rome, he must abandon his Trojan identity, just as he must

choose his duty to his future country over his love for Dido.

There is no doubt in the fact that Dido is portrayed as being mentally unstable

like many women are thought to be. This is evident in Ovids letters. In the lines 23-34, Dido

turns from Aeneas' surroundings to her own emotions. She describes her love in desperate

terms ("I burn, like waxen torches covered with sulfur"), and says that Aeneas "is always in

my heart." She asserts his ingratitude, but says that she still cannot hate him, "however ill he

thinks of me," and however unfaithful he has been. She appeals to Aeneas' mother, the
goddess Venus, and to his brother, Cupid ("brother Love"), to soften Aeneas' heart. She ends

by asking to be allowed at least to love Aeneas and keep him. However in lines 35-44, she

quickly changes her attitude and attacks Aeneas again, saying that she was deceived and that

"His nature is opposed to his mother's." She compares him to the ferocity of nature, saying

he was born of "rocks and mountains," or "savage beasts," or the stormy sea. The mention of

the sea draws her back to Aeneas' impending journey. The sea is stormy now, she says, and

she urges him to wait for calmer weather--the sea, she says is "more just than your spirit,"

because it will keep Aeneas with her. This wild and unstable behavior displayed by Didos

characters shows us how Ovid wants to portray women, even if they are in the highest power.

The message implied is that women cannot control their emotions.

In portraying any society that was in opposition to Rome, Roman authors

characterized their enemies as direct opposites for instance, male: female. Secondly,

females represent the naturally weaker and inferior sex, subject to emotional instability and

sudden action, which is clearly represented in Didos deteriorated mental state of mind when

Aeneas leaves Carthage for Rome. And as a result of those two characteristics, these women

serve as a threat to Roman society because they challenge the norms and standard gender

roles, often by having direct arguments with men. Furthermore, it seems that the goal of

Vergil was to describe a creation story while also focusing on portraying the message of not

giving women power, while the goal of Ovids story was to tell the story from the Womens

point of view- and in doing so projects the image of women being seen as weaklings. It is

was even common belief back then, that a weak body (womens body) was in direct

correlation with a weakened mind.

 As you can see, Dido is used as an example of how women are at fault. Her

mental behavior, as portrayed by both authors, is used to show that women shouldnt be in

leadership positions and that they inhibit the progress of men. Women in the ancient world

had a single function that defined their existence, that is, to produce children, and male

children at that.

As a member of the Hofstra community, I pledge to demonstrate integrity and ethical

behavior in all aspects of my life, both inside and out of the classroom. I understand that I am

accountable for everything I say and write. I will not misrepresent my academic work, nor

will I give or receive unauthorized assistance for academic work. I agree to respect the rights

of all members of the Hofstra community. I will be guided by the values expressed in

the P.R.I.D.E Principles. I accept the responsibility to follow this Honor Code at all times.
 Reference Cited

Riely, C. (2015, March). Foreign, Female, and a Threat to Traditional Roman Society or

Examples of Model Male Citizens? Retrieved October 5, 2017, from

http://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=honorspapers

(n.d.). Retrieved October 08, 2017, from http://hunter.faculty.edgewood.edu/hero07ic.htm

Aeneid. (n.d.). Retrieved October 08, 2017, from

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/aeneid/summary-and-analysis/book-iv

J. (2013, September 11). Classics and Feminism: thoughts on Virgils Dido. Retrieved October
08, 2017, from https://alifeunexamined.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/classics-and-feminism-
thoughts-on-virgils-dido/