relationships between men and women

• the husband and wife we see are at points of crisis
• Hecuba is protective of the old and weak Priam
• seems to take the initiative, telling him to sit her at the altar
• they appear a devoted couple
• Priam has 50 sons and 50 daughters so a few mistresses
• meet Creusa just as the Greeks are reaching their family home
• she, not unnaturally, prevails upon her husband to protect them all
• the spotlight is on the 3 generations of the father and son
• Aeneas doesn't even mention Creusa by name
• Aeneas, perhaps, has little interest in telling Dido more about their relationship
• there is no place for Creusa on his mission
• in her final speech, she pronounces his fate - 'prosperity is waiting for you, and a kingdom and a royal bride'
• after she reminds him not to lose love for his son, she disappears from the epic
• Amata seems to have a strong voice in the question of her daughter's marriage
• it has been suggested that she is echoing the strong women behind power in Roman politics
• their relationship serves the purposes of the plot
• Amata's role is to cause Latinus to retreat and allow the war to happen
• Virgil's account of Aeneas and Dido is so one-sided that it isn't easy to discuss their relationship as lovers
• we know her feelings in detail, but the first insight of Aeneas' state of mind is when he is defending his decision to leave
• she becomes the irrational, destructive force, the furor vs pietas, and this is the essence of their relationship in the scheme of the Aeneid
• the roles are reversed in the Underworld, when she is 'grim-faced' and cold as marble, and he is left gazing after her 'with tears' (book 6)
• Dido seems to flourish much more when she is not in a relationship with a man
• when she is in Tyre focusing on her husband's death, she is 'sick with love'
• when Aeneas arrives in Carthage, she runs around in a frenzy of passion for him, and all her building work comes to a halt
• Dido, without a man, is a formidable power
• she takes the treasure, leads the escape from Tyre, negotiates some land, builds a city and runs it efficiently
• when Aeneas has left, she can rationally sum up her achievements
• relationships with men seem to suppress her real qualities
• a Roman might well believe that it is in a woman's character to behave irrationally, and that she is acting unnaturally when she is strong and independent