Wedding or No Wedding?

            Wedding or No Wedding? In this episode, we have two characters out of the book, The Aeneid. On one side, we have Dido, the women that just wanted to marry Aeneas and have someone to love. On the other side, we have Aeneas that thought it was just some fun on his way to conquer Rome and make the next great kingdom. There are many questions surrounding this “marriage” and how they were brought together. If you want to find out whether this was a real wedding or not, then tune in next week to “Wedding or No Wedding”! (Don’t worry, this isn’t a real show and you wont have to wait to till next week to see the outcome, so just keep reading!)

            In the book, The Aeneid, Aeneas and Dido get married but is it really a marriage or a marriage that is in Dido’s head? I believe that this was not a real marriage. In my mind, for something to be a real marriage, you have to have consent by both people to enter in a marriage and in this case there really wasn’t consent on either sides even though after the wedding Dido thought it was real. I don’t even think that Dido is really in love with Aeneas because in book 1 Venus puts Cupid to work with playing with Dido’s emotions. In the end of book 1, Venus says, “Cupid/would go in place of the captivating Ascanius,/using his gifts to fire the queen of madness,/weaving a lover’s ardor through her bones.”(1.783-786). In this case, Venus and Juno are putting the wedding into action. On page 131, they are talking about plans to get Aeneas and Dido together and set the mood for a wedding. After they have the plans set, Juno says, “I’ll bind them in lasting marriage, make them one./Their wedding it will be!” (4.155-156). If Juno would’ve been an ordained priest and was qualified to hold a marriage then that would be one thing.

            Another reason that this isn’t a real marriage is that Aeneas never really loved Dido as much as Dido loved Aeneas. Aeneas saw this more as a fling while he had a short break on his way to Italy. Dido thought of Aeneas as her next husband that could help continue to make Carthage great! In book 4, it says that the city was readied for him (4.95). In a marriage, love is a big thing! If both of the partners do not have the same love for each other then the marriage is bound to fall apart and not last.

Another reason that makes us question the marriage, is the circumstances that brought the two people together at the so called ceremony. Aeneas and Dido’s troops all come together and are in the foothills when suddenly a storm comes up and they have to take cover in a nearby cave (4.190-206). Then when they all get in the cave, Juno, Primordial Earth, and the Queen of Marriage start to work their magic and use the lightning as a source of light and there are even nymphs singing wedding hymns on the mountain (4.207-212). I don’t see this as the perfect place for a wedding, but to someone that is put under a spell to love someone this seems like a perfect place. From here on out, Dido no longer hides her affair with Aeneas and calls it a wedding (4.216-217). I still not believe this is a marriage and neither did Aeneas!

So in conclusion, this is not a real marriage and Dido is just crazy. As much as Dido, Venus, and Juno wanted the wedding to happen, there is no way that they can make Aeneas see this as a real wedding. Juno should know that she could not keep Aeneas from staying on his journey. She should know this because fate is something that can not be changed and that he has so much drive to find Rome that even finding love with a woman would keep him from his journey. This is why the marriage was not real.