Authority in The Aeneid
Authority is the centerpiece of power. With it, one has the ability to control those around them under the basis of their power, and maintain a given sense of order and duty as well. This notion of the importance of authority is nowhere more evident than in Virgil's Aeneid, where through the manner in which Dido falls from authority, and eventually fights to gain it back, Virgil paints the image of a character whose whole existence centers about the authority and sense of duty she shares for both herself and the people she is in charge of. Furthermore, through the folly of succumbing to her own desires, Dido must ultimately sacrifice all she holds dear to regain a small semblance of that authority which is lost. In other words, it is precisely this fall Dido suffers, and the manner in which she regains her authority, that allow her to exude the heroic qualities that make her the steadfast leader she truly is. As Dido begins to fall madly in love with Aeneas, her longing for personal desire fully encompasses her being, and slowly strips her of her own integrity and authority. For example, in describing how enthralled Dido is, Virgil notes: Unlucky Dido, burning, in her madness
As Aeneas prepares for Italy, this come to fruition for her, as she notes: Because of you, Libyans and nomad kings Detest me, my own Tyrians are hostile; Because of you, I lost my integrity And that admired name by which alone I made my way once towards the stars. She assesses her situation, and begins to slowly reassert her authority. The moment she gives into her personal desire, she is essentially abdicating her authority into the hands of Aeneas and the gods, and as such, is no longer in control of her destiny, but instead her own self-destruction. So when Dido then gives into this desire of hers, she must first relinquish that authority and duty to which she is bound, and essentially transform herself into a completely complacent and submissive visage of her former self. Unfortunately for Dido, she does not become aware of this until it is too late. 711-720), so she come to a radical conclusion-in order to protect her own personal integrity, and of the city of Carthage as well, she will take her life into her own hands, to "die as [she] deserves" (IV. She reclaims authority over her destiny. By taking charge in such action, Dido gains a small bit of her own integrity and authority back, in the sense that she could just roll over and let this grief slowly eat her life away, but that fact that she chooses to change shows she wants to regain her authority. This indirectly leads to the second point of the simile.
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Acceptance Essays
