In book four of the Aeneid, Queen Dido fears her burning love for Aeneas betrays her vows to her dead husband. But her sister Anna thinks Dido deserves to know the joy of love and children and suggests that allying with the Trojans would be a good idea. make Carthage stronger, and the god's approval can be won with offerings.
While well-intentioned, Anna's advice has tragic consequences. Juno takes advantage of Dido's love to keep Aeneas in Carthage and prevent his fate. One day, when he's in Carthage, he'll be able to save the world. When the court is out hunting, Juno sends a rainstorm that drives Dido and Aeneas into a cave, where Juno simulates wedding rituals, marrying them. Dido doesn't hide their affair, and the winged monster Rumor incites ugly opinions and dissatisfaction with the match, eventually bringing it to Jupiter's attention.
Jupiter then sends the messenger god, Mercury, to remind Aeneas of the importance of his fate, especially for his son, and Aeneas prepares to leave. However, he puts off telling Dido this, and rumor ends up getting to her first. She angrily confronts Aeneas.
He is betraying their marriage. Denying they're married, he cites Jupiter's order and obligations of his fate. Dido, fearing this will cause her death, promises to haunt him.
Although Aeneas is crushed, nevertheless, he obeys the gods'commands. Dido tells Ana she has a plan to either bring back Aeneas or fall out of love with him, but she's actually preparing to die. She builds a pyre and puts on it an effigy of Aeneas and the things he left behind, and their shared bed.
Unsure what Dido's plan is, will do, Mercury warns Aeneas to set sail quickly. Dido dramatically issues a curse that there will be an endless war between their peoples before stabbing herself with Aeneas'sword on top of the pyre, then burning herself to a crisp. Juno releases her spirit, which leaves before its fated time, heading to the underworld. Virgil uses fire imagery extensively in book four to symbolize the destructive passion of Dido's love for Aeneas.
Dido literally burns with love. Were Dido and Aeneas really married? Well, not really.
Dido saw it as a marriage, but Virgil says she essentially deluded herself to cloak her sense of guilt. Dastardly Juno provides torches and wedding songs sung by nymphs, trying to use a binding marriage to stop Aeneas'journey. What's more, Dido and Aeneas have different definitions of what a marriage actually is bound by. Vergil supplies the loophole that Aeneas never entered into the marriage pact.
Whatever relationship he has with Dido ultimately can't alter Aeneas'inevitable fate. Vergil's depiction of rumor in the Aeneid is famously striking. She's a winged monster.
Under every feather, an eye that never sleeps, and as many tongues as eyes, ears pricked up for news. What a remarkable personification of rumors themselves.