Deception Leading to the Death of Dido

By Robyn Hendrix

February 27^th, 2002

Female deception leading to death is addressed by Ekramullah in her analysis of the Greek plays Ajax and Women of Trachis. The paper "Female Deceit and Gender Bias in Death" argues that female deception often leads to the death of one or more characters in Greek literature, and that male suicide is more honorable than female suicide. She suggests that a man usually kills himself gracefully to protect his honor, while women use death as an escape from the consequences of their deceptive actions. In specific examples, Ajax kills himself because he is ashamed at being made a fool of by Athena’s trickery, while in Women of Trachis, Deianira commits suicide because she can’t bear to live with the shame and consequences of her deception, which resulted in the death of her husband Herakles.

Turning to Roman texts, the theme of death and suicide related to deception is still very prevalent in this literature. In Virgil’s Aeneid, for example, consecutive acts of deception lead to the suicide of Dido. At the beginning of the story Dido does not follow society’s model of the ideal woman: she is a powerful female political leader independent of a male to dominate over her. Because the queen displays many traditionally masculine traits, one would expect her to die honorably like a man. However, one act of deception after another by both gods and mortals lead her to die the shameful death of a woman, impassioned by her love for Aeneas and left desolate and powerless when he abandons her.

Deception is a catalyst leading towards Dido’s suicide from the very beginning of her story in The Aeneid. Venus sends Amor to disguise himself as Aeneas’ son in order to enchant Dido to fall in love with Aeneas. Then Venus and Juno plot together to arrange the marital union between the queen and the Trojan ruler in the cave, and Virgil writes "That day was the first cause of death, and first of sorrow," (line 233). In her union with Aeneas, Dido gives up the honor and respect she had as a powerful female ruler. Unlike the typical women in Greek tragedies, Dido also sacrifices political power for love and not just her reputation, breaking her marital vows to her dead husband and enraging the men she refused to marry in the past because of her chastity. King Iarbus, for example says, "After refusing to marry me [Dido] has taken Aeneas to be master in her realm," (289). Later Dido tells Aeneas, "Because of you, I lost my integrity and that admired name by which alone I made my way once toward the stars," (440). Because she has let herself become dependent on a man, the dignity of female independence she once had is lost. And unfortunately for Dido, Aeneas turns out to be not as dependable as she thought.

Aeneas’ decision to leave Carthage is the final blow to Dido’s honor. She is unable to cope with life without the man of her desire, and because her union with him has undermined her political power she cannot rule without him either. She feels her options have run out: "Look now, what can I do? Turn once again to the old suitors, only to be laughed at…" (740). Deception is a key component again as Aeneas attempts to keep his preparations for departure secret from her, and later when Dido lies to her sister about the purpose of building the pyre. In the end her death seems impassioned, irrational, a desperate escape from the situation. This seems very similar to Ekramullah’s explanation of Deianira’s suicide in Women of Trachis. The Dido who was once highly respected and awed at for her power over men has been reduced to a sniveling, lovesick victim of deception, so dependent on a male that she cannot bear to live without him. Even as women appeared to have more freedom and independence in Roman society, Dido’s death is an example of yet another woman becoming so dependent on a man that without him, she feels nothing but shame and cannot go on living.