Helen vs. Dido

 Compare Helen in the Iliad (Book 3) to Dido in the Aeneid (Book 4). Do you see any similarities? Differences? 

 

Book III of The Illiad and Book IV of The Aeneid are focused around the gods’ and goddesses’ strong grasp of the two women, Helen and Dido, whose fates they control to suit their own perverted interests. At the same rate, Helen experiences feelings of guilt and remorse for having been the cause of the war between Greece and Troy, and Dido regrets having fallen for Aeneas and cherished him.

Offered to Paris as a prize for naming Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess, Helen is influenced by Aphrodite to let herself seduced by Paris and elope with him, disregarding her marital status and possible outcome of her actions. After the death of her husband Dido vows never to remarry, but to serve her purpose, Venus sends Cupid to make her madly fall in love with Aeneas, thus the queen relinquishing any self-control over her feelings.

In Book III of The Iliad, the goddess Iris, disguised as Helen’s sister-in-law, Laodice, comes to summon her to witness a duel between her two husbands. Unsuspecting of her real identity, Helen follows her instructions. However, after the confrontation between Paris and Menelaus, Aphrodite, Paris’ protector, tries to lure Helen to his room, but the tormented wife refuses to obey, dissing the goddess. Infuriated, Aphrodite tightens her grasp on Helen and reminds her that she is in charge, “Venus was very angry, and said, ‘Bold hussy, do not provoke me; if you do, I shall leave you to your fate and hate you as much as I have loved you. I will stir up fierce hatred between Trojans and Achaeans, and you shall come to a bad end.’" The goddess’ threat instills fear in Helen, aware of the potential dangers of disobeying a god. Her fate was now controlled by Aphrodite, whose orders she followed precisely, “At this Helen was frightened. She wrapped her mantle about her and went in silence, following the goddess and unnoticed by the Trojan women.” In Paris’ quarters, under Aphrodite’s rule, Helen addresses her husband and fulfills her duty as his wife.

In Book IV of The Aeneid, Dido’s mad love for Aeneas becomes poisonous. The Queen no longer attends to her royal duties, she is no longer interested in her subjects, and lets her city stagnate. The passion instilled in her by Cupid’s arrow takes over her entire being, leaving her powerless in front of her feelings for Aeneas. Working to fulfill their own agendas, Juno and Venus interfere again in their lives by stirring up a storm that isolates Dido and Aeneas in a cave during a hunting session. Finding herself alone with him, Dido can no longer hide her feelings and to save her reputation in front of the rest of the world, she declares the couple’s union a marriage, although Aeneas does not consent to it. This was all facilitated by the meddling of the two goddesses, hopeful to be able to benefit from the union – Juno to save her beloved Carthage from being destroyed, and Venus to keep Aeneas safe from Dido’s madness.

The duel of her two husbands sets in Helen's heart a deep longing for her former husband, her city, and her oved ones. Seeing her distraught, King Priam tries to comfort her and blames the gods for the conflict. However, she loathes herself and laments for all the pain she had caused to herself and to those around her, for missing her dear ones and doing them wrong, "would that I had chosen death rather than to have come here with your son, far from my bridal chamber, my friends, my darling daughter, and all the companions of my girlhood. But it was not to be, and my lot is one of tears and sorrow,” “my abhorred and miserable self.” She wishes she had died before eloping with Paris to Troy, and her guilt and regrets grow deeper and deeper, tormenting her for her newly realized complicity in her abduction. However, she never attempts to take her own life despite her lamentation, which caused certain later writers to see her as perverted, opportunistic, selfish and treacherous, as described by Hecuba in Euripides’ The Trojan Women.

 At the news that Aeneas is set to leave Carthage for Latium, Dido feels enraged and betrayed, coming to regret having loved and protected him, “Fool that I was- 't is little to repeat/ The rest- I stor'd and rigg'd his ruin'd fleet./ I rave, I rave!” She feels that this love destroyed her life and cost her her peace of mind, “These dear-bought pleasures had I never known,/ Had I continued free, and still my own;/ Avoiding love, I had not found despair.” Just like Homer’s Helen, she loathes life and wishes to die to escape her pain, “Now, sinking underneath a load of grief,/ From death alone she seeks her last relief.” However, unlike Helen, Dido goes all the way and commits suicide. The passion, the sorrow and the feeling of betrayal controlling her are too heavy for her to bear. She is overwhelmed by her poisonous love for the Trojan prince and cannot live without him, “Despair, and rage, and love divide her heart.” At the end of her ordeal, Juno and Iris help her find her peace in death after stabbing herself in a successful suicidal attempt.

 Both women are puppets in the hands of the gods. Despite their free will and attempts to oppose their fate, they cannot escape the tight divine grasp. Feelings of regret and self-loathing touch both of them, but at different degrees; Helen manages to survive the tragedy she caused and do whatever necessary to favor her circumstances, maybe because she is aware of the gods’ interference in her destiny, while Dido, clueless of the induced passion for Aeneas by Cupid, cannot handle the pain for her lost love and she takes her own life.