AeneasDido.
    When Aeneas arrived at Carthage in Libya, he was greeted by Queen Dido, who held a sumptuous banquet to honor the Trojans. Aeneas told her the story of the fall of Troy, his ensuing travels, and his prophesied destiny. During the banquet, Cupid—disguised by Venus as Aeneas’s son Ascanius—was fondled by Dido, who was thus stricken with love for Aeneas.
    Dido’s sister, Anna, encouraged the match, urging Dido to end her mourning for her murdered husband, Sychaeus, and ally with Aeneas against her enemies. Venus and Juno, each for her own reason, then arranged to bring Aeneas and Dido together. During a royal hunt, a storm arose and the couple took shelter in a cave, there consummating their union.
    While Aeneas tarried in Carthage, Jupiter sent Mercury, his messenger, to remind Aeneas of his destiny and urge him on to Italy. Dido tried in vain to prevent Aeneas’s departure; as his fleet sailed away she threw herself on a funeral pyre, cursing Aeneas and his descendants.
    Perhaps the best-known part of the Aeneid, the liaison between Aeneas and Dido is an especially popular subject in music, drama, and literature. In the visual arts the most frequendy depicted scenes are the welcoming banquet, the royal hunt and the storm, and Dido’s suicide.