Two Dramatizations from Vergil: I. Dido--The Phoenician queen; II. The Fall of Troy by Vergil

3 Stars

I wandered to read the first play Dido because while reading Circe by Madeline Miller I found myself listening to Dido's "I'm No Angel" and "Life For Rent" albums, especially "This Land is Mine" from the latter. And my brain being what it was kept whispering in the dark, Go. So, I went.

Dido and Aeneas is listed as a tragedy. I think if you're female in any ancient Greek play/story or Roman harkening back and you align yourself with a male then it's a tragedy--or more accurately, a parable. In the post-Trojan war Mediterranean, the gods are having fun messing with the humans per usual, which means getting the short end of the stick. This time Venus and Juno are squabbling, and let's be honest no good can from this: Venus, one of the instigators of the whole Trojan disaster and Juno, jealous and vengeful wife of philandering Jupiter.

Dido and Aeneas, puppets of the gods and one gets the worst of it. I'll let you guess which one.

I adored this:

Let there be no amity
Between our peoples. Rise thou from my bones,
O some avenger, who with deadly sword and brand
Shall scathe the Trojan exiles, now, in time to come,
Whenever chance and strength shall favor. Be our shores
To shores opposed, our waves to waves, and arms to arms,
Eternal, deadly foes through all posterity. 

For it brought me back to thinking of Hannibal's Oath by John Prevas. Love Hannibal. Carthage and Rome, clearly it was destined.

Anyway, this version was pretty cool in all the stagecraft and directions noted, as well as the listing of sheet music and lyrics for the songs. It is available at Gutenberg.org to download and read for FREE. Now, I really do need to read The Aeneid in it's entirety.