Editing Aeneid (section)

====Book 4: Fate of Queen Dido====
Dido realises that she has fallen in love with Aeneas. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting Aeneas from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a small cave in which Aeneas and Dido have sex, after which Juno presides over what Dido considers a marriage ceremony.

[[Pheme|Fama]] (the personification of rumour) spreads the news of Aeneas and Dido's marriage, which eventually reaches king [[Iarbas]]. Iarbas, who also sought relations with Dido but was rejected, angrily prays to his father [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] to express his feeling that his worship of Jupiter has not earned him the rewards he deserves. As a result, Jupiter sends [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] to remind Aeneas of his duty, leaving him no choice but to depart.

When Aeneas clandestinely begins making preparations to leave at the behest of Mercury, Dido discovers Aeneas' intentions. Enraged and heartbroken, she accuses Aeneas of infidelity while also imploring him to stay. Aeneas responds by attempting to explain that his duty is important and that he does not leave of his own volition, but Dido is not satisfied. Ultimately, her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon a [[pyre]] with Aeneas' sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas' people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is a possible invocation to [[Hannibal]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Publius Vergilius Maro|author-link=Virgil|title=The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fagles, introduction by Bernard Knox|date=2006|publisher=Viking Penguin|location=New York, New York|isbn=978-0-14-310513-8|page=26|edition=deluxe}}</ref>