Written by Open Book Publishers have just published of Virgil, Aeneid 4, with Study Questions, Vocabulary, and Commentary by Ingo Gildenhard.
About the Book
In Dido’s encounter with Aeneas, the Aeneid explores abiding themes of love and loyalty, fate and fortune, the justice of the gods, imperial ambitions and its victims, as well as cross-cultural encounters and the geopolitics of colonial settlement. As Aeneas’ most significant other, Dido also assumes a crucial role in Virgil’s epic aetiology of Roman history and the Augustan principate. She owns the dark plot of Aeneid 4, in which divinely engineered erotic obsession culminates in divinely orchestrated sex that leads to personal and political tragedy: the cave encounter in Carthage entails a world-historical curse that operates in counterpoint to Jupiter’s triumphal destiny. Poetry that has fascinated readers since antiquity is here presented in an innovative, student-friendly edition, with study questions, vocabulary, commentary and visual material designed to facilitate engagement with Virgil’s text.
Companion volume (forthcoming)
The companion volume Teaching Dido: Critical Perspectives on Aeneid 4 (OBP 2026), also edited by Ingo Gildenhard, includes five essays that explore aspects of Virgil’s poetry in a student-friendly way. They range from issues in poetics (verse design, allusion) to key themes (‘historiographical Dido’, religion, pietās). Seven reprinted scholarly articles follow, allowing students and their teachers to engage directly with some of the research that informs the essays and the commentary and to broaden their appreciation of Dido, the Aeneid, Virgil, and the wider historical context. This companion volume will be published in the coming weeks.
Access this Title
Read and Download for Free: We are pleased to inform you that this book is freely available to read and download in PDF and HTML format. Access the full text here and explore the wealth of knowledge this publication has to offer.