Study Questions

1. How does Misenus die?

2. What birds are sacred to Venus?

3. To whom does Dido turn for comfort?

4. Why does Aeneas not attack the monsters within the cave of hell?

5. What sort of activities do the dead enjoy in Elysium?

6. What similes does Virgil use to describe the gathering of the souls on the banks of the Lethe?

7. Who inhabit the Fields of Mourning?

8. What is symbolic about the father of Romulus?

9. What indicates that Numa is a priest?

10. What simile describes Dido’s response to Aeneas’ pleas?

Answers

1. He challenged Triton to a trumpeting duel and was dashed against the shoals for his insolence.

2. Doves are her sacred bird, and it is only fitting that they should show Aeneas the golden tree.

3. In death, Dido is comforted by the shade of her dead husband, Sychaeus.

4. The Sibyl warns Aeneas it would be useless, as the creatures do not have any substance.

5. In the Elysian fields the dead wrestle, they dance, they sing, and they care for their war horses.

6. He says they are like bees buzzing over a field of flowers.

7. The fields of mourning are inhabited by those who died for love.

8. The symbolism of having Mars as the father of Romulus (which was indeed the tradition) is that Rome was founded on war and the military virtues.

9. He is carrying offerings and is crowned with a wreath of olive leaves.

10. Dido is like “stubborn flint or some Marpessan crag” (619). The phrase echoes Aeneas’ response to Dido’s pleas in Book Four.