The Kingdom of the Dead (book6)

Dido:

In this book, Aeneas visits the Underworld and, while he is there, he sees Dido and tries to talk to her. Dido doesn't respond to Aeneas, and I think that this is because she no longer needs to love him. She has served her purpose for the gods. I think Dido has found a kind of redemption in death. She no longer has the gods controlling her feelings and making them change every other minute. In death, Dido can have the closure that comes with being with her one true love, Sychaeus, her husband. Dido no longer has to deal with the illusion of love that had been created by Venus and her son Cupid. The reason why it is so cutting to Aeneas when Dido doesn't answer him is because he has to realize and accept that she doesn't need him anymore. He watches her spirit return to her husband, and that probably deflates the little ego boost that he got from knowing that she killed herself because of his love. He also has to see and accept, like Dido, that their love was just an illusion that was created by the gods to manipulate them. It is also possible that Dido did love Aeneas a little bit when she was alive and that's why her non-response to him so cutting because she did love him, but she can let go of him in death because her love for Sychaeus is even more than her love for Aeneas.

Funeral Games For Anchises (book5)

There are a lot of things going on in this chapter. First, Ascanius' role in the acting out of the battle at the games is a symbol of the major part that he will have in the founding of Rome. It is because of his son that Aeneas even considers to keep going on his long and difficult voyage. He wants Ascanius to have a kingdom of his own to rule and become the father of kings. There is also a small irony in the fact that, while trying to make things better for herself and causing problems with the Trojans, Juno actually makes things better for Venus when the Trojans build a temple in honor of Venus. This book also connects the Aeneid with the Oddyssey when, at the end, the boat is guided towards the Siren's rocks, like Odesseus' boat was in the Oddyssey.