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.