54-67: effect of Anna's speech on Dido and their endeavour to win the favour of the gods

Question 1

impenso… amore

Answer 1

hyperbaton: reflects how love has been simmering for a while - now it is kindled into conflagration

Question 2

animum flammavit amore

Answer 2

placement of flammavit between animum and amore reflects how the fire of love consumes Dido from within

Question 3

flammavit amore… spemque dedit… solvitque pudorem

Answer 3

tricolon descends in terms of wordage, through the stages of Dido’s reaction to speech, to its inevitable conclusion - the removal of the key thing which has been restraining her desire

Question 4

per aras

Answer 4

per: implies the thoroughness and exhaustiveness of the sisters’ rounding of the altars, no stone is left unturned in their attempt to please the gods

Question 5

delubra adeunt… pacem exquirunt… mactant bidentis

Answer 5

tricolon neatly sets out the stages of entering communication with the gods

Question 6

Iunoni ante omnis

Answer 6

‘ante omnis’ elevates this irony - the marriage is for Juno just a means to shackle Aeneas to Carthage so he cannot found Rome

Question 7

pulcherrima & cadentis; media inter & ante ora

Answer 7

the cow becomes a metaphor for Dido - both are sacrificial victims, laid bare in the open

Question 8

media inter cornua

Answer 8

position of inter enacts its meaning

Question 9

spatiatur

Answer 9

impatience and increasingly erratic behaviour of Dido

Question 10

pinguis… aras

Answer 10

hyperbaton + position in middle of line: altars are already laden with sacrifices - her additional sacrifices are excessive and unnecessary, indicating desperateness

Question 11

aut

Answer 11

choice instead of et/que: emphasises randomness and growing impatience of Dido who is clearly not getting the intended results from her sacrifices

Question 12

fundit… spatiatur… instaurat

Answer 12

plurals from lines 56 & 57 have become singulars: Dido is now alone in her attempts to acquire the gods’ favour. Has even Anna given up?

Question 13

reclusis… pectoribus

Answer 13

seperated via enjambment - the gap between them enacts the the breasts being split open

Question 14

spirantia… exta

Answer 14

hyperbaton - Dido examines each bit of entrail separately and meticulously, looking for any sign of the gods’ goodwill

Question 15

heu!

Answer 15

rare in epic - indicates pressure on characters and readers to interpret key issues

Question 16

mollis medullas

Answer 16

‘mo’ ‘me’ alliteration creates moaning sound; recalls ‘spirantia exta’ assimilating Dido to a sacrificial victim, expressing that she ought to inspect herself

Question 17

furentem

Answer 17

she is too impassioned to appreciate that the gods have shown no support for her to be with Aeneas