lines 1-30: Sleepless in Carthage & Dido's speech

Question 1

At

Answer 1

startles; sets up contrast to what happened before: Aeneas’ conclusion of his story

Question 2

regina gravi… saucia cura

Answer 2

chiasmus: conveys how Dido’s whole body and mind have been taken over by the ‘cura’

Question 3

caeco carpitur igni

Answer 3

alliterative; foreshadows Dido’s body burning on her funeral pyre

Question 4

viri virtus

Answer 4

alliterative figura etymologica - stresses A’s masculinity

Question 5

iamdudum

Answer 5

reminds us of what happened before A started speaking - Cupid attacked Dido in the form of Ascanius

Question 6

gentis honos

Answer 6

enjambement: conveys the importance she places on this quality, and the flow of her outpouring of emotion

Question 7

haerent infixi pectore vultus verbaque

Answer 7

inverted word order - reflects how overwhelmed she is

Question 8

placidam… quietem

Answer 8

hyperbaton - unsettled word order reflects the state of her mind

Question 9

Phoebea lustrabat lampade

Answer 9

phrase acquires formal coherence through its alliteration and assonance

Question 10

Aurora polo dimoverat

Answer 10

phrase textually enacts its meaning by acting as a buffer between ‘polo’ and ‘umentem umbram’

Question 11

unanimam adloquitur

Answer 11

‘unanimam’ enacts its meaning by bonding ‘un’ and ‘animam’ into one word; ellision between unanimam and adloquitur also enacts the bonding

Question 12

male sana

Answer 12

oxymoron - emphasises her lack of sanity

Question 13

insomnia

Answer 13

can mean ‘sleeplessness’ or an ‘apparition’ seen in a dream: she cannot sleep, so hallucinates and hovers between wakefulness and sleep

Question 14

terrent!

Answer 14

love, usually a joyous thing, triggers fear in Dido - she is afraid of what her love will make her do, which is foreboding of later events

Question 15

quis… quem… quam

Answer 15

polyptotonic tricolon - reflects the agitated state of Dido’s mind

Question 16

credo… fides

Answer 16

she attempts to convince herself, as well as Anna

Question 17

degeneres animos timor arguit

Answer 17

all dactylic - racing thoughts

Question 18

si non… si non

Answer 18

anaphora - conveys her longing for A

Question 19

fixum immotum

Answer 19

homoiteleuton - emphasises the strength of this immovability

Question 20

vinclo vellem… iugali

Answer 20

textually, her ‘will’ (vellem - I am willing) is bonded by the ‘vinclo iugali’ she made with Sychaeus, emphasising how it cannot be freed

Question 21

postquam primus

Answer 21

plosive alliteration emphasises her resentment towards Sychaeus for ‘deceiving’ her

Question 22

sederet………… fuisset

Answer 22

tense change: imperfect to pluperfect - leaving room for Aeneas in the present (?)

Question 23

culpae

Answer 23

she admits that the pull of desire is a guilty pleasure, and giving in is an act of ‘culpa’, yet she contradicts herself following the cave scene by calling herself Aeneas’ ‘coniunx’

Question 24

fatebor… fata

Answer 24

figura etymologica

Question 25

Anna… Sychaei

Answer 25

antithetical - Anna pulls D towards Aeneas, Sychaeus pulls her away

Question 26

sparsos… caede

Answer 26

much more dramatic and bloodier than Venus’ account to Aeneas

Question 27

coniugis

Answer 27

enjambement - reluctance to accept her status as a widow sworn to chastity

Question 28

inflexit sensus animumque… impulit

Answer 28

chiastic

Question 29

veteris vestigia flammae

Answer 29

looks back to Dido’s internal flames of desire that were introduced at the beginning of book 4; looks forward to her burning funeral pyre

Question 30

optem… dehiscat… adigat

Answer 30

subjunctives stress D’s lack of control over the situation

Question 31

pallentis umbras… noctemque profundam

Answer 31

chiasmus - frames ‘Erebo’

p-alliteration conveys Dido gathering strength to call herself to order

Question 32

meos… amores

Answer 32

hyperbaton conveys the lack of control she now has over her ‘amores’

Question 33

impulit………….. abstulit

Answer 33

both antithetically enjambed - intimates that her assertion here is belied by her earlier confession that she has fallen for A

Question 34

ille

Answer 34

derogatory; Aeneas has a higher ranking in her mind, as ‘hic’ (this man)

Question 35

secum servetque sepulcro

Answer 35

the sibilance accentuates this dramatic phrase, as does its emphatic position

Question 36

lacrimis obortis

Answer 36

cause of tears is ambiguous - the loving memory of S or the misery of her determination to remain loyal?