Sleepless in Carthage: A Tripartite Sapphic Allusion in the Dido Episode of Vergil’s Aeneid

Barbara A. Blythe (College of William and Mary)

In this paper I will argue that Vergil references Fragmentum Adespotum 976 at three pivotal points in the Dido episode of the Aeneid: at II.8-9, IV.80-83, and IV.522-532. Despite the unresolved controversy concerning the fragment’s authorship, it is likely that the lines were included in the canon of Sappho’s verse at Alexandria and that Vergil would have considered them to be work of Sappho. In the first reference, which follows Dido’s request to hear Aeneas’ story of the fall of Troy, Vergil recreates the concept of the celestial phenomena which suggest a surrender to sleep, but generates a very different mood by means of the convivial context of the allusion. Vergil remains more faithful to the mood of Sappho’s original with the second reference, describing Dido as alone and sleepless despite the astral mandates. The last reference, which occurs after Dido has commanded Anna to construct the pyre, reproduces Sappho’s meditation on loneliness, but offers a striking departure in Dido’s savage anger.

This appropriation of Sappho presents two important implications. First, it is possible that Aeneas uses her verse in an active attempt to seduce Dido. The hero effects this by assuming familiarity with the poem on the part of Dido and then deploying a carefully crafted allusion of his own (II.8-9) which subtly subverts the original. He reproduces similar celestial phenomena which suggest sleep; but places the verse within the context of the convivium, as opposed to Sappho’s lonely night vigil. Aeneas’ seductive purposes are furthered by the sense of unity and conviviality which Dido will feel after observing the contrast between Sappho’s situation and her own. As such, the divine process effected by the collusion of Venus and Amor is furthered by the complicity of Aeneas and his literary allusion. I will also discuss briefly some ways in which this use of Sappho for seductive ends engages with Catullus’ appropriation of Sappho 31 as a means of ensnaring Lesbia.

The second aspect of the Sapphic allusion that I will explore in this paper is the parallels that Vergil would like his audience to grasp between Dido and Sappho. Both were middle-aged women who excelled at masculine occupations, experienced the trials of exile, and were ultimately undone in their passionate pursuit of love outside the bonds of legitimate marriage. Furthermore, the physical erotic symptoms which Dido experiences at the convivium with Aeneas bear striking similarities to those of Sappho at the symposium in 31; and likewise Dido’s description of Aeneas as “godlike” recalls Sappho’s physical appraisal of the young man in 31. Just as Aeneas is implicitly willing Dido to become an unchaste Helen by presenting her with Helen’s robe, I would suggest that Aeneas is conditioning Dido in much the same manner to accept his erotic advances by alluding to the ardent Sappho.