Characters
Spark Notes | The Aeneid Character List
Heros
Aeneas
Survivor of the siege of Troy. His defining characteristic is piety, a respect for the will of the gods. He is a fearsome warrior and a leader able to motivate his men in the face of adversity, but also a man capable of great compassion and sorrow. His destiny is to found the Roman race in Italy.
People
Dido
The queen of Carthage, a city in northern Africa, in what is now Tunisia, and lover of Aeneas. Dido left the land of Tyre when her husband was murdered by Pygmalion, her brother
Gods
Juno
The queen of the gods, the wife and sister of Jupiter, and the daughter of Saturn. Juno (Hera in Greek mythology) hates the Trojans because of the Trojan Paris’s judgment against her in a beauty contest. She is also a patron of Carthage and knows that Aeneas’s Roman descendants are destined to destroy Carthage. She takes out her anger on Aeneas throughout the epic, and in her wrath acts as his primary divine antagonist.
Aeolus
The god of the winds. Lives in a palace above the mountain that contains the winds of the earth. Soothes the winds to be more calm.
Venus
The goddess of love and the mother of Aeneas. Venus (Aphrodite in Greek mythology) is a benefactor of the Trojans. She helps her son whenever Juno tries to hurt him, causing conflict among the gods. She is also referred to as Cytherea, after Cythera, the island where she was born and where her shrine is located.
Notes
Book 1: Storm & Banquet
- Trojan hips coming to Italy scattered by [[#Juno]] and [[#Aeolus]]
- Neptune annoyed saves the Trojans
- Trojans believe that they will found a city in Italy that will rule the world
- washed ashore in Tunisia [[#Dido]] welcomes the Trojans in
- [[#Dido]] is bewitched by Cupid on orders of his mother [[#Venus]] to fall for [[#Aeneas]]