Through alluding to Sappho, Virgil can depict DidoÊs lust, which he would not have been able to do explicitly, on account of AugustusÊ moral reforms at the time. 23 Virgil dared not incur the displeasure of his benefactor, which later led to the punishment of explicitly erotic poets (for example, Ovid was exiled in 8 BC). A similar example of VirgilÊs discretion is how Virgil sidesteps describing AeneasÊ and DidoÊs sex by the cave metaphor (lines 160), carrying the full force of an erotic image without being explicit. 24 Furthermore, Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant point out 25 : ÂBy imitating her stanza-form and metre, later poets could instantly convey the stance of the isolated lover and the pain of a friendÊs departure or loss.Ê I believe alluding to Sappho more subtly, rather than just through her metre, has the same effect. In this way, Virgil not only tells those in the know (which I imagine would have been a large proportion of his contemporary, educated audience, given SapphoÊs fame) that Dido is consumed by lust, but also that she will become Âthe isolated loverÊ. As previously stated on page 1, Sappho was well known for writing poems to be performed at weddings. 26 Thus VirgilÊs allusions to Sappho enact a further impact by conveying the theme of marriage, which will be highly important throughout the book and for Dido. 27 In this essay I have attempted to show how Aeneid Book 4 is inspired by Sappho and the opening lines contains linguistic allusions to Sappho fragment 31. I have argued that Virgil would have greatly benefited by alluding to Sappho as means of introduction to the multi-layered content of the rest of the book. I have attempted to show how likely it was, given the background of AugustusÊ moral legislation and an audience in the know, that his indirect allusions to Sappho were deliberate.
23 For example the Lex Julia of 18BC. 24 Lyne page 161 argues that Virgil does so out of embarrassment; I believe it is out of prudence. 25 WomenÊs life in Greece and Rome (Third Edition) 2005. 26 For example LP 108, 109, 111, 112, 113, 115. 27 Whether she would break her nuptial bonds to her dead husband Sychaeus if she had a relationship with Aeneas, and whether that relationship with Aeneas would be a marriage or not.
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