By Meghan Reedy
So, how does Jupiter find things out in the Aeneid?
Given that he is prominently called omnipotens (by Dido, for example, in 4.25, and by Iarbas in 206) and that even his daughter, Venus, addresses him in terms that highlight the extent of his powers (O qui res hominumque deumque aeternis regis imperiis, 229–30), one might think that he sees everything that happens, or that he just knows. However, in Book 1.227–53, and again here in Book 4.198–218, what happens is someone thinks that Jupiter sees and knows everything, and so when they see something happening that they think he should know about, they go to him and complain––usually because it is upsetting to them.
Here in Book 4, it is especially clear that Jupiter depends, like the rest of us, on the rumor mill, as we get to see the ‘marriage’ of Dido and Aeneas in the cave (160–72) and then watch the news travel all the way to Jupiter’s ears.
To begin with, some gods are named as being in attendance—Prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno (166)—but Jupiter is not among them, despite his powers being hinted at in the way the lightning flashes and ‘the stratosphere knows’, fulsere ignes et conscius aether (167). So as far as we are told, Jupiter doesn’t see it happen.
Once the ‘marriage’ has happened Fama spreads the word to all the major cities in Libya immediately: extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes (173). The ‘word’ Fama spreads, however, is equal parts fact and poison: pariter facta atque infecta canebat (190), and so when we hear what Fama is saying passed along (appropriately) in indirect discourse, it is not exactly clear which parts we are to believe. She said that Aeneas, born from Trojan blood had arrived (venisse Aenean Troiano sanguine cretum, 191), Aeneas for whom gorgeous Dido thought it worthwhile to link herself to a man (cui se pulchra viro dignetur iungere Dido, 192). Fama also passed along that they now were keeping themselves/each other warm through the winter, however long it was, in luxury (nunc hiemem inter se luxu, quam longa, fovere, 193), and that as they did so, they were forgetting their kingdoms and becoming captivated by base desire (regnorum immemores turpique cupidine captos, 194). This filth is what the filthy goddess poured into and through everybody’s filthy mouths (hae passim dea foeda virum diffundit in ora, 195; look how foeda in this line can go with either dea or ora, or both, or as a neuter plural substantive, with neither).
So what do we believe? What can we believe? Some things we have already heard before—like Aeneas’ Trojan ancestry and his arrival in Carthage. We did also hear Dido tell Anna he seemed worthy to her (quam forti pectore et armis! Dido said, and credo … genus esse deorum, 11–12; and Anna said coniugio tali! and other things, 48). But that they’ve shacked up together all winter? Dido and Aeneas? Remember how driven they both were during that time they both happened to be in Juno’s temple? How Aeneas was totally fixated on meeting up with those other Trojans he thought they’d lost (509–515)? How Dido was so keen on her city-building (503–8)? Maybe they’ve changed. Because in fact they have been captivated by base Desire: in Book 1, at the start of that first meal Dido invited all the Trojans to, Venus replaced Aeneas’ own son with Cupid—and Cupid did catch Dido for sure (1.657–60, 717–22). Nonetheless, that bit about the way they are behaving through the winter—we only have that part second hand from Fama.
Then, we hear that Fama made a special trip to see Iarbas (ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban, 196), but we don’t hear what exactly she told him. We only hear that she was fixing to set a match under him, incenditque animum dictis at aggerat iras (197). It would appear, when we hear Iarbas complaining to Jupiter (which is how Jupiter finally finds out about Aeneas ‘marriage’), that she has added some details, or Iarbas has. We hear Aeneas has a Meonian headress he wears, and he keeps his hair drenched in oil, ille … Maeonia mentum mitra crinemque madentem subnexus (215–16).
Of course, this is not Iarbas’ main point, nor is it the reason he went to visit Jupiter. Iarbas went to complain to Jupiter because it seemed unfair to him that he, who has done so much to help Dido—who gave her the very land she’s building on (cui litus arandum cuique loci leges dedimus, 211–12)—has been rejected, while she accepted this newcomer into her rule (dominum Aenean in regna recepit, 214); this newcomer is enjoying spoils that should be his (rapto potitur, 217).
When he approaches Jupiter, the first thing he says after giving him a greeting is aspice haec?! (208). Then, both before and after he explains why he is upset, he makes it very clear that Dido’s acceptance of a relationship with Aeneas has undercut Iarbas’ faith in Jupiter. Beforehand he asks, to the gods’ face, whether a Jupiter who overlooks this can be the same Jupiter with the lightning and the thunder (208–10), and afterwards he asks whether he’s been looking after altars to Jupiter all this time just to keep up an empty story, nos munera templis quippe tuis ferimus famamque fovemus inanem (217–18).
Yikes! As we see the news travel, more and more of what we think we know about the story starts to seem questionable—and in this sequence, Jupiter is not only the very last to know, but the person who tells him provides very partial, very partisan information.
Further Reading
Caldwell, L. ‘Dido’s Deductio: Aeneid 4.127-65’ Classical Philology 103 (2008) 423-34
Feeney, D.C. ‘The Taciturnity of Aeneas’ Classical Quarterly 33 (1983) 204-29, reprinted in Oxford Readings in Virgil’s Aeneid, ed. S.J. Harrison (Oxford, 1990) 167-90
Gibson, R.K. ‘Aeneas as Hospes in Virgil, Aeneid 1 and 4’ Classical Quarterly 49 (1999) 184-202
Hardie, P.R. Virgil’s Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986) 373-81
Hardie, P.R. Rumour and Renown: Representations of Fama in Western Literature (Cambridge, 2012) 78-149