Antony and Cleopatra and The Aeneid

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Recommended: Role of gods in the Aeneid

There are two reasons why The Aeneid is associated with the Shakespearean play Antony and Cleopatra. First, The Aeneid was written by a Roman named Virgil who, among many other reasons, wrote it as a tribute for Augustus Caesar, the leader of the Roman Empire. Augustus Caesar was formally named Octavian and is a character in Shakespeare's play. Secondly, both The Aeneid and Antony and Cleopatra share a common theme of a patriotic, heroic man having to choose between duty to his country and the passionate love of a beautiful, foreign and strong queen. In The Aeneid, the lovers are Aeneas and Dido and Antony and Cleopatra are the lovers in Shakespeare's play.

First, an overview of the books of The Aeneid in which Aeneas is with Dido is needed in order to fully understand the historical connection, and the thematic comparison to Antony and Cleopatra. "The Aeneid tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas's perilous flight from Troy to Italy following the Trojan War. In Italy, Aeneas's descendents are destined to found Rome" (Sparknotes). However, Aeneas does not go straight to Italy because having been blown off course by a storm, he makes a stop at Carthage and allows himself to stay there and fall in love with the leader of Carthage, Dido (Slavitt 103). Dido is a "Phoenician princess who fled her home and founded Carthage after her brother murdered her husband" (Sparknotes). While in Carthage, Aeneas recounts the story of the Trojan War. Impressed by Aeneas's adventures and sympathetic to his suffering, Dido falls in love with Aeneas. They live together as lovers for a period, until the gods remind Aeneas of his duty to found a new city. Upon this reminder from the Gods, Aeneas leaves Carthage and sets sail to Italy. Dido is deva...

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... and the passionate love of a beautiful, foreign and strong queen. And, they are connected through the historical figure Augustus Caesar, for whom The Aeneid honors and Antony and Cleopatra portrays.

Works Cited

Bevington, David, ed. The Necessary Shakespeare. New York: Pearson Education, Inc,

2005.

“Great Lovers: Antony and Cleopatra.” ABC Radio National. 2005. 1 Nov 2006

.

Rose, Mark, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Antony and Cleopatra. Eaglewood

Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1977.

Slavitt, David R. Virgil. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

Sparknotes. 2006. 1 Nov 2006 .

Toohey, Peter. Reading Epic: An Introduction to the Ancient Narratives. London: Routledge, 1992.

Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. C. Day Lewis. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1953.

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