“Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo venerat exstinctam, ferroque extrema secutam?Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro, per superos, et si qua fides tellure sub ima est, invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi. Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras, per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam, imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem. Siste gradum, teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro. Quem fugis? Extremum fato, quod te adloquor, hoc est.”
Book VI, 456-466

Unhappy Dido, so it is true what I heard? You killed yourself? With a sword I see. Did I cause you to do this? I swear to the gods and everything that I can think of, I didn’t leave you because I wanted to. I was unwilling. The will of the gods, that’s why I’m even here, in this dreadful place. That’s why I left you. The will of the gods. I couldn’t have known that my leaving, following the god’s orders, would have led to you doing that. Hey! Stop running away from me. Don’t hide from me. I have something you need to know. I have lots to say. Whom do you flee? Don’t you realize this is the last time I’ll ever get to talk with you.

In Hemingway’s HIlls Like White Elephants a couple debates an abortion. This is Aeneas’ lowest point. I’ve said elsewhere, that Dido didn’t fall head over heels in love with Aeneas. She was, as Juno would say in Book IV, “una dolo divum si femina victa duorum est,” overcome by the treachery of two gods, Venus and Zeus. Again, Aeneas isn’t diabolical. Just stupid. Even now, in hell, he’s still mansplaining to dead Dido why he slipped out of town. He doesn’t get that she doesn’t care. Quem fugis, Aeneas? You, Aeneas, you. Last words? “Finally,” she thinks, “He’s stopped talking.”

Ninth Day: Moon Rise

Eleventh Day: Ghosted

What Aeneas should have said other than nothing. Take it away Gerry…