You even hoped to keep me in the dark/As to this outrage, did you, two-faced man, and slip away in silence?

: Virgil’s protagonist loses his wife when he and his family flee their home while the Greeks take the city; Aeneas reaches safety only to discover that his wife is missing. Aeneas recounts for Queen Dido how he searched for Creusa amidst the chaos. I “filled the streets with calling; in my grief,” he says, “Time after time I groaned and called Creusa, Frantic, in endless quest from door to door” (Aeneid, 2.1000-1001), Book IV of the Aeneid brings a bitter end to the love affair of Aeneas and Dido. Juno sends Mercury down to Carthage to remind Aeneas of his destiny. Virgil writes, “Mercury took [Aeneas] to task at once” (359-360). Aeneas decides that the best course of action is to try and sail out of Carthage without first telling Dido he must leave. Dido learns of Aeneas’ plans, though, and confronts him: “You even hoped to keep me in the dark/As to this outrage, did you, two-faced man, and slip away in silence?” (Virgil, Aeneid, 4.417-419).

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