Dido The Embodiment Of Women In Dante's Inferno

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In both The Aeneid and Inferno, Queen Dido of Carthage falls victim to predestined damnation. On the one hand, Virgil sees Dido as a notable queen who has fallen victim of fate's fickle nature. On the other hand, Dante Alighieri depicts Queen Dido as nothing but a treacherous creature. Within Dante’s Inferno, more importance is given to Dido’s lustful facet than to the fact that she committed suicide, and should therefore, be in the seventh circle of hell. Though Virgil and Alighieri existed in different time periods, both authors made of queen Dido the embodiment of women as a whole: a representation of lust. In other words, queen Dido represents the notion that women are responsible for the fall of humankind. Because of her lust, Dido manages

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