Two of many women scorned in Classical art are Ariadne and Dido. They are two very strong women who helped the men with whom they fell in love, then were left alone. Their men deserted them when their feelings were the strongest for these men. Dido and Ariadne loved their men so strongly, that when they were abandoned, they suffered greatly. Ariadne in Catullus’ Poem 64 and Dido in Vergil’s Aeneid, share many similarities in their loves and losses.
Dido and Ariadne’s stories are similar. Ariadne helped the hero Theseus defeat the Minotaur by giving him a spool of yarn, leaving a trace of thread behind him in order to find his way back through the labyrinth. The couple then fled Crete and went to Delos, and then to Naxos, where Theseus left Ariadne. Carthaginian Queen Dido welcomed hero, and Trojan, Aeneas and his fleet into her land. She housed them and went hunting with them. One fateful night in a cave, they get very intimate together, but Aeneas leaves soon after this because he knows the fates do not want him to start the new Troy in Carthage.
Both women are royalty. Ariadne is one of many children born to King Minos, while Dido is the queen of Carthage. These royal women are generous to the men they love. Ariadne helps save Peleus’ life by giving him that spool of yarn so he could get out of the labyrinth safely. Dido welcomes soldiers from a foreign land into her palace, "... Gentlemen, do not hesitate to come under my roof" [Dido to Aeneas and his comrades. Virgil, Aeneid 1.627].
The strongest similarities are seen when their respective heroes leave them. Ariadne and Dido are both abandoned and watch their lover leave by boat on the shoreline. Ariadne believes herself to be unhappily “abandoned on a lonely beach” [Catullus 64: 57]. She is “roused from deceptive sleep” [Catullus 64: 56-57]. She is so upset that she can’t sleep. Similarly, “Unlucky Dido was alone awake, neither sleep, nor comfort can the furious queen find; sleep fled her eyes, as quiet fled her mind” [Aeneid Book 4: 529-531]. She, like Ariadne, cannot sleep. She stands on the shoreline and watches Aeneas and his men leave her land.
Madness takes over both women once they are abandoned and betrayed. Dido “struck her trembling breast and tore her hair…..What insanity changes her ” [Aeneid Book 4: 589, 595]. She has “blood red and rolling eyes” and “shivered at approaching death” [Aeneid Book 4:643]. Vergil calls Dido a woman “inops animi” [line 300], that she is bereft of reason. She rages and rushes through the whole city just like a Bacchante [lines 301-302].
As Ariadne stands by the shore the winds whisk all her clothing off of her. In Catullus’ Poem 64 “she fails to hold fast the fine textured headdress around her blonde hair; her sheer cloak exposes a breast it no longer veils; and her smooth brassiere no longer keeps her milk white breasts in bondage” [lines 63-65]. Words such as “effigies bacchantis” [line 61] describe her crazed actions and emotions which are similar to those of the women who worship Dionysus, the Bacchantes. She has a “tota perdita mente” [line 70]; she has totally lost her mind.
The future is foreseen in their curses to their former lovers. Dido has prophetic visions as she curses Aeneas. These visions seen in Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 4, were fulfilled: Aeneas will be harassed in war by the Rutuli (tribe), he will be driven to leave Ascanius his son, many of his men will be killed, and that three years after he finally finds the new Troy he will be drowned in the Numicius (body of water) and his body will not be recovered [615-620].
As Ariadne curses Theseus on the top of a mountain, she yells to the gods and goddesses to not let her lamentation be ineffectual, that Theseus pay for the pain he has caused her. Theseus indeed receives some misfortune. When Theseus originally had left his father Aegeas’ palace, he promised his father that Theseus’ men would put a dark sail on his ship if he had died and a white sail if Theseus was glorious in his adventures. Theseus was so happy to be home that he forgot the change the sails, and his father drowned himself in the Aegean Sea, now named after him.
While both women tragically portrayed in Vergil’s Aeneid and Catullus’ Poem 64 led very similar lives, the end of their stories are a little different. Dido throws herself upon the sword Aeneas left behind, now “foaming with blood” [Aeneid 4:663-665]. Dido's agony is long, and Juno taking pity on her sufferings, sends Iris to part the soul from the body. Because Dido is dying neither a natural death nor through the violence of others, Proserpina had not yet clipped the golden tress from her head. But as Iris flew down from Olympus she announced: "This offering, sacred to Hades, I take as bidden, and from your body set you free." [Iris to dying Dido. Aeneid Book 4: 704]
For Ariadne, there is some controversy. Some versions of her story say, Theseus did marry Ariadne, giving her the jeweled crown as a wedding present, then he later abandoned her. Others have it that Theseus sailed off, leaving a sleeping Ariadne to pine for her loss. She implored her father, Zeus, to make amends. Zeus took pity, and sent Dionysus to comfort his daughter. Another version has Dionysus visiting Naxos, and falling in love with Ariadne, so he cast a spell on Theseus. Theseus then forgot all about Ariadne, and sailed off for Athens. In any case, Dionysus took her for his bride, and placed the jeweled crown of Hephaestus on her head. They raised four sons and `lived happily ever after'. But there is some controversy over Ariadne's death. The only thing some versions of her myths agree about is that when Ariadne died Dionysus took the wedding crown and placed it in the heavens between Hercules and Bootes.
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