Dido Queen of Carthage

Act III Scene ii

Location: The Grove Where Ascanius Lies Hidden

Juno finds the hidden Ascanius and contemplates killing him, but Venus intervenes and the two goddesses agree to hatch a plan to keep Aeneas in Carthage that suits both their ends.

Juno:

Venus, sweete Venus, how may I deserue

Such amourous fauours at thy beauteous hand?

But that thou maist more easilie perceiue

How highly I doe prize this amitie,

Harke to a motion of eternall league,

which I will make in quittance of thy loue.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, III.2.64-9

Juno Plots Revenge

Juno has found the hidden Ascanius, and contemplates murdering him out of vengeance. There is no source for this speech in the Aeneid, and Marlowe has perhaps added it in order to clarify Juno's purpose. She seeks vengeance against Venus because the latter was chosen by Paris in his judgment to receive the "heauenly ball" [III.ii.44] rather than Juno. She also plans revenge against her husband Jupiter "and his adulterous child" [III.ii.18], Ganymede, made cup-bearer at the expense of her daughter Hebe. It is this combined thirst for revenge that has driven her to thwart Aeneas' mission to reach Italy.

The Judgment of Paris by Giorgio Ghisi (1555) — Engraving: ***The Judgment of Paris*** by Giorgio Ghisi (1555) [Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 2018.839.108]. Paris seated on a rock chooses between the goddesses Venus, Juno, and Minerva; the god Mercury with a caduceus in between them.

The Goddesses' Machiavellian Pact

But Venus has been warned by her doves, and arrives in time to confront her enemy and save her grandson. Venus is angry and hurls insults and threats; Juno is defensive, implausibly claiming she was merely "sauing him from Snakes and Serpents stings, that would haue kild him sleeping as he lay" [III.2.38-9]. She also claims to have changed her mind over Aeneas. Venus' response may be interpreted as sarcastic, but never the less the two goddesses hit on a ploy that is mutually beneficial. If Aeneas can be lured into returning Dido's love and marrying her, he will stay in Carthage.

Juno will raise another storm when the two mortals are out hunting. Dido and Aeneas shall be trapped in a cave, "and interchangeably discourse their thoughts, whose short conclusion will seale vp their hearts" [III.2.93-4]. Venus agrees this once to collude with Juno, and takes Ascanius off to another safe location.