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Chapter 6 - The Gaze on the Void
from Part I - Absence in Text
- By Viola Starnone
Edited by Tom Geue, University of St Andrews, Scotland, Elena Giusti, University of Warwick
Book:

Unspoken Rome

Published online:

03 September 2021

Print publication:

16 September 2021, pp 109-122
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Summary

The chapter deals with the absence of Aeneas’ gaze on Dido in Aeneid 1. When the queen makes her way to the temple of Juno, no passage in the narrative informs the reader that the hero has turned his eyes on her. Right away, the lack of any responses to Dido’s first appearance clashes with the expectations of the readers. From Ovid to Valerius Flaccus, from Probus to Pöschl, readers express their dissatisfaction with the hero’s behaviour by filling in the gap left by Virgil, developing a sort of ‘ghost text’, an alternative, virtual Aeneid that ends up overlaying the real one. It is argued in conclusion that Virgil may have left the narrative void in Book 1 on purpose, in order to fill it himself in Book 6, where Aeneas’ gaze and emotions towards Dido, at her last appearance in the poem, are surprisingly highlighted.