Fraudulent Hero-The Aeneid

Fraudulent Hero/Deceitful Love The Relationship of Aeneas and Dido in The Aeneid What constitutes a hero? Is he someone who wears blue tights a red cape and has a big S on his chest? Is he faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, more powerful than a locomotive? No its not a bird, and its not a plane, and guess what, its not superman either. A hero …

…Dido. The important concept to understand is that it is dishonesty in love that causes his major flaw. Love is connected with truth and to separate truth from love leaves you with something other than love. We may think it is love but it is not, we may call it love but it is not. Therefore we can not call Aeneas a hero, in truth he is a fraudulent hero because of his deceitful love.