One of Rome’s foundational myths centers on the dangers of u…
One of Rome’s foundational myths centers on the dangers of unvirtuous women. In Virgil’s Aeneid, the Trojan Aeneas (who would come to found Rome later on) fell in love with a Carthaginian woman, . Aeneas’s lover, also called Elyssa, begged Aeneas to stay with her in Carthage forever. However, Aeneas’s true duty was to take his people away from Carthage and to found Rome. When Aeneas chose his duty over love, this Carthaginian woman cursed him and vowed that Carthage would give birth to an avenging spirit to destroy Aeneas and Rome. This woman’s attempts to obstruct her lover from his duty came to serve as the antithesis of the virtuous Roman woman.