Meta Description: Join Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe in Ad Navseam Episode 90 as they finally arrive at the tragic romance of Vergil’s Aeneid Book IV. Discover why Aeneas is a wallflower, how Dido subverts the Penelope archetype, and what the Romans really meant by Omnia vincit amor. Plus, a lesson on the Latin language of love, the horror of the concrete Parthenon, and the ultimate Love Boat cave hanger.
Introduction: The Hiatus and The Kentucky Fried Junket
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to Episode 90 of the Ad Navseam Podcast! Broadcasting once again from the Vomitorium, your hosts, Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe, are back after a two-week hiatus.
Dr. Noe attempts to test Dr. Winkle’s etymological awareness by claiming “hiatus” is a Greek word, but immediately corrects himself to admit it’s a Latin language derivative, establishing his pedantic tone for the evening.
Dr. Winkle returns from a massive family road trip—a veritable “Kentucky Fried Junket.” He dragged his children on a macabre tour of American pilgrimage sites and cemeteries, visiting the graves of Colonel Harland Sanders and Muhammad Ali in Louisville, the Wright Brothers in Dayton, and exploring the strange urban legends of Warlock Willie and the Pope Lick Goatman.
However, the most controversial stop was in Nashville, Tennessee, where Dr. Winkle visited the full-scale, concrete replica of the Parthenon. Dr. Noe expresses a dismissive, envious disdain for this quintessentially American monument. He contrasts its cheap, practical concrete construction with the magnificent, reckless confidence of the Florence Duomo, which was built without any idea of how to construct the dome simply because the Italians believed they would eventually figure it out.
The Feasts and Famines of Shout-Outs
Before turning to the epic poetry, the hosts address a massive, three-ring-binder-sized shout-out submission from listener Grant Hayden. Grant, a former history teacher turned industrial component salesman, chided the hosts for their lack of recent shout-outs. He layered his plea with a hilarious string of classical and biblical begging metaphors: “Like humble Priam beseeching the body of Hector… Like the importunate widow… Like the bold Syrophoenician woman, I retort that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Ad Navseam table”.
Dr. Noe cannot resist pointing out the pedantic error: Priam beseeched Achilles for the body of Hector, not the dead body itself. Nevertheless, Grant wins the day by demanding the return of the podcast’s original inside joke: “Bring back the brackish tang”.
The Opening Quote: The Culpa of Aeneas
Finally, we arrive at the most famous, most excerpted book of the Aeneid: Book IV, the tragic romance of Aeneas and Dido.
To frame the discussion, Dr. Noe provides a quote from Brooks Otis’s 1964 masterpiece, Vergil: A Study in Civilized Poetry. Otis asks a crucial question: Why is the hero of the epic, Aeneas, so entirely passive in this book? Why does Dido completely dominate the narrative?
Otis provides two answers:
- Dido is an alter Aeneas: She is a mirror image of the hero. She has already founded a city, led her people, and acted with the agency and heroism that Aeneas currently lacks.
- Aeneas’s Passivity is a Moral Failure: Aeneas’s lack of initiative is the ultimate proof of his culpa (fault/guilt). He is entirely caught up and lost in Dido’s tempestuous passion, forgetting his divine destiny.
Dr. Winkle finds Aeneas to be a maddening “wallflower” hero. In Book IV, he is the proto-Roman Eastern dandy, lounging around Carthage in a purple velour cloak, playing the part of Marc Antony to Dido’s Cleopatra.
The Reverse Penelope and the Disease of Love
As Book IV opens, Dido is completely consumed by her love for Aeneas. Vergil uses the language of disease, sickness, and madness to describe her state.
Dr. Winkle notes that Dido is essentially a “reverse Penelope”. While Odysseus’s wife famously fended off suitors to remain faithful to her absent husband, Dido has fended off countless North African suitors (like Iarbas) to remain faithful to her dead husband, Sychaeus. She swore a terrible vow on his ashes never to marry again, but Aeneas is the first man to cause her heart to falter.
Vergil cements her tragic state with a brilliant, Ovidian epic simile. He compares Dido to an unwary doe wandering the Dictaean forests of Crete, shot by a shepherd who has no idea his arrow struck her. The lethal shaft clings to her flank as she raves through the woods.
Dr. Winkle points out how perfectly this captures Aeneas’s passivity: he doesn’t even know he fired the arrow that is killing her.
Omnia Vincit Amor: The True Meaning of the Latin Phrase
Dido’s sister, Anna, acts as the ultimate enabler, providing the rationalization Dido needs to break her religious vow: “What do the dead care about these things?”.
This leads to a philological breakdown of Vergil’s most famous (and most misunderstood) phrase: Omnia vincit amor (Love conquers all).
Dr. Winkle points out that modern society uses this phrase like a Disney proverb, implying that love will ultimately bring peace and a happy ending. However, the Latin verb vincere is fundamentally military; it means to crush, dominate, and destroy.
Love doesn’t bring peace; love crushes everything in its path, just as the Romans crushed Carthage. For the Romans, love (like Dido’s) was a dangerous madness that strips you of your free will and leaves you in ruins.
The Garbage Time of Olympus
Meanwhile, on Mount Olympus, the goddesses are plotting. Juno (who wants to keep Aeneas in Carthage) approaches Venus (who wants him in Italy) with a proposal for a truce. She suggests they unite the Trojans and Tyrians in a royal marriage.
The hosts note the hilarious political dynamics here. Juno knows she is ultimately going to lose because Fate has decreed Aeneas will reach Italy. So why is she proposing this? Dr. Winkle equates it to the “garbage time” of a blowout basketball game. You know you’re going to lose, but you’re a professional, so you keep playing the clock, hoping to at least embarrass your rival and delay the inevitable.
Juno proposes that during a royal hunt, she will send a massive storm that will drive the two young lovers into a cave, where she will act as the “Captain Steubing” of the Love Boat and officially wed them. The hosts leave the audience right there—on the ultimate “cave hanger”—to see if this dubious marriage actually holds water.
Sponsors: Fuel for the Classical Renaissance
To survive the tragic romance of Carthage, the hosts invite you to support the sponsors that keep the bunker running:
- Pop City Popcorn: Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, this is the official popcorn of the Western Michigan Broncos. Ditch the “Jacker-Crack” and try the phenomenal Bacon Cheddar, Parmesan, or Two-Way Drizzle. Visit popcitypopcorn.com and use code ANPOP20 for 20% off your first order.
- Ratio Coffee: Dr. Winkle suffered a minor heart attack when he thought his wife ruined his Ratio 8’s hand-blown borosilicate glass carafe in the dishwasher (it survived!). Dr. Noe suffered through a terrible hotel “L-cup” machine and felt the lack of his Ratio 8 deeply. Go to ratiocoffee.com and use code ANCO A4 for 15% off.
- Hackett Publishing: Celebrating their 50th, “quinquagesimal” anniversary! They provide the brilliant Stanley Lombardo translation of the Aeneid used in this episode. Visit hackettpublishing.com and use code AN2022 for 20% off and free shipping.
- The Moss Method & Latin Per Diem: Want to read the original text? Go from “neophyte to erudite” in ancient Greek with the Moss Method for $325 a module at mossmethod.com. Or, learn the Latin language with Dr. Noe’s Lingua Latina course at latinperdiem.com/llpsi for just $199.
The Gustatory Parting Shot
To close out Episode 90, the hosts acknowledge that Dr. Winkle has been aggressively logging steps on his pedometer, turning his daily walks into a fierce competition. In honor of this new fitness regimen, Jeff offers a Spanish proverb for the Gustatory Parting Shot:“With bread and wine, you can walk your road.” Just make sure you keep the wine out of your shoes. Valete!
