The story of the opera is taken from the "Aeneid" by the Roman poet Virgil. Virgil was trying to create a national epic for the Romans in the way Homer did with "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" for the Greeks. Aeneas is the son of Venus and Anchises of Troy. He flees his home after it is sacked by the Greeks. Ahead of him lies a seven year journey to Italy. Fate has decreed he will found a new nation. Aeneas arrives in Carthage. Queen Dido is mourning her dead husband, a man to whom she swore eternal fidelity. She has fallen in love with Aeneas, and he with her.