Dido, Queen of Carthage (play) on books 1, 2 and 4 of The "Aeneid," but the author makes several deviations from this material. Pigman draws attention to how imitators 'exploit... the historical distance between a text and its model', leading to 'crucial departures from, sometimes criticisms of, the model'. Stump suggests that these changes in "Dido, Queen of Carthage" make a mockery of Aeneas. They notably include: Jupiter is fondling Ganymede, who says that Jupiter's wife Juno has been mistreating him because of her jealousy. Venus enters, and complains that Jupiter is neglecting her son Aeneas, who has left Troy with survivors of the defeated
Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey Hector in Book II that he was to leave burning Troy to found a new city. Throughout the rest of the epic, the gods include reminders that Aeneas is destined to find Italy and found Rome for future generations. Another thing Virgil replicates from the "Iliad" is the ekphrasis of Aeneas' shield. In Book VIII of the "Aeneid", Vulcan (the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Hephaestus) forges a shield for Aeneas before he goes into battle. This is similar to Hephaestus creating Achilles' shield in Book XVII of the "Iliad". Both of the goddesses who mothered the heroes (Venus