Dido and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's "Aeneid". It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for
Aeneas As such, in the "natural order", the meaning of Aeneas' name combines Greek "ennos" ("dweller") and "demas" ("body"), which becomes "ennaios", meaning "in-dweller" (i.e. as a god inhabiting a mortal body). However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name. In imitation of the "Iliad", Virgil borrows epithets of Homer, including; Anchisiades, "magnanimum", "magnus", "heros", and "bonus". Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own in the "Aeneid:" "pater" and "pius". The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of an attitude different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is "poikilios" ("wily"), Aeneas