The image is a flaming pyre. The tantad or sacred fire of the ancient Bretons is a ceremony for midsummer rejoicings. It was part of the mediaeval monastic life in England with the ruins in Fountains Abbey. Dido refers to the mythologic story of Dido and Aeneus and the image of this work to the funeral pyre that Dido constructed before her suicide because Aeneus has left her. Although her relationship with Aeneas spans only this one book of the Aeneid, Dido has become a literary icon for the tragic lover, like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Though at times Aeneas's happiness in his love for Dido seems to equal hers, it is with considerably less grief and anxiety that he is able to leave her in Carthage and go back about the business of bringing the survivors of Troy to Italy and founding Rome. Whereas Dido not only loves Aeneas but hopes he and his warriors will strengthen her city, Aeneas's actions are the result of a momentary abandonment of his true duties and responsibilities. He indulges temporarily in romance and the pleasures of the flesh, but when Jupiter, through Mercury, reminds Aeneas of his destiny, he is dutiful and ready to resume his mission. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.