The Carthaginian queen is the plaything, the pawn, of both Juno and Venus. She has no freedom except in her choice to kill herself, an act of courage that proves she is a tragic — as well as a romantic — heroine. Indeed, Dido loses, but the cruel goddesses who use her lose also. In trying against their better judgment to alter the will of fate, they only serve it: The passion that Venus inspires and Juno sanctions is, as fate decrees, frustrated, causing Dido to put a curse on the Trojans, which, in turn, will lead to the Punic Wars.
Although Juno and Venus's intention is to change the fated outcomes of human lives, their manipulative actions are the very instruments of fate that will ensure Rome's triumph and Carthage's defeat. Juno knows that Rome's eventual victory over its rival city has been decreed, but the goddess's attempts to block this outcome ironically make it possible. Likewise, the Romans, although ultimately victorious, will endure hardships — the Punic Wars — that Venus, of whom they are the favored people, does not foresee when she attempts to protect her son by having Dido fall in love with him. Fate moves toward its end as inexorably as water flows down to the sea; it may be forced to change its course a little, but it triumphs over every attempt to prevent its fulfillment.
