Both Dido and Camilla in the "Aeneid" are super badass women—and both were done dirty by Aeneas directly and indirectly, respectively, resulting in their deaths, which is just one more reason I don't like Aeneas.
Having read Virgil's "sequel" to Homer's work, it feels like possibly the earliest form of fan fiction complete with its own original character—who is, like, super badass and better than all those original Greek characters. And much like modern fanfiction that engages in this, I don't particularly like that story beat and roll my eyes. That's who the Romans were as a people, though, unimaginative conquerors who were partial to absorbing other people's societies and cultures, slap some different names on them, and then proclaim themselves the chosen ones.
Virgil is especially keen to convince us that Aeneas is so much better than my favorite character in these myths, Odysseus, renamed Ulysses because—again—the Romans were weirdly unimaginative as an empire. Anyway, let us not forget that when all is said and done, Aeneas, the Trojan, lost, because Odysseus, the Greek, wrecked his shit. This whole story of this loser pissing off to Italy to be the progenitor of the Roman Empire mystifies me because I'm unsure why Virgil thought it was inspiring.
Maybe stoicism?
The quick synopsis of the Aeneid is the Trojans lose the war against the Greeks, and Aeneas leads them on a road trip across the Mediterranean to finally settle in Italy. Oh, and he gets his wife, and then his girlfriend killed. By the way, notice how Penelope and Circe are still alive, just saying.
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