Under the sign of Saturn : Dido's kulturkampf

Dido’s perception and articulation of time in the Carthage episode displays a refusal to accept the forweard-looking, progressive movement of linear time and a desire to regress to a state of primeval life where cultural bioudnaries and conventions, such as those eventually bound to doom her relationship with Aeneas, do not prevail. This articulation of time sets two world-visions on a collison course.