Varium et Mutabile Semper Femina: Aristophanes' Shapeshifting Lamia and Virgil's Dido

A neglected source of possible inspiration for Virgil in the composition of his Carthaginian queen Dido is the triad of folkloric child-slaying monsters known from citations in Aristophanic old comedy. Virgil's borrowing from lore about the Libyan queen Lamia and her transformation into a nightmarish bogey serves to highlight Dido's metamorphosis from responsible ruler of her people to an angry, embittered enemy of Aeneas and his descendants. Further, Virgil may allude specifically to the shapeshifting nature of these mythological monsters in Mercury's misogynistic warning to Aeneas about the eminent mutability of women.