The Dido episode in Ercilla's La Araucana and the critique of empire

Abstract

This essay examines the Dido episode in Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana. Set in the New World but referring to the Mediterranean context, this episode should be read together with other digressions within the poem equally critical of the Spanish Empire, such as the visions of Bellona and Fitón which feature the Old World battles of Saint Quentin and Lepanto. Ercilla not only assimilates Dido's story to that of the Araucanians, but also to that of the "infidels" in the Mediterranean world: the Arabs and the Ottomans. The geography underlying this episode where a virtuous alternative imperial model is located covers a territory problematically related to contemporary Spanish conflicts in Europe. The just empire founded by Dido in the poem - related to places such as Cyprus, Tunis, and North Africa - parallels contemporary territories under Muslim control, recently taken from Christian hands. Thus, within the frame of the third part of the Araucana - the part most pessimistic about the Spanish project and the one that juxtaposes American and European episodes the most - the implicit alliance suggested between Dido and Philip II's European enemies highlights the fragility of Habsburg domination on both American and Mediterranean fronts. By doing this, Ercilla subtly distances himself from the political project of his own monarch. Copyright © 2009 University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved.