Both Augustine and Aeneas struggle with sexual lust, affecting their relationships as well as their goals and future plans. Augustine, who details past failures and the days of his youth to God in Confessions, reflects with sorrow over the sexual lust that led him astray from God as well as his studies. This lust led him to take a mistress whom bore him a child, straying outside of his faith and the Godly design for marriage in order to fulfill his desires. This same lust led him, to leave his mistress and child to take a bride, leaving her devastated. Despite all of that, he takes another mistress, forgoing marriage, because he cannot wait two years fro his bride to come of age. Augustine says to God, lamenting over his fall into lust, "Where then was I, and how far from the delights of Your house, in that sixteenth year of my…show more content… With intervention from the gods, Aeneas becomes entangled in a romantic relationship with Dido, the queen of Carthage. Though both characters justify their relationship with the idea that they are married, there was never any actual marriage ceremony and they were merely brought together by Venus. It is remarked my both the Trojans and people of Carthage that their romance has led both Aeneas and Dido to neglect their position as leaders. Their affair also prevents Aeneas from fulfilling his destiny of sailing to Italy, causing him to prolong his time in Carthage. When Jupiter sends Mercury to give Aeneas the message that he must leave Carthage for Italy, it finally prompts him to depart. The greatest fault of Aeneas's lust comes when he leaves Dido. After hearing of his leaving, Dido says to Aeneas, "Oh, I pray you by these tears, by the faith in your right hand- what else have I left myself in all my pain?" (book IV, line 390-391). It is in the midst of her pain that Dido ends her life. Aeneas's act of lust results in heartbreak that leads to
