Vergil - Aeneid 1

Lines 1 - 11: Vergil’s statement of the theme of the poem is followed by the invocation to the Muse and by the mention of Carthage, Juno’s beloved city.

I sing of arms and the man, exiled by fate, who first from the coasts of Troy came to Italy and the Lavinian shores; he was much buffeted by land and sea by the violence of the gods, through the unforgetting anger of cruel Juno; and [5] he also suffered much in war until he should found a city and bring his gods into Latium, from where came the Latin race, the Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome.

O Muse, tell me the causes, of how the divine will was violated, or why the queen of the gods was angered, and why she drove a man, [10] famous for his piety, to traverse so many perils and to enter into so many toils. Can there be so much anger in the hearts of the heavenly gods?

Lines 12 – 38The history of Juno’s enmity to the Trojans - her dear city Carthage was threatened by a decree of the Fates to be destroyed by a Trojan race, and she hated Troy’s people ever since the insult set upon her by the judgement of Paris.

There was an ancient city, Tyrian colonists held it, Carthage, opposite Italy and the distant mouth of the river Tiber, rich in wealth and most ruthless in the pursuits of war; [15] Juno is said to have loved this one place more than all lands, even more than Samos; here was her armour, here was her chariot; that here the goddess intended to be the capital for the nations, if the fates would allow it in any way, and already she cherished it. But indeed she had heard that a race was springing from Trojan blood to one day overthrow the Tyrian towers [20]; henceforth a people ruling far and wide and proud in war would come for the destruction of Libya; thus the Fates were unrolling. The daughter of Saturn, fearful of this, and mindful of the old war she had long since fought at Troy for her beloved Argos - [25] not yet even had the reasons for her anger and her bitter resentment left her mind: deep in her heart remained stored the Judgement of Paris, and the injustice of her slighted beauty, and the race she hated, and the honours paid to the ravished Ganymede. Inflamed with all this besides, she was keeping at a distance far away [30] from Latium the Trojans who had been tossed on all the sea, the ones left by the Greeks and pitiless Achilles, and they were wandering, throughout many years, driven by the fates, over all the seas. So vast was the struggle to found the Roman race!

Hardly out of sight of the land of Sicily they were spreading their sails happily for the open sea, [35] and with their bronze prows, they were churning the sea to foam, when Juno, nursing the eternal wound deep in her breast, said this to herself:

“What! Am I, defeated, to give up my undertaking, am I not able to keep the king of the Trojans away from Italy?”

Lines 39 – 49Juno, seeing the Trojans cheerfully voyaging on from Sicily, soliloquizes angrily on her humiliating position. She speaks of Minerva’s retribution on Oilean Ajax as a model of revenge, and muses that in her humiliation of failing to stop the Trojans, no one would worship her.

For sure, I am forbidden by the fates. Was not Pallas Athene able to burn the Argive fleet and sink it in the sea, on account of crime and frenzy of one man, Ajax, son of Oileus? She herself, having hurled Jupiter’s swift fire from the clouds, scattered the boats and disturbed the sea with the winds, seized that man in a hurricane, while with his chest pierced he was breathing out flames and impaled him on a sharp crag. But I, who walk as queen of the gods, and both the sister and wife of Jove, am waging war with one race for so many years! Will anyone call upon the power of Juno in the future, or as a suppliant lay offerings on her altars?

Lines 50 – 64Juno visits the cave of Aeolus, Lord of the Winds.

Turning over such things in her burning heart to herself, the goddess came to Aeolia, motherland of storm-clouds, a place teeming with the raging winds of the South. Here King Aeolus in his vast cavern keeps under his sway the brawling winds and the howling storms and he restrains them with prison chains. [55] They roar in protest around their fortress with the mighty rumbling of the mountain; Aeolus sits in his lofty citadel holding his sceptre and he soothes their spirits and he tempers their rage. If he didn’t do so, they would surely carry off with them impetuously seas and lands and the deep sky and they would sweep them though space. [60] But, fearful of this, the all-powerful Father hid them in black caves, and heaped over them high mountain masses, and, under a fixed treaty, gave them a king who should know how to tighten and loosen the reins when commanded. Juno, as a suppliant, then addressed him with these words:

Lines 65 – 80Juno asks Aeolus to cause a storm, offering a beautiful nymph as a bride if he does her will. Immensely flattered, he agrees.

[65] “Aeolus, for to you the father of the gods and the king of men has given the power to calm the waves and to raise them by the wind, a race hateful to me is sailing the Tyrrhenian sea, carrying Troy into Italy and its vanquished household gods; drive force into the winds, overwhelm and sink their ships, [70] or drive the men asunder and scatter their bodies over the sea. I have fourteen nymphs of outstanding beauty, and the loveliest of them in form is Deiopea, and I will join her to you in lawful wedlock and I will make her your very own, so that if you do me this service, [75] she may spend all her years with you and make you the father of beautiful offspring.”

Aeolus said this in reply: “Your task, O Queen, is to search out what you desire; my duty is to carry out your orders. It is thanks to you that I have this kingdom, whatever it is, and have the sceptre and favour of Jupiter, you grant me to recline at the feasts of the gods, [80] and you make me powerful over the storm-clouds and storms.”

Lines 81 – 123Aeolus releases the winds. The Trojans, caught in a hurricane, face death. Aeneas laments that he did not die at Troy. The storm falls violently upon the ships, and many are wrecked.

So he spoke, and turning his spear he struck the hollow mountain on its side; when look, the winds, as if in a formed column, rush forth where a way is given, and they blow over the lands in a hurricane. They swooped down upon the sea, and from its lowest depths they upheaved it all, [85] the East and the South winds together, and the South-West thick with storms, and they roll the vast waves towards the shore. There followed the shouting of men and the creaking of ropes. Suddenly the clouds snatched away the sky and the daylight from the eyes of the Trojans; black night brooded over the sea. [90] The heavens thundered and the sky thick with lightning flashed, and everything threatened instant death to the men.

Suddenly the limbs of Aeneas grew weak with chilling dread; he groaned and lifting his palms upwards to the stars, he thus cried aloud: “O three times and four times blessed are those [95] whose fate it was to die before the faces of their fathers beneath the high walls of Troy; O son of Tydeus, bravest of the race of the Greeks! Why could I not have fallen on the fields of Troy and breathed out this life at your right hand, where, under the spear of Achilles, fierce Hector lies, [100] where mighty Sarpedon lies, where the Simois seizes and sweeps beneath its waves so many shields and helmets and bodies of brave men?”

As he is flinging forth such words a gust, shrieking from the North wind, strikes full on his sail and lifts the waves to the stars. The oars snap; and then the prow swings round and gives its side to the waves; [105] there follows on in a heap a sheer mountain of water. Some of the men hang on the crest of the waves; to others the yawning sea reveals its seabed amid the waves; the surging seethes with sand. The South wind snatched three ships and hurled them on hidden rocks - rocks the Italians call the Altars which are in the middle of the waves - [110] a huge ridge topping the sea; the East wind forces three ships from the deep into shallows and the sandbanks of the Syrtes, a pitiable sight, and dashes them on shoals and surrounds them with a heap of sand. Before the very eyes of Aeneas a huge toppling wave strikes full on the stern one ship which was carrying the Lycians and faithful Orontes; [115] the helmsman is dashed out and swept away head first; but then three times in the same spot the ship is whirled round and round by the wave and a devouring whirlpool engulfs it in the sea. Here and there swimmers are seen in the vast ocean, and amid the waves the armour of the men, and planks, and Trojan treasure. The storm has mastered [120] now the strong ship of Ilioneus, now the ship of brave Achates, and the ship in which Abas sailed, and the ship in which Aletes of great age sailed; with the side joints loosened, all let in the hostile flood and gaped at every seam.

Lines 124 – 156Neptune notices that an unauthorised storm has arisen and realises it is Juno’s doing. He sternly rebukes the winds, and sends a message to Aeolus not to meddle with the sea. He then sets about calming the sea with the help of Triton and Cymothoe.

Meanwhile Neptune seriously disturbed felt that the sea was being churned with a great rumbling, and that a storm had been sent forth, and from the lowest depths still waters flowed back; and looking out from the deep, he raised his gentle head from the crest of the wave. He saw the fleet of Aeneas tossed about over the whole of the sea, the Trojans crushed by the waves and the downfall of the sky, nor did the stratagems and anger of Juno did escape the notice of her brother. He summoned the East and the West winds to him , and spoke such things as follows:

“Does so great a confidence in your birth hold you? Now against my will, o winds, do you dare to disturb heaven and earth, and to raise such great masses of water? You whom I - but it is better to soothe the agitated waves. You will atone for your crimes to me another time with a different punishment. Away with you, hurry, and speak this to your king: it is not to him power over the ocean and the pitiless trident was given by lot but to me. He, o east wind, holds immense rocks, where you have your home; Aeolus may officiate in his palace, and rule in the closed prison of the winds. So he spoke, and he soothed the swollen sea sooner than he had finished speaking, put to flight the gathered clouds, and brought out the sun again. Cymothoe and Triton working at the same time pushed off the ships from sharpened crags; Neptune himself raised them with his trident; and laid bare the vast sandbanks of the Syrtes, and calmed the sea, and glided over the vast waves with light chariot wheels. Just has when often in a great nation dissention breaks out and the common crowd rages with passion and now torches and rocks are flying - their rage supplies weapons; then, if perchance they catch sight of a man heavy with piety and good services, they fall silent, and stand by with attentive ears; he governs their spirits with words and soothes their hearts - thus the whole din of the ocean fell silent, after the father looking down on the sea from heaven and carried through the clear sky turns his horses, and flying behind in his chariot gives reins.

Lines 157 – 179The Trojans, worn out, make for land; they find a safe refuge, a lovely natural harbour; they make a fire and start to prepare a meal.

The exhausted followers of Aeneas strained to head for at speed the nearest land, and they set course for the coast of Libya. There is a place in a deep inlet: an island forms a harbour [160] with the barrier of its sides, where every wave from the deep is broken and divides itself into diminished ripples. On this side and that vast cliffs and twin crags loom into the sky, under whose summits the waters are still and safe; [165] then, above that, is a scene of shimmering woods and a dark grove overhangs with quivering shade. Under the headland opposite is a cave of hanging rocks, and inside fresh spring water and seats of natural stone,

the home of the nymphs; here no chains hold weary ships, no anchor with its hooked bite fastens them. [170] Here with seven ships mustered from all his fleet, Aeneas took shelter; and disembarking with great longing for the land the Trojan gained possession of the longed-for beach, and they put on the shore their limbs drenched with brine. First of all Achates struck a spark from flint, [175] and caught the fire in leaves, and laid dry fuel all around, and whipped up a flame in the tinder. Then, weary after their labours, they take out the corn of Ceres, spoiled by the waves, and the tools of Ceres, and they prepare to scorch with flame the rescued grain and to grind it on stone.

Lines 180 – 222Aeneas climbs the cliffs, vainly looking seawards for further survivors. He kills some stags and carries them back to his men, comforting them with words of hope, although inside he is despondent. The famished Trojans feast cheerfully and then they talk of their lost companions.

Meanwhile Aeneas climbed a crag and searched the whole view far and wide to the ocean, if he might see any trace of Atheus, tossed about by the wind and the Phrygian biremes, or of Capys or the arms of Caicus on his high stern. There was no ship in sight, but he saw three deer on the shore wandering about; the whole herd followed these from behind, and were grazing along the valley in a long line. Aeneas stopped and he seized both a bow and swift arrows in his hand, darts which faithful Achates carried; first he scattered the leaders themselves, with their high heads of branching antlers, then he breaks up the rest of the whole crowd driving them with his shafts between the leafy groves; nor did he stop before the victor spread out on the ground seven huge bodies, and made the number equal with his ships. From here he made for the harbour, and distributed it to all his allies. then he shared out the wine which the good Acestes had stowed in casks and the illustrious man had given on the Trinacrian shore to them as they were departing, and soothed their lamenting hearts with his words;

“O friends, for we were not unacquainted with evils before, O you who have suffered more serious things, god will also give an end to these circumstances. You have faced both rabid Scylla and her deep echoing caves, and you have endured the Cyclops’ rocks; summon your courage, send away gloomy fear. And perhaps it will please you to remember these things one day. We are making for Latium through so many various perils and through dangers of the circumstances; where the fates promise a quiet home; to this place it is divine law that the kingdoms of troy will rise again. Endure and save yourselves for better times. So he spoke such things and sick with his immense troubles he feigned hope with his expression, and he stifled the pain deep in his heart.

These men applied themselves to their game and to the coming banquet; they flay the hides from the ribs and lay bare the entrails; others cut it into trembling slices and skewer it on spits. Others placed bronze cauldrons on the shore and lit fires.

Then they recovered their strength with nourishment and spread out on the grass took their fill of old wine and rich game meat. After hunger was driven out with their feast and the tables were set aside, they discuss with long conversation their missing allies, and moving between hope and fear, whether to believe that they were alive, or that they endured the most extreme things and that they no longer heard their summonings. Pious Aeneas lamented most of all now the fall of fierce Orontes, now of Amycus and the cruel fate of Lycus with him and brave Gyas and brave Cloanthus.

Lines 223 - 253: Venus comes to Jupiter, as he surveys the world, imploring him in tears to end Aeneas’ sufferings and to allow him to reach Italy.

And now the feast was ended, when Jupiter looking down from the height of heaven on the sea flying with sails and the lands lying below and [225] the shores and the far spread peoples, stopped at the highest point of the sky thus, and fixed his eyes on the kingdom of Libya. And while he was turning over in his heart such cares, Venus, rather sad, spoke to him, her shining eyes brimming with tears: “O you who rule the affairs of men and of gods with your eternal laws, [230] and you who terrify with your lightning, what thing so great has my Aeneas been able to do against you, what have the Trojans been able to do, to whom, after suffering so many deaths, the whole world is closed off because of Italy? Having promised for sure that from here one day as the years roll by, [235] the Romans would be leaders, from the restored blood of Teucer, who would hold the sea, who would hold the lands with all power, O father, what thought has changed you? Indeed, I used to console myself with this for the fall of Troy and the sad ruins, weighing one destiny against another; [240] now the same misfortune follows these men driven on by so many disasters. O great king, what end do you give to their labours?

Antenor, having escaped from the middle of the Greeks, could safely make his way into the Illyrian gulfs and the innermost realms of the Liburnians, and go beyond the spring of the Timavus, [245] from where through nine mouths with a mountain’s mighty roar, a sea of water bursts out and covers the fields with a sounding ocean. However he founded the city of Padua as a home for his Trojans and gave a name to the race and dedicated the arms of Troy; now he lives settled in tranquil peace: [250] but as for us, your offspring, to whom you grant the heights of heaven, we have lost our ships (it is unspeakable!) and because of the anger of one we are betrayed and kept far from the shores of Italy. Is this the reward for piety? Is it thus that you restore us to greatness?”

Lines 254 - 296: Jupiter comforts his daughter with a smile and a kiss. His purpose is unchanged - Aeneas will found his destined city, and Romans of Trojan stock will become lords of the world. Under a great Caesar, War will be enchained and Peace will triumph.

The father of men and gods smiling on her [255] with the look with which he brightens the sky and clears up storms, kissed his daughter lightly on the lips, and then he spoke as follows: “Spare your fear, my lady from Cythera: the destiny of your descendants remains

unchanged for you; you will see the city of Lavinium and its promised walls, [260] and you will take great-hearted Aeneas high up to the stars of heaven; no thought has changed my mind. This your son (for, since this worry gnaws repeatedly at you, I will speak, and, further unrolling the secrets of the fates I will disclose more) will wage a huge war in Italy and he will crush to pieces fierce tribes and he will set up customs and city walls for his people, [265] until a third summer has seen him reigning in Latium and three winters have passed since the Rutulians were laid low. But the boy Ascanius, who now receives the surname Iulus, - it was Ilus while the kingdom of Troy stood firm in sovereignty - will fulfil in empire thirty long years while the months roll along [270] and he will transfer his kingdom from its seat at Lavinium, and he will fortify with great power Alba Longa. Here then for three hundred unbroken years will the kingdom endure under Hector’s race until Ilia, a royal priestess, pregnant by Mars, will give birth to twin offspring. [275] Then Romulus, joyful in the tawny hide of the she-wolf, his nurse, will receive the people, and will found the walls of Mars, and will call the people Romans after his own name. On them I impose no limits of time nor place; I have given them dominion without end. Furthermore, harsh Juno, [280] who now in her fear troubles the sea and the lands and the sky, will change to better counsels, and with me will cherish the Romans, the rulers of the world, the race that wears a toga; thus it has been decreed. There will come a day, as the years glide by, when the house of Assaracus will reduce Phthia and famous Mycenae to slavery, [285] and will hold dominion over the vanquished Argos. From this noble stock there will be born a Trojan Caesar, to bound his empire by the ocean, his fame with the stars, Julius, a name passed down from the great Iulus. Him, in days to come, anxious no more, [290] you will welcome to heaven, laden with the spoils of the East; he too will be called upon in prayers. Then, with wars laid aside the years of bitterness will become soft, silver-haired Faith and Vesta and Quirinus with his brother Remus will administer justice; the Gates of War, grim with iron and close-fitting seams, will be closed; inside impious Rage, [295] sitting on savage weapons, his hands shackled behind his back with a hundred brazen knots, will roar hideously with his bloody mouth.

Lines 296 - 304: Jupiter sends Mercury to Carthage, to ensure that Dido will treat the Trojans kindly.

So he spoke, and he sent down from on high the son of Maia, so that the lands and citadels of newly-built Carthage may open in hospitality to the Trojans, in case Dido, ignorant of destiny, [300] should bar them from her territory: through the great expanse of hair he flies on the oarage of wings and speedily alights on the shores of Libya. At once he carries out his orders, and with the divine will the Phoenicians lay aside their savage thoughts; above all the queen takes on a gentle mind and kind purpose towards the Trojans.

Lines 305 - 334: Aeneas goes to reconnoitre; his mother meets him, disguised as a young huntress, and asks if he has seen another huntress pass by. He replies that he has not, and asks her to tell him what country he has reached.

[305] But dutiful Aeneas, considering very many things through the night, as soon as kindly light was given, decided to go out and to explore this new land, and to learn to what coasts he has come with the wind, who dwells there, whether man or wild beasts, for he sees just wasteland, and then to bring back the news to his comrades. He hides the fleet in a covered arch of trees under overhanging rocks, closely encircled by trees and quivering shade: he himself, accompanied just by Achates, set out, grasping in his hand two spears tipped with broad steel.

Across his path, amid the forest, came his mother, [315] wearing the face and dress of a young girl, and the weapons of a young girl, either a Spartan or one such as Thracian Harpalyce when she out-tires horses or outstrips the fast-flying Hebrus in flight. For from her shoulders she had a light bow hanging in the style of a hunting girl and she had given her hair to the winds to scatter, [320] with her knee bare and her flowing dress gathered in a knot. And she spoke first, “Hey there, young men, tell me if by chance you have seen one of my sisters wandering about here, equipped with quiver and wearing the skin of a spotted lynx, or pressing with shouting the track of a foaming boar”.

[325] Thus spoke Venus, and thus in reply began the son of Venus: “None of your sisters have I heard or seen – but how am I to address you, O maiden? For your face is not mortal nor does your voice sound human: O goddess surely – are you the sister of Phoebus? Or are you one of the race of nymphs? - [330] be gracious, whoever you are, and lighten our burden, and inform us, pray, beneath what sky, on what coasts of the world are we cast. Knowing nothing of the people or the place, we are wandering, driven here by the wind and the huge waves; many a victim will fall by our right hands at your altars.”

Lines 335 - 360: Venus tells Aeneas where he is, and tells him the story of Dido.

[335] Then Venus replied: “Indeed I do not consider myself worthy of such honour: it is the custom of Tyrian girls to wear the quiver, and to bind their ankles high with purple boots. You see the Carthaginian realm, the Tyrians and the city of Agenor; but the bordering territory is Libyan, a race not easy to handle in war. [240] Dido, who came from the city of Tyre, escaping her brother, holds sway. The tale of injustice is long, the winding story is long; but I shall trace the main outlines of the story.

Her husband was Sychaeus, richest of the Phoenicians in gold, and he was greatly loved [in love] by the unhappy Dido, [345] to whom her father had given her as a virgin, and had joined her to him with the due rites of a first marriage. But her brother Pygmalion held the kingdom of Tyre, more monstrous in crime beyond all others. Between the two men came frenzy. Pygmalion, impiously before the altars, and blinded by his lust for gold, [350] struck down secretly with a sword Sychaeus who was unaware, and he was heedless of his sister’s love; And for a long time he hid the deed and by pretending much in his wickedness he deceived the love-sick lover with empty hope. But in her sleep came the very ghost of her unburied husband, lifting up his pale face with the strange pallor of the dead, [355] and he

laid bare the cruel altars, and his chest pierced with the sword, and he revealed all the secret crime of the house. Then he urged her to hasten her escape and to leave her native land, and as a help for her journey he brought her to light from the earth ancient treasures, an incalculable weight of silver and of gold. [360] Alarmed by this, Dido began to prepare her escape and her companions. Those who had savage hatred or bitter fear of the tyrant came together; they seized ships which by chance were ready, and they filled them with gold; the riches of greedy Pygmalion were carried on the ocean; a woman became a leader. They came to the places where now you see huge walls and a citadel of newly built Carthage rising, and they bought only as much as they could enclose with the hide of a bull, and from that they called it Byrsa. But you, who are you then, from what shores have you come, what path do you keep?”

Summary 361 - 386

Aeneas tells Venus who he is, and the calamities he has suffered on the path which his mother has shown him to take.

To her asking such questions, Aeneas with a sigh drew his words from the depths of his heart:

“O goddess, if I were to proceed retracing the tale from the very beginning and there were time to hear the records of our labours, Vesper would before shut day away in closed Olympus.

We are from ancient troy, if by chance the name of troy has reached your ears, carried over the varied seas from Troy, a storm drove us by accident to the Libyan coasts. I am pious Aeneas, who carries with me in my fleet my Penates snatched from the enemy; my fame is known to the heavens above.

I seek an Italian homeland, and the race from highest Jove. With twenty ships I embarked upon the Phrygian sea, with my goddess mother showing the way, following the fate given to me. Seven barely survived, shattered by the waves and the East wind. I myself, unknown and in need traverse the Libyan deserts, driven from Europe and Asia.”

Venus, enduring no more of this lamenting interrupted in the middle of his grief thus:

Lines 387 - 392

“Whoever you are, not, I believe, hateful to the gods, you who draw the breath of life and have come to the Tyrian city. Go now and take yourself off from here to the queen’s door. [390] For I tell you that your companions are restored and your fleet returned, and it has been driven into safety by shifting winds, unless my parents have falsely taught me augury in vain. See twelve swans in a joyful line, that the eagle of Jove having glided from the heavenly heights disturbs in the open sky; now in a long row they seem either to have settled on land or gaze down at the ones who are already settled. As, returning, they play on

noisy wings and circle the sky and utter their song, so do your ships and your crews either hold the port or enter the mouth with full sail. Make haste now, and by what way the path leads you, turn your steps.”

Summary 393 - 417

Venus reveals herself in all her beauty and majesty, though Aeneas shouts after her angrily, for having deceived him. Venus hides Aeneas and Achates in a cloud of mist, and happily floats away to Pathos.

She spoke and turning her rose-tinted throat she shone again, and from her head her hair breathed the divine fragrance of ambrosia, her robe flowed down to the bottom of her feet, and with her gait she laid bare the truth of her godhood. When he recognised his mother, he followed her as she was running away with such a voice:

“You too are cruel, why do you toy with you son so often with false disguises? Why is it not allowed to join hand in hand and to hear and give back true words?”

He blamed her with such words, and he turned his steps to the city:

But Venus enclosed them with a dark fog as they were walking, and the goddess spread around them a thick covering of mist, in case anyone could see them, or someone could touch them, and cause them delay, demand the reasons of their coming. She herself went away high to Paphos and joyfully revisited her home, where her temple was, and a hundred altars burned with Sabaean incense, and were fragrant with fresh garlands.

Lines 418 - 440: Aeneas and Achates quickly go ahead, and from a hilltop they marvel at the sight of the Tyrians building their city, as busy as disciplined bees.

Meanwhile Aeneas and Achates hurried on their way where the pathway pointed. And soon they were climbing the large hill which towered large over the city, [420] and looked down from above upon the opposite towers. Aeneas marvelled at the size of it, huts once, he marvelled at the gates and the din and the paved streets. The Tyrians pressed on eagerly, some to lay out the line of walls, or to build the citadel, and to roll up rocks by hand, [420] some to choose a site for a building and to demarcate it with a ditch. The choose laws and magistrates and a holy senate; here some are digging a harbour; here others lay deep foundations for a theatre, and they hew out of the cliffs huge columns, fitting adornment for the stage to be. [430] Just as bees in early summer amid flowery meadows, when the work keeps them busy in the sunshine when they bring out the grown-up young of their race, or pack the oozing honey and swell the cells with sweet nectar, or receive the loads of their coming in, or in a martial column keep the drones, [435] a lazy herd, out of the hive: the work is all aglow and the fragrant honey is redolent of thyme. “Happy are they whose walls are already rising!” cried Aeneas, and lifted his eyes up towards the roofs of the city.

Summary 441 - 493They find a grove in the heart of Carthage, where a temple to Juno is being built; on its walls they see depicted many scenes from the Trojan war.

He brought himself enclosed by the cloud, so wonderful to tell, through the middle of them, and mingled with the men, and was not seen by anyone.

A sacred grove was in the middle of the city, most delightful with shade, in which first the Carthaginians tossed about by the waves and a hurricane in the place which queenly Juno had indicated dug up a sign, the fierce head of a horse; for thus they would be a race eminent in war and rich in provisions throughout the ages.

Here Sidonian Dido was building a huge temple of Juno, rich with gifts and the power of the goddess, to which the bronze thresholds were rising with steps, the rafters were bound with bronze, and the hinges creaked with bronze doors. Here first in the grove a new matter arose and calmed his fear, here first Aeneas dared to hope for his safety, and to have greater trust in is stricken fortunes.

For under the huge temple he examined each thing, while waiting for the queen, while he marvels at the prosperity of the city, the skill and artifice among them and the product of their labour, He sees the battles at Troy in order, and the famous war now known throughout the whole world, the sons of Atreus and Priam and Achilles angry with both.

He stopped and said crying “what place, Achates, is there now what region on earth is not full of our toils? See Priam! Here virtue also has its reward; these are the tears of things and mortal sorrows touch the heart. Release your fear; this fame brings some safety.

So he spoke, and nourished his spirit with empty pictures, groaning much, and wet his face with long streaming tears. For he saw the Greeks waging war around Pergamum on this side fleeing, the Trojan youth pursuing them, on this side the Phrygians flee, crested Achilles harassing them in his chariot.

And not far off he recognises through his tears the white canvassed tents of Rhesus, which the son of Tydeus betrayed at the time of first sleep and ravaged cruelly with much slaughter, and turned his fiery horses into the camp, before they had eaten Trojan food and drunk the waters of the Xanthus. On some part Troilus fleeing, with his weapons lost, an ill-starred boy, and unequally having come to meet Achilles in battle is dragged by his horses, and he clings face up to the empty chariot, yet grasping the reins; his neck and hair were dragged through the ground and the dust was marked by his backwards facing spear. Meanwhile to the temple of hostile Pallas the Trojan women went with loose locks, and bearing a sacred robe, humbly mournful and beating their breasts with fists. The goddess turned away and kept her eyes fixed on the ground.

Three times Achilles had dragged Hector around the walls of Troy, and was selling his lifeless body for gold. Then indeed he gave a loud groan from the depth of his heart, as he caught sight of the spoils, the chariot, and the body of his friend himself, and Priam holding out his weaponless hands. He recognised himself too mingled with the chiefs of the Argives, and the Ethiopians battle lines and the weapons of black Memnon.

Raging Penthesilea led the lines of the Amazons with crescent shields, and shone out in the middle of the soldiers, a golden girdle fastened her bared breasts, a warrior woman, and as a maid she dared to do battle with men.

Summary 493 - 519While Aeneas marvels at the pictures (still invisible in the mist Venus has set around him) Dido comes into the temple, beautiful as Diana, and presides over the business of the city. Suddenly he sees some of his lost companions arrive, asking for the queen’s favour.

While these wonderments were seen by Dardanian Aeneas, while he astonished, and is rooted to the spot in one fixed gaze, the queen, Dido, most beautiful in form, proceeded with a great crowd of youths crowded together.

Just as Diana, on the banks of the river Eurotas, or along the ridges of Cynthus guides her dancing chorus, whom a thousand mountain nymphs follow and gather on this side and that; she carries a bow from her shoulder and walking she rises above all goddesses; joy seizes Latona’s silent heart; just so was Dido, bearing herself like such joyfully through the middle of the people, urging on the work and the kingdom about to be. Then enclosed by weapons and resting upon a high throne she sat at the doors of the goddess, under the middle of the temple dome.

She gave justice and laws to the men and she shared out equally the labour of work with just portions or she handed it out by lot:

When suddenly Aeneas saw in the great gathering Atheus, Sergestus and brave Cloanthus approaching and other Trojans, whom the dark hurricane had scattered on the sea, and had carried far off to other shores. He himself was gobsmacked, and Achates was too shocked at the same time by hope and by fear; they eagerly longed to clasp their hands; but the unexpected matter confused their spirits.

Summary 520 - 560Aeneas hears Ilioneus, the senior of them all, explaining who they are, but they mean no harm to Carthage, just that they want permission to refit their ships and go on their way.

They stayed hidden and covered in the deep fog they spied what fortune there was for the men, on what shore they left the fleet, why they came; for the chosen men were coming for all the ships, asking for mercy, and they sought the temple with shouting. After they entered

and they were given leave to speak their minds, the greatest Ilioneus began thus with a calm heart:

“o Queen, to whom Jupiter has given a new city to found and to rein in with justice proud peoples, we wretched Trojans, carried by the winds over all the seas, beg you, keep terrible flames away from our ships, spare our pious people, and look more closely on our affairs.

We have not come either to lay waste to the Libyan households with the sword, nor to turn stolen booty to the shore; there is not the strength in these minds, nor arrogance so great in the conquered. There is a place, the Greeks call Hesperia, an ancient land, powerful in arms and fertile soil. The Oenotrian men cared for it; now a rumour has it that a later race called it Italy from the name of their leader.

This was our course. When suddenly stormy Orion rising up in the tide carried us on the hidden shoals, and he scattered us completely with the bold south winds and through the waves with an overwhelming surge and along impassable rocks; we few have sailed to this place on your shores. What race of men is this? What land so barbarous allows this custom? We are kept away from the hospitality of the sand; they stir up war, and first they do not allow us to set foot on the land. If you scorn the human race and the mortal arms, still hope in the gods remembering right and wrong.

Our king was Aeneas, than whom no one was more just and greater in piety nor greater in war and with weapons. If the fates protect that man, if he is fed by the heavenly breezes, and he does not yet lie dead with the cruel shades, there is no fear; you would not regret first striving in kindness. There are also cities and arms in the lands of Sicily, and distinguished Acestes is from Trojan blood.

May we lead in our fleet weakened by the winds and fit it with timber from trees and to shape oars; if our allies and king are restored, and it is granted to set course for Italy, so we gladly seek Italy and Latium. If however our saviour is lost and the sea of Libya has you the best father of the Trojans, and there is no longer any hope remaining in Iulus, let us at any rate seek the straits of Sicily and the home ready for us from where we were driven to this place and the king Acestes.”

Summary 561 - 578Dido promises to send the Trojans safely on their way, either to Italy or Sicily, as they prefer. But if they would like to live in Carthage, her city will be theirs. She will send a search-party to find Aeneas whom she would so much like to see.

Ilioneus spoke with such words, and all the Dardanians were shouting with one voice. Then Dido casting down her gaze, spoke briefly:

“Release fear from your hearts, Trojans, shut away your worries. Harsh events and the newness of my kingdom force me to act in such a manner, and to protect my boundaries far

and wide with a guard. Who does not know the race of Aeneas, who does not know the city of Troy, and the brave deeds, the men, or the fires of such a great war? We Carthaginians do not have minds so blunted nor does the sun yoke his horses so far from the Tyrian city. Whether you choose great Hesperia and the fields of Saturn or the lands of Eryx and the king Acestes, I shall send you in safety with an escort, and I will help you with my wealth.

Do you wish to settle as equals seated with me in these kingdoms? The city which I build is yours; bring in your ships; Trojan and Tyrians will be treated by me with no division. Would that your king himself were here, Aeneas, driven by the same south wind! Indeed I shall send along the shores trusty men and I shall order them to comb the furthest parts of Libya, if he is cast away and wandering by some wood or town.”

Summary 579 - 612Achates and Aeneas long to make themselves known. The mist suddenly disperses, and Venus makes her son as beautiful as a god. Aeneas reveals himself to Dido, saying that he will remember her always, everywhere.

Their spirits raised by these words, both brave Achates and father Aeneas long burned to burst out of the cloud. First Achates addressed Aeneas:

“Son of a goddess, what thought now rises in your mind? You see ever thing safe, your fleet and friends restored. One is missing, which we ourselves saw submerged in the middle of the waves; the rest agree with your mother’s words. “

He had scarcely said this, when suddenly the clouds surrounding them parted and vanished into thin air. Aeneas stood firm and shone in the bright light, his face and shoulders similar to a god; for his mother herself had breathed on her son beautiful hair, the radiant light of youth and joyful charm to his eyes; like the beauty skilful hands add to ivory works, or when silver or Parian marble is surrounded by yellow gold.

Then he addressed the queen thus, and suddenly and unexpectedly for everyone he spoke:

“I am here in person, whom you seek, Trojan Aeneas, snatched away from the Libyan waters. O you Dido alone pitying the unspeakable labours of Troy, who shares your city and home with us, left behind by the Greeks, and on land and the sea exhausted now by every peril, needy of everything,

It is not in our power to pay you worthy thanks, nor in the power of the Trojan race whatever and wherever they are, who are scattered throughout the great world.

May the gods, if any powers respect pious men, if there is any justice anywhere, and the mind conscious of right for itself, bring a worthy reward for you. What ages so joyful bore you? Who were the parents who produced so great a daughter?

As long as rivers flow in channels, as long as shadows move on hollows of the mountains, as long as the sky nourishes the stars, honour, your name and praises will always remain, whatever lands summon with me.”

Summary 613 - 642Dido welcomes Aeneas happily, telling how she has long known and loved the tale of Troy. She takes him into her home, and prepares to entertain him magnificently.

So he spoke, and he sought his friend Ilioneus with his right hand and Serestes with the left and then the others, brave Gyas and brave Cloanthus. Sidonian Dido was amazed at the first sight, then at the man’s perils so great, and spoke thus from her mouth:

“What fate follows you, son of a goddess, through dangers so great? What force joins you to these vast shores? Are you that Aeneas whom kindly Venus bore to Dardanian Anchises at the water of the Phrygian Simois? And indeed I remember that Teucer came from Sidon, driven out from his country’s territory, seeing new kingdoms with the help of Belus; then my father Belus was laying waste to fertile Cyprus and the victor held it in his power.

Already from that time the fall of the Trojan city was known to me and your name and the king of the Greeks. The enemy themselves bore the Trojans with high praise, and wanted that they were born of the ancient stock of Trojans. So come, young men enter our halls. Me too a similar fortune has cast through many labours and willed that I at last find rest in this land. Not ignorant of evil, I’ve learned to aid the unfortunate.”

So she spoke; at the same time she led Aeneas into a royal building, and proclaimed a divine offering in the temples. Meanwhile, she sent no less than twenty bulls with his comrades to the shore, a hundred of her largest pigs with quivering backs, a hundred fat lambs with their mothers, joyful gifts of the gods.

But the interior of the palace was arranged in royal luxury and they prepare a banquet in the middle of the hall: covers worked with skill in regal purple, massive silverware on the tables, and in gold are engraved the brave deeds of the ancestors, a very long succession of events traced through so many heroes from the ancient beginning of the race.

Summary 643 - 656Aeneas sends Achates to fetch Ascanius, and to bring rich presents for Dido from the ships.

Aeneas (for his fatherly love did not suffer his mind to relax) sent swift Achates to the ships to bring this news to Ascanius., and to bring him himself to the city; In dear Ascanius all his parental care was fixed.

Moreover he ordered him to bring gifts, snatched from the ruins of Troy, a robe stiff with figures in gold, and a cloak bordered with yellow acanthus, adorned by Argive Helen, which she had taken out from Mycenae when she made for Troy and her unlawful wedding hymns, a wonderful gift from her mother Leda: moreover there was a sceptre, which Illione

had once worn, the eldest of Priam’s daughters, and a necklace of pearls, and a double crown with gems and gold. Achates hastening these commands in this way proceeded to the ships

Summary 657 - 694Venus plots to fire Dido with love for Aeneas; she arranges with Cupid to substitute himself for Ascanius.

But the lady of Cythera, considered new wiles and new plans in her heart, how Cupid changed in appearance and face might come in the place of sweet Ascanius and with gifts might inflame the passionate queen, and weave fire in her bones.; for sure she feared the doubtful palace and the twin tongued Tyians; Juno’s anger burns her and her worry comes back persistently at night. Therefore she addressed winged Amor with these words:

“My son, you alone are my strength, my great power, a son who scorns the Typhoean bolts of the greatest father Jupiter, to you I seek refuge and as a suppliant call on your power. It is known to you how your brother Aeneas is cast on the around every shore by the hatred of unjust Juno, and often you have grieved with my pain.

Phoenician Dido holds him there and delays him with flattering words; and I fear what may turn about with Juno’s hospitality; she will not stop with such a great turning point of events. So I plan to take in the queen with stratagems and enclose her with the flames of love, so that no divine power can change her, but she might be held in great love for Aeneas with me.

By what way you can do this, now listen to my thoughts. The royal boy prepares to go to the Sidonian city by the summoning of his dear father, my greatest care, bearing gifts, remaining from the ocean and the flames of Troy; I shall lull him to sleep and hide him away above lofty Cythera or above the sacred seat of Idalium, no he can know nothing of my trickeries, or interrupt things in the middle.

You, for not more than one night wear his face in trickery and as a boy assume the known face of the boy, so that, when royal Dido receives you most joyfully on her lap among royal feast and flowing wine, when she gives you a hug and presses sweet kisses, you might breathe into her hidden fire and deceive her with poison.”

Amor obeys the words of his dear mother and takes off his winds, and rejoicing struts about with Iulus’ walk. But Venus guides peace and rest through Ascanius’ limbs and the goddess keeping him warm on her bosom raises him into the groves of Idalia, where soft marjoram embraces him with flowers, breathing sweet shade. And now Cupid was going obeying his orders and he bore royal gifts for the Tyrians, happy with Achates as a guide.

Summary 695 - 722Cupid brings the presents, and finds the feast just starting. Everyone marvels at what he

brings, and at the lovely child who brings it. Dido cannot keep her eyes off him, and all unknowingly her heart springs to love.

When he came, the queen already has settled herself on a golden couch amid regal canopies, and is placed in their midst. Already father Aeneas and already the Trojan youth have gathered, and they recline above purple quilts.

Servants pour water on their hands, and they share out Ceres’ bread in baskets, and bring napkins from smooth shorn sheep. Inside there are fifty serving girls, whose task it is to arrange the long feast in order and to tend the hearth flames; a hundred other girls and just as many male attendants equal in age to load the tables with the sacrificial food and lay out drinking cups.

No less Tyrians came together in crowds along the joyful halls, ordered to recline on embroidered cushions. They marvelled at Aeneas’ gifts, they marvelled and Iulus and the face and pretended words of the passionate god, and the robe and the cloak embroidered with yellow acanthus. And above all the unlucky woman, Phoenician Dido, destined for future ruin, cannot sate her heart and catches fire in her gaze, and is equally moved by the boy and the gifts.

When he hung round Aeneas’ neck in his embrace and sated the great love of the deceived father, he sought the queen. Dido, with her eyes, with all her heart clings to him and keeps him warm meanwhile on her lap, Ignorant of how great a god was settled, to her misery. But he mindful of his Acidalian mother gradually began to erase the memory of Sychaeus and tried with living passion to stir up her mind so long settled and her unaccustomed heart.

Summary 723 - 756The feast takes its course. Dido prays that this may be a day of joy for the Tyrians and Trojans. Iopas sings of the wonders of the universe. Dido plies Aeneas with eager questions, and finally begs for the whole tale of Troy.

As soon as there was quiet in the banquet, and tables were removed, they set up great wine bowls and wreathed wines with garlands. Noise filled the palace, and voices roll out through the great halls; lit lamps hung down from lacquered gold panels and flaming candles dispelled the night. This queen demanded a bowl heavy with gems and gold and filled it with wine, which Belus and everyone from Belus’ line were accustomed to using; then silence fell in the palace.

“Jupiter, for they say you give laws of hospitality, may you wish that this day is happy for the Tyrians and those who have set out from Troy, and that our children remember it. May Bacchus the giver of joy be near and good Juno; and you o Tyrians, fill the gathering with good cheer.”

She spoke and poured a liquid offering on the table and was first after the libation to touch the bowl to the tip of her lips, then gave it to Bitias, challenging him; he swiftly drained the brimming bowl, and he drenched himself with golden plenty. After the other princes drank, Long haired Iopas whom the greatest Atlas taught played his gilded lyre.

Thus he sang of the wandering moon and the labours of the sun; from where came the race of men and beasts; from where came rain and fire; of Arcturus, the rainy Hyades and the twin Bears; why suns hasten to extinguish themselves in the ocean in winter or which delay stands before them lingering in the nights. The Tyrians shouted out with applause, and the Trojans followed.

No less did unlucky dido spend the night in varied conversation, and was drinking deep of her love, asking many things about Priam, many things about hector; now in which armour came the son of Dawn, now what sort horses Diomedes had, now how great Achilles was.

“Nay, come on, and tell me from the very beginning, as a guest, about the treachery of the Greeks” she said, “and the downfall of your people, and your wanderings; for already a seventh summer brings you wandering over all the lands and seas.”