The 1st Book of Vergil's Aeneis, "The Aeneid"
Argument:
The poem's first few word gives us our themes: war ("Arma") and a man's ("virumque") wandering. The poet invokes the Muse, asking that she aid him in his song, and then he introduces the reader to the anger of Juno, Queen of the Gods. Homer's Odyssey is the ostensible model for the first six books of Vergil's epic, with Æneas suffering at godly hands like Odysseus, and Juno taking over the role of Poseidon in Homer's song. While Odysseus was attempting to return home after a ten year absence, the Trojans are refugees escaping the destruction of their homeland (Troy's fall is the subject of the following book) -- despite the realization that the Trojans are actually returning home (their forebearer, Dardanus, was originally from Latium in Italy, the site of future Rome, and this revelation is, at best, a last-minute justification for Trojans ending up in Italy at all), the plight of the Trojans as pitiable refugees is front and center in Vergil's song, and much is made of their suffering ("multa quoque et bellō passus" and "Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!" among others).Juno's anger at the Trojans is outlined at the outset and then her fear is revealed, fear that the Trojans' descendants, the Romans, will one day destroy her favorite city, Carthage, a fledgling city in northern Africa recently founded by the Phoenician Queen Dido; the Romans and the Carthaginians will fight three great wars for the supremacy of the Mediterranean in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C, and Juno dreads the triumph of the Romans over their foes. To this end, she employs Aeolus, the King of the Winds, to release the winds to destroy the Trojans and thus avert Fate. Saved by Neptune, the Trojans find themselves shipwrecked and sorrowful in North Africa and seek out aid from the nascent Carthaginian city.
Meanwhile on Olympus, Venus, goddess of love and the mother of Æneas, complains to Jove about the abuse of her son and his people and the dangers such meddling has for history and the Trojans' Roman descendants. Jove allays her concerns by explaining to her the basic plot of the epic and revealing the events immediately following the end of the poem (the extensive foreshadowing and exposition throughout the epic allows Vergil to end the poem in the "abrupt" way which he does, much like the way Tarantino structures the plot of Pulp Fiction) all the way down to the reign of Augustus Caesar, Vergil's patron.
Like Juno, Venus cannot help but interfere in her son's destiny, so she plans to make the Carthaginians friendly to the Trojans/Romans, so as to avert the day in which they will be the most bitter enemies. She sends Cupid disguised as Æneas' son in the boy's place to a welcome feast at the Carthaginian citadel, and the god of love makes Dido fall madly in love with Æneas.
After feasting, Dido bids Æneas tell his tale.
Of arms and of a man I sing, who first from the coasts of Troy
Came Italy-ward as Fate's fugitive to our Lavinian shores;And much buffeted was he on both the lands and the deep sea
By the force of the gods, because of cruel Juno's wrathful memory.
Many things indeed in war he did suffer, until he could found a city,
And bear his gods to Latium, whence came the Latin race,
And the Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome.
Muse, recall to me the reasons: because of what wounded divinity,
Oh, what did the queen of the gods suffer that she compelled that man,
Marked by his piety, to undergo such misfortunes and to meet so many toils?
Can the hearts of those o'erseeing the Heav'ns be beholden to such wrath?
An ancient city there once was, yea, colonists of old Tyre held it:
Karthage -- a city set against Italy, set against the Tiber's shores,
Though far off; rich in wealth, and in the arts of war was she most keen.
This city alone Juno is said to nurture more than all the other lands,
E'en more than her own Samos in her eyes. At Karthage were her arms
And here her chariot were kept. This kingdom the goddess guides to rule
O'er all the world -- if the Fates would allow it -- and so she grants her favor.
But she had heard tale of an offspring from Trojan blood sprung
A man who would one day o'erturn her Tyrian citadels:
From this man, a people of wide-cast rule and proud in war
Would one day come to raze Libya -- this tale she'd heard the Parcae spin.
O'er all the world -- if the Fates would allow it -- and so she grants her favor.
But she had heard tale of an offspring from Trojan blood sprung
A man who would one day o'erturn her Tyrian citadels:
From this man, a people of wide-cast rule and proud in war
Would one day come to raze Libya -- this tale she'd heard the Parcae spin.
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| Les Parques, by Alfred Agache, c. 1885 |
This she feared, but also was Saturn's daughter mindful of the old war,
Which she first at Troy had waged for her beloved Argos.
Not yet had the causes of her wrath, nor her cruel pains
Fallen from her mind -- each one settles there, in her deep mind stored up:
The Judgment of Paris and the wrong done to her spurned beauty;
The hated Trojan race; and ravished Ganymede's honors --
Enflamed she was by these things as well; and so, buffeted on the whole sea,
The Trojans, the remnants of the Danaans and of pitiless Achilles,
She was keeping far off from Latium. And for many years
They were wandering, driven by the Fates, around all the seas.
Such a burden it was to found the Roman people!
Scarcely from the sight of Sicula, a spot of land on the deep sea,
Sails happy Trojans unfurled, and through the saltsea foam they rushed on bronze beaks,
When Juno, nursing that e'erlasting wound within her breast,
Spake these things to herself:
"Already am I defeated, that I am to cease from beginning?
Nor am I able to turn aside from Italy this Teucrians' king?
But indeed! I am forbidden by the Fates. But was not Pallas allowed
To set ablaze the fleet of the Argives, and to bury the Greeks under the sea,
On account of a single man's harm, the outrages done by Ajax, the son of Oileus?
Pallas herself threw the swift-speading fire from the clouds,
She asunder cast their ships, and o'erturned the sea with winds;
Then Ajax, breathing out flames from his pierced breast,
In an eddy she snatched him up, and on a rock she impaled him -- a sharp rock.
Ah, but I -- , yes I, the gods' queen, carry on. I, both Jove's
Sister and wife, still do I wage wars with a single people
For so many years! Will anyone e'er worship the divine majesty of Juno?
Or will any suppliant set honor there on mine own altars?"
Her heart with fire seething, such things in her mind the goddess rolled and turned,
And into the stormclouds' country, a place teeming with raging Southerlies,
Aeolia-ward she went. Here in an enormous cave, King Aeolus,
He subdues His wrestling winds and storms resounding
With his mighty strength, and with bonds and gaol he bridles them.
Resentful they, and with a great roar around the mountain's
Enclosures they howl. Sitteth atop a lofty citadel, Aeolus,
Brandishing his scepter, softens their demeanor and calms their wrath.
Lest he not, the seas, and also the lands and high heaven
The swift winds may carry off with themselves and sweep all through the air.
But the Father Almighty in dark caves hid them away,
Because of this fear he had, and he set a heap and tall mountains upon them
And a king he gave them, and by fixed compact, that this king might know
On account of a single man's harm, the outrages done by Ajax, the son of Oileus?
Pallas herself threw the swift-speading fire from the clouds,
She asunder cast their ships, and o'erturned the sea with winds;
Then Ajax, breathing out flames from his pierced breast,
In an eddy she snatched him up, and on a rock she impaled him -- a sharp rock.
Ah, but I -- , yes I, the gods' queen, carry on. I, both Jove's
Sister and wife, still do I wage wars with a single people
For so many years! Will anyone e'er worship the divine majesty of Juno?
Or will any suppliant set honor there on mine own altars?"
Her heart with fire seething, such things in her mind the goddess rolled and turned,
And into the stormclouds' country, a place teeming with raging Southerlies,
Aeolia-ward she went. Here in an enormous cave, King Aeolus,
He subdues His wrestling winds and storms resounding
With his mighty strength, and with bonds and gaol he bridles them.
Resentful they, and with a great roar around the mountain's
Enclosures they howl. Sitteth atop a lofty citadel, Aeolus,
Brandishing his scepter, softens their demeanor and calms their wrath.
Lest he not, the seas, and also the lands and high heaven
The swift winds may carry off with themselves and sweep all through the air.
But the Father Almighty in dark caves hid them away,
Because of this fear he had, and he set a heap and tall mountains upon them
And a king he gave them, and by fixed compact, that this king might know
Either when to curb them, or, when ordered, give slack reins.
To him Juno, as a suppliant, spake these words:
"Aeolus, to thee the Father of the gods and mankind's king
Gave the calming of the waves and their upheaval by means of wind.
A people, an enemy to me on the Tyrrhenian sea sails,
Ilium to Italy they carry, along with their vanquished hearthgods.
Throw violence into thy winds! Onrush against their water-plunged sterns!
Or drive them apart and scatter their bodies across the sea!
I have twice-seven nymphs, each with outstanding body,
Of whom in loveliness the most fair is Deiopea:
In wedlock steadfast I shall join and her as thine own I shall bestow,
That for all the years with thee on behalf of such deserts
She may spend, and with fair children may make thee a father."
Aeolus spake this in reply:
"It is only for thee, my queen, to ask for what
Thou desire'st -- as for me, it is my duty to eagerly obey thy bidding.
O queen! Thou once won for me this paltry kingdom, and my scepter and Jove's
Patronage. Thou allow'st me to sit at the feasts of the gods.
Thou make'st me the power over the clouds and storms."
To him Juno, as a suppliant, spake these words:
"Aeolus, to thee the Father of the gods and mankind's king
Gave the calming of the waves and their upheaval by means of wind.
A people, an enemy to me on the Tyrrhenian sea sails,
Ilium to Italy they carry, along with their vanquished hearthgods.
Throw violence into thy winds! Onrush against their water-plunged sterns!
Or drive them apart and scatter their bodies across the sea!
I have twice-seven nymphs, each with outstanding body,
Of whom in loveliness the most fair is Deiopea:
In wedlock steadfast I shall join and her as thine own I shall bestow,
That for all the years with thee on behalf of such deserts
She may spend, and with fair children may make thee a father."
Aeolus spake this in reply:
"It is only for thee, my queen, to ask for what
Thou desire'st -- as for me, it is my duty to eagerly obey thy bidding.
O queen! Thou once won for me this paltry kingdom, and my scepter and Jove's
Patronage. Thou allow'st me to sit at the feasts of the gods.
Thou make'st me the power over the clouds and storms."
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| Ἄνεμοι (Anemoi; Lat: Venti) - The Compass Winds and their Lessers |
When spoken thus, against the hollow mountain with rod-point upturned,
He struck upon its side: and then the winds, as if in armed-march arrayed,
Wherever they could rush, they did -- and throughout the lands in a gale they blow.
They fell upon the sea, and all of the waters from their deepest depths
Together Eurus and Notus lift up and o'erturn, and full of force
Is Africus -- they roll the wide waves to the seashore.
There follows then the shout of men and the groaning of the riggings.
The clouds a-sudden snatch away the sky and the day
From the Teucrians' eyes. On the sea lieth down night, all dark.
The heav'ns thunder'd and with thick flames glimmer the air --
Every sign points out to the men their looming death.
Forthwith Aeneas' limbs are loosed by a cold fright:
He groans, while upward both palms stretcheth he to the sky,
And in such voice he shouts:
"O thrice and four-times blessed,
Are ye who before the shores of your fathers, under Troy's high city walls
It befell to meet death! O thou, strongest of the race of Danaans,
Thou son of Tydeus! Ah me! Could I not fallen before thee on the Ilian plains?
Could I not have? And by thy right hand could not this soul have poured forth, escaped,
Back when fierce Hector was laid low by the spear of Aeacus' grandson,
Enormous
Sarpedon there alongside him, back when the Simois did snatch in its waters
And roll over the shields of men and their greaves and mighty corpses?"
And roll over the shields of men and their greaves and mighty corpses?"
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| Zephyros and Khloris (Favonius and Flora) from Botticelli's Birth of Venus |
While these words he cried out, a roaring blast from Southerly Aquilo
Strikes against the sail, and to the heavens the waves upraise.
Oars then break; then the prow turns aside and to the waves
The ship shows its side. There follows, heaping tall, a sheer mountain of water.
The crews on this highest wave hang aloft; then they see - with the wave yawning wide,
The seafloor beneath the waves appears and rageth the boiling swell with sands.
Three ships snatched up did Notus twist against hiding rocks --
These rocks which in the middle of the waves the Italians call The Altars --
A monstrous reef lying under the surface of the sea. Three ships Eurus drove
Strikes against the sail, and to the heavens the waves upraise.
Oars then break; then the prow turns aside and to the waves
The ship shows its side. There follows, heaping tall, a sheer mountain of water.
The crews on this highest wave hang aloft; then they see - with the wave yawning wide,
The seafloor beneath the waves appears and rageth the boiling swell with sands.
Three ships snatched up did Notus twist against hiding rocks --
These rocks which in the middle of the waves the Italians call The Altars --
A monstrous reef lying under the surface of the sea. Three ships Eurus drove
From the deep into the shallows and the Syrtes, a wretched thing to see,
And he dashes them upon the shoals and then engirds them with a mound of sand.
One of them, which the Lycians and their allied lord Orontes was conveying,
Before his master Aeneas' very eyes, the sea swelling from a height
Rages against the ship's deck. Cast overboard and headlong is the helmsman,
Rolled upon his head. And thrice the wave twists yon ship on that very spot
And he dashes them upon the shoals and then engirds them with a mound of sand.
One of them, which the Lycians and their allied lord Orontes was conveying,
Before his master Aeneas' very eyes, the sea swelling from a height
Rages against the ship's deck. Cast overboard and headlong is the helmsman,
Rolled upon his head. And thrice the wave twists yon ship on that very spot
Driving it in a circle, and the swift-flowing eddy consumeth it under the sea.
Then appear the scattered crew, swimming in the wide whirlpool,
Then the arms of men, then planks, and then Trojan treasure flashes through the waves.
And now the strong ship of Ilioneus, now the one of brave Achates,
And the one which conveyed Abas, and the old-aged Aletes --
All of these the storm o'ercomes. Through the wide joints of their sides do all ships
Take on the enemy downpour and at the seams burst apart.
In the meantime, while this great roar churning up the wide-sea,
Neptune did perceive this forth-casted storm, and saw that into the depths
The still waters had been poured back from the shallows -- thus gravely he was moved.
And so, upon the deep he gazes, and his calm head he lifts over the top of the wave.
Thrown asunder on the whole sea does he see Aeneas' fleet,
By the waves and the heavens' downpour were the Trojans being battered.
And neither did these wiles deceive the brother of Juno -- nor did her wrath.
Eurus then and Zephyrus to himself he calls, and hence he thus addresses them:
"Does such confidence in your station give ye license here?
Do ye now dare to enmingle the heavens and the land -- without mine own divine will, O ye winds!
-- To enmingle together dare? Such burdens do ye dare to raise up?
Why, ye I ought--! But no: the raised waves it is better to set down.
Afterwards: by no alike punishment for your faults to me ye shall atone.
Hasten in your flight! To your king these words relay:
Not to him has the power of the sea and the fierce trident --
But to me by lot it has been granted. Keepeth he the vast rocks,
Your homes, Eurus -- the lot of ye! There let him toss himself about in those halls,
Aeolus he, and let him in the enclosed gaol of the winds be king!"
Thus he spoke, and by his decree so quickly does he the swelling sea make peaceful:
The gathered clouds he puts to flight, the sun he leads back.
Cymothoe along with Triton supporting, from a sharp rock
Do they both dislodge ships; lifteth he himself some on his trident.
And the wide Syrtes he opens, and calms the sea,
All the while on light chariot-wheels the wavetops he skims.
And it is just as when in a great people often riseth among them
Sedition, and rageth in their minds the baseborn rabble,
And now torches mingled with rocks fly! Rage distributes weapons!
Then if by chance a man, stern because of his piety and his deserts,
Him the people have caught a glimpse -- they are silent and with upright ears attend.
Yon man ruleth their minds with his words, and their breasts he soothes.
Just as this did the whole crash of the sea fall, and then upon the sea
Gazes forth its Forebearer, and carried upon the open sky,
Bendeth he his team, and flying in his chariot behind, he snaps the reins.
The wearied children of Aeneas to seek the nearest shores in their course
Strive together -- and they to Libya's shores are turned.
There is in a long cove a place, an island as a harbor
Serves by the upturn of its sides, where everything from the deepsea 160
Is broken, each wave sunders itself upon the withdrawn bay.
Here and now here the wide ridges and twin rocks threaten
The heavens, where under the peak the wide
Sea lies safe and silent. It's woods a-waving, this theatric backdrop stands
From above and with quivering shade the dark grove overhangs. 165
Under the front of the cliffs o'er-reaching the entrance,
Within flow sweet waters, and the seats of the living rock,
The nymphs' house. Here did tired ships no chains --
Not any -- hold, an anchor fetters not with its hooked bite.
'Twas hither after seven ships were salvaged from their entire 170
Number did Aeneas calmly approach. And with a great desire for land
Did Trojans disembark and gain the long-for'ed sand,
And on the salty shore stretch out their soggy limbs.
Then first with a flint-stone did striketh out Achates a spark
And held he the fire under the leaves and all about it 175
Dry nourishment he gave it, and caught he on this kindling a flame.
Then Ceres' gift befouled by waves and the mortar -- Ceres' own tools --
Do they take out, and these people, weary of fortune, prepare
To burn the salvaged pulse and break it betwixt the rock.
In the meantime Aeneas scaled the height and an entire 180
Sight wide upon the sea does he seek, if anything of Antheus
Thrown upon the wind could he espy, or of the Phrygian two-banks;
Or of Capys; or set on a high stern the arms of Caicus.
No ship is in his sight, but on the shore does he three stags
See, a-wandering about -- these the whole herd follows 185
At their back and the long column feeds throughout the vale.
Upright standeth Aeneas, and his bow in his hand and swift shafts
He snatched up, and faithful did these same weapons faithful Achates bear.
And first the herd-leaders themselves, who bore their heads high
With branching antlers, he laid low; then the herd and them all 190
He started up, driving with his shafts the crowd amidst the leafy groves.
And not does he cease before seven huge bodies does the winner
Lay out upon the earth, and their number does he make even with the ships.
Hence the harbor he seeketh and among his allies he divideth his kill.
Then the wines which in caskets good Achates had loaded 195
On the Three-Promontoried shore which the hero had given as they left --
These Aeneas shared and with words calmed their grieving hearts:
"O, companions mine -- for not do we stand as fools before misfortunes --
O having suffered graver things, grant will god to these people an end as well.
Ye the ravenous Scylla and her deeply echoing 200
Crags did approach, and ye in the Cyclopean rocks
Are well versed -- summon again your spirits! Gloom and fear,
Send them away! Perhaps even these things it will one day benefit to recall.
Through such downfalls, through such dangerous events
We strive for Latium, where peaceful homes the Fates 205
Do promise. Thence by the gods' will that the kingdom of Troy riseth again.
Harden! And yourselves keep ye for happier times."
Such things in voice he utters, and though with great worries he grows ill,
A hope on his face he feigns, and holds down a deep pain in his heart.
They gird themselves about the plunder, the soon-to-be feast. 210
The oysters they strip from the ribs and the flesh they lay bare.
A portion into bits they cut and on spits they fix the quivering slices.
On the shore a copper pot some set up and flames they dole out.
Then in victuals they renew their strength, and stretched out throughout the grass,
They fill themselves on old Bacchus and wild animals' fat. 215
After rooted out was their hunger by the feastings, and the tables were taken away,
Their lost friends in long discourse they ask after,
Amidst both hope and fear they are doubtful whether to trust they live
Or if at the last they suffered and not now hearken unto those who called for them.220
And especially does pious Aeneas now for fierce Orontes,
Now for Amycus' ruin does he groan and then for the cruel
Orlay of Lycus, and strong Gyes, and strong Cloanthus.
And that was at an end, when Jove the Father from the airy height
Did look down on the sail-flying sea, and on the lands lying still, 225
And on the coasts, on wide-spreading peoples, and so on the peak of heav'n
Standeth tall he, on Libya's kingdom he fixed thereon his lights' gaze.
And to him while turning such concerns about in his own breast, did she address,
Grown so sad and bedewed with tears her shining eyes,
And thus Venus spake:
"O thou, the very existence of both men and gods 230
With e'erlasting power rule'st, and thou with the thunder's blast do terrify:
What could mine Aeneas have against thee done -- what wrong so great?
What power did the Trojans have, those who so many deaths have suffered,
While for the sake of Italy, the rest of the world is closed off from them?
Surely didst thou once promise that henceforth the Romans, after the years turn, 235
Henceforth would be rulers, from the renewed blood of Teucer,
Who the sea, who the lands under their total sway might hold?
Thou promised -- what thought, Father, has changed thee?
For truly, by this one thing when Troy's sun set and in her grim ruination
Was I comforted, that upon adverse orlay did I another orlay hang. 240
Yet now the same lot has dogged these men driven towards
So many downfalls. What end dost thou give, great king, to their toils?
Antenor was able -- for through the midst of the Achivi he slipped away --
To invade the Illyrian bays and, unassailed amongst the inmost
Kingdoms of the Liburnians, saileth he to the spring of Timavus, 245
Whence through nine river-mouths with the mountain's wide roar
Goeth forth the breaking sea, and crusheth it the shore with the resounding surf.
Nonetheless here did he a city at Patavi and there abodes he built --
Abodes of Teucrians, and to this people a name he gave and arms he set aside --
Trojan arms. Now with a calm peace he is quiet -- rest he hath found. 250
But we, thine own offspring, to whom thou assent to hold heaven's citadel,
Our ships hath been lost -- o woe unspeakable! -- and on account of wrath of one
We are betrayed, and from Italian shores far flung are we thrown off!
This is piety's reward? Is thus how thou restore'st us to our scepter?"
To her he did smile, the Protector of men and gods
In his countenance, by which heaven and storms he calms,
A kiss gave he to his daughter and hence such things he saieth:
"Spare thy fear, Cytherea. They yet last, those unmovéd orlays
Of thine own -- for thee. Thou know'st the City and Lavinium's fore-cast
City walls, and thy exalted son thou shalt bear to the vault of heaven,
Great-hearted Æneas. Nor hath me a thought changed.
Here to thee -- for I shall tell, since this worry does at thee gnaw again
And rolling further, the Fates' hidden ways shall I move --
An enormous war he shall wage in Italy, and with fierce peoples
He shall contend, and customs with strength and city walls he shall place,
Until him ruling in Latium a third summer shall see,
And three winters shall have passed after the Rutuli are put down.
But then the boy Ascanius, to whom now the name Iulus
Is added -- Ilus he was, while still stood an Ilian kingdom --
Thirty great seasons, all with the moons rolling away
Shall he with his rule fill, and his kingdom from the throne of Lavinium
He shall move, and with much might he shall fortify long Alba.
This shall from this time -- three hundred years in all -- be ruled
Under Hector's race, until a queenly priestess,
Made pregnant by Mars, shall in birth this Ilian girl give twin offspring.
Thence from a nursing she-wolf's tawny pelt shall happy
Romulus take up his race, and he shall found Mavortian
City-walls, and them the Romans from his own name he shall call.
To these I neither limits of power nor time do place;
Rule without end I have given. Then harsh Juno
Who the sea now and the lands with fear and heaven she wearies,
These plots for the better she shall lay off, and with me she shall nurture
The Romans, of all things the masters, the toga-ed race;
So it is settled. Then shall come while lights wane an age
When the house of Assaracus shall Phthia and famous Mycenae
In servitude press, and shall lord over the conquered Argives.
Then born he shall be from fine stock, he Trojan Caesar,
Who his rule by ocean shall he bound, and his fame by the stars
Iulius, a name sent down from great Iulus.
Him thou one day to heaven, him with Eastern spoils laden,
Thou shalt at ease receive. He shall be called as well in prayers.
Then harsh ages shall mild grow with wars set aside,
Hoary Faith, and Vesta, and with his brother Remus shall Quirinus
Give laws. With iron and interlacing skill
Shall be closed the dread gates of War. Impious Rage lieth within,
Brutal she sits above arms, and bound by a hundred bronze
Knots behind her back -- horrible, she shall rave from her gory mouth."
These things he spoke, and the child of Maia sendeth he down from on high
To the land, so that open may the new heights of Karthage lie,
Guest-welcoming to the Teucrians -- lest she, unknowing of the Fates, Dido
Might from her land keep them off. Flieth the god through the airy height
By oar-strokes of wings, and on Libya's shores he swift stood there.
And now commands he makes, and check they the fierce Punic
Hearts by the will of god. From the first, the queen a quiet
Mind takes on in regards to the Teucrians, and a disposition kind.
But pious Æneas, through night so very much he tossed,
As soon as nourishing light was given, to leave these places
And explore new ones, to what bays he had by wind come,
Who held them -- for barren he espied it -- and the men and beasts
He decided to seek out, and to his allies bear back his deeds.
His fleet in a bay of groves beneath a cavern hollow
With trees encircled all about and with rustling shadows
He hid. He himself together steps accompanied by Achates.
Two-to-each-hand, they brandished spears with wide iron.
His mother betook herself to the middle of the wood -- so as to meet him --
And a maiden's look and trappings she wore, and a maiden's arms,
A Spartan girl, or like she who her horses wearies out, the Thracian
Harpalyce, and in her flight o'er passes she the swift-winged Hebrus.
For on her shoulders as was custom had the supple bow hung
The huntress, and she had given her hair to be wantonly tussled by the winds,
With bare knee, and in a knot the flowing folds she had gathered.
And so she spake first:
"Lo, ye young men, do tell me,
Hath ye seen, if here by chance, one of my sisters wandering,
Girded with quiver and pelt of dappled lynx,
Or mayhap a foaming boar's flight with a loud cry she presses on?"
Thus spake Venus. And Venus' son in reply spoke:
"Nothing of thine own hath been heard by me, nor seen of thy sisters.
O, how shall I name thee, maid? For hardly be thy face
A mortal's, nor thy voice sound so to be human. Oh, a goddess certainly,
Or Phoebus' sister? Or else of the nymphs' blood art thou one?
Be thou favorable, and some of our toil lighten, whate'er canst thou aid:
So, under what sky are we here at last? What shores on this globe
Are we cast -- prithee tell? Unknowing of these people and places
We wander, by wind hither and waves hath we been driven.
For thee before thy altar shall our right hand fell many victims!"
Then replied Venus:
"Scarce in truth such honor I deem me worthy.
For Tyrian maids be it the custom to bear the quiver
And with the highly worn hunting boot to lace our calves --
The Punic kingdoms see'st thou, and Tyrians hold a city of Agenor.
But about the boundaries lie the Libyans, a race ever drawn to war.
In this reign doth Dido the Tyrian rule, who from her city left,
From her brother fleeing. Far-reaching is the wrongdoing, long
Would be the full tale -- but along the heart of the matter I'll follow:
Once she had a husband, who was Sychaeus, richest in estates
Out of all Phoenicians, and prized with a great love for a wretched woman,
Who's father had given her as a virgin and to these first rites had
Her wed. But the kingdom of Tyre her brother then held,
Pygmalion, in wickedness before all others was he more steeped.
Betwixt in their midst came an enmity, and the king did Sychaeus
Before the altar -- o blasphemer, blinded by love of gold --
Without warning with iron o'ercome the unguarded man, thus ruining
His sister's bliss. And the deed he long hid, and while she lay sick
Much did the wicked man lie, and with a vain hope mocked her love.
But then in sleep came the very ghost of her unburied
Husband; and his pale lips disclosed amazing things:
Of the cruel altar and how pierced was his breast by iron --
He laid all bare, and every dark crime of his house he uncovered.
Then to hasten her flight and from her country to depart he persuades her,
And so as to help her on her way, revealed he did an old
Treasure, an unknown weight of silver and of gold.
By such things moved, Dido then her escape and allies prepared.
They gather together, these who either had a harsh hatred of the tyrant,
Or of him a sharp-cutting fear. A ship, which was by chance made ready
They steal, and they weigh it down with gold. Carried are greedy
Pygmalion's riches upon the sea -- the leader of their enterprise: a woman.
They came to this place, where now thou dost gaze upon enormous
City-walls and the rising citadel of new Karthage.
And, having bought a plot of land, bestowed on it the name Byrsa,
Because with a bull's hide its size they were able to encircle.
But at last, what of ye? From what shores have ye come?
And wither do ye hold your journey?"
To her questioning such things, the man,
Sighing, did draw from his deepest breast his voice and made reply:
"O goddess, if starting from the first beginnings I shall continue,
And give pause to hear the tedious telling of our toils,
Beforehand would Olympus shut and the Evenstar lay down the day in slumber.
Us did Troy of old bear -- if by chance to thine ears
Troy's name hath reached -- through the manifold seas we've sailed,
And by chance to Libyan shores a storm drove us.
I am pious Æneas, who the ancestral Penates I did snatch from the enemy
And in my fleet carry with me. By reputation amongst the heavens I am known.
Italy I seek -- our country and a people promised by Jove on high.
With twice-ten ships I disembarked upon the Phrygian sea,
With my mother, a goddess, showing us the way -- my given orlay I have followed.
Scarcely seven ships, battered by waves and Eurus remain unharmed.
I myself, full of want, throughout Libya's wastelands wander,
Already beaten in Europe and Asia --"
Nor further of him complaining
Did suffer Venus, and in the midst of his pain she cried:
"Whoever thou art, scarcely can I believe thee begrudged by gods -- thy breath
Of life thou still hast -- and thou art come to our Tyrian city.
Continue as thou were and hence betake thyself to the queen's doorway.
For to thee I say that returned safe be thy allies and thy fleet conveyed --
Such tidings I announce, and that thy ships into safety by favorable winds borne
If not in vain did augury my forebearers teach me to any avail:
Lo, espy twice-seven swans, all a-joy in their formation!
From his heavenly home did Jove's eagle dive and throughout the open
Sky he sent them wheeling -- but now on land in a long row
They seem to either have a-lighted, or espied some already a-lighted place.
And when safe again, they play with flapping wings,
And in their gathering, they girded heaven's vault and happy songs they sang.
In no way otherwise are thy ships and thine own people
Either weighing anchor at a port, or with full sail close to making landfall.
Continue as thou were, and, by which way thee the road leads, aright thy step."
Spake she, and in turning, from her rosy neck she gleamed,
And her ambrosial hair from from her head did breathe
A fragrance divine, while down past her feet her gown flowed,
And at each step a true goddess she revealed. The man, when his mother
He recognized, with such a voice did follow her in her flight:
"How many times must thy son -- yes, thou art also cruel! -- to be by lying
Games and tricks deceived? Why when my right hand extends to clasp thine,
It is n'er given, and n'er the truth do I hear and give answer without error?"
With such words he accuses her, and then to the city-walls made his way.
But Venus with a dusky mist as they walked wrapped them up,
And with much mantle of a cloud the goddess poured about them,
Lest any to see them might be able nor any to touch them,
Or contrive a delay or demand their reason for visiting.
The goddess herself soaring high to Paphus stole away, and looked again
There upon her domain, where pleasure-loving Venus had a temple, a hundred
Altars with Sabaean incense burn, and with new-made garlands breathe.
Meanwhile they seize the road, where the footpath shows.
And now they climb the hill which o'er most the city
Hangs and gazes onward and above the facing tower-tops.
Amazed at the upheaval is Æneas, a place where once were tents,
And gapes at the gates, and the human din, and the paved stones of the streets.
Tyrians are all about in excitement: part of them builds walls,
And some construct the citadel and with their hands roll stones up to the footing,
And part choose each place for a home and mark each foundation with a furrow.
Laws and elected officials they choose and their holy Senate.
Here the harbors some hollow out -- here the tall groundwalls
Of a theater some set in place and enormous columns
From cliff faces they carve, tall ornaments for scenes-to-be.
Just as when bees in summer through the new-flowered countrysides
Their toil driveth them beneath the sun, when their colony's new-grown
Brood they instruct, or when flowing honey
They pack together and with sweet nectar fill their hollowed combs,
Or loads they take from the returning workers, or in battle array
They the dull drones from the hive keep off --
Restless is the work, and wafts the honey, sweet-smelling of thyme.
"Oh! Blessed are they whose city-walls already rise!"
Æneas cried, and up at the tops of the city he looks.
He makes his way, wrapped up in a cloud -- amazing to tell! --
Through the midst of them and mingles with the men, not to any seen.
A grove in the city's center stood, most pleasant in shade,
Where, first cast by the waves and eddy, the Phoenicians
There dug up in that place a sign which queenly Juno
Had told them of: the head of a fierce horse. For thus, saieth she, in war
They would outstanding be, and find ease in their people's conquests for all ages.
Here was the temple of Juno -- enormous was Sidonian Dido
Making it. Made opulent by off'rings and by the goddess' statue'd presence,
From the top of its steps bronze thresholds rose, and knotted
With bronze were the beams, and the hinges on its copper doors creaked.
Here at last in this grove was a new fortune offered, which did lessen
His dread, and here at last Æneas dared to hope for rest
And then to have better trust in his ill-begotten orlays.
And while up at the huge temple's details each in turn he gazes,
While for the queen he waits, and while at what luck their city had,
At what art interworking craftsmen's hands had made, and at their hard works' toil
He was amazed -- then he saw the Ilian battles all in a row,
And the wars now by story known in common through the whole globe:
Here Atreus' sons and Priamus, and here -- savage to both sides -- Achilles
Stands, and so weeping,
"What place is there now, Achates," Æneas spake,
"What region throughout the lands is not full of our sorrow?
Lo, here is Priamus! Even here are his accomplishments praiseworthy;
Here are tears for misery; even here do mortals feel our sorrow!
Undo thy fear: our reputation here known shall bear thee some safety."
Thus he spoke, and his heart he nourishes on worthless friezes,
And, groaning much, with a great tearful flood he wettens his face.
For here he looked on, as warring round Pergamum
Here were put to flight the Graii, and routing them was the Trojan youth --
Here fled the Phrygians, and set against them in his war-car was crested Achilles.
Nor far off hence does he Rhesus' tents with snow-white sails roofed
Recognize through his weeping, for early in sleep were they betrayed,
And Tydides' son brought them to ruin, with slaughter was he spattered red,
And his raving horses he turned aside into the camp, before
The grass of Troy they could have eaten and of the Xanthus drunk.
In another part, fleeing -- his armor lost -- is Troilus:
O unlucky boy and so unmatched for a contest with Achilles,
He is drawn by his horses and, thrown back, to his empty chariot clings,
Yet holds on to the reins -- his neck and hair are dragged
Through the dirt, and with his downturned the dust is scrawled.
Meanwhile to the temple of unfavorable Pallas go
The Trojan women with unkept hair and a gown they bear
Humbly, and grim do they beat their breasts with their open hands.
The goddess was on the ground keeping her downturned eyes set firm.
Thrice about the Ilian walls had Achilles taken Hector,
A soulless body with gold then did he then sell.
But then an loud groan Æneas gives from his deepest breast
As the spoils, as the war-car, and the very body of his friend
Does he catch sight, and at Priamus stretching his unarmed hands.
Himself also among the chieftains of the Achivi does he recognize,
And the battle lines of the Dawn and black Memnon's arms.
Leading the Amazon war-train, bedecked with moon-crescent shields,
Is mad Penthesilea. In the midst of thousands she burns,
Tying gold belts under her uncovered breasts --
A warrior-women, she dares to run with men as a maiden.
While these astounding things are to Dardanian Æneas shown,
And while he stands dumb and stands planted in singleminded sight,
The queen to the temple, she most beautifully-made Dido,
Did approach with a great pressing pack of youths.
Just as on the Eurotas' banks or throughout the ridges of Cynthus
Doth Diana train her dancers, she whom a thousand have followed
Hence and beyond, where gather these mountain nymphs. She a quiver
O'er her shoulder bears, and she strode, surpassing all the goddesses.
Joy doth cause Latona's silent heart to quicken at the sight of her:
Such a woman was Dido, and happy betook herself forth
Throughout their midst, urging on the toil which would their domains be.
Then, outside of Juno's image, under the center of the vaulted temple roof,
Encompassed by armed men, high upon a propped up throne she took her seat.
Justice she was giving and laws for men, and their hard works' toil
With just measure she divided, or the lot she drew.
When all a-sudden Æneas in a great crowd approaching did catch sight
Antheus, and Sergestus, and brave Cloanthus:
Of others of the Teucri, whom that black whirlwind had upon the sea
Driven asunder, and far off turned them to other shores.
Æneas himself stood dumbstruck, as was confounded Achates
By both joy and fear -- eagerly they yearn to clasp together right hands,
They burn for it: but the unfamiliar situation troubles their hearts.
So their feelings they hide, and, enveloped in the hollow cloud, watch on
And learn what was the fortune of the men, on what shore their fleet they leave,
Why they have come -- they reply that picked from all their ships they came
To plead mercy, and this temple because of the commotion they did seek.
After within they entered and a chance of speaking in Dido's presence given,
The eldest Ilioneus thus with a calm heart began:
"O Queen, to whom a new city to found did Jove the Father
And Justice grant thee to bridle haughty peoples.
Trojans we, and wretched we, cast by winds throughout all seas
Do beg thee: keep off the abominable fire from our ships!
Spare my pious people and sooner-than-not do give attention to our trouble!
Nay, not we to either destroy the Libyan gods
Have come, or to take stolen plunder back to the shore.
Nay, such violence is not in heart of the conquered -- nor such arrogance.
There is a place -- the Evenland, Hesperia, a byname the Grai utter --
An ancient land, powerful in arms and rich in fertility.
Oenotrian men tilled there first -- now tale tells that their descendants
Call their people Italy from their own leader's name.
This is the run of it: ----
When all a-sudden arising from the swell did cloudy Orion
Bear us into blind-dark shoals, and far off by wanton winds,
And through the waves, with the sea ever crashing o'er us, and through rocks
Impassable he scattered us. Hither we few to your shores have swum.
What race of people is this? What so strange a country doth keep this custom?
We are barred from even the hospitality of their sand!
These people turn to war and shun us from standing on their outermost lands!
If to a race of humankind and mortal arms ye offer slight,
Then await ye the gods who are mindful of right and wrong.
We had a king Æneas, more than he was any other
Neither in piety nor in war was greater in arms.
If this man the Fates preserve, if he breathes heaven's
Air, and not now among the cruel shades doth lie,
Then we have no fear. Nor to do kindness canst thou be ashamed
To claim thou wert the first. For there are in Sicilian realms cities
And arms, and sprung from Trojan blood is famous Acestes.
Our fleet, tossed by the winds, prithee be allowed for us to withdraw,
And from the forests to take beams for mending and to bind together oars.
Good be it if it be given that towards Italy with allies and king recovered
To disembark, so that Italy and Latium we happy seek;
But if used up is our well-being, and thee, O best father of the Teucri,
The sea of Libya hath taken, and not shall hope in Iulus remain,
Then, at any rate, the watery ways of Sicily and their prepared homes,
When once from this place conveyed, we shall seek, as well as King Acestes."
So spake Ilioneus, and the rest in voice were murmuring agreement,
The other sons of Dardanus. ---------
Then briefly Dido, her visage she cast down, addressed them:
"Release from your hearts this fear, Teucri; cast aside your worries.
A harsh need and the newness of my kingdom have me compelled to such things
Undertake, and widely with watch to keep guard o'er my borders.
Who knows not the race of Æneas' people? Who knows not the city Troy?
Its valor and heroes, or the fires of so great a war?
Not hitherto have we borne witless hearts, we Phoenicians,
Nor so far off doth the Sun yoke his team from our Tyrian city.
Should either ye for great Hesperia or fertile Saturn's lands long,
Or if ye rather for Eryxine climes or King Acestes,
Then with aid I shall send thee there, and with provisions I shall supply.
Or rather would ye wish to with me in equal share settle in this kingdom,
This city which I build is yours. Lead up your ships!
Trojan and Tyrian by me shall be with no difference treated.
More so, would that your king himself, compelled by that selfsame wind,
Would appear here! O, Æneas! Yea, throughout the coasts certain men
I shall send and to the furthest reaches of Libya to discover I shall bid
If, after shipwrecked, he in any woods or cities now wanders."
To these utterings did both direct their thought, and both brave Achates
And father Æneas long since to break out of the mist
Were burning. First doth Achates urge Æneas:
"Goddess born, now what thought rises within thy mind?
All thou see'st is safe, and our fleet and allies taken in.
One is gone, in the midst of the flood him we ourself saw
Drowned. To the utterings of thy mother the rest complies."
Scarcely had he spoken when around them all of a sudden
The mist splits apart and into the air an opening clears.
Standeth there Æneas, and in the bright light he gleamed.
In face and shoulders unto a god was alike, for the goddess herself,
His birth-giver, did blow upon his glorious locks, and the light of youth with life
Bright red she breathed upon him, and in his eyes she flared up glad dignity,
Just as when artist's hands add glorious touches to ivory, or when
With yellow gold is silver or Parian marble set all around.
He then thus he the queen addresses, the man who was by all
A little ago unseen, a-sudden spake:
"A-fore your eyes, I whom ye seek am here!
I am Trojan Æneas, snatched out of the Libyan waves!
O queen: thou alone upon the unspeakable toils of Troy hast taken pity,
Thou who to us, remnants of the Danaï -- to us, who have by all the land's and sea's
Downfalls been already worn out -- to us, lacking all things,
Thou hast offered us a share of thy city, thy home! To return worthy thanks
Is not within my power, Dido, nor is there any power anywhere
Among the Dardanian people, who through the great globe are scattered.
May the gods grant thee, if any godhood doth consider the pious, if there
Is e'er justice anywhere and thy mind knows of thy righteous deed,
Then worthy rewards may the gods bear! What such happy times have thee
Borne? What such parents have born thee so great?
As long as through the waterways the currents run, as shadows
Alight on mountain vales, as the heavens shall feed the stars,
Ever shall thy honor, thy name, and thy praises linger!
But some other lands do call me!"
Thus he spoke, and to his Ilian
Friend he extends his right hand, and his left to Serestus,
And then to the others: brave Gyes, and brave Cloanthus.
She stood dumb at the first sight of him, she Sidonian Dido,
And then at such ordeals of the man, and from her lips she spoke:
"Who hath thee, goddess-born, through such dangerous ordeals
Followed? What power hath to these savage shores steered thee?
Art thou that Æneas, whom to Dardanian Anchises
Nurturing Venus bore beside the Phrygian Simoïs' swell?
Lo indeed, Teucer I recall did once to Sidon come
Driven out of his father's bounds, and new kingdoms he sought
With the aid of Belus. For then my forebearer Belus was to rich
Cyprus laying waste, and as conquerer kept all under his command.
And then at that time to me was known of the downfall of thy city
Troy, and also of thy name, and of the Pelasgian kings.
Teucer himself often did bestow upon his Teucrian enemies markéd praise
And himself arisen from the ancient lineage of the Teucri he often fancied.
For this reason, come! O youthful lords, come up to our homes!
Me as well through many alike toils hath Fortune
Buffeted, until at last hath wished me to stand upon this land.
Not unknowing of evil am I, and to succour the wretched I have learned."
Thus she reminisced, as Æneas under her palace roof she led,
And then at the gods' temples she bids worthy sacrifices be made.
Nor less in the meantime doth she for her new allies to the shores send
Twenty bulls, great boars -- a hundred told,
Their backs a-bristling -- a hundred fat lambs with mother-ewes,
And the gift of happiness of the god of wine. ------
But the inside of the home is with royal splendid opulence
Set out, and under the center of the palace they make ready the feast:
With skill encrafted are the mantles with princely red mollusks' dye,
Extensive is the silver on the tables, and engraved in gold
Are the brave deeds of her fathers, a very lengthy succession of acts
Leading down through so many men from the ancient lineage of her family.
Æneas -- for not to halt his train of thought did
Fatherly love allow him -- and quick to the ships sent forth Achates
To bear to Ascanius these tidings and to betake himself to the city-walls;
For every concern of the dear father now on Ascanius centered.
Gifts meanwhile, all snatched from the Ilian ruins,
Biddeth he them to bring: a gown stiff with designs and gold,
And a veil interwoven all around with yellow acanthus --
Fine garments of Argive Helen, which she had from Mycenae stolen,
When to Pergamum she went and sought forbidden wedding hymns.
Yea, she had stolen her mother Leda's wondrous gifts,
Even her very scepter, which once Ilione had carried,
Eldest of the daughters of Priam, who about her neck hung a thread
Of pearls, and doubleset with gems and gold was her crown.
These tidings hastening to bear, to the ships set out Achates.
But Cytherea did turn o'er and again new designs, new plots
In her breast, and so with his appearance changed and voice, Cupid
Came in the guise of sweet Ascanius, so that with his gifts the queen
He might inflame to madness and within her bones entwine fire.
For indeed Venus feared this lying house and forkéd Tyrian tongues.
While burned harsh Juno, under the cover of night Venus nursed her worry,
And so with these words addresseth she winged Love:
"Child mine, my strength, my great power, mine alone,
Child, thou who spurn the Typhon-slaying weapons of the Father On High
To thee I am in flight and as a suppliant I ask for thy godly power.
As thy brother Æneas upon the sea around all
The shores is thrown o'er and again by the hatred of unfair Juno --
This is all known to thee, and often hast thou been pained by our suffering.
Him doth Phoenician Dido keep and with flattering words delays him.
And thus I fear how Junonian hospitality may close its doors --
For scarce will she yield here at such a hinge of history.
For which reason, to first take the queen and encircle her with flame --
I have thought on this, lest by some other god's power the course may alter.
But by a love as great as mine for Æneas let her be held,
By what means to do this thou art able, now receive my plan:
By a feeling roused in his kingly father, to the Sidonian city
His son he is readying to set out, and by means of my greatest care
Bears he gifts recovered from the sea and flames of Troy.
Him full of sleep shall I place above on the peaks of high Cythera
Or above Idalium on my holy throne,
Lest at all he know the trick or be able to rush into the midst of it.
Thou his appearance for no longer than a single night
Wear in deceit, and put on, thou boy, the well-known features of the boy,
So that, when thee most happy Dido shall in her lap receive,
Between the royal tables and sweet-flowing Lyaean wine,
When she will give thee an embrace and on thee sweet kisses set,
A hidden fire thou shalt breathe into her and dupe with poison."
Love obeyed the words of his dear birth-giver and on wings
He left, and in each step exulting, he made his way to Iulus.
Meanwhile, Venus through Ascanius' limbs a calm rest
Guided, and warm against her bosom the goddess bore him to the high
Groves of Idalium, where soft marjoram embraces the boy,
And with flowers and sweet shade did on him breathe.
And then he went, obeying her word, and kingly gifts did Cupid
Carry to the Tyrii, o'erjoyed with Achates as his guide.
When he arrived, the queen then under princely tapestries
Sat on a golden couchstand and in the middle set.
Now father Æneas and now the Trojan youth
Gather, and o'er red-dyed coverings they spread out recline.
Slaves give flowing water with their hands, the Ceres from plaited baskets
They pour out, and napkins made from tufted wool they bear.
Fifty house girls worked within, by whose care the long
Feast in proper order the others arranged, for they with flames kept the Penates.
A hundred others and all in equal age were the attendants,
Who with the courses loaded the tables and set the cups thereon.
Not only them, but Tyrii through the glad threshold thronging
Gathered, and, when bid, went they to lie on painted couches.
Marvel they at the gifts of Æneas, marvel they at Iulus --
At his lovely face so like a blazing god's and his counterfeited speech,
And at the painted cloak and veil with yellow acanthus.
O especially ill-starred queen, doomed for future calamity,
To sate her mind she was not able and she burning yearned by staring,
O Phoenician Dido, equally was she moved by boy and gifts.
When the boy in the embrace of Æneas and from his father's neck hung,
And after he sated the great love of his pretended father,
To the queen he turned -- ah, with her eyes, with her whole heart
She clung to him, and by and by, in her lap kept him warm. O unknowing Dido,
What a god plots against thee, O wretched women! Then, mindful
Of his mother who bore the Acidalian Graces, the god to wipe away Sychaeus
Began, and started to o'erturn in favor of a now living love
Her long-since remaining memories and lingering heart.
When first was quiet, after the courses ended and the tables were taken away
Great craters they stand up and crown the rims with wine.
The sound fills the roofs, and voices crash about through the huge
Hall. Hanging from the golden ceiling panels are lamps
Aflame, and the night the tapers keep at bay with their flames.
Here the queen, weighed down by gems and gold, asked for --
And then filled high with unmixed wine -- her drinking bowl which Belus and all
From Belus' children used. Then all was silent under the roof:
"O Jove the Father, for o'er guests do the laws say thou art protector,
This happy day is for Tyrii and for those set out from Troy --
May'st thou will it be! And let our descendants remember this!
Let Bacchus be a granter of happiness, and good Juno,
And ye, O Tyrii, prefer and practice harmony!"
Spake she, and onto the table poured flowing honor for the gods,
And first, having poured libation, touched the skin of her lip to the edge,
And then to Bitias she gave it while crying aloud. And he, by this excited, drained
The foaming cup and drank his fill from the filled up gold --
Afterwards other princes took it. Long-haired Iopas doth
Strum a golden cithara, as greatest Atlas taught him.
He sings of the wandering of the moon and the sun's toils,
Whence came the race of Men and herds, whence the rainstorms and fire,
Of Arcturus, and the rainy Hyades, and twin Bears -- Triones,
Why so far to Ocean's bounds hasten the winter suns to touch,
And what delay holds fast to sluggish winter nights.
Redouble their applause do the Tyrii, and the Trojans follow suit.
And with various talk the night she did draw on,
She unlucky Dido, and drank deep of love,
Asking again and again much of Priamus, now much of Hector,
Now with what arms had come Aurora's son,
Now what horses Diomedes had, now how great was Achilles:
"Yea more! Come now! And tell, guest, from first beginning to us
The plots," saieth she, "of the Danaï, and thy disasters,
And thy wanderings. For now a seventh summer carries thee,
Wandering about all the lands and waves."
AENEIS - The Aeneid - 29 B.C. - 19 B.C.
Then appear the scattered crew, swimming in the wide whirlpool,
Then the arms of men, then planks, and then Trojan treasure flashes through the waves.
And now the strong ship of Ilioneus, now the one of brave Achates,
And the one which conveyed Abas, and the old-aged Aletes --
All of these the storm o'ercomes. Through the wide joints of their sides do all ships
Take on the enemy downpour and at the seams burst apart.
In the meantime, while this great roar churning up the wide-sea,
Neptune did perceive this forth-casted storm, and saw that into the depths
The still waters had been poured back from the shallows -- thus gravely he was moved.
And so, upon the deep he gazes, and his calm head he lifts over the top of the wave.
Thrown asunder on the whole sea does he see Aeneas' fleet,
By the waves and the heavens' downpour were the Trojans being battered.
And neither did these wiles deceive the brother of Juno -- nor did her wrath.
Eurus then and Zephyrus to himself he calls, and hence he thus addresses them:
"Does such confidence in your station give ye license here?
Do ye now dare to enmingle the heavens and the land -- without mine own divine will, O ye winds!
-- To enmingle together dare? Such burdens do ye dare to raise up?
Why, ye I ought--! But no: the raised waves it is better to set down.
Afterwards: by no alike punishment for your faults to me ye shall atone.
Hasten in your flight! To your king these words relay:
Not to him has the power of the sea and the fierce trident --
But to me by lot it has been granted. Keepeth he the vast rocks,
Your homes, Eurus -- the lot of ye! There let him toss himself about in those halls,
Aeolus he, and let him in the enclosed gaol of the winds be king!"
 |
| Poseidon of Artemision 480-400 B.C. (sometimes identified as Zeus - either way, the lightning bolt or trident is missing) |
Thus he spoke, and by his decree so quickly does he the swelling sea make peaceful:
The gathered clouds he puts to flight, the sun he leads back.
Cymothoe along with Triton supporting, from a sharp rock
Do they both dislodge ships; lifteth he himself some on his trident.
And the wide Syrtes he opens, and calms the sea,
All the while on light chariot-wheels the wavetops he skims.
And it is just as when in a great people often riseth among them
Sedition, and rageth in their minds the baseborn rabble,
And now torches mingled with rocks fly! Rage distributes weapons!
Then if by chance a man, stern because of his piety and his deserts,
Him the people have caught a glimpse -- they are silent and with upright ears attend.
Yon man ruleth their minds with his words, and their breasts he soothes.
Just as this did the whole crash of the sea fall, and then upon the sea
Gazes forth its Forebearer, and carried upon the open sky,
Bendeth he his team, and flying in his chariot behind, he snaps the reins.
The wearied children of Aeneas to seek the nearest shores in their course
Strive together -- and they to Libya's shores are turned.
There is in a long cove a place, an island as a harbor
Serves by the upturn of its sides, where everything from the deepsea 160
Is broken, each wave sunders itself upon the withdrawn bay.
Here and now here the wide ridges and twin rocks threaten
The heavens, where under the peak the wide
Sea lies safe and silent. It's woods a-waving, this theatric backdrop stands
From above and with quivering shade the dark grove overhangs. 165
Under the front of the cliffs o'er-reaching the entrance,
Within flow sweet waters, and the seats of the living rock,
The nymphs' house. Here did tired ships no chains --
Not any -- hold, an anchor fetters not with its hooked bite.
'Twas hither after seven ships were salvaged from their entire 170
Number did Aeneas calmly approach. And with a great desire for land
Did Trojans disembark and gain the long-for'ed sand,
And on the salty shore stretch out their soggy limbs.
Then first with a flint-stone did striketh out Achates a spark
And held he the fire under the leaves and all about it 175
Dry nourishment he gave it, and caught he on this kindling a flame.
Then Ceres' gift befouled by waves and the mortar -- Ceres' own tools --
Do they take out, and these people, weary of fortune, prepare
To burn the salvaged pulse and break it betwixt the rock.
In the meantime Aeneas scaled the height and an entire 180
Sight wide upon the sea does he seek, if anything of Antheus
Thrown upon the wind could he espy, or of the Phrygian two-banks;
Or of Capys; or set on a high stern the arms of Caicus.
No ship is in his sight, but on the shore does he three stags
See, a-wandering about -- these the whole herd follows 185
At their back and the long column feeds throughout the vale.
Upright standeth Aeneas, and his bow in his hand and swift shafts
He snatched up, and faithful did these same weapons faithful Achates bear.
And first the herd-leaders themselves, who bore their heads high
With branching antlers, he laid low; then the herd and them all 190
He started up, driving with his shafts the crowd amidst the leafy groves.
And not does he cease before seven huge bodies does the winner
Lay out upon the earth, and their number does he make even with the ships.
Hence the harbor he seeketh and among his allies he divideth his kill.
Then the wines which in caskets good Achates had loaded 195
On the Three-Promontoried shore which the hero had given as they left --
These Aeneas shared and with words calmed their grieving hearts:
"O, companions mine -- for not do we stand as fools before misfortunes --
O having suffered graver things, grant will god to these people an end as well.
Ye the ravenous Scylla and her deeply echoing 200
Crags did approach, and ye in the Cyclopean rocks
Are well versed -- summon again your spirits! Gloom and fear,
Send them away! Perhaps even these things it will one day benefit to recall.
Through such downfalls, through such dangerous events
We strive for Latium, where peaceful homes the Fates 205
Do promise. Thence by the gods' will that the kingdom of Troy riseth again.
Harden! And yourselves keep ye for happier times."
Such things in voice he utters, and though with great worries he grows ill,
A hope on his face he feigns, and holds down a deep pain in his heart.
They gird themselves about the plunder, the soon-to-be feast. 210
The oysters they strip from the ribs and the flesh they lay bare.
A portion into bits they cut and on spits they fix the quivering slices.
On the shore a copper pot some set up and flames they dole out.
Then in victuals they renew their strength, and stretched out throughout the grass,
They fill themselves on old Bacchus and wild animals' fat. 215
After rooted out was their hunger by the feastings, and the tables were taken away,
Their lost friends in long discourse they ask after,
Amidst both hope and fear they are doubtful whether to trust they live
Or if at the last they suffered and not now hearken unto those who called for them.220
And especially does pious Aeneas now for fierce Orontes,
Now for Amycus' ruin does he groan and then for the cruel
Orlay of Lycus, and strong Gyes, and strong Cloanthus.
And that was at an end, when Jove the Father from the airy height
Did look down on the sail-flying sea, and on the lands lying still, 225
And on the coasts, on wide-spreading peoples, and so on the peak of heav'n
Standeth tall he, on Libya's kingdom he fixed thereon his lights' gaze.
And to him while turning such concerns about in his own breast, did she address,
Grown so sad and bedewed with tears her shining eyes,
And thus Venus spake:
"O thou, the very existence of both men and gods 230
With e'erlasting power rule'st, and thou with the thunder's blast do terrify:
What could mine Aeneas have against thee done -- what wrong so great?
What power did the Trojans have, those who so many deaths have suffered,
While for the sake of Italy, the rest of the world is closed off from them?
Surely didst thou once promise that henceforth the Romans, after the years turn, 235
Henceforth would be rulers, from the renewed blood of Teucer,
Who the sea, who the lands under their total sway might hold?
Thou promised -- what thought, Father, has changed thee?
For truly, by this one thing when Troy's sun set and in her grim ruination
Was I comforted, that upon adverse orlay did I another orlay hang. 240
Yet now the same lot has dogged these men driven towards
So many downfalls. What end dost thou give, great king, to their toils?
Antenor was able -- for through the midst of the Achivi he slipped away --
To invade the Illyrian bays and, unassailed amongst the inmost
Kingdoms of the Liburnians, saileth he to the spring of Timavus, 245
Whence through nine river-mouths with the mountain's wide roar
Goeth forth the breaking sea, and crusheth it the shore with the resounding surf.
Nonetheless here did he a city at Patavi and there abodes he built --
Abodes of Teucrians, and to this people a name he gave and arms he set aside --
Trojan arms. Now with a calm peace he is quiet -- rest he hath found. 250
But we, thine own offspring, to whom thou assent to hold heaven's citadel,
Our ships hath been lost -- o woe unspeakable! -- and on account of wrath of one
We are betrayed, and from Italian shores far flung are we thrown off!
This is piety's reward? Is thus how thou restore'st us to our scepter?"
To her he did smile, the Protector of men and gods
In his countenance, by which heaven and storms he calms,
A kiss gave he to his daughter and hence such things he saieth:
"Spare thy fear, Cytherea. They yet last, those unmovéd orlays
Of thine own -- for thee. Thou know'st the City and Lavinium's fore-cast
City walls, and thy exalted son thou shalt bear to the vault of heaven,
Great-hearted Æneas. Nor hath me a thought changed.
Here to thee -- for I shall tell, since this worry does at thee gnaw again
And rolling further, the Fates' hidden ways shall I move --
An enormous war he shall wage in Italy, and with fierce peoples
He shall contend, and customs with strength and city walls he shall place,
Until him ruling in Latium a third summer shall see,
And three winters shall have passed after the Rutuli are put down.
But then the boy Ascanius, to whom now the name Iulus
Is added -- Ilus he was, while still stood an Ilian kingdom --
Thirty great seasons, all with the moons rolling away
Shall he with his rule fill, and his kingdom from the throne of Lavinium
He shall move, and with much might he shall fortify long Alba.
This shall from this time -- three hundred years in all -- be ruled
Under Hector's race, until a queenly priestess,
Made pregnant by Mars, shall in birth this Ilian girl give twin offspring.
Thence from a nursing she-wolf's tawny pelt shall happy
Romulus take up his race, and he shall found Mavortian
City-walls, and them the Romans from his own name he shall call.
To these I neither limits of power nor time do place;
Rule without end I have given. Then harsh Juno
Who the sea now and the lands with fear and heaven she wearies,
These plots for the better she shall lay off, and with me she shall nurture
The Romans, of all things the masters, the toga-ed race;
So it is settled. Then shall come while lights wane an age
When the house of Assaracus shall Phthia and famous Mycenae
In servitude press, and shall lord over the conquered Argives.
Then born he shall be from fine stock, he Trojan Caesar,
Who his rule by ocean shall he bound, and his fame by the stars
Iulius, a name sent down from great Iulus.
Him thou one day to heaven, him with Eastern spoils laden,
Thou shalt at ease receive. He shall be called as well in prayers.
Then harsh ages shall mild grow with wars set aside,
Hoary Faith, and Vesta, and with his brother Remus shall Quirinus
Give laws. With iron and interlacing skill
Shall be closed the dread gates of War. Impious Rage lieth within,
Brutal she sits above arms, and bound by a hundred bronze
Knots behind her back -- horrible, she shall rave from her gory mouth."
These things he spoke, and the child of Maia sendeth he down from on high
To the land, so that open may the new heights of Karthage lie,
Guest-welcoming to the Teucrians -- lest she, unknowing of the Fates, Dido
Might from her land keep them off. Flieth the god through the airy height
By oar-strokes of wings, and on Libya's shores he swift stood there.
And now commands he makes, and check they the fierce Punic
Hearts by the will of god. From the first, the queen a quiet
Mind takes on in regards to the Teucrians, and a disposition kind.
But pious Æneas, through night so very much he tossed,
As soon as nourishing light was given, to leave these places
And explore new ones, to what bays he had by wind come,
Who held them -- for barren he espied it -- and the men and beasts
He decided to seek out, and to his allies bear back his deeds.
His fleet in a bay of groves beneath a cavern hollow
With trees encircled all about and with rustling shadows
He hid. He himself together steps accompanied by Achates.
Two-to-each-hand, they brandished spears with wide iron.
His mother betook herself to the middle of the wood -- so as to meet him --
And a maiden's look and trappings she wore, and a maiden's arms,
A Spartan girl, or like she who her horses wearies out, the Thracian
Harpalyce, and in her flight o'er passes she the swift-winged Hebrus.
For on her shoulders as was custom had the supple bow hung
The huntress, and she had given her hair to be wantonly tussled by the winds,
With bare knee, and in a knot the flowing folds she had gathered.
And so she spake first:
"Lo, ye young men, do tell me,
Hath ye seen, if here by chance, one of my sisters wandering,
Girded with quiver and pelt of dappled lynx,
Or mayhap a foaming boar's flight with a loud cry she presses on?"
 |
| Venus Appearing to Aeneas On The Shores of Carthage, Tiepolo 1771 |
"Nothing of thine own hath been heard by me, nor seen of thy sisters.
O, how shall I name thee, maid? For hardly be thy face
A mortal's, nor thy voice sound so to be human. Oh, a goddess certainly,
Or Phoebus' sister? Or else of the nymphs' blood art thou one?
Be thou favorable, and some of our toil lighten, whate'er canst thou aid:
So, under what sky are we here at last? What shores on this globe
Are we cast -- prithee tell? Unknowing of these people and places
We wander, by wind hither and waves hath we been driven.
For thee before thy altar shall our right hand fell many victims!"
Then replied Venus:
"Scarce in truth such honor I deem me worthy.
For Tyrian maids be it the custom to bear the quiver
And with the highly worn hunting boot to lace our calves --
The Punic kingdoms see'st thou, and Tyrians hold a city of Agenor.
But about the boundaries lie the Libyans, a race ever drawn to war.
In this reign doth Dido the Tyrian rule, who from her city left,
From her brother fleeing. Far-reaching is the wrongdoing, long
Would be the full tale -- but along the heart of the matter I'll follow:
Once she had a husband, who was Sychaeus, richest in estates
Out of all Phoenicians, and prized with a great love for a wretched woman,
Who's father had given her as a virgin and to these first rites had
Her wed. But the kingdom of Tyre her brother then held,
Pygmalion, in wickedness before all others was he more steeped.
Betwixt in their midst came an enmity, and the king did Sychaeus
Before the altar -- o blasphemer, blinded by love of gold --
Without warning with iron o'ercome the unguarded man, thus ruining
His sister's bliss. And the deed he long hid, and while she lay sick
Much did the wicked man lie, and with a vain hope mocked her love.
But then in sleep came the very ghost of her unburied
Husband; and his pale lips disclosed amazing things:
Of the cruel altar and how pierced was his breast by iron --
He laid all bare, and every dark crime of his house he uncovered.
Then to hasten her flight and from her country to depart he persuades her,
And so as to help her on her way, revealed he did an old
Treasure, an unknown weight of silver and of gold.
By such things moved, Dido then her escape and allies prepared.
They gather together, these who either had a harsh hatred of the tyrant,
Or of him a sharp-cutting fear. A ship, which was by chance made ready
They steal, and they weigh it down with gold. Carried are greedy
Pygmalion's riches upon the sea -- the leader of their enterprise: a woman.
They came to this place, where now thou dost gaze upon enormous
City-walls and the rising citadel of new Karthage.
And, having bought a plot of land, bestowed on it the name Byrsa,
Because with a bull's hide its size they were able to encircle.
But at last, what of ye? From what shores have ye come?
And wither do ye hold your journey?"
To her questioning such things, the man,
Sighing, did draw from his deepest breast his voice and made reply:
"O goddess, if starting from the first beginnings I shall continue,
And give pause to hear the tedious telling of our toils,
Beforehand would Olympus shut and the Evenstar lay down the day in slumber.
Us did Troy of old bear -- if by chance to thine ears
Troy's name hath reached -- through the manifold seas we've sailed,
And by chance to Libyan shores a storm drove us.
I am pious Æneas, who the ancestral Penates I did snatch from the enemy
And in my fleet carry with me. By reputation amongst the heavens I am known.
Italy I seek -- our country and a people promised by Jove on high.
With twice-ten ships I disembarked upon the Phrygian sea,
With my mother, a goddess, showing us the way -- my given orlay I have followed.
Scarcely seven ships, battered by waves and Eurus remain unharmed.
I myself, full of want, throughout Libya's wastelands wander,
Already beaten in Europe and Asia --"
Nor further of him complaining
Did suffer Venus, and in the midst of his pain she cried:
"Whoever thou art, scarcely can I believe thee begrudged by gods -- thy breath
Of life thou still hast -- and thou art come to our Tyrian city.
Continue as thou were and hence betake thyself to the queen's doorway.
For to thee I say that returned safe be thy allies and thy fleet conveyed --
Such tidings I announce, and that thy ships into safety by favorable winds borne
If not in vain did augury my forebearers teach me to any avail:
Lo, espy twice-seven swans, all a-joy in their formation!
From his heavenly home did Jove's eagle dive and throughout the open
Sky he sent them wheeling -- but now on land in a long row
They seem to either have a-lighted, or espied some already a-lighted place.
And when safe again, they play with flapping wings,
And in their gathering, they girded heaven's vault and happy songs they sang.
In no way otherwise are thy ships and thine own people
Either weighing anchor at a port, or with full sail close to making landfall.
Continue as thou were, and, by which way thee the road leads, aright thy step."
Spake she, and in turning, from her rosy neck she gleamed,
And her ambrosial hair from from her head did breathe
A fragrance divine, while down past her feet her gown flowed,
And at each step a true goddess she revealed. The man, when his mother
He recognized, with such a voice did follow her in her flight:
"How many times must thy son -- yes, thou art also cruel! -- to be by lying
Games and tricks deceived? Why when my right hand extends to clasp thine,
It is n'er given, and n'er the truth do I hear and give answer without error?"
With such words he accuses her, and then to the city-walls made his way.
But Venus with a dusky mist as they walked wrapped them up,
And with much mantle of a cloud the goddess poured about them,
Lest any to see them might be able nor any to touch them,
Or contrive a delay or demand their reason for visiting.
The goddess herself soaring high to Paphus stole away, and looked again
There upon her domain, where pleasure-loving Venus had a temple, a hundred
Altars with Sabaean incense burn, and with new-made garlands breathe.
Meanwhile they seize the road, where the footpath shows.
And now they climb the hill which o'er most the city
Hangs and gazes onward and above the facing tower-tops.
Amazed at the upheaval is Æneas, a place where once were tents,
And gapes at the gates, and the human din, and the paved stones of the streets.
Tyrians are all about in excitement: part of them builds walls,
And some construct the citadel and with their hands roll stones up to the footing,
And part choose each place for a home and mark each foundation with a furrow.
Laws and elected officials they choose and their holy Senate.
Here the harbors some hollow out -- here the tall groundwalls
Of a theater some set in place and enormous columns
From cliff faces they carve, tall ornaments for scenes-to-be.
Just as when bees in summer through the new-flowered countrysides
Their toil driveth them beneath the sun, when their colony's new-grown
Brood they instruct, or when flowing honey
They pack together and with sweet nectar fill their hollowed combs,
Or loads they take from the returning workers, or in battle array
They the dull drones from the hive keep off --
Restless is the work, and wafts the honey, sweet-smelling of thyme.
 |
| Turner, Dido Building Carthage, 1815 |
"Oh! Blessed are they whose city-walls already rise!"
Æneas cried, and up at the tops of the city he looks.
He makes his way, wrapped up in a cloud -- amazing to tell! --
Through the midst of them and mingles with the men, not to any seen.
A grove in the city's center stood, most pleasant in shade,
Where, first cast by the waves and eddy, the Phoenicians
There dug up in that place a sign which queenly Juno
Had told them of: the head of a fierce horse. For thus, saieth she, in war
They would outstanding be, and find ease in their people's conquests for all ages.
Here was the temple of Juno -- enormous was Sidonian Dido
Making it. Made opulent by off'rings and by the goddess' statue'd presence,
From the top of its steps bronze thresholds rose, and knotted
With bronze were the beams, and the hinges on its copper doors creaked.
Here at last in this grove was a new fortune offered, which did lessen
His dread, and here at last Æneas dared to hope for rest
And then to have better trust in his ill-begotten orlays.
And while up at the huge temple's details each in turn he gazes,
While for the queen he waits, and while at what luck their city had,
At what art interworking craftsmen's hands had made, and at their hard works' toil
He was amazed -- then he saw the Ilian battles all in a row,
And the wars now by story known in common through the whole globe:
Here Atreus' sons and Priamus, and here -- savage to both sides -- Achilles
Stands, and so weeping,
"What place is there now, Achates," Æneas spake,
"What region throughout the lands is not full of our sorrow?
Lo, here is Priamus! Even here are his accomplishments praiseworthy;
Here are tears for misery; even here do mortals feel our sorrow!
Undo thy fear: our reputation here known shall bear thee some safety."
Thus he spoke, and his heart he nourishes on worthless friezes,
And, groaning much, with a great tearful flood he wettens his face.
For here he looked on, as warring round Pergamum
Here were put to flight the Graii, and routing them was the Trojan youth --
Here fled the Phrygians, and set against them in his war-car was crested Achilles.
Nor far off hence does he Rhesus' tents with snow-white sails roofed
Recognize through his weeping, for early in sleep were they betrayed,
And Tydides' son brought them to ruin, with slaughter was he spattered red,
And his raving horses he turned aside into the camp, before
The grass of Troy they could have eaten and of the Xanthus drunk.
In another part, fleeing -- his armor lost -- is Troilus:
O unlucky boy and so unmatched for a contest with Achilles,
He is drawn by his horses and, thrown back, to his empty chariot clings,
Yet holds on to the reins -- his neck and hair are dragged
Through the dirt, and with his downturned the dust is scrawled.
Meanwhile to the temple of unfavorable Pallas go
The Trojan women with unkept hair and a gown they bear
Humbly, and grim do they beat their breasts with their open hands.
The goddess was on the ground keeping her downturned eyes set firm.
Thrice about the Ilian walls had Achilles taken Hector,
A soulless body with gold then did he then sell.
But then an loud groan Æneas gives from his deepest breast
As the spoils, as the war-car, and the very body of his friend
Does he catch sight, and at Priamus stretching his unarmed hands.
Himself also among the chieftains of the Achivi does he recognize,
And the battle lines of the Dawn and black Memnon's arms.
Leading the Amazon war-train, bedecked with moon-crescent shields,
Is mad Penthesilea. In the midst of thousands she burns,
Tying gold belts under her uncovered breasts --
A warrior-women, she dares to run with men as a maiden.
While these astounding things are to Dardanian Æneas shown,
And while he stands dumb and stands planted in singleminded sight,
The queen to the temple, she most beautifully-made Dido,
Did approach with a great pressing pack of youths.
Just as on the Eurotas' banks or throughout the ridges of Cynthus
Doth Diana train her dancers, she whom a thousand have followed
Hence and beyond, where gather these mountain nymphs. She a quiver
O'er her shoulder bears, and she strode, surpassing all the goddesses.
Joy doth cause Latona's silent heart to quicken at the sight of her:
Such a woman was Dido, and happy betook herself forth
Throughout their midst, urging on the toil which would their domains be.
Then, outside of Juno's image, under the center of the vaulted temple roof,
Encompassed by armed men, high upon a propped up throne she took her seat.
Justice she was giving and laws for men, and their hard works' toil
With just measure she divided, or the lot she drew.
When all a-sudden Æneas in a great crowd approaching did catch sight
Antheus, and Sergestus, and brave Cloanthus:
Of others of the Teucri, whom that black whirlwind had upon the sea
Driven asunder, and far off turned them to other shores.
Æneas himself stood dumbstruck, as was confounded Achates
By both joy and fear -- eagerly they yearn to clasp together right hands,
They burn for it: but the unfamiliar situation troubles their hearts.
So their feelings they hide, and, enveloped in the hollow cloud, watch on
And learn what was the fortune of the men, on what shore their fleet they leave,
Why they have come -- they reply that picked from all their ships they came
To plead mercy, and this temple because of the commotion they did seek.
After within they entered and a chance of speaking in Dido's presence given,
The eldest Ilioneus thus with a calm heart began:
"O Queen, to whom a new city to found did Jove the Father
And Justice grant thee to bridle haughty peoples.
Trojans we, and wretched we, cast by winds throughout all seas
Do beg thee: keep off the abominable fire from our ships!
Spare my pious people and sooner-than-not do give attention to our trouble!
Nay, not we to either destroy the Libyan gods
Have come, or to take stolen plunder back to the shore.
Nay, such violence is not in heart of the conquered -- nor such arrogance.
There is a place -- the Evenland, Hesperia, a byname the Grai utter --
An ancient land, powerful in arms and rich in fertility.
Oenotrian men tilled there first -- now tale tells that their descendants
Call their people Italy from their own leader's name.
This is the run of it: ----
When all a-sudden arising from the swell did cloudy Orion
Bear us into blind-dark shoals, and far off by wanton winds,
And through the waves, with the sea ever crashing o'er us, and through rocks
Impassable he scattered us. Hither we few to your shores have swum.
What race of people is this? What so strange a country doth keep this custom?
We are barred from even the hospitality of their sand!
These people turn to war and shun us from standing on their outermost lands!
If to a race of humankind and mortal arms ye offer slight,
Then await ye the gods who are mindful of right and wrong.
We had a king Æneas, more than he was any other
Neither in piety nor in war was greater in arms.
If this man the Fates preserve, if he breathes heaven's
Air, and not now among the cruel shades doth lie,
Then we have no fear. Nor to do kindness canst thou be ashamed
To claim thou wert the first. For there are in Sicilian realms cities
And arms, and sprung from Trojan blood is famous Acestes.
Our fleet, tossed by the winds, prithee be allowed for us to withdraw,
And from the forests to take beams for mending and to bind together oars.
Good be it if it be given that towards Italy with allies and king recovered
To disembark, so that Italy and Latium we happy seek;
But if used up is our well-being, and thee, O best father of the Teucri,
The sea of Libya hath taken, and not shall hope in Iulus remain,
Then, at any rate, the watery ways of Sicily and their prepared homes,
When once from this place conveyed, we shall seek, as well as King Acestes."
So spake Ilioneus, and the rest in voice were murmuring agreement,
The other sons of Dardanus. ---------
Then briefly Dido, her visage she cast down, addressed them:
"Release from your hearts this fear, Teucri; cast aside your worries.
A harsh need and the newness of my kingdom have me compelled to such things
Undertake, and widely with watch to keep guard o'er my borders.
Who knows not the race of Æneas' people? Who knows not the city Troy?
Its valor and heroes, or the fires of so great a war?
Not hitherto have we borne witless hearts, we Phoenicians,
Nor so far off doth the Sun yoke his team from our Tyrian city.
Should either ye for great Hesperia or fertile Saturn's lands long,
Or if ye rather for Eryxine climes or King Acestes,
Then with aid I shall send thee there, and with provisions I shall supply.
Or rather would ye wish to with me in equal share settle in this kingdom,
This city which I build is yours. Lead up your ships!
Trojan and Tyrian by me shall be with no difference treated.
More so, would that your king himself, compelled by that selfsame wind,
Would appear here! O, Æneas! Yea, throughout the coasts certain men
I shall send and to the furthest reaches of Libya to discover I shall bid
If, after shipwrecked, he in any woods or cities now wanders."
To these utterings did both direct their thought, and both brave Achates
And father Æneas long since to break out of the mist
Were burning. First doth Achates urge Æneas:
"Goddess born, now what thought rises within thy mind?
All thou see'st is safe, and our fleet and allies taken in.
One is gone, in the midst of the flood him we ourself saw
Drowned. To the utterings of thy mother the rest complies."
Scarcely had he spoken when around them all of a sudden
The mist splits apart and into the air an opening clears.
Standeth there Æneas, and in the bright light he gleamed.
In face and shoulders unto a god was alike, for the goddess herself,
His birth-giver, did blow upon his glorious locks, and the light of youth with life
Bright red she breathed upon him, and in his eyes she flared up glad dignity,
Just as when artist's hands add glorious touches to ivory, or when
With yellow gold is silver or Parian marble set all around.
He then thus he the queen addresses, the man who was by all
A little ago unseen, a-sudden spake:
"A-fore your eyes, I whom ye seek am here!
I am Trojan Æneas, snatched out of the Libyan waves!
O queen: thou alone upon the unspeakable toils of Troy hast taken pity,
Thou who to us, remnants of the Danaï -- to us, who have by all the land's and sea's
Downfalls been already worn out -- to us, lacking all things,
Thou hast offered us a share of thy city, thy home! To return worthy thanks
Is not within my power, Dido, nor is there any power anywhere
Among the Dardanian people, who through the great globe are scattered.
May the gods grant thee, if any godhood doth consider the pious, if there
Is e'er justice anywhere and thy mind knows of thy righteous deed,
Then worthy rewards may the gods bear! What such happy times have thee
Borne? What such parents have born thee so great?
As long as through the waterways the currents run, as shadows
Alight on mountain vales, as the heavens shall feed the stars,
Ever shall thy honor, thy name, and thy praises linger!
But some other lands do call me!"
Thus he spoke, and to his Ilian
Friend he extends his right hand, and his left to Serestus,
And then to the others: brave Gyes, and brave Cloanthus.
She stood dumb at the first sight of him, she Sidonian Dido,
And then at such ordeals of the man, and from her lips she spoke:
"Who hath thee, goddess-born, through such dangerous ordeals
Followed? What power hath to these savage shores steered thee?
Art thou that Æneas, whom to Dardanian Anchises
Nurturing Venus bore beside the Phrygian Simoïs' swell?
Lo indeed, Teucer I recall did once to Sidon come
Driven out of his father's bounds, and new kingdoms he sought
With the aid of Belus. For then my forebearer Belus was to rich
Cyprus laying waste, and as conquerer kept all under his command.
And then at that time to me was known of the downfall of thy city
Troy, and also of thy name, and of the Pelasgian kings.
Teucer himself often did bestow upon his Teucrian enemies markéd praise
And himself arisen from the ancient lineage of the Teucri he often fancied.
For this reason, come! O youthful lords, come up to our homes!
Me as well through many alike toils hath Fortune
Buffeted, until at last hath wished me to stand upon this land.
Not unknowing of evil am I, and to succour the wretched I have learned."
Thus she reminisced, as Æneas under her palace roof she led,
And then at the gods' temples she bids worthy sacrifices be made.
Nor less in the meantime doth she for her new allies to the shores send
Twenty bulls, great boars -- a hundred told,
Their backs a-bristling -- a hundred fat lambs with mother-ewes,
And the gift of happiness of the god of wine. ------
But the inside of the home is with royal splendid opulence
Set out, and under the center of the palace they make ready the feast:
With skill encrafted are the mantles with princely red mollusks' dye,
Extensive is the silver on the tables, and engraved in gold
Are the brave deeds of her fathers, a very lengthy succession of acts
Leading down through so many men from the ancient lineage of her family.
Æneas -- for not to halt his train of thought did
Fatherly love allow him -- and quick to the ships sent forth Achates
To bear to Ascanius these tidings and to betake himself to the city-walls;
For every concern of the dear father now on Ascanius centered.
Gifts meanwhile, all snatched from the Ilian ruins,
Biddeth he them to bring: a gown stiff with designs and gold,
And a veil interwoven all around with yellow acanthus --
Fine garments of Argive Helen, which she had from Mycenae stolen,
When to Pergamum she went and sought forbidden wedding hymns.
Yea, she had stolen her mother Leda's wondrous gifts,
Even her very scepter, which once Ilione had carried,
Eldest of the daughters of Priam, who about her neck hung a thread
Of pearls, and doubleset with gems and gold was her crown.
These tidings hastening to bear, to the ships set out Achates.
But Cytherea did turn o'er and again new designs, new plots
In her breast, and so with his appearance changed and voice, Cupid
Came in the guise of sweet Ascanius, so that with his gifts the queen
He might inflame to madness and within her bones entwine fire.
For indeed Venus feared this lying house and forkéd Tyrian tongues.
While burned harsh Juno, under the cover of night Venus nursed her worry,
And so with these words addresseth she winged Love:
"Child mine, my strength, my great power, mine alone,
Child, thou who spurn the Typhon-slaying weapons of the Father On High
To thee I am in flight and as a suppliant I ask for thy godly power.
As thy brother Æneas upon the sea around all
The shores is thrown o'er and again by the hatred of unfair Juno --
This is all known to thee, and often hast thou been pained by our suffering.
Him doth Phoenician Dido keep and with flattering words delays him.
And thus I fear how Junonian hospitality may close its doors --
For scarce will she yield here at such a hinge of history.
For which reason, to first take the queen and encircle her with flame --
I have thought on this, lest by some other god's power the course may alter.
But by a love as great as mine for Æneas let her be held,
By what means to do this thou art able, now receive my plan:
By a feeling roused in his kingly father, to the Sidonian city
His son he is readying to set out, and by means of my greatest care
Bears he gifts recovered from the sea and flames of Troy.
Him full of sleep shall I place above on the peaks of high Cythera
Or above Idalium on my holy throne,
Lest at all he know the trick or be able to rush into the midst of it.
Thou his appearance for no longer than a single night
Wear in deceit, and put on, thou boy, the well-known features of the boy,
So that, when thee most happy Dido shall in her lap receive,
Between the royal tables and sweet-flowing Lyaean wine,
When she will give thee an embrace and on thee sweet kisses set,
A hidden fire thou shalt breathe into her and dupe with poison."
Love obeyed the words of his dear birth-giver and on wings
He left, and in each step exulting, he made his way to Iulus.
Meanwhile, Venus through Ascanius' limbs a calm rest
Guided, and warm against her bosom the goddess bore him to the high
Groves of Idalium, where soft marjoram embraces the boy,
And with flowers and sweet shade did on him breathe.
And then he went, obeying her word, and kingly gifts did Cupid
Carry to the Tyrii, o'erjoyed with Achates as his guide.
When he arrived, the queen then under princely tapestries
Sat on a golden couchstand and in the middle set.
Now father Æneas and now the Trojan youth
Gather, and o'er red-dyed coverings they spread out recline.
Slaves give flowing water with their hands, the Ceres from plaited baskets
They pour out, and napkins made from tufted wool they bear.
Fifty house girls worked within, by whose care the long
Feast in proper order the others arranged, for they with flames kept the Penates.
A hundred others and all in equal age were the attendants,
Who with the courses loaded the tables and set the cups thereon.
Not only them, but Tyrii through the glad threshold thronging
Gathered, and, when bid, went they to lie on painted couches.
Marvel they at the gifts of Æneas, marvel they at Iulus --
At his lovely face so like a blazing god's and his counterfeited speech,
And at the painted cloak and veil with yellow acanthus.
O especially ill-starred queen, doomed for future calamity,
To sate her mind she was not able and she burning yearned by staring,
O Phoenician Dido, equally was she moved by boy and gifts.
When the boy in the embrace of Æneas and from his father's neck hung,
And after he sated the great love of his pretended father,
To the queen he turned -- ah, with her eyes, with her whole heart
She clung to him, and by and by, in her lap kept him warm. O unknowing Dido,
What a god plots against thee, O wretched women! Then, mindful
Of his mother who bore the Acidalian Graces, the god to wipe away Sychaeus
Began, and started to o'erturn in favor of a now living love
Her long-since remaining memories and lingering heart.
When first was quiet, after the courses ended and the tables were taken away
Great craters they stand up and crown the rims with wine.
The sound fills the roofs, and voices crash about through the huge
Hall. Hanging from the golden ceiling panels are lamps
Aflame, and the night the tapers keep at bay with their flames.
Here the queen, weighed down by gems and gold, asked for --
And then filled high with unmixed wine -- her drinking bowl which Belus and all
From Belus' children used. Then all was silent under the roof:
"O Jove the Father, for o'er guests do the laws say thou art protector,
This happy day is for Tyrii and for those set out from Troy --
May'st thou will it be! And let our descendants remember this!
Let Bacchus be a granter of happiness, and good Juno,
And ye, O Tyrii, prefer and practice harmony!"
Spake she, and onto the table poured flowing honor for the gods,
And first, having poured libation, touched the skin of her lip to the edge,
And then to Bitias she gave it while crying aloud. And he, by this excited, drained
The foaming cup and drank his fill from the filled up gold --
Afterwards other princes took it. Long-haired Iopas doth
Strum a golden cithara, as greatest Atlas taught him.
He sings of the wandering of the moon and the sun's toils,
Whence came the race of Men and herds, whence the rainstorms and fire,
Of Arcturus, and the rainy Hyades, and twin Bears -- Triones,
Why so far to Ocean's bounds hasten the winter suns to touch,
And what delay holds fast to sluggish winter nights.
Redouble their applause do the Tyrii, and the Trojans follow suit.
And with various talk the night she did draw on,
She unlucky Dido, and drank deep of love,
Asking again and again much of Priamus, now much of Hector,
Now with what arms had come Aurora's son,
Now what horses Diomedes had, now how great was Achilles:
"Yea more! Come now! And tell, guest, from first beginning to us
The plots," saieth she, "of the Danaï, and thy disasters,
And thy wanderings. For now a seventh summer carries thee,
Wandering about all the lands and waves."
AENEIS - The Aeneid - 29 B.C. - 19 B.C.
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