Authors: Virgil
210 His men went briskly to work preparing the coming feast.
They flayed the hide off the ribs and exposed the flesh. Some cut
it into quivering slices and speared it on spits. Others laid out
cauldrons of water on the shore and lit fires. Then at last they
ate, and recovered their strength, lying on the grass and taking
their fill of old wine and rich venison. When their hunger was
satisfied and the remains of the feast removed, they talked at
length about their missing comrades, not knowing whether to
hope or fear, wondering whether they were still alive or whether
at that very moment they were drawing their last breath and
220 beyond all calling. Most of all did Aeneas, who loved his men,
mourn to himself the loss of eager Orontes and Amycus and the
cruel death of Lycus, then brave Gyas, and brave Cloanthus.
Now the feast was ended and Jupiter was looking down from
the height of heaven on the sea flying with sails and the land far
beneath him, on the shores of the seas and the far-spread
peoples, when suddenly he stopped in his survey at the highest
point of the sky and fixed his eyes upon the kingdom of Libya.
Even as he was turning over in his mind all the suffering that he
saw, his daughter Venus came to him, her shining eyes brimming
230 with tears, and spoke with a sadness greater than his own: ‘You
who rule the affairs of gods and men with your eternal law and
at whose lightning we are all afraid, what great harm has my
son Aeneas been able to do to you? What crime have the Trojans
committed that they should suffer all this loss of life and the
whole world be closed to them for the sake of Italy? Did you
not promise that with the rolling years there would come a time
when from this stock the Romans would arise? From this blood
of Teucer, recalled to Italian soil, there would come leaders of
men who would hold power over every land and sea. O father,
father, has some argument changed your mind? As for me, I
used to console myself with this for the cruel fall and sack of
240 Troy, by weighing one destiny against another. But unrelieved
misfortune is now hounding these men from disaster to disaster.
O great king, what end do you set to their labours? The Greeks
were all around Antenor, but he escaped them, made his way
safely into the Illyrian Gulf and the heartlands of the kingdom
of the Liburnians, and then went beyond the mouth of the
Timavus. From there with a great roar from inside the mountain,
a sea of water bursts out of nine mouths and covers the fields
with a sounding ocean. But in this place he founded the city of
Patavium as a home for his Trojans and gave them a name.
There he dedicated the arms with which he fought at Troy and
250 there he now lives in settled peace and quiet. But as for us, your
own children, to whom you grant a place in the citadel of
heaven, we lose our ships. It is unspeakable. We are betrayed
and kept far away from the shores of Italy because there is one
who hates us. Is this our reward for piety and obedience? Is this
how you bring us to our kingdom?’
The Father of Gods and Men, looking at his daughter with
the smile that clears the sky and dispels the storms, kissed her
lightly on the lips, and said: ‘Spare yourself these fears, my
lady from Cythera. You can be sure that the destiny of your
descendants remains unchanged. You will see the city of Lavinium
260 and its promised walls. You will take great-hearted Aeneas
up to the stars of heaven. No argument changes my mind. But
now, since this anxiety is gnawing at you, I shall tell you more,
unrolling for you the secrets of the scroll of the Fates. He will
wage a great war in Italy and crush its fierce tribes. He will build
walls for his people and establish their way of life, until a third
summer has seen him reigning in Latium and a third winter has
passed after the subjection of the Rutulians. But the reign of his
son Ascanius, who now receives the second name Iulus (it was
Ilus while the kingdom of Ilium still stood), shall last while the
270 months of thirty long years revolve, and he shall transfer his
kingdom from its seat at Lavinium and build a city with powerful
fortifications at Alba Longa. Here the rule of the race of
Hector will last for three hundred long years until Ilia the
priestess queen, heavy with the seed of Mars, shall give birth to
twin sons. Then Romulus shall receive the people, wearing with
joy the tawny hide of the wolf which nursed him. The walls he
builds will be the walls of Mars and he shall give his own name
to his people, the Romans. On them I impose no limits of time
or place. I have given them an empire that will know no end.
280 Even angry Juno, who is now wearying sea and land and sky
with her terrors, will come to better counsel and join with me
in cherishing the people of Rome, the rulers of the world, the
race that wears the toga. So it has been decreed. There will come
a day, as the years glide by, when the house of Assaracus will
reduce Achilles’ Pthia and glorious Mycenae to slavery and will
conquer and rule the city of Argos. From this noble stock there
will be born a Trojan Caesar to bound his empire by Oceanus
at the limits of the world, and his fame by the stars. He will be
called Julius, a name passed down to him from the great Iulus.
290 In time to come, have no fear, you will receive him in the sky,
laden with the spoils of the East. He too will be called upon in
prayer. Then wars will be laid aside and the years of bitterness
will be over. Silver-haired Truth and Vesta, and Romulus Quirinus
with his brother Remus, will sit dispensing justice. The
dread Gates of War with their tight fastenings of steel will then
be closed, and godless Strife will sit inside them on his murderous
armour roaring hideously from bloody mouth, hands shackled
behind his back with a hundred bands of bronze.’
So spoke Jupiter, and he sent down Mercury, the son of Maia,
to make the lands and the citadel of the new city of Carthage
hospitable to the Trojans, in case Dido, in her ignorance of
300 destiny, should bar her country to them. Through the great
expanse of air he flew, wielding his wings like oars, and soon
alighted on the shores of Libya. There he lost no time in carrying
out the commands of Jupiter, and in accordance with the divine
will the Carthaginians laid aside their fiery temper. Most of all
the queen took into her heart a feeling of quiet and kindness
towards the Trojans.
But all that night the dutiful Aeneas was turning many things
over in his mind. As soon as life-giving morning came, he decided
to go out and explore this new land and bring back to his men
a true account of the shores to which the winds had driven him,
and the beasts and men who lived there, if there were any men,
310 for he saw no signs of cultivation. So, leaving his ships hidden
in the wooded cove under the overhanging rocks, and shut in
on every side by trees and quivering shade, he set out alone with
Achates, gripping two broad-bladed steel spears in his hand. As
he walked through the middle of the wood, his mother came to
meet him looking like a Spartan girl out hunting, wearing the
dress of a Spartan girl and carrying her weapons, or like the
Thracian Harpalyce, as she wearies horses with her running and
outstrips the swift current of the river Hebrus. She had a light
bow hanging from her shoulders in hunting style, her hair was
320 unbound and streaming in the wind and her flowing dress was
caught up above the knee. ‘Hey there, soldiers,’ she called out
to them, ‘do you happen to have seen one of my sisters wandering
about here or in full cry after the foaming boar? She was
wearing a spotted lynx skin and had a quiver hanging from
her belt.’
So spoke Venus, and Venus’ son so began his reply: ‘I have
neither seen nor heard any of your sisters. But how am I to
address a girl like you? Your face is not the face of a mortal,
and you do not speak like a human being. Surely you must be a
goddess? Are you Diana, sister of Apollo? Are you one of the
330 sister nymphs? Be gracious to us, whoever you may be, and
lighten our distress. Tell us what sky this is we find ourselves at
last beneath. What shore of the world is this on which we now
wander, tossed here by the fury of wind and wave? We do not
know the place. We do not know the people. Tell us and many
a victim will fall by my right hand before your altars.’
Venus replied: ‘I am sure I deserve no such honour. Tyrian
girls all carry the quiver and wear purple boots with this high
ankle binding. This is a Phoenician kingdom you are looking at.
We are Tyrians. This is the city of the people of Agenor, but the
land belongs to the Libyans, a race not easy to handle in war.
340 Dido, who came from the city of Tyre to escape her brother,
holds sway here. There was a crime long ago. It is a long and
winding story, but I shall trace its outlines for you. Her father
had given her in marriage to Sychaeus, the wealthiest of the
Phoenicians. They were joined with all the due rites of a first
marriage and great was the love the poor queen bore for him.
But the kingdom of Tyre was ruled by her brother Pygmalion,
the vilest of criminals. A mad passion came between the two
men. In blind lust for his gold the godless Pygmalion attacked
350 him without warning, ambushing him at the altar. With no
thought for his sister’s love he killed Sychaeus and for a long
time concealed what he had done. Dido was sick with love and
he deceived her with false hopes and empty pretences. But one
night there appeared to her in a dream the very ghost of her
unburied husband. He lifted up his face, pale with the strange
pallor of the dead, and, baring the sword wounds on his breast,
he pointed to the altar where he had been killed and revealed
the whole horror of the crime that had been hidden in their
house. He then urged her to escape with all speed from their
native land, and to help her on her wanderings he showed
her where to find an ancient treasure buried in the earth, an
360 incalculable weight of silver and gold. This moved Dido to plan
her escape and gather followers, men driven by savage hatred
or lively fear of the tyrant. They seized some ships which happened
to be ready for sea. They loaded them with the gold and
sailed away with the wealth Pygmalion had coveted. The woman
led the whole undertaking. When they arrived at the place where
you will now see the great walls and rising citadel of the new
city of Carthage, they bought a piece of land called the “Byrsa”,
the animal’s hide, as large an area as they could include within
the hide of a bull. But now tell me, who are you? What country
370 have you sailed from? Where are you making for?’
In reply to her questions Aeneas drew a great sigh from the
bottom of his heart and said: ‘O goddess, if I were to start at the
beginning and retrace our whole story, and if you had the time
to listen to the annals of our suffering, before I finish the doors
of Olympus would close and the Evening Star would lay the day
to rest. We come from the ancient city of Troy, if the name of
Troy has ever reached your ears. We have sailed many seas and
by the chance of the winds we have been driven ashore here in
Libya. I am Aeneas, known for my devotion. I carry with me on
my ships the gods of my home, the Penates, wrested from my
enemies, and my fame has reached beyond the skies. I am
380 searching for my fatherland in Italy. My descent is from highest
Jupiter. With my goddess mother to show the way, I embarked
upon the Phrygian sea with twenty ships, following the destiny
which had been given to me, and now a bare seven of them
remain, and these torn to pieces by wind and wave. I am a
helpless stranger, driven out of Europe and out of Asia, tramping
the desert wastes of Libya.’