Aeneid
Virgil
Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
- Now felt the Queen the sharp, slow-gathering pangs
- of love; and out of every pulsing vein
- nourished the wound and fed its viewless fire.
- Her hero's virtues and his lordly line
- keep calling to her soul; his words, his glance,
- cling to her heart like lingering, barbed steel,
- and rest and peace from her vexed body fly.
- A new day's dawn with Phoebus' lamp divine
- lit up all lands, and from the vaulted heaven
- Aurora had dispelled the dark and dew;
- when thus unto the ever-answering heart
- of her dear sister spoke the stricken Queen:
- “Anna, my sister, what disturbing dreams
- perplex me and alarm? What guest is this
- new-welcomed to our house? How proud his mien!
- What dauntless courage and exploits of war!
- Sooth, I receive it for no idle tale
- that of the gods he sprang. 'T is cowardice
- betrays the base-born soul. Ah me! How fate
- has smitten him with storms! What dire extremes
- of war and horror in his tale he told!
- O, were it not immutably resolved
- in my fixed heart, that to no shape of man
- I would be wed again (since my first love
- left me by death abandoned and betrayed);
- loathed I not so the marriage torch and train,
- I could—who knows?—to this one weakness yield.
- Anna, I hide it not! But since the doom
- of my ill-starred Sichaeus, when our shrines
- were by a brother's murder dabbled o'er,
- this man alone has moved me; he alone
- has shaken my weak will. I seem to feel
- the motions of love's lost, familiar fire.
- But may the earth gape open where I tread,
- and may almighty Jove with thunder-scourge
- hurl me to Erebus' abysmal shade,
- to pallid ghosts and midnight fathomless,
- before, O Chastity! I shall offend
- thy holy power, or cast thy bonds away!
- He who first mingled his dear life with mine
- took with him all my heart. 'T is his alone —
- o, let it rest beside him in the grave!”
- She spoke: the bursting tears her breast o'erflowed.
- “O dearer to thy sister than her life,”
- Anna replied, “wouldst thou in sorrow's weed
- waste thy long youth alone, nor ever know
- sweet babes at thine own breast, nor gifts of love?
- Will dust and ashes, or a buried ghost
- reck what we do? 'T is true thy grieving heart
- was cold to earlier wooers, Libya's now,
- and long ago in Tyre. Iarbas knew
- thy scorn, and many a prince and captain bred
- in Afric's land of glory. Why resist
- a love that makes thee glad? Hast thou no care
- what alien lands are these where thou dost reign?
- Here are Gaetulia's cities and her tribes
- unconquered ever; on thy borders rove
- Numidia's uncurbed cavalry; here too
- lies Syrtis' cruel shore, and regions wide
- of thirsty desert, menaced everywhere
- by the wild hordes of Barca. Shall I tell
- of Tyre's hostilities, the threats and rage
- of our own brother? Friendly gods, I bow,
- wafted the Teucrian ships, with Juno's aid,
- to these our shores. O sister, what a throne,
- and what imperial city shall be thine,
- if thus espoused! With Trojan arms allied
- how far may not our Punic fame extend
- in deeds of power? Call therefore on the gods
- to favor thee; and, after omens fair,
- give queenly welcome, and contrive excuse
- to make him tarry, while yon wintry seas
- are loud beneath Orion's stormful star,
- and on his battered ships the season frowns.”
- So saying, she stirred a passion-burning breast
- to Iove more madly still; her words infused
- a doubting mind with hope, and bade the blush
- of shame begone. First to the shrines they went
- and sued for grace; performing sacrifice,
- choosing an offering of unblemished ewes,
- to law-bestowing Ceres, to the god
- of light, to sire Lyeus, Iord of wine;
- but chiefly unto Juno, patroness
- of nuptial vows. There Dido, beauteous Queen
- held forth in her right hand the sacred bowl
- and poured it full between the lifted horns
- of the white heifer; or on temple floors
- she strode among the richly laden shrines,
- the eyes of gods upon her, worshipping
- with many a votive gift; or, peering deep
- into the victims' cloven sides, she read
- the fate-revealing tokens trembling there.
- How blind the hearts of prophets be! Alas!
- Of what avail be temples and fond prayers
- to change a frenzied mind? Devouring ever,
- love's fire burns inward to her bones; she feels
- quick in her breast the viewless, voiceless wound.
- Ill-fated Dido ranges up and down
- the spaces of her city, desperate
- her life one flame—like arrow-stricken doe
- through Cretan forest rashly wandering,
- pierced by a far-off shepherd, who pursues
- with shafts, and leaves behind his light-winged steed,
- not knowing; while she scours the dark ravines
- of Dicte and its woodlands; at her heart
- the mortal barb irrevocably clings.
- around her city's battlements she guides
- aeneas, to make show of Sidon's gold,
- and what her realm can boast; full oft her voice
- essays to speak and frembling dies away:
- or, when the daylight fades, she spreads anew
- a royal banquet, and once more will plead
- mad that she is, to hear the Trojan sorrow;
- and with oblivious ravishment once more
- hangs on his lips who tells; or when her guests
- are scattered, and the wan moon's fading horn
- bedims its ray, while many a sinking star
- invites to slumber, there she weeps alone
- in the deserted hall, and casts her down
- on the cold couch he pressed. Her love from far
- beholds her vanished hero and receives
- his voice upon her ears; or to her breast,
- moved by a father's image in his child,
- she clasps Ascanius, seeking to deceive
- her unblest passion so. Her enterprise
- of tower and rampart stops: her martial host
- no Ionger she reviews, nor fashions now
- defensive haven and defiant wall;
- but idly all her half-built bastions frown,
- and enginery of sieges, high as heaven.
- But soon the chosen spouse of Jove perceived
- the Queen's infection; and because the voice
- of honor to such frenzy spoke not, she,
- daughter of Saturn, unto Venus turned
- and counselled thus: “How noble is the praise,
- how glorious the spoils of victory,
- for thee and for thy boy! Your names should be
- in lasting, vast renown—that by the snare
- of two great gods in league one woman fell!
- it 'scapes me not that my protected realms
- have ever been thy fear, and the proud halls
- of Carthage thy vexation and annoy.
- Why further go? Prithee, what useful end
- has our long war? Why not from this day forth
- perpetual peace and nuptial amity?
- Hast thou not worked thy will? Behold and see
- how Iove-sick Dido burns, and all her flesh
- 'The madness feels! So let our common grace
- smile on a mingled people! Let her serve
- a Phrygian husband, while thy hands receive
- her Tyrian subjects for the bridal dower!”
- In answer (reading the dissembler's mind
- which unto Libyan shores were fain to shift
- italia's future throne) thus Venus spoke:
- “'T were mad to spurn such favor, or by choice
- be numbered with thy foes. But can it be
- that fortune on thy noble counsel smiles?
- To me Fate shows but dimly whether Jove
- unto the Trojan wanderers ordains
- a common city with the sons of Tyre,
- with mingling blood and sworn, perpetual peace.
- His wife thou art; it is thy rightful due
- to plead to know his mind. Go, ask him, then!
- For humbly I obey!” With instant word
- Juno the Queen replied: “Leave that to me!
- But in what wise our urgent task and grave
- may soon be sped, I will in brief unfold
- to thine attending ear. A royal hunt
- in sylvan shades unhappy Dido gives
- for her Aeneas, when to-morrow's dawn
- uplifts its earliest ray and Titan's beam
- shall first unveil the world. But I will pour
- black storm-clouds with a burst of heavy hail
- along their way; and as the huntsmen speed
- to hem the wood with snares, I will arouse
- all heaven with thunder. The attending train
- shall scatter and be veiled in blinding dark,
- while Dido and her hero out of Troy
- to the same cavern fly. My auspices
- I will declare—if thou alike wilt bless;
- and yield her in true wedlock for his bride.
- Such shall their spousal be!” To Juno's will
- Cythera's Queen inclined assenting brow,
- and laughed such guile to see. Aurora rose,
- and left the ocean's rim. The city's gates
- pour forth to greet the morn a gallant train
- of huntsmen, bearing many a woven snare
- and steel-tipped javelin; while to and fro
- run the keen-scented dogs and Libyan squires.
- The Queen still keeps her chamber; at her doors
- the Punic lords await; her palfrey, brave
- in gold and purple housing, paws the ground
- and fiercely champs the foam-flecked bridle-rein.
- At last, with numerous escort, forth she shines:
- her Tyrian pall is bordered in bright hues,
- her quiver, gold; her tresses are confined
- only with gold; her robes of purple rare
- meet in a golden clasp. To greet her come
- the noble Phrygian guests; among them smiles
- the boy Iulus; and in fair array
- Aeneas, goodliest of all his train.
- In such a guise Apollo (when he leaves
- cold Lycian hills and Xanthus' frosty stream
- to visit Delos to Latona dear)
- ordains the song, while round his altars cry
- the choirs of many islands, with the pied,
- fantastic Agathyrsi; soon the god
- moves o'er the Cynthian steep; his flowing hair
- he binds with laurel garland and bright gold;
- upon his shining shoulder as he goes
- the arrows ring:—not less uplifted mien
- aeneas wore; from his illustrious brow
- such beauty shone. Soon to the mountains tall
- the cavalcade comes nigh, to pathless haunts
- of woodland creatures; the wild goats are seen,
- from pointed crag descending leap by leap
- down the steep ridges; in the vales below
- are routed deer, that scour the spreading plain,
- and mass their dust-blown squadrons in wild flight,
- far from the mountain's bound. Ascanius
- flushed with the sport, spurs on a mettled steed
- from vale to vale, and many a flying herd
- his chase outspeeds; but in his heart he prays
- among these tame things suddenly to see
- a tusky boar, or, leaping from the hills,
- a growling mountain-lion, golden-maned.
- Meanwhile low thunders in the distant sky
- mutter confusedly; soon bursts in full
- the storm-cloud and the hail. The Tyrian troop
- is scattered wide; the chivalry of Troy,
- with the young heir of Dardan's kingly line,
- of Venus sprung, seek shelter where they may,
- with sudden terror; down the deep ravines
- the swollen torrents roar. In that same hour
- Queen Dido and her hero out of Troy
- to the same cavern fly. Old Mother-Earth
- and wedlock-keeping Juno gave the sign;
- the flash of lightnings on the conscious air
- were torches to the bridal; from the hills
- the wailing wood-nymphs sobbed a wedding song.
- Such was that day of death, the source and spring
- of many a woe. For Dido took no heed
- of honor and good-name; nor did she mean
- her loves to hide; but called the lawlessness
- a marriage, and with phrases veiled her shame.
- Swift through the Libyan cities Rumor sped.
- Rumor! What evil can surpass her speed?
- In movement she grows mighty, and achieves
- strength and dominion as she swifter flies.
- small first, because afraid, she soon exalts
- her stature skyward, stalking through the lands
- and mantling in the clouds her baleful brow.
- The womb of Earth, in anger at high Heaven,
- bore her, they say, last of the Titan spawn,
- sister to Coeus and Enceladus.
- Feet swift to run and pinions like the wind
- the dreadful monster wears; her carcase huge
- is feathered, and at root of every plume
- a peering eye abides; and, strange to tell,
- an equal number of vociferous tongues,
- foul, whispering lips, and ears, that catch at all.
- At night she spreads midway 'twixt earth and heaven
- her pinions in the darkness, hissing loud,
- nor e'er to happy slumber gives her eyes:
- but with the morn she takes her watchful throne
- high on the housetops or on lofty towers,
- to terrify the nations. She can cling
- to vile invention and malignant wrong,
- or mingle with her word some tidings true.
- She now with changeful story filled men's ears,
- exultant, whether false or true she sung:
- how, Trojan-born Aeneas having come,
- Dido, the lovely widow, Iooked his way,
- deigning to wed; how all the winter long
- they passed in revel and voluptuous ease,
- to dalliance given o'er; naught heeding now
- of crown or kingdom—shameless! lust-enslaved!
- Such tidings broadcast on the lips of men
- the filthy goddess spread; and soon she hied
- to King Iarbas, where her hateful song
- to newly-swollen wrath his heart inflamed.