Aeneid
- 1.272.401
be barred impregnably; and prisoned there
- 1.272.402
the heaven-offending Fury, throned on swords,
- 1.272.403
and fettered by a hundred brazen chains,
- 1.272.404
shall belch vain curses from his lips of gore.”
- 1.297.405
These words he gave, and summoned Maia's son,
- 1.297.406
the herald Mercury, who earthward flying,
- 1.297.407
should bid the Tyrian realms and new-built towers
- 1.297.408
welcome the Trojan waifs; lest Dido, blind
- 1.297.409
to Fate's decree, should thrust them from the land.
- 1.297.410
He takes his flight, with rhythmic stroke of wing,
- 1.297.411
across th' abyss of air, and soon draws near
- 1.297.412
unto the Libyan mainland. He fulfils
- 1.297.413
his heavenly task; the Punic hearts of stone
- 1.297.414
grow soft beneath the effluence divine;
- 1.297.415
and, most of all, the Queen, with heart at ease
- 1.297.416
awaits benignantly her guests from Troy.
- 1.305.417
But good Aeneas, pondering all night long
- 1.305.418
his many cares, when first the cheerful dawn
- 1.305.419
upon him broke, resolved to take survey
- 1.305.420
of this strange country whither wind and wave
- 1.305.421
had driven him,—for desert land it seemed,—
- 1.305.422
to learn what tribes of man or beast possess
- 1.305.423
a place so wild, and careful tidings bring
- 1.305.424
back to his friends. His fleet of ships the while,
- 1.305.425
where dense, dark groves o'er-arch a hollowed crag,
- 1.305.426
he left encircled in far-branching shade.
- 1.305.427
Then with no followers save his trusty friend
- 1.305.428
Achates, he went forth upon his way,
- 1.305.429
two broad-tipped javelins poising in his hand.
- 1.305.430
Deep to the midmost wood he went, and there
- 1.305.431
his Mother in his path uprose; she seemed
- 1.305.432
in garb and countenance a maid, and bore,
- 1.305.433
like Spartan maids, a weapon; in such guise
- 1.305.434
Harpalyce the Thracian urges on
- 1.305.435
her panting coursers and in wild career
- 1.305.436
outstrips impetuous Hebrus as it flows.
- 1.305.437
Over her lovely shoulders was a bow,
- 1.305.438
slender and light, as fits a huntress fair;
- 1.305.439
her golden tresses without wimple moved
- 1.305.440
in every wind, and girded in a knot
- 1.305.441
her undulant vesture bared her marble knees.
- 1.305.442
She hailed them thus: “Ho, sirs, I pray you tell
- 1.305.443
if haply ye have noted, as ye came,
- 1.305.444
one of my sisters in this wood astray?
- 1.305.445
She bore a quiver, and a lynx's hide
- 1.305.446
her spotted mantle was; perchance she roused
- 1.305.447
some foaming boar, and chased with loud halloo.”
- 1.325.448
So Venus spoke, and Venus' son replied:
- 1.325.449
“No voice or vision of thy sister fair
- 1.325.450
has crossed my path, thou maid without a name!
- 1.325.451
Thy beauty seems not of terrestrial mould,
- 1.325.452
nor is thy music mortal! Tell me, goddess,
- 1.325.453
art thou bright Phoebus' sister? Or some nymph,
- 1.325.454
the daughter of a god? Whate'er thou art,
- 1.325.455
thy favor we implore, and potent aid
- 1.325.456
in our vast toil. Instruct us of what skies,
- 1.325.457
or what world's end, our storm-swept lives have found!
- 1.325.458
Strange are these lands and people where we rove,
- 1.325.459
compelled by wind and wave. Lo, this right hand
- 1.325.460
shall many a victim on thine altar slay!”
- 1.335.461
Then Venus: “Nay, I boast not to receive
- 1.335.462
honors divine. We Tyrian virgins oft
- 1.335.463
bear bow and quiver, and our ankles white
- 1.335.464
lace up in purple buskin. Yonder lies
- 1.335.465
the Punic power, where Tyrian masters hold
- 1.335.466
Agenor's town; but on its borders dwell
- 1.335.467
the Libyans, by battles unsubdued.
- 1.335.468
Upon the throne is Dido, exiled there
- 1.335.469
from Tyre, to flee th' unnatural enmity
- 1.335.470
of her own brother. 'T was an ancient wrong;
- 1.335.471
too Iong the dark and tangled tale would be;
- 1.335.472
I trace the larger outline of her story:
- 1.335.473
Sichreus was her spouse, whose acres broad
- 1.335.474
no Tyrian lord could match, and he was-blessed
- 1.335.475
by his ill-fated lady's fondest love,
- 1.335.476
whose father gave him her first virgin bloom
- 1.335.477
in youthful marriage. But the kingly power
- 1.335.478
among the Tyrians to her brother came,
- 1.335.479
Pygmalion, none deeper dyed in crime
- 1.335.480
in all that land. Betwixt these twain there rose
- 1.335.481
a deadly hatred,—and the impious wretch,
- 1.335.482
blinded by greed, and reckless utterly
- 1.335.483
of his fond sister's joy, did murder foul
- 1.335.484
upon defenceless and unarmed Sichaeus,
- 1.335.485
and at the very altar hewed him down.
- 1.335.486
Long did he hide the deed, and guilefully
- 1.335.487
deceived with false hopes, and empty words,
- 1.335.488
her grief and stricken love. But as she slept,
- 1.335.489
her husband's tombless ghost before her came,
- 1.335.490
with face all wondrous pale, and he laid bare
- 1.335.491
his heart with dagger pierced, disclosing so
- 1.335.492
the blood-stained altar and the infamy
- 1.335.493
that darkened now their house. His counsel was
- 1.335.494
to fly, self-banished, from her ruined land,
- 1.335.495
and for her journey's aid, he whispered where
- 1.335.496
his buried treasure lay, a weight unknown
- 1.335.497
of silver and of gold. Thus onward urged,
- 1.335.498
Dido, assembling her few trusted friends,
- 1.335.499
prepared her flight. There rallied to her cause
- 1.335.500
all who did hate and scorn the tyrant king,
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