Introduction
I'm currently taking my fifth year of Latin and although it's listed simply as "LATIN V" on my course schedule, it is an AP course in form. And since it is AP Latin in form, I have been given the task of translating the Aeneid of Vergil. Obviously it's not going to be a translation you would find in the Bantam Classics publication. It is mine and mine own, and so there will most likely be faults.
The Translation
. B O O K . O N E .
(lines 1-519)
I sing of wars and a man who first from the shores of Troy, having been exiled by fate to Italy, and came to the shores of Lavinium he, having been thrown much both on land and on the sea by the force of the gods above, on account of the mindful anger of cruel Juno, and also having endured many things in war as well, until he established a city and brought into Latium the gods, from whom sprang the Latin race, the fathers of Alba Longa, and the mighty walls of Rome.
Muse, relate to me reasons, what
divine power of hers having been offended, or grieving what, to drive the
queen
of the gods to force a man distinguished
by devotion to duty, to undergo so many disasters and so many labors.
There was an ancient city (that Tyrian
colonists inhabited), Carthage, far away facing Italy and the mouth of
the Tiber, rich in resources, merciless in its passion for wars, and Juno
is said to worship it more than all the rest of the lands alone, holding
even Samos in less regard: here were her weapons, here was her chariot;
here the goddess, if in any way permitted by the Fates, even then both
aimed and fondly hoped that this kingdom would be for her people. But indeed
Juno had heard a race was springing up from Trojan blood that was to overthrow
the Carthaginians in time to come; from here a people was about to come
ruling in war for the destruction of Libya: thus Juno had heard the Fates
unrolled their scroll. Afraid of the destruction of Carthage and world
domination by Rome, Juno, mindful of the Trojan war she had been first
to wage at Troy for her dear Greeks (not even now the causes of her anger
and fierce grief had fallen from her mind: the judgment of Paris remains
deep in her mind, replaced by the insult to her slighted beauty, and the
hated race, and Ganymede snatched up with honors), enraged by these besides,
the remnants of the Greeks and of ruthless Achilles, she was striving to
keep off the Trojans buffeted on the whole sea far from Latium, and they
were wandering through many years, driven on by
the Fates, around all the seas.
Of so great a task was to build the Roman race.
Scarcely out of sight of the land of Sicily, they were happy, spreading their sails, and were ploughing up foam of the sea in the air, when Juno, saving the eternal wound deep in her heart, said to herself, "Am I defeated to abandon my purpose, and not to be able to avert the king of the Trojans from Italy? To be sure, I am forbidden by the Fates. Is Pallas to burn up the fleets of the Greeks, and the Greeks themselves, to sink into the sea, and on account of the crime and madness of one Ajax of Oileus? She, having quickly hurled the fire of Jupiter from the clouds, and scattered and overturned the ships by the winds and snatched him breathing out flames from his pierced breast, by a whirlwind, and thrust him into a pointed rock. But I, queen of the gods who walk, and both sister and wife of Jupiter, and together with the Trojans I have been many years waging wars. And anyone worships the divine will of the Juno still, or places an offering on altars as a suppliant?"
The goddess, meditating on such things
in her inflamed heart, came to Aeolia, in thefatherland of storm clouds,
a place teeming with raging winds. Here King Aeolus, in a vast cavern,
controls struggling, howling winds and storms, and curbs them with commands,
fetters, and prison. They, chafing, with a great crash, roar around the
barriers of the mountain; in his
lofty citadel sat Aeolus, holding his sceptre, and soothing passions and
calming angers. Unless Aeolus soothes the passions of the winds and calms
their tempers, the seas and and the land and the boundless sky they
winds will surely rapidly sweep. But Jupiter hid these winds in caves,
fearing this, and placed upon them high masses and mountains, and gave
Aeolus, who under definite agreement knows to let both
loose and to oppress when ordered.
Then to him Juno, suppliant, used these words:
"Aeolus, for indeed to you the father of gods and king of men gave both to calm and to raise waves by winds. My enemy race sails the Tyrrhenian Sea, carrying Troy and defeated household gods to Italy, strike into and overwhelm the ships with the force of the winds, and drive them in different directions and scatter their bodies over the sea. I have fourteen nymphs of surpassing loveliness, of whom the most beautiful in form is Deiopeia, and I shall dedicate her as your own in lasting wedlock, passing so many years with you for all your services, and be made the father of beautiful children."
Aeolus against this said, "Yours is the task to determine, O queen, what you desire; it is my duty to perform your orders. Whatever powers of Jove and this kingdom you win for me, you grant me the right to recline at the banquets of the gods, and you make for me the power of the storm clouds and tempests."
When this was said, with a turned spear, he struck the hollow mountain on the side; and the winds, like an assailing column, where passage was given, burst forth and blow through the lands with whirlwinds. They have fallen upon the seas and burst forth on the whole sea from the lowests seats together with the east wind and the south wind the southwest wind overturned with frequent gusts of wind, and rolled large waves toward the shores; shouting of men and the creaking of ropes follow.
Suddenly the clouds snatch away the
sky and daylight from the eyes of the Trojans; dark night broods over the
sea. The heavens thundered and the air quivers with frequent lightning,
and everything threatens instant death to the Trojans. Straightway the
limbs of Aeneas are rendered powerless by the chill of terror; he groans,
and, stretchingboth hands to the stars, utters such words with his voice:
"O three and four times blessed ones (to) whom happened to meet death before
the eyes of their fathers at Troy, below the high walls! O Diomedes, strongest
of the race of the Greeks! To think that I could not have fallen on the
Ilian Plains and to die by your right hand, where fierce Hector lies prostate
when struck by the spear of Achilles, where huge Sarpedon lies, when the
river Simois rolls over so many shields and helmets of heroes and the strong
bodies swept away under
its waves."
As Aeneas uttered such words howling
a blast in front by the North Wind strikes the sail and raises waves to
the
stars: the oars are broken; then
the prow swings around and the side gives to the waves; a mountain of water
presses upon the broken side in a heap. Some hang on the tip of the wave,
to others the yawning wave opens land between the waves; the seething flood
rages with the sands. The South Wind seizes and hurls three ships hidden
on rocks (they of Italus call the rocks in the middle of the waves
the Altars, a vast ridge on the surface of the sea), the East Wind drives
three ships from the deep to the shallows and sand bars (piteous to behold)
and dashes them against the shoals and also encircle an embankment of sand.
One ship, which faithful Orontes sails, before the eyes of the leader himself,
a huge wave from high above strikes into the ship: but three times the
wave whirls driving her around and the greedy whirlpool devours her on
the sea; men scattered here and there appear in the vast whirlpool, weapons
of men and boards, and Trojan treasure swimming through the waves.
Now the strong ship of Ilioneus,
now the ship of brave Achates, and that ship by which sailed Abas, and
that which aged Aletes sailed; the storm conquers; with loosened joints
and sides of all the ships take enemy rain, and splits with cracks.
Meanwhile Neptune notices that the
sea is disturbed by a great murmur and a storm has been sent forth, and
that
the still waters had been poured
back from their lowest depths, greatly disturbed, and, looking out over
the sea, raises the calm head from the crest of the waves. He sees the
fleet of Aeneas scattered over the whole sea, Trojans overwhelmed by the
waves and by the fall of the sky; and the wiles and angers of Juno were
not hidden from her brother. He calls to him the East Wind and the West
Wind, then speaks such words: "Did great confidence of your race hold you?
Now, without my divine will, winds, you dare to stir up land and sky and
to raise such mountains of waves? Whom I -- but it is better to calm the
stirred waves. Hereafter you will atone for it by no similar punishment
for me. Hasten your flight, and say this to your king: not to you was given
by lot the command of the sea and the fierce trident, but to me. He possesses
that immense rock, your dwelling, Eurus; Aeolus may throw himself in that
court and may rule with closed prison of the winds."
Speaking thus, and more quickly than
the word he calms the swollen sea, and the clouds, having been collected,
lead back to the sun and flee. At
the same time Cymothoe and Triton pushing dislodges the ships from the
pointed rock; raises it with the trident, and opens the vast sand bars
and calms the sea, and also glides over the tops
of the waves with the light wheels
of his chariot. But just as often happens when a people in great strife
rose up
and the base mob rages with passion,
and presently firebrands and rocks fly (rage serves the weapons) when if
by chance they catch sight of a
venerable man with his piety and services they are silent and stand by
with listening ears; he rules words and minds and calms hearts; thus the
noise subsided the whole of the sea; after the father, looking out on the
sea and riding under a clear sky he guides the horses, and flying gives
the reins to the smoothly gliding chariot.
The tired companions of Aeneas who
are nearest to the course hasten to seek the shores, and turn themselves
to the coasts of Libya. There is a place in a long inlet: the island by
the projectionof its sides makes a harbor, by which every wave from the
deep sea is broken and divides itself into drawn back curves. On this side
and that vast crags and twin cliffs threaten into the sky, the sea secure
all around below the vertices of which; then in the background are woods
waving from above, a bristling shade overhangs a dark grove. Under the
opposite cliff a
cave of overhanging rocks, within
sweet waters, and seats of overhanging rocks, the home of the nymphs. Here
no fetters hold the tired ships, the anchor does not bind with a hooked
fluke. Aeneas enters seven out of the number of all the collected ships,
and, disembarking with great love of the earth, the Trojans take possession
of the longed-for sand, and place their limbs soaked with salt water on
the shore. And Achates first strikes a spark
from the flint, and caught fire
with the leaves, and also gave around dry fuel, and kindled a flame with
dry tinder. Then they bring out implements of Ceres and grain, damaged
by the waves, weary of their trials, and prepare to parch the grain that
was saved with the flames and break it with a rock.
Aeneas meanwhile climbs the rock, and surveys all the view far and wide to the sea, if he sees Antheus who was thrown by the winds and Phrygian biremes, or Capys, or the weapons in the lofty ships of Caicus. No ship in sight, he beholds three wandering deer; these following at the rear of whole herds, and are grazing in a long train through the valleys. Aeneas stops here, and snatched up his bow and swift arrows with his hand, the spear which faithful Achates bears, and killing the leaders first with their high heads, lays low below the branching horns, then the herd, and disorders the mob through the leafy groves driving weapons, and does not stop before he prostrates seven massive bodies on the ground as victor, and keeps pace with the number of ships. After this he seeks the harbor and divides the deer among all the men.
Then he divides the casks of wine which good Acestes had loaded at the shores of Sicily, and the hero had given to them departing, and he calms sad hearts with these words: "O companions, before now we have not been unaware of evils, O you who have suffered heavier things, some god will give an end to this also. You have approached the madness of Scylla sounding within the rocks, you have experienced the rocks of the Cyclops; resume your minds, and dismiss your sorrowful fear; perhaps one day it will please you to remember these things. Through different perils, through so many perilous fortunes, we go to Latium, where the Fates show our quiet habitations; there it is the divine will for the kingdom of Troy to rise again. Endure, and save yourselves for happier days."
He [Aeneas] utters such things with his voice, and although sick at heart from massive cares, feigns hope with his face, oppresses sadness deep in his heart. The men gird themselves for their prey and for their future feast: they tear away the hides from the ribs and strip the flesh; some cut it into quivering pieces and fasten with spits, others look for bronze vessels on the shore, and supply the flames. They they recruit (call back) their strength with food, and stretched out on the grass they fill themselves with fat venison and wine. After hungers were taken away by the feast and the tables were removed, they seek for their long-lost companions with long conversation, and wavering between hope and fear, whether to think that their companions endured death and when invoked no longer hear from afar. Devoted Aeneas sighs especially now for spirited Orontes, now he groans the fate of Amycus, and (with himself) the cruel fates of Lycus, and strong Gyas, and brave Cloanthus.
And now was the end, when Jupiter,
surveying the sea (ships) from on high winged with sails, and low-lying
lands and shores, and widespread nations thus on the summit of the sky
he settled, and fixed his eyes on the kingdoms of Libya. And Venus, sadder
and her shining eyes suffused with tears, addresses him pondering such
cares in his
heart: "O you who, with eternal
rule, frighten by thunderbolt and direct commands, what offense so great
was my Aeneas able to commit against you, and what Trojans having suffered
so many disasters the whole world is shut out for the sake of Italy? Certainly
you promised that one day, as the years roll by, the Roman leaders would
be from the restored race of Teucer, who shall hold the sea, the lands
by every sway. What idea changes you,
father? Indeed with this hope I
tried to console myself for the fall of Troy and the sad ruins, compensating
adverse fates with fates; now the same fate pursues the men driven by so
many misfortunes. Great king, to whom you give the end of hardships? Antenor
was able, having escaped from the midst of Greeks, to enter the
bays of Illyria, and safely the
realms of the Illyrians and to pass beyond the fountain of Timavus, from
there through nine mouths it goes as a dashing sea with loud mountain-roar,
and overwhelms the fields with its sounding tide. Here, however, he located
the city of Patavium and habitations of the Teucrians, and gave a name
to the race and hung up the arms of Troy, now he rests peaceful, calm,
undisturbed; we, your descendant, to whom you promised a citadel in heaven,
the ships having been lost (O wrong unspeakable!), we are betrayed by the
anger of Juno, and separated far from the shores of Italy. Is this how
you reward duty? Thus, is this how you return us to power?"
Smiling at her with his face, the
father of men and gods who calms the sky and the tempests lightly kissed
his daughter on the lips, then uttered such words: "Cease to fear, Cytherea:
the fates of your children remain unchanged; you will see the city and
the promised walls of Lavinium, and you will bear aloft to the stars in
the sky the great-souled Aeneas, and no idea changes me. This for you (for
I shall declare, when this anxiety troubles you, further and I shall disclose
the unrolling secrets of the Fates) he will wage a huge war in Italy, and
he will crush the fierce, warlike people, and will establish laws for men
and will build walls, ruling in Latium until he will have seen three summers,
and three winters will have passed away after the Rutulians have been subdued.
But the boy Ascanius, to whom the cognomen Iulus is now added (he was Ilus,
while the Trojan state stood in sovereignty), filling thirty great years
with their rolling months as its sovereign, and will transfer the kingdom
from its seat at Lavinium, and will build up many forces at Alba Longa.
Here in turn the royal power shall remain under
the Trojan race for three hundred
whole years, until a priestess of royal blood, Ilia, pregnant by Mars,
will give birth to twin offspring. Then, exulting in the skin of the nurse
she-wolf, Romulus will inherit the race, and will build
the walls sacred to Mars, and he
will call the Romans from his own name. For these Romans I set neither
limit of their power nor limit of time; I gave them power without end.
In fact, severe Juno, who now harasses and terrifies sky and sea, because
of fear, will change her resolve for the better, and will cherish the Romans
with me, masters of the world and toga-wearing race. Thus it is decided
by the fates. An age will come as the years glide by, when the house of
Assaracus shall crush into servitude Phthia and bright Mycenae, and will
dominate the conquered Argos. Trojan Caesar, of illustrious descent, will
be born, who will limit his command to Oceanus, his fame to the stars,
Julius, with great name having been derived from Iulus. In time to come
you will welcome him to heaven, laden with the booty of the East; he also
will be invoked with prayers. Wars having ceased, the rough ages will become
gentle; venerable Fides and Vesta, Quirinis with his brother Remus will
give laws; the dire gates of
War with their close fitting joints
of irons will be closed; within Accursed Rage, sitting upon direful weapons,
and one hundred brazen knots bound behind his back, roars horribly with
a bloody mouth."
He says this, and sends from on high Maia's son, so that new lands and the citadels of Carthage will open for the hospitality of the Trojans, so that Dido unaware of the Fates might not debar them from her boundaries. He flies through the air by the great power of his wings and swiftly alights on the shores of Libya, and forthwith makes the commands, and lays aside the ferocious thoughts of the Carthaginians, with the god willing; in the first days the queen entertains toward the Trojans a quiet heart and a kind mind.
But pious Aeneas, pondering very
many things in his mind through the night, as soon as light was kindly
given, decides to go out and explore new places, to seek who by the wind
will have come to the shores, who inhabits (for he sees a barren country),
whether men or wild beasts, and he decides to relate his discoveries to
his comrades. He conceals the fleet having been closed around by trees
and with shuddering shadows in a vault
of the woods at the foot of a hollowed-out
rock; Aeneas walks alone, accompanied by Achates, brandishing with two
hands spear shafts with broad iron heads. To him his mother presented herself
in the way in the middle of the woods, having the face and raiment of a
maiden and the equipment of a maiden of Sparta, or such a maiden as Thracian
Harpalyce who tires horses, surpasses Hebrus winged in speed: for indeed
from her shoulder, according to the custom, the huntress had hung a bow,
easily handled, and had given to the winds to scatter her hair, with bare
knee, and having gathered the flowing folds of her garment in a knot.
And first she said, "Ho, young men, show me, if you have seen any of my sisters here raging by chance, with quiver girded, and the spotted skin of a lynx, or urging the chase of a foaming boar with an outcry." Thus Venus spoke, and the son of Venus said in reply: "None of your sisters has been heard or seen. May I call you maiden?; for yours is not the face of a mortal: O certainly you are a goddess! Or Apollo's sister, or one of the race of nymphs? May you be propitious, and ease our work, whoever you are, and I pray under the sky, and may you teach us who are thrown to shores of the whole world; we wander unaware of both men and lands, having been driven here by wind and vast waves; many a victim will fall by my hand for you before altars."
Then Venus said: "Indeed I do not
deem me worthy of such honor; it is the custom of Tyrian maidens to carry
a quiver and bind purple high boots high up on the legs. You see the Carthaginian
kingdoms, the city of Tyrians and Agenor, but the regions of the Libyans,
a race fierce in war. Dido wields the power having set out from the city
of Tyre, fleeing her brother. To tell is a long insult with long details,
but the chief points of the story are as follows. The husband of Dido was
Sychaeus, richest of the Phoenicians in land, and cherished her with great
love, her father had given her to him untouched, and had joined them in
marriage. But the queen of Tyre had a brother, Pygmalion, more monstrous
in evil than all of the others. A mutual hatred came between Pygmalion
and Sychaeus. He, impious before the altars and also blinded by the love
for gold, killed unwary Sychaeus secretly with a sword, heedless of the
love of his sister, and concealed the deed for a long time, and, pretending
many bad things, mocked the heartsick lover with false hope. But the ghost
of the unburied husband itself came in sleep, lifting
the pale mouth in a strange manner;
he laid bare the cruel altars and the breast having pierced, and disclosed
all of the hidden crimes of the house; then he urges her to hasten her
flight and to leave her country, and disclosed old treasures from the earth
as an aid for her journey, an unknown mass of silver and gold.
Having been moved by these revelations, Dido was preparing her comrades for flight. The meet either the hate of the fierce tyrant or bitter fear; they hasten along to the ships, which were prepared by chance, and they load them with gold; the wealth of avaricious Pygmalion is carried by sea; the leader of the exploit is a woman. They arrived at places, where now you will discern the huge walls and the rising citadels of the new Carthage, they bought land, called Byrsa, as much as they are able to surround with the skin of a bull. But who are you, I pray? From which shores did you come, or where do you direct your way?"
To Venus asking, Aeneas, sighing, and dragging his voice from the depths of his heart, he responds with such words: "O goddess, if rehearsing from the first beginning I will proceed, if you should have leisure from the annals to hear of our labors before Evening will lay the day to rest and close the gates of Olympus. From ancient Troy, if by chance the name of Troy has reached your ears, the storm, by its own random chance, carried us through various seas and drove us to the Libyan shores. I am pious Aeneas, who, having been driven from enemy gods I carry my fleet with me, known because of fame in Heaven above, I seek the country Italy and the race from Jove supreme. I embarked upon the Phrygian Sea with twenty ships with my goddess mother showing the way, the given decrees followed; scarcely seven [ships] survive, shattered by waves and the East Wind; I myself unknown, being needy, I wander the desert of Libya, banished from Europe and also Asia."
Venus, seeking no more, interrupts
Aeneas in the midst of his lamentation: "Whoever you are, I believe the
air you breathe is not hateful to the gods, you who will have arrived at
the Tyrian city; proceed now, and also betake yourself to the thresholds
of the queen. For indeed I announce to you that your comrades and fleet
will be brought back to a safe place having been driven here by turns of
the North Wind, unless my parents falsely and in vain taught me augury.
See twelve rejoicing swans in a line and the bird of Joke swooping from
the regions of the
sky which was scattering them to
the sky; they seem to be either alighting or to be looking down on places
already occupied: as safe-returned they play rustling their wings, and
they have circled the sky in a flock, and have given forth a song, just
so your ships and your comrads either hold the gate or enter the gate with
full sails. Proceed now, and, where the road leads you, direct your step."
Venus spoke, and turning aside shone
with her pink neck, and her ambrosial hair exhaled a fragrance from her
head; her robe flowed down to her very feet, and the true goddess was manifest
by her gait. When Aeneas
recognized his mother, he followed
her fleeing with these words: "Why do you also cruelly mock your own son
with false images? Why is it not granted to me to join my right hand with
your right and to hear and return true voices?" With such words he reproaches
her, and stretches his step towards the city walls. But Venus shrouded
them in a dense coud of mist as they went, and as a goddess surrounds them
with a thick mantle of cloud, so that it was not possible to see or to
touch them, and lest anyone would come with reasons to beg or cause delay.
Venus went away on high to Paphus, and joyfully revisited her shrines,
where the temple of Venus glowed with Sabaean incense on the altar, and
was fragrant with fresh wreaths.
Meanwhile tey hasted on the way,
where the actual path guides them. And now they were climbing a hill, which
looms high above the city, and faces from above the towers opposite. Aeneas
marvels at the vast structures
of the city, lately but rude huts,
he marvels at the gates, and the noise, and the paved streets. The zealous
Tyrians press on, some to build walls and to erect a citadel and to roll
up rocks with their hands, some to choose a place for a house and to enclose
it with a trench; they read laws and magistrates and the sacred senate;
hee some dig out a gate, here others look for deep foundations for a theatre,
and cut out lofty decorations for the future stage: just as labor in new
summer busies bees through flowery fields in the sunlight, when the full-grown
offspring of the race produce, either
when they press flowing honey, and stretch cells with the sweet drink of
the gods, or accept burdens of coming bees, or, a column having been made,
they keep off a lazy swarm, drones from the hive; the work glows, and the
honey is more sweet-smelling than thyme. "O fortunate ones, whose walls
now
rise!" Aeneas spoke, and looks up
to the rooftops of the city. He bears himself, enveloped by a cloud (wonderful
to relate) through the midst of the men, mingles with the men, and is not
seen by anyone.
In the middle of a city there was
a grove, happiest of the shadow, where first, tossed by waves and a whirlwind,
the Carthaginians dug out out a token, which royal Juno had showed them,
the head of a spirited horse; this symbol having been dug up, illustrious
race in war and prosperous to sustain throughout the ages. Here Phoenician
Dido was founding a huge temple of Juno, wealthy by gifts and divine will,
on the steps of which the doorway
and the beams supported with bronze
were rising, the hinge of the bronze doors was creaking. A strange sight
having presented itself allayed the fear here in this grove, here Aeneas
ventured to hope and to trust in shattered fortunes.
For indeed while he surveys one by
[the various objects] in the huge temple, waiting for the queen, while
he wonders at the city’s good fortune, and the handiwork of the craftsmen
and the difficulty of the work inwardly, he sees in order Trojan battles
and the warfare now having been spread abroad by fame through the whole
world, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and Priam, and the wrate of Achilles to
both Agamemnon and Priam. Aeneas halted, weeping. "Achates," he says, "who
in this place now, in this region, is not full of our woe in the world?
Behold Priam! Here, also is the price of our bravery, are the tears of
our trials, and human woes touch the mood. Dismiss fears; this fame will
bring you some safety." Thus he spoke, and he feeds his mind on the idle
picture, groaning
deeply, and moistens his face with
a flood of tears. (Aeneas
est magnus infans!) For inded he was seeing
how here the Greeks warring around Troy were fleeing, how the young Trojan
men were oppressing, there Achilles was pursuing the fleeing Phrygians
in a plumed chariot. Not far hence he recognized, weeping, the tents of
Rhesus with snowy canvas, which, betrayed in first sleep, the bloody son
of Tydeus was destroying in slaughter, and turns aside the fiery horses
into the camp, before they should taste the fodder of Troy and should drink
the Xanthum.
In another part of the temple, Troilus
fleeing with weapons having been lost, unlucky boy unequally matched with
Achilles, is carried by horses,
and clinging to the empty chariot on his back, yet holding the reins; both
his neck
and his hair are dragged along the
ground, and marked in the dust with trailing spear. In another picture
the
Trojan women with disheveled hair
were going to the temple of hostile Pallas, and were carrying the sacred
robe in a suppliant manner, sad and beating their chests with their palms;
the goddess with fixed eyes toward the ground seemed to keep turning away
from them. Three times Achilles had dragged Hector around the walls of
Troy, and was selling the lifeless body for gold. Then, indeed, Aeneas
uttered a huge groan from the depths of his heart, as spoils, as the chariot
and as the body of his friend itself, he beheld the unarmed and stretching
hands of Priam. He also recognized the Greeks mingled with the leaders,
and the Eastern armies, and the black arms of Memnon. Penthesilea raging
in fury led the army of the Amazons with their crescent shields, rages
in the midsts of thousands, the golden belt binding beneath uncovered breast,
the warrior, although a girl, dared to fight with men.
But while these marvelous things were seen by Trojan Aeneas, while he is astonished and stood fixed in one long gaze, the queen, Dido, most beautiful of form, walked to the temple majestically, with a large group escorting her. As on the banks of the Eurotas river or the mountain ridges of Cynthus Diana exercises choral dance, as much as a thousand Oreads having followed assembled on this side and also on that; she carries her quiver on her shoulder, and as she walks she towers above all the Oreads (joys thrill the silent heart of Latona); such was Dido, such she was happily carrying herself through the middle of them men, urging on the work of her future kingdom. Then at the doorway of the shrine of the goddess, under the middle of the arch of the temple, surrounded with armed men, she took her seat resting high on her throne.
She dispensed justice and written laws to the subjects, she was equalizing the work and the labor by just divisions or was drawing by lots, when suddenly Aeneas sees Antheus and Sergestus, and strong Cloanthus, and other Trojans, approach the great crowd, whom the black whirlwind had scattered over the sea, and had carried away, far away, to the others shores. At the same time, Aeneas stood amazed, at the same time Achates was astonished both by the happiness and the fear; they were eagerly longing to join their right hands, but ignorance of the situation troubles their minds. They conceal their feelings, and shrouded by the enveloping mist watched what fortune is to the men, on which shore they leave the fleet, how they come, for chosen men were approaching from all the ships, begging a favor, and seeking the temple with a shout.
. B O O K . T W O .
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