Aeneid I.613-722

Dido welcomes the Trojans to Carthage. Venus kidnaps her grandson.

Sidonian Dido was first amazed at the hero’s looks,

then at his great misfortunes, and she spoke, saying:

“Son of a goddess, what fate pursues you through all

these dangers? What force drives you to these barbarous shores?

Are you truly that Aeneas whom kindly Venus bore

to Trojan Anchises, by the waters of Phrygian Simois?

Indeed, I myself remember Teucer coming to Sidon,

exiled from his country’s borders, seeking a new kingdom

with Belus’s help: Belus, my father, was laying waste

rich Cyprus, and, as victor, held it by his authority.

Since then the fall of the Trojan city is known to me,

and your name, and those of the Greek kings.

Even their enemy granted the Teucrians high praise,

maintaining they were born of the ancient Teucrian stock.

So come, young lords, and enter our palace.

Fortune, pursuing me too, through many similar troubles,

willed that I would find peace at last in this land.

Not being unknown to evil, I’ve learned to aid the unhappy.”

So she speaks, and leads Aeneas into the royal house,

and proclaims, as well, offerings at the god’s temples.

She sends no less than twenty bulls to his friends

on the shore, and a hundred of her largest pigs with

bristling backs, a hundred fat lambs with the ewes,

and joyful gifts of wine, but the interior of the palace

is laid out with royal luxury, and they prepare

a feast in the centre of the palace: covers worked

skillfully in princely purple, massive silverware

on the tables, and her forefathers’ heroic deeds

engraved in gold, a long series of exploits traced

through many heroes, since the ancient origins of her people.

Aeneas quickly sends Achates to the ships

to carry the news to Ascanius (since a father’s love

won’t let his mind rest) and bring him to the city:

on Ascanius all the care of a fond parent is fixed.

He commands him to bring gifts too, snatched

from the ruins of Troy, a figured robe stiff with gold,

and a cloak fringed with yellow acanthus,

worn by Helen of Argos, brought from Mycenae

when she sailed to Troy and her unlawful marriage,

a wonderful gift from her mother Leda:

and the sceptre that Ilione, Priam’s eldest daughter,

once carried, and a necklace of pearls, and a double-coronet

of jewels and gold. Achates, hastening to fulfill

these commands, took his way towards the ships.

But Venus was planning new wiles and stratagems

in her heart: how Cupid, altered in looks, might arrive

in place of sweet Ascanius, and arouse the passionate queen

by his gifts, and entwine the fire in her bones: truly she fears

the unreliability of this house, and the duplicitous Tyrians:

unyielding Juno angers her, and her worries increase with nightfall.

So she speaks these words to winged Cupid:

“My son, you who alone are my great strength, my power,

a son who scorns mighty Jupiter’s Typhoean¹ thunderbolts,

I ask your help, and humbly call on your divine will.

It’s known to you how Aeneas, your brother, is driven

over the sea, round all the shores, by bitter Juno’s hatred,

and you have often grieved with my grief.

Phoenician Dido holds him there, delaying him with flattery,

and I fear what may come of Juno’s hospitality:

at such a critical turn of events she’ll not be idle.

So I intend to deceive the queen with guile, and encircle

her with passion, so that no divine will can rescue her,

but she’ll be seized, with me, by deep love for Aeneas.

Now listen to my thoughts on how you can achieve this.

Summoned by his dear father, the royal child,

my greatest concern, prepares to go to the Sidonian city,

carrying gifts that survived the sea and the flames of Troy.

I’ll lull him to sleep and hide him in my sacred shrine

on the heights of Cythera or Idalium², so he can know

nothing of my deceptions, or interrupt them mid-way.

For no more than a single night imitate his looks by art,

and, a boy yourself, take on the known face of a boy,

so that when Dido takes you to her breast, joyfully,

amongst the royal feast, and the flowing wine,

when she embraces you, and plants sweet kisses on you,

you’ll breathe hidden fire into her, deceive her with your poison.”

Cupid obeys his dear mother’s words, sets aside his wings,

and laughingly trips along with Iulus’s step.

But Venus pours gentle sleep over Ascanius’s limbs,

and warming him in her breast, carries him, with divine power,

to Idalia’s high groves, where soft marjoram smothers him

in flowers, and the breath of its sweet shade.

Now, obedient to her orders, delighting in Achates as guide,

Cupid goes off carrying royal gifts for the Tyrians.

When he arrives the queen has already settled herself

in the centre, on her golden couch under royal canopies.

Now our forefather Aeneas and the youth of Troy

gather there, and recline on cloths of purple.

Servants pour water over their hands, serve bread

from baskets, and bring napkins of smooth cloth.

Inside there are fifty female servants, in a long line,

whose task it is to prepare the meal and tend the hearth fires:

a hundred more, and as many pages of like age,

to load the tables with food, and fill the cups.

And the Tyrians too are gathered in crowds through the festive

halls, summoned to recline on the embroidered couches.

They marvel at Aeneas’s gifts, marvel at Iulus,

the god’s brilliant appearance, and deceptive words,

at the robe, and the cloak embroidered with yellow acanthus.

The unfortunate Phoenician above all, doomed to future ruin,

cannot pacify her feelings, and catches fire with gazing,

stirred equally by the child and by the gifts.

He, having hung in an embrace round Aeneas’s neck,

and sated the deceived father’s great love,

seeks out the queen. Dido clings to him with her eyes

and with her heart, taking him now and then on her lap,

unaware how great a god is entering her, to her sorrow.

But he, remembering his Cyprian mother’s wishes,

begins gradually to erase all thought of Sychaeus,

and works at seducing her mind, so long unstirred,

and her heart unused to love, with living passion.

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Obstipuit primo aspectu Sidonia Dido,

casu deinde viri tanto, et sic ore locuta est:

'Quis te, nate dea, per tanta pericula casus               615

insequitur? Quae vis immanibus applicat oris?

Tune ille Aeneas, quem Dardanio Anchisae

alma Venus Phrygii genuit Simoentis ad undam?

Atque equidem Teucrum memini Sidona venire

finibus expulsum patriis, nova regna petentem               620

auxilio Beli; genitor tum Belus opimam

vastabat Cyprum, et victor dicione tenebat.

Tempore iam ex illo casus mihi cognitus urbis

Troianae nomenque tuum regesque Pelasgi.

Ipse hostis Teucros insigni laude ferebat,               625

seque ortum antiqua Teucrorum ab stirpe volebat.

Quare agite, O tectis, iuvenes, succedite nostris.

Me quoque per multos similis fortuna labores

iactatam hac demum voluit consistere terra.

Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.'               630

Sic memorat; simul Aenean in regia ducit

tecta, simul divom templis indicit honorem.

Nec minus interea sociis ad litora mittit

viginti tauros, magnorum horrentia centum

terga suum, pinguis centum cum matribus agnos,               635

munera laetitiamque dii.

At domus interior regali splendida luxu

instruitur, mediisque parant convivia tectis:

arte laboratae vestes ostroque superbo,

ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in auro               640

fortia facta patrum, series longissima rerum

per tot ducta viros antiqua ab origine gentis.

Aeneas (neque enim patrius consistere mentem

passus amor) rapidum ad navis praemittit Achaten,

Ascanio ferat haec, ipsumque ad moenia ducat;               645

omnis in Ascanio cari stat cura parentis.

Munera praeterea, Iliacis erepta ruinis,

ferre iubet, pallam signis auroque rigentem,

et circumtextum croceo velamen acantho,

ornatus Argivae Helenae, quos illa Mycenis,               650

Pergama cum peteret inconcessosque hymenaeos,

extulerat, matris Ledae mirabile donum:

praeterea sceptrum, Ilione quod gesserat olim,

maxima natarum Priami, colloque monile

bacatum, et duplicem gemmis auroque coronam.               655

Haec celerans ita ad naves tendebat Achates.

At Cytherea novas artes, nova pectore versat

Consilia, ut faciem mutatus et ora Cupido

pro dulci Ascanio veniat, donisque furentem

incendat reginam, atque ossibus implicet ignem;               660

quippe domum timet ambiguam Tyriosque bilinguis;

urit atrox Iuno, et sub noctem cura recursat.

Ergo his aligerum dictis adfatur Amorem:

'Nate, meae vires, mea magna potentia solus,

nate, patris summi qui tela Typhoia temnis,               665

ad te confugio et supplex tua numina posco.

Frater ut Aeneas pelago tuus omnia circum

litora iactetur odiis Iunonis iniquae,

nota tibi, et nostro doluisti saepe dolore.

Hunc Phoenissa tenet Dido blandisque moratur               670

vocibus; et vereor, quo se Iunonia vertant

hospitia; haud tanto cessabit cardine rerum.

Quocirca capere ante dolis et cingere flamma

reginam meditor, ne quo se numine mutet,

sed magno Aeneae mecum teneatur amore.               675

Qua facere id possis, nostram nunc accipe mentem.

Regius accitu cari genitoris ad urbem

Sidoniam puer ire parat, mea maxima cura,

dona ferens, pelago et flammis restantia Troiae:

hunc ego sopitum somno super alta Cythera               680

aut super Idalium sacrata sede recondam,

ne qua scire dolos mediusve occurrere possit.

Tu faciem illius noctem non amplius unam

falle dolo, et notos pueri puer indue voltus,

ut, cum te gremio accipiet laetissima Dido               685

regalis inter mensas laticemque Lyaeum,

cum dabit amplexus atque oscula dulcia figet,

occultum inspires ignem fallasque veneno.'

Paret Amor dictis carae genetricis, et alas

exuit, et gressu gaudens incedit Iuli.               690

At Venus Ascanio placidam per membra quietem

inrigat, et fotum gremio dea tollit in altos

Idaliae lucos, ubi mollis amaracus illum

floribus et dulci adspirans complectitur umbra.

Iamque ibat dicto parens et dona Cupido               695

regia portabat Tyriis, duce laetus Achate.

Cum venit, aulaeis iam se regina superbis

aurea composuit sponda mediamque locavit.

Iam pater Aeneas et iam Troiana iuventus

conveniunt, stratoque super discumbitur ostro.               700

Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris

expediunt, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis.

Quinquaginta intus famulae, quibus ordine longam

cura penum struere, et flammis adolere Penatis;

centum aliae totidemque pares aetate ministri,               705

qui dapibus mensas onerent et pocula ponant.

Nec non et Tyrii per limina laeta frequentes

convenere, toris iussi discumbere pictis.

Mirantur dona Aeneae, mirantur Iulum

flagrantisque dei voltus simulataque verba,               710

pallamque et pictum croceo velamen acantho.

Praecipue infelix, pesti devota futurae,

expleri mentem nequit ardescitque tuendo

Phoenissa, et pariter puero donisque movetur.

Ille ubi complexu Aeneae colloque pependit               715

et magnum falsi implevit genitoris amorem,

reginam petit haec oculis, haec pectore toto

haeret et interdum gremio fovet, inscia Dido,

insidat quantus miserae deus; at memor ille

matris Acidaliae paulatim abolere Sychaeum               720

incipit, et vivo temptat praevertere amore

iam pridem resides animos desuetaque corda.

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Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.

1. Named for a Titan who fought against Jupiter.

2. Both sites of Venus’s worship.