The Aeneid: Book 1 Translation

(1) I sing the arms and the man, who the first came to Italy from the shores of Troy pushed forward
by Fate to the shores of Lavinium – that one much tossed about both on the lands and on the high sea
by the violence of the ones above, on account of the unforgetting anger of savage Juno, having suffered
many evils also in war, until he would establish the city and bring in the gods to Latium – from where the
Latin race [came] and the Alban fathers and the walls of mighty Rome.

(8) Muse, recall the reasons for me what, divine force having been offended, or grieving the queen
of the gods, forced a man remarkable by his goodness to be involved in so many misfortunes, to
approach so many toils. [Are there] such great angers for the celestial spirits?

(12) There was an ancient city (the Tyrian colonists held [it]), Carthage, opposite Italy and the mouth
of the Tiber far away, rich in resources and fiercest with desires of war; which alone Juno is said to have
cherished more than all the lands with Samos having been esteemed less: here were her arms, here was
her chariot; the goddess now then both strives and cherishes this to be a kingdom for the nations if the
fates should allow in any way. But indeed she had heard that an offspring was being led from the Trojan
blood which would overturn the Tyrian citadels one day; [she had heard that] from this place a
population, widely ruling, proud in war would come as a destruction for Libya; thus [she had heard that]
the fates had spun. Fearing this, and remembering the old war, which she the first had waged around
Troy for her dear Argos (the causes of her angers and the savage griefs had not yet even perished from
her spirit; the judgment of Paris and the wrong of her rejected beauty and the hated race and the
honors of snatched Ganymedes remains stored deep in her mind) – enraged on top of these things the
Saturnian daughter was defending the Trojan ones tossed about on the entire sea, the remains of the
Danauns and of cruel Achilles, far from Latium, and they were wandering through many years pushed by
the fates around all the seas. It was of such great burden to establish the Roman race.

Scarcely out of sight of the Sicilian land, they, happy, were giving the sails into the high [sea] and
they were plowing the foams of the salt [water] with bronze, when Juno keeping an eternal wound
under her heart said these things with herself: “Me defeated to desist from my undertaking and not be
able to turn away the king of the Teucrians from Italy?!? For sure I am forbidden by fate. Was Pallas able
to burn the fleet of the Argives and to drown them in the sea on account of the crime and madness of a
single [man], Ajax of Oleus. She herself having hurled the swift fire of Jupiter out of the clouds scattered
the ships and she turned over the seas with the winds, she snatched him dying with a whirlwind his
chest having been pierced and she impaled him to a sharp rock; on the other hand I, who steps as the
queen of the gods and both the sister and the wife of Jupiter, well I wage war so many years with a
single race. And anyone worships the divine will of Juno hereafter and will place tribute on the altar as a
supplicant.
The goddess pondering such things with herself in her inflamed heart came into the fatherland
of storm clouds, the places teeming with furious winds, Aeolia. Here King Aeolus in a vast cave controls
the struggling winds and howling storms with supreme power and he restrains them with chains and a
prison. They angry with a great rumbling of the mountain roar around the barriers; Aeolus sits on his
lofty citadel holding a scepter and he softens their spirits and calms their angers. If he should not do this,
for sure they snatching would carry the seas and lands and vast sky with themselves and they would
sweep them through the airs. But the all-powerful father hid [them] in black caves dreading this and
placed a mass and high mountains on top, and he gave a king who would know both to repress with a
strict rule and to give loose reins having been ordered. To whom then humble Juno used these words:
“Aeolus, and indeed the father of the gods and the king of men gave you both to soothe the
waves and to lift [them] with the wind, a race unfriendly to me sails the Tyrrhenian sea carrying Troy
into Italy and its defeated household gods: Strike power to the winds and overwhelm the submerged
ships, and drive them apart and scatter their bodies in the sea. There are for me twice seven nymphs
with outstanding bodies, of whom the one who is the most beautiful in shape, Deiopea, I will join in a
stable marriage and I will pronounce your own, so that she will pass all her years with you for such
merits and so that she makes you a parent with beautiful offspring.”
Aeolus said this in response: “Oh queen, the work to explore what you wish [is] yours; it is right
for me to perform orders. You give me whatever this is of a kingdom, you win over the scepter and
Jupiter [for me], you give [me] to recline at the feasts of the gods and you make me [powerful] over the
clouds and the storms.”
When these things had been said, he struck the hollow mountain with his spear having been
turned over into the side: and the winds just like a column having been formed where a gate has been
given, they rush and blow through the lands in a whirlwind. At once the Eurus and the Notus and Africus
crowded with gusts lay upon the sea and they rush the whole [sea] from the bottom of its seats and they
roll vast waves to the shore; the shouting of the men and the creaking of the ropes follows. Suddenly
the clouds snatch out both the sky and the daylight from the eyes of the Trojans; black night lies upon
the sea. The heavens thundered and the upper air flashes with crowded fires and everything threatens
instant death for the men. Suddenly Aeneas’ limbs are loosed with cold; he groans stretching his two
palms to the stars and brings forth [words] with such a voice: “Oh three times and four times blessed,
those for whom it befell to encounter death before the faces of their fathers under the high walls of
Troy! Oh braves son of Tydidus of the nation of the Danauns! Me not to have been able to fall on the
Trojan fields and to pour out this soul [of mine] by your right [hand], where savage Hector lies by the
spear of the son of Aeachidus [Achilles], where huge Sarpedon [lies], where the Simois rolls so many
shields snatched under the waves and helmets and the brave bodies of men.
 [For the one who was] tossing such [words] the gale whistling with Aquilon strikes the sail
opposite, and lifts the waves to the stars. The oars are shattered, then the bow turns aside and gives the
side to the waves, and a towering mountain of water follows in a heap. These [people] hang on the top
of the wave; for these the gaping wave opens the earth between the waves, the roiling water rages on
the sands. The Notus spins three ships having been snatched away into hidden rocks (the Italians call the
rocks which are in the middle of the waves the Altars, a monstrous ridges on the top of the sea), the
Eurus drives three ships from the high [sea] into the shallows and the sandbars, wretched thing to see,
and dashes [them] against the shoals and encircles [them] with a wall of sand. One [ship], which was
carrying Lycians and faithful Oronte, the enormous se strikes against the poop-deck from the top before
the eyes of [Aeneas] himself: the captain is shaken off and is rolled onto his head; while the wave twists
it three times in the same place driving it around and the consuming whirlpool devours it in the sea.
They appear scattered swimmers in the vast abyss, arms of men and planks and Trojan treasure through
the waves. Now the storm has conquered the valiant ship of Ilioneus, now of brave Achates, and the one
on which Abas [was carried], and the one on which old Aletes [was carried]; all [the ships] receive the
hostile flood, the sealings of the sides having been loosened and they split open with cracks.
Meanwhile Neptune felt that the sea was being mixed with a great rumbling and that a storm
had been sent and that the depths had been poured back from the bottom of the shoals, seriously
upset; and he brought out his peaceful head from the top of the wave looking out on the high sea. He
sees the fleet of Aeneas thrown apart on the whole sea, and the Trojans crushed by the waves and the
ruin of the sky. And the tricks and the angers of Juno did not escape the notice of her brother. He calls
the Eurus and the Zephyris to himself, [and] then he says such things:
“Such a great confidence of your kind held you? Now, winds, you dar to stir up the sky and the
earth without my divine will and to lift such great masses? Which I - ! But it is better to calm the stirred
up waves. Afterwards you will atone for the things that have been committed for me by no similar
punishment. Speed up your flight and say these things to your king: that the power of the sea and the
savage trident has been given not to him but to me by fate. He [Aeolus] holds the monstrous rocks, your
homes, Eurus; let him throw himself in that court, Aeolus, and let him rule over the winds in a closed
prison.”
Thus he says and he quiets down the swollen seas rather quickly with his word and he chases
the gathered clouds and he leads back the sun. At the same time Cymothoe and Triton striving dislodge
the ships from the sharp rock; he himself lifts [them] with his trident and he opens the vast sandbars
and he calms the sea and glides through the top of the waves with his light wheels. And just as when a
riot has often arisen in a great people and the common crowd rages in their spirits; and now the torches
and rocks fly; madness supplies the weapons; then if they had caught sight of some man serious with his
goodness and his merits, they are silent and standstill with raised ears; that one rules their spirits with
his words and softens their hearts: thus the whole crashing of the sea fell, after the father (of the sea)
looking out over the seas and having carried in the open sky guides his horses and flying gives the reins
to his obedient chariot.
The exhausted (followers) of Aeneas hastened to go for the shores which are nearest with their
course, and they turned to the shores of Libya. There is a place in the long inlet: an island makes a
harbor with a barrier of its sides, in which every wave from the high (sea) is broken and splits itself into a
recessed bay. From this side and from this side vast cliffs and twin crags tower into the sky, under which
summit the safe waters are broadly silent; then a scene with quivering forests on top, then a dark grove
overhangs with shuddering shade; under the opposite face a cave with hanging rocks, inside sweet
waters and benches from natural rock, home of the nymphs. Here in this place not any chains held the
weary ships, no anchor binds with a hooked bite. To this place Aeneas drives seven ships having been
gathered from the whole number; and the Trojans having disembarked with a great love of the land take
hold of the wish for sand and they put their limbs drenched with salt on the shore. And first Achates
struck a spark with flint and he caught fire with leaves and gave dry fuel around and he snatched a flame
in the tinder. Then they bring out the grain spoiled by the waves and the utensils (for grain) tired of
ordeals, and they prepare to both roast the saved crops with flames and grind them with a rock.
Meanwhile Aeneas climbs the cliff, and he seeks every view widely on the sea, if he should see
some Antheus tossed by the wind and the Trojan galleys or Capys or the weapons of Caicus in the lofty
sterns. He sees no ship in sight, three stags wandering on the shore; whole herds follow these from the
back and a long column grazes through the valleys. Here he stopped and he snatched a bow and swift
arrows with his hand, weapons which faithful Achates was carrying, and he lays low first the leaders
themselves bearing lofty heads with tree-like antlers, then he stirs up the crowd and the whole herd
pushing with his weapons among the leafy groves; and he did not stop, victorious, before he pours
down on the ground seven huge bodies, and he equalizes the number with the ships. From here he
seeks the harbor and he divides (the meat) among his friends. Then he divides the wines, which, the
hero, good Acestes had loaded in jars on the Trinacrian shore and had given to the departing ones, and
he calms the grieving hearts with his words:
“Oh comrades (and indeed we were not unknowing of hardships before), oh you who have
suffered more severe situations, the god will give an end to this also. You have both approached the
Scyllean fury and the cliffs roaring within, you have also experienced the Cyclopean rocks: call back your
spirits and send away your gloomy fear; perhaps it will be pleasing to recall even these things one day.
Through various hardships, through so many crises of things we are stretching into Latium, where the
fates show peaceful dwellings; there it is right to resurrect the kingdoms of Troy. Endure and save
yourselves for favorable situations.”
He brings back such words with his voice sick with huge cares and pretends hope with his expression, he
crushes deep grief in his heart.They gird themselves for the prey and the future feasts: they tear off the
hides from the ribs and they strip the flesh; some cut into pieces, and they fasten the quivering (pieces)
to spits, others place the bronzes on the shore and they tend the flames. Then they called back their
strengths from the food, and they, poured through the grass, are filled with old Bacchus and rich
venison. After hunger was removed with their feasts and the dishes were taken away, they seek again
their lost comrades with a long conversation, wavering between both hope and fear, whether they
believe (them) to live or to suffer the final things no longer to hear those who have been called.
Especially good Aeneas laments the hardship now of fierce Orontes, now of Amycus and the cruel fates
of Lycus with himself and the brave Gyas and the brave Cloanthus.
And now there was an end, when Jupiter looking down from the highest air at the sea winged
with sails and the lying down lands, and the shores and the widespread populations, thus he stopped at
the summit of the sky and he fastened his eyes on the lights of Libya. And Venus rather sad and filled
with tears in respect to her shining eyes addresses him tossing such cares in his heart: “Oh you who
rules the affairs of both men and gods with eternal powers and terrifies with lightning, what such great
act has my Aeneas been able to commit against you, what have the Trojans been able (to commit
against you), for whom having suffered so many deaths the whole universe is closed on account of Italy?
Certainly you have promised that from here the Romans would be leaders one day with the turning
years, from the recalled blood of Teucer, who were to hold the sea, who were to hold all the lands with
their power. Father, what purpose turns you? Indeed, I used to be consoled for the fall of Troy and the
sad ruins with this balancing the opposite fates with fates; but now the same fortune follows the men
driven by so many misfortunes. Great king, what end of sufferings do you give? Antenor having escaped
from the middle of the Greeks was able to enter the Illycrian bays and the innermost kingdoms of the
Liburnians safely and to pass by the spring of Timavus, from where through nine mouths with a great
rumbling of the mountain it goes, a rushing sea, and it overwhelms the plains with a roaring sea. Here
however he placed the city of Patavium and the seats of the Teucrians and he gave a name to the race
and he fastened the Trojan arms, and now he rests settled in a calm peace: we, your offspring, to whom
you promise the citadel of the sky, the ships having been lost (unspeakable thing!) on account of the
anger of a single one we are betrayed and we are separated from the Italian shores. Is this the honor for
goodness? Thus you put us into the scepters?”
Smiling to her, the begetter of people and gods, he touched kisses to his daughter, an
expression with which he calms the sky and storms, then he speaks such things:
“Cytherean one, spare your fear, the fates of your people remain unchanged for you; you will
see the city and the promised walls of Lavinium and you will carry the great-souled Aeneas on high to
the stars of the sky; and the decision does not change me. (Indeed I will speak longer, since this worry
gnaws at you, and I will remove the secrets of the fates unrolling [them]) he for you will wage a huge
war in Italy and he will crush fierce populations and he will place both the customs and the walls of men,
while the third summer will have seen [him] ruling in Latium, and a series of three winters will have gone
by with the Rutulians having been subdued. But the boy Ascanius, to whom now the nickname Iulus is
added (he was Ilus, while the Trojan state stood with power), will fulfill thirty great revolutions with the
months revolving with power, and he will transfer the power from the seat of Lavinium, and he will
fortify Alba Longa with much strength. Here already it will be ruled for three hundred whole years under
the Hectorean race, until a royal priestess, a Trojan woman, heavy by Mars, will give twin offspring by
birth. Hence Romulus happy with the tawny covering of the nursing she-wolf will inherit the race and he
will establish the Martial walls and he will call the Romans from his own name. I place neither limits of
things nor times for these things. I have given an empire without end. Even better, harsh Juno, who now
tires out the sea and the lands and the sky with fear, will bring back her plans for the better, and she will
cherish the Romans with me, masters of things and the toga-wearing race. Thus it has pleased [me]. The
era will come with ages gliding by when the house of Assaracus will crushPhthiam and famed Mycanae
with slavery and will dominate the conquered Argives. A Trojan Caesar with a beautiful origin will be
born, who would limit his empire to the Ocean, his fame to the stars, a Julian, a name derived from the
great Iulus. This one, you one day will receive in the sky laden with the spoils of the East, secured; he
also will be called with prayers. Then the harsh ages will become mild with the wars having been put
aside; white-haired Faith and Vesta, Quirinus with his brother Remus will give the laws; the awful gates
of war will be closed with iron and close joints; wicked Rage inside sitting above savage weapons and
bound with a hundred bronze knots behind its back will roar bristling with a bloody mouth.”
He says these things and he sends down the offspring of Maia from the high (heavens), so that
the lands and so that the citadels of new Carthage lay open as a welcome for the Teucrians, lest Dido
unknowing of fate keep [them] off from her territories. He flies through the great air with the rowing of
his wings and he stopped swiftly on the shores of Libya. And now he carries out the orders, and the
Phoenecians place aside their fierce hearts with the god wishing; among the first, the queen receives a
peaceful spirit and a kindly mind towards the Teucrians.
But goodly Aeneas turning very many thoughts through the night, as soon as sweet night was
given, decided to go out and to explore new places, which shores he has approached by the wind, who
holds [the shores] (for he sees uncultivated lands), whether they are men or wild beasts, and to bring
back the discoveries to his comrades. He hides the fleet in a valley of groves underneath the hollowed
out crag, enclosed with trees around and with shuddering shades; but he himself proceeds accompanied
by only Achates brandishing two spears in his hand with broad iron. And to him his mother brought
herself across the way in the middle of the forest, bearing the appearance and the clothes of a maiden
and the weapons of a Spartan maiden, or just as Thracian Harpalyce tires out her horses and overtakes
the swift Hebrus in her flight. And indeed she had hung a handy bow from her shoulders by custom, as a
huntress, and she had given her hair to the winds to scatter, bare in respect to her knee and having
collected the flowing folds in a knot. And first she says, “Hi young men, show [me], if you have seen
anyone of my sisters wandering here by chance girded with a quiver and the cover of a spotted lynx, or
pursuing the course of a foaming wild boar with a shout.”
Thus Venus [said]; and thus the son of Venus began in response: “None of your sisters has been
heard or seen by me, oh maiden, what shall I call you? And indeed the face is not that of a mortal, nor
does your voice sound human; oh, a goddess certainly (or the sister of Phoebus? Or one of the blood of
the nymphs?) May you be lucky and may you lift our suffering, whoever [you are] and may you teach
under which sky at last, on what shores of the world we are tossed; we are wandering unknowing of
both people and places pushed here by the wind and the vast waves: many a victim will fall for you
before the altars by my right hand.”
Then Venus: “I do not deem myself worthy certainly of such honor; it is the custom for Tyrian
maidens to carry the quiver and to bind our claves high up with a purple boot. You see the Punic
kingdoms, the Tyrians, and the city of Agenor; but the territory is Lybian, the race intractable in war.
Dido rules the kingdom having set out from the city of Tyre fleeting her brother. Long is the injury, long
are the twists; but I will follow the highest points of the affair. For her, Sychaeus was her spouse, very
wealthy of the land of the Phoenicians, and loved with great love by the wretched woman, to whom the
father had given [her] untouched and had joined with first omens. But her brother, Pygmalion, was
holding the kingdoms of Tyre, more monstrous in crime before all others. And between them madness
came in the middle. He, wicked, overcomes Sychaeus unsuspecting before the altars and the blinded
with the love of gold with a sword secretly, heedless of his sister’s love; and he, evil, hid the deed for a
long time and he mocked the sick lover with vain hope pretending much. But the ghost itself of the
unburied spouse came in her dreams lifting the pale faces in extraordinary ways; it bared the cruel altars
and the chest pierced with a sword, and it uncovered the whole hidden crime of the house. Then it
persuades to hasten flight and to leave the homeland and it reveals the help for the road, old treasures
in the ground, an unknown weight of silver and gold. Dido having been set in motion by these things was
preparing her flight and comrades. They convene those for whom there was either cruel hatred of the
tyrant or a sharp fear. They snatched ships, which by chance were prepared, and they load [them] with
gold. The wealth of greedy Pygmalion is carried on the sea; a woman, the leader of the deed. They came
down to the places where now you see the huge walls and the rising citadel of new Carthage, and they
purchased the soil [named], Byrsa from the name of the deed, how much they were able to surround
with the hide of a bull. But at last who are you? From what shores do you come? And where do you hold
your journey?” He, sighing, replied to the one asking with such words and pulling his voice from the
bottom of his heart:
“Oh goddess, if I should proceed seeking back from the first beginning, and if there should be
leisure to hear the histories of our sufferings, Evening will pack up the [end of] the day with Olympus
having been closed. A storm drove us from ancient Troy, if by chance through various seas by its own
chance to shores of Libya. I am good Aeneas, who carries with me my household gods snatched out of
the enemy with my fleet, I am known by reputation above the upper airs. I seek Italy as my homeland
and my race from highest Jupiter. I have embarked on the Trojan sea with twenty ships with my goddess
mother showing the way having followed my given fates; but scarcely seven survive shattered by the
waves and Eurus. I myself unknown, needy, wander through the wilderness of Libya, pushed away from
Europe and Asia.” And Venus, not having allowed the one complaining more, thus interrupted in the
middle of his grief:
“Whoever you are, I believe that you do not pluck the vital airs hateful to the heavenly ones, you
who has arrived at the Tyrian city. Only proceed and carry yourself from here to the threshold of the
queen. And indeed I announce to you your comrades led back and your fleet returned driven into safety
by the turned Aquilons, unless ineffective parents have taught augury in vain. Look at 12 swans rejoicing
in a column, which the bird of Jupiter having glided from the region of the upper air was disturbing in
the open sky; now they seem either to take the lands in a long line or to look down at [the lands] now
captured: just as they, led back, play with their whistling wings and they have encircled the sky with
their flock and they have given their songs, not otherwise both your ships and the youth of your people
either holds the port or approaches the harbor with full sail. Only proceed and direct your step, where
the road leads you.”
She spoke and turning away she gleamed with a rosy neck, and her ambrosial hair exhaled a
divine fragrance from her head; her clothing fluttered down to the bottom of her feet; and she revealed
[herself] a true goddess by her stride. He, when he recognized his mother fleeing, followed with such a
voice: “Why do you mock your son so often, you too cruel one, with false appearances? Why is it not
given to join right hand to right hand and to hear and give back true voices?” He blames with such words
and he holds his step to the walls. But Venus enclosed the walking ones with dark fog, and the goddess
poured around with a thick wrap of a cloud, so that no one would be able to see them nor anyone be
able to touch them or to effect a delay or to demand the causes of their coming. She herself goes away
aloft to Paphos happily and she revisits her own dwellings, where there is a temple to her, and a
hundred altars burn with Sabaean incense and breathe with fresh garlands.
Meanwhile they caught the road, where the path was showing. And now they were climbing a
hill, which, imposing, towers over the city and looks at the opposite citadels from above. Aeneas
wonders at the mass, once huts, he wonders at the gates and the noise and the pavements of the roads.
The eager Tyrians press on: some to lead [build] the walls and to construct the citadel and to roll up the
rocks with their hands, others to choose a place for shelter and to enclose it with a trench; they gather
laws and magistrates and a sacred Senate. Here some excavate harbors; here others place deep
foundations for theatres, and they cut out monstrous columns from crags, the high ornaments for future
scenes. Such toil busies the bees in a new summer through the flowery fields under the sun, when they
lead forth the grown offspring of their race, or when they stow the liquid honeys and they stretch their
cells with sweet nectar, or they receive the burdens of those coming, or with a column having been
made they keep off the drones, a lazy herd, from the hives; the work boils and the fragrant honeys smell
of Thyme. “Oh fortunate ones, whose walls are already rising!” Aeneas says and he looks out at the tops
of the city. He brings himself enveloped with a cloud (wonderful thing to say) through the middle [of the
people], and he mixes with the men and is not seen by anyone.
There was a sacred grove in the middle of the city, very blessed of shade, in which place first the
Phoenecians tossed by the waves and the wind dug out a sign, which regal Juno had shown, the head of
a spirited horse; for thus [she had shown] that the race would be remarkable in war and easy in living
through the ages. Here Sidonian Dido was establishing a huge temple to Juno, rich in gifts and the divine
power of the goddess, for which bronze thresholds and timbers fastened with bronze were rising on the
steps, [and] the hinge was creaking with brazen doors. For the first time in this sacred grove a new thing
having been offered soothed his fear, here for the first time Aeneas dared to ______ for safety and to be
better confident in his shattered situation. And indeed while he surveys things one by one under the
huge temple waiting for the queen, while he wonders what is the fortune for the city and at the hands
of the artists amongst themselves and the effort of their masterpieces, he sees the Trojan fights in order
and the wars already made known by fame through the whole world, the sons of Atreus and Priam and
Achilles savage to both. He stopped and crying he said: “Achates, what place already, which region on
the lands is not full of our suffering? Behold, Priam! Here are also their own rewards for glory; these are
the tears of things and mortal matters touch the mind. Loosen your fear; this fame will bring you some
safety.” Thus he says and he feeds his spirit on a mere picture lamenting much, and he wets his face
with a large river [of tears]. And indeed he was seeing how the Greeks warring around Pergama were
fleeing this way, how the Trojan youth was pressing on, the Phrygians [were fleeing] this way, how
crested Achilles was urging on with his chariot. And not far from here he, crying, recognizes the tents of
Rhesus with snowy canvases, which, betrayed in their first sleep, the son of Tydides, bloody with much
slaughter, was devastating, and he turns away the eager horses into the camp before they would have
tested the pastures of Troy and before they would have drunk the Xanthus. On another part Troilus,
fleeing with his weapons having been lost, unlucky boy, and having met Achilles unequally, is carried by
his horses and he hangs on his back from his empty chariot, holding the reins however; for him both his
neck and his hair are carried through the ground, and the dust is inscribed with his spear having been
turned. Meanwhile the Trojan women were going to the temple of not impartial [unfair] Palls, with
disheveled hair and they were carrying a gown as a suppliant, sad and having beaten their chests with
their palms; the goddess, turned away, was holding her eyes fixed on the ground. Three times around
the Trojan walls he had snatched Hector, and he was selling the lifeless body for gold, Achilles. Then in
truth he gives a huge groan from the bottom of his heart, as he caught sight of the spoils, as he [caught
sight of] the chariot, as [he caught sight of] the body itself of his friend, and of Priam holding his
unarmed hands. He recognized himself also mingled with the Achean princes, and the eastern armies
and the arms of black Memnon. Raging Penthiselea leads the columns of the Amazons with moon-
shaped shields and she burns in the middle of the thousands, fastening golden belts underneath her
exposed breast, a female warrior, and she dares to run against the men as a maiden.
While these wonders are seen by Dardanian Aeneas, while he stands agape and he hangs fixed
in a single gaze, the queen, Dido, the most beautiful in appearance, strides to the temple with a great
throng of young people crowding around. Just as Diana trains her bands on the shores of the Eurotes or
through the summits of Delos, whom a thousand Oeodes following gather from here and from here; she
carries a quiver on her shoulder and stepping she towers above all the goddesses (joys possess the silent
heart of Latona): such was Dido, such [was] she carrying herself happily, through the middle urging onto
the work and the future kingdoms. Then in the entrances of the goddess, in the middle of the vault of
the temple, enclosed in weapons and resting highly on a throne she sat. She was giving judgments and
laws to the men, and she was equalizing the labor of the tasks in fair parts or she was drawing it by lot:
when suddenly Aeneas sees that Antheus and Sergestus and brave Cloanthus and others of the Trojans
are coming up in a great crowd, whom the black storm had scattered on the sea and had carried away
deeply to other shores. He himself at the same time stood agape, at the same time Achates [stood
agape], astounded with both happiness and fear; they, eager, were burning to join right hands; but the
unknown thing disturbs their minds. They hide and watch, wrapped in their hollow cloud, [wondering]
what is the fortune for the men, on what shore they leave the fleet, why are they coming; for those
having been chosen from all the ships were going, praying for favor and they were seeking the temple
with a shout.