Many a
sacrifice
shall fall by our hand before
thine altars.
thine altars.
Virgil - Aeneid
Hoar Faith and Vesta,
Quirinus and Remus brothers again, shall deliver statutes. The dreadful
steel-riveted gates of war shall be shut fast; on murderous weapons the
inhuman Fury, his hands bound behind him with an hundred fetters of
brass, shall sit within, shrieking with terrible blood-stained lips. '
So speaking, he sends Maia's son down from above, that the land and
towers of Carthage, the new town, may receive the Trojans with open
welcome; lest Dido, ignorant of doom, might debar them her land. Flying
through the depth of air on winged oarage, the fleet messenger alights
on the Libyan coasts. At once he does his bidding; at once, for a god
willed it, the Phoenicians allay their haughty temper; the queen above
all takes to herself grace and compassion towards the Teucrians.
But good Aeneas, nightlong revolving many and many a thing, issues
forth, so soon as bountiful light is given, to explore the strange
country; to what coasts the wind has borne him, who are their habitants,
men or wild beasts, for all he sees is wilderness; this he resolves to
search, and bring back the certainty to his comrades. The fleet he hides
close in embosoming groves beneath a caverned rock, amid shivering
shadow of the woodland; himself, Achates alone following, he strides
forward, clenching in his hand two broad-headed spears. And amid the
forest his mother crossed his way, wearing the face and raiment of a
maiden, the arms of a maiden of Sparta, or like Harpalyce of Thrace when
she tires her coursers and outstrips the winged speed of Hebrus in her
flight. For huntress fashion had she slung the ready bow from her
shoulder, and left her blown tresses free, bared her knee, and knotted
together her garments' flowing folds. 'Ha! my men,' she begins, 'shew me
if [322-355]haply you have seen a sister of mine straying here girt
with quiver and a lynx's dappled fell, or pressing with shouts on the
track of a foaming boar. '
Thus Venus, and Venus' son answering thus began:
'Sound nor sight have I had of sister of thine, O maiden unnamed; for
thy face is not mortal, nor thy voice of human tone; O goddess
assuredly! sister of Phoebus perchance, or one of the nymphs' blood?
Be thou gracious, whoso thou art, and lighten this toil of ours; deign
to instruct us beneath what skies, on what coast of the world, we are
thrown. Driven hither by wind and desolate waves, we wander in a strange
land among unknown men.
Many a sacrifice shall fall by our hand before
thine altars. '
Then Venus: 'Nay, to no such offerings do I aspire. Tyrian maidens are
wont ever to wear the quiver, to tie the purple buskin high above their
ankle. Punic is the realm thou seest, Tyrian the people, and the city of
Agenor's kin; but their borders are Libyan, a race unassailable in war.
Dido sways the sceptre, who flying her brother set sail from the Tyrian
town. Long is the tale of crime, long and intricate; but I will briefly
follow its argument. Her husband was Sychaeus, wealthiest in lands of
the Phoenicians, and loved of her with ill-fated passion; to whom with
virgin rites her father had given her maidenhood in wedlock. But the
kingdom of Tyre was in her brother Pygmalion's hands, a monster of guilt
unparalleled. Between these madness came; the unnatural brother, blind
with lust of gold, and reckless of his sister's love, lays Sychaeus low
before the altars with stealthy unsuspected weapon; and for long he hid
the deed, and by many a crafty pretence cheated her love-sickness with
hollow hope. But in slumber came the very ghost of her unburied husband;
lifting up a face pale in wonderful wise, he exposed the merciless
altars and [356-387]his breast stabbed through with steel, and unwove
all the blind web of household guilt. Then he counsels hasty flight out
of the country, and to aid her passage discloses treasures long hidden
underground, an untold mass of silver and gold. Stirred thereby, Dido
gathered a company for flight. All assemble in whom hatred of the tyrant
was relentless or fear keen; they seize on ships that chanced to lie
ready, and load them with the gold. Pygmalion's hoarded wealth is borne
overseas; a woman leads the work. They came at last to the land where
thou wilt descry a city now great, New Carthage, and her rising citadel,
and bought ground, called thence Byrsa, as much as a bull's hide would
encircle. But who, I pray, are you, or from what coasts come, or whither
hold you your way?
Quirinus and Remus brothers again, shall deliver statutes. The dreadful
steel-riveted gates of war shall be shut fast; on murderous weapons the
inhuman Fury, his hands bound behind him with an hundred fetters of
brass, shall sit within, shrieking with terrible blood-stained lips. '
So speaking, he sends Maia's son down from above, that the land and
towers of Carthage, the new town, may receive the Trojans with open
welcome; lest Dido, ignorant of doom, might debar them her land. Flying
through the depth of air on winged oarage, the fleet messenger alights
on the Libyan coasts. At once he does his bidding; at once, for a god
willed it, the Phoenicians allay their haughty temper; the queen above
all takes to herself grace and compassion towards the Teucrians.
But good Aeneas, nightlong revolving many and many a thing, issues
forth, so soon as bountiful light is given, to explore the strange
country; to what coasts the wind has borne him, who are their habitants,
men or wild beasts, for all he sees is wilderness; this he resolves to
search, and bring back the certainty to his comrades. The fleet he hides
close in embosoming groves beneath a caverned rock, amid shivering
shadow of the woodland; himself, Achates alone following, he strides
forward, clenching in his hand two broad-headed spears. And amid the
forest his mother crossed his way, wearing the face and raiment of a
maiden, the arms of a maiden of Sparta, or like Harpalyce of Thrace when
she tires her coursers and outstrips the winged speed of Hebrus in her
flight. For huntress fashion had she slung the ready bow from her
shoulder, and left her blown tresses free, bared her knee, and knotted
together her garments' flowing folds. 'Ha! my men,' she begins, 'shew me
if [322-355]haply you have seen a sister of mine straying here girt
with quiver and a lynx's dappled fell, or pressing with shouts on the
track of a foaming boar. '
Thus Venus, and Venus' son answering thus began:
'Sound nor sight have I had of sister of thine, O maiden unnamed; for
thy face is not mortal, nor thy voice of human tone; O goddess
assuredly! sister of Phoebus perchance, or one of the nymphs' blood?
Be thou gracious, whoso thou art, and lighten this toil of ours; deign
to instruct us beneath what skies, on what coast of the world, we are
thrown. Driven hither by wind and desolate waves, we wander in a strange
land among unknown men.
Many a sacrifice shall fall by our hand before
thine altars. '
Then Venus: 'Nay, to no such offerings do I aspire. Tyrian maidens are
wont ever to wear the quiver, to tie the purple buskin high above their
ankle. Punic is the realm thou seest, Tyrian the people, and the city of
Agenor's kin; but their borders are Libyan, a race unassailable in war.
Dido sways the sceptre, who flying her brother set sail from the Tyrian
town. Long is the tale of crime, long and intricate; but I will briefly
follow its argument. Her husband was Sychaeus, wealthiest in lands of
the Phoenicians, and loved of her with ill-fated passion; to whom with
virgin rites her father had given her maidenhood in wedlock. But the
kingdom of Tyre was in her brother Pygmalion's hands, a monster of guilt
unparalleled. Between these madness came; the unnatural brother, blind
with lust of gold, and reckless of his sister's love, lays Sychaeus low
before the altars with stealthy unsuspected weapon; and for long he hid
the deed, and by many a crafty pretence cheated her love-sickness with
hollow hope. But in slumber came the very ghost of her unburied husband;
lifting up a face pale in wonderful wise, he exposed the merciless
altars and [356-387]his breast stabbed through with steel, and unwove
all the blind web of household guilt. Then he counsels hasty flight out
of the country, and to aid her passage discloses treasures long hidden
underground, an untold mass of silver and gold. Stirred thereby, Dido
gathered a company for flight. All assemble in whom hatred of the tyrant
was relentless or fear keen; they seize on ships that chanced to lie
ready, and load them with the gold. Pygmalion's hoarded wealth is borne
overseas; a woman leads the work. They came at last to the land where
thou wilt descry a city now great, New Carthage, and her rising citadel,
and bought ground, called thence Byrsa, as much as a bull's hide would
encircle. But who, I pray, are you, or from what coasts come, or whither
hold you your way?
