Prompts Flashcards
But truly Aeneas
Was struck dumb by the sight, out of mind, and his hair stood on end with dread and his voice stuck in his throat. He burns to leave in flight and abandon those sweet lands, astonished by such a great warning and by the command of the gods. Alas, what should he do? With what address should he now date to try to persuade the furious queen? What opening words she he use first?
As he switches
His swift thoughts now this way, now that way, and drags them into different places, and turns through every possibility. This decision seemed preferable to him as he switched between one and the other; he calls Mnesthus and Sergestus and brave Serestus: they are to equip the fleet in secret and force their companions to the shore, they are to prepare arms, and they are to disguise what the reason is for the changes in their situation; he himself, meanwhile, since excellent Dido is unaware, and he does not hope for such a great love to be broken, will try an approach and see what might be the most gentle opportunity for talking to her, and what might be the right method for the situation. Very quickly all happily obey his command and carry out his orders.
But the queen
(Who can deceive a lover?) sensed in advance his deceit, and was the first to get wind of his future movements, fearing all, even what is safe. This same news wicked Rumour carried down to her in her fury that the fleet was being equipped and the journey prepared. She rages out of control in her mind, and ablaze through the whole city she raves, but like having been roused by the shaking of the sacred objects a Bacchant, when having heard Bacchus the triennial rites drive her on, and nocturnal mount Cithaeron summons her with its uproar.
At last she confronts
Aeneas of her own accord with these words: did you even hope, treacherous man, to be able to hide such a great wrong, and to leave my land in secret? Does neither our love, nor the pledges once given, not the fact that Dido will die a cruel death affect you? What’s more, are you working on the fleet under a wintry star, and hurrying to go across the deep see in the midst of the North-East winds, cruel man?
Tell me,
If you were not seeking foreign fields and unknown homes, and if ancient Troy still remained, would make for Troy in your ships across the swelling ocean? Are you running from me? By these tears and your right hand (since I have nothing else for myself now in my misery), by our marriage, by the wedding rites just begun, if I have deserved well of you in anything, or if anything of me has been sweet for you, pity my crumbling house, and, I beg you, if there is still any place for prayers, abandon that intention.
She had spoken.
He, at the warnings of Jupiter. Held his eyes motionless, and, making a great effort, pushed his worry beneath his breast. At last he replied a few words: ‘I will never deny that for the very many things which you are able to list in your speech, you deserve thanks, nor will it pain me to remember Elissa, while I have a mind of my own, while breath reigns over these limbs. I will say a few words in my defence. Neither did I hope to conceal this flight in secret (don’t make out that I did), nor did I ever offer the torches of a husband or enter into these contacts.
If fate were to allow
Me to lead my life on my own terms, and to settle my problems of my own accord, I would first of all look after the city of Troy and the beloved relics of my people, Priam’s lofty buildings would remain, and I would have set up a rebuilt Pergamum for the defeated. But now it’s might Italy - Grynean Apollo and his Lycian oracles have ordered me to make for Italy: this is my love, this is my homeland. If the citadels of Carthage and the sight of a Libyan city keep hold of you, a Phonecian, what, after all, is wrong with Trojan’s settling Ausonian land? It is right for us too to seek a kingdom abroad.
The ghost of
My father Anchises, every time the night with dank shadows covers the lands, every time the fiery stars rise, warns me in my dreams and his troublesome ghost terrifies me. My son Ascanius haunts me and the injustice done to a dear person, who I am robbing of his western kingdom and his predestined lands. Even now a messenger of the gods, sent by Jupiter himself (I swear on both of our lives) brought orders through the swift airs; I myself saw the god in the clear light entering the walls. And I drink in his voice with my ears. Stop setting both me and you ablaze with your complaints: I am not making for Italy of my own accord.
Go, pursue Italy
With the winds, seek kingdoms across the waves. Indeed I hope, if the pious spirits have any power, that you will drink in your punishment in the midst of the rocks and often call out the name Dido. I, though absent, will pursue you with black fires and, when cold death has separated my limbs from my soul, I will be there in every place as a ghost. Faithless man, you will be punished, I will hear and this news will come to me deep below the spirits of the dead .
With these words she
Breaks off in the middle of her speech, and sick at heart flees the outside air and turns and takes herself away from his sight, leaving him hesitating in fear to say many things, and preparing to say many things. Her maids pick her up and carry her collapsed limbs back to her marble bedchamber and place her back onto her couch. But dutiful Aeneas, although he wishes to soothe her grief by comforting her, and to turn aside her concerns with words, groaning greatly, and shaken in his spirit by his great love, however he carries out the orders of the gods and returns to the fleet.
Among these shades
Phonecian Dido, fresh from her wound, was wandering in a great forest. When the Trojan hero first stood next to her and recognised through the shadows her dark form, like a man who, at the start of the month either sees, or thinks he has seen, the moon rise through the clouds, he poured down tears and addressed her with sweet love. “Unlucky Dido, a true message therefore came that you had died, and brought about your end with the sword. Alas, was I the cause of your death? By the stars I swear, by the gods above, and if there is any good faith in the depths of the earth, unwillingly queen, did I leave your shore.
But the orders of the gods,
Which now force me to go through these shadows, through places rough with decay and deep darkness, have driven me with their commands. Nor could I believe that I brought you this great suffering by my departure. Check your step, and don’t drag yourself out of my sight. Whom do you flee? This by fate is the last thing I say to you. With such words Aeneas tried to soothe her balding spirit and she gazed at him fiercely, and he poured out tears.
She, facing away,
kept her eyes fixed on the ground, nor did she change her expression after he began his speech any more than if she stood as a tough flint or a crag on Mount Marpessus. At last she seized a hold of herself, and in hostility fled back into the shadow-bearing grove, where her earlier husband Sychaus answered her with his own cares and loves her in equal measure. No less struck by her unjust fate, Aeneas escorts her with his tears for afar, and pities her as she goes.
