The Aeneid of Virgil | Page 5

Theodore Martin, 1896 (Books I.-VI. only); T. H. D. May, 1903; E.
Fairfax Taylor, 1903.
Students of Virgil would also do well to consult Sellar, _Poets of the
Augustan Age_ (Oxford, 1883), and Nettleship, _Introduction to the
Study of Vergil_.
THE AENEID OF VIRGIL
BOOK ONE
ARGUMENT
Fate sends AEneas to Latium to found Rome, but Juno's hostility long
delays his success (1-45). Descrying him and his Trojans in sight of
Italy, she bribes AEolus to raise a storm for their destruction (46-99).
The tempest (100-116). The despair of AEneas (117-126). One Trojan
ship is already lost, when Neptune learns the plot and lays the storm

(127-189). AEneas escapes, lands in Libya, and heartens his men
(190-261). Venus appeals to Jupiter, who comforts her with assurance
that AEneas shall yet be great in Italy. His son shall found Alba and his
son's sons Rome. Juno shall eventually relent, and Rome under
Augustus shall be empress of the world (262-351). Mercury is sent to
secure from Dido, Queen of Libya, a welcome for AEneas. AEneas and
Achates, while reconnoitring, meet Venus in the forest disguised as a
nymph. She tells them Dido's story. AEneas in reply bewails his own
troubles, but is interrupted with promises of success. Let him but
persist, all will be well (352-478). Venus changes before their eyes
from nymph to goddess, and vanishes before AEneas can utter his
reproaches. Hidden in a magic mist, the pair approach Carthage, which
they find still building. They reach the citadel unobserved, and are
encouraged on seeing pictures of scenes from the Trojan war (479-576).
Dido appears and takes her state. To her enter, as suppliants, Trojan
leaders, whom AEneas had imagined dead. Ilioneus, their spokesman,
tells the story of the storm and asks help. "If only AEneas were here!"
(577-661). Dido speaks him fair and echoes his words, "If AEneas were
here!" The mist scatters. AEneas appears; thanks Dido, and greets
Ilioneus (662-723). Dido welcomes AEneas to Carthage and prepares a
festival in his honour. AEneas sends Achates to summon his son and
bring gifts for Dido (724-774). Cupid, persuaded by Venus to personate
Ascanius and inspire Dido with love for AEneas, comes with the gifts
to Dido's palace, while Ascanius is carried away to Idalia. The night is
passed in feasting. After the feast Iopas sings the wonders of the
firmament, and Dido, bewitched by Cupid, begs AEneas to tell the
whole story of his adventures (775-891).
I. Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil,
through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,

Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he
built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o'er
To
Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires,
and walls of lofty Rome.

II. O Muse, assist me and inspire my song,
The various causes and the crimes relate,
For what affronted majesty,
what wrong
To injured Godhead, what offence so great
Heaven's
Queen resenting, with remorseless hate,
Could one renowned for
piety compel
To brave such troubles, and endure the weight
Of toils
so many and so huge. O tell
How can in heavenly minds such fierce
resentment dwell?
III. There stood a city, fronting far away
The mouths of Tiber and Italia's shore,
A Tyrian settlement of olden
day,
Rich in all wealth, and trained to war's rough lore,
Carthage
the name, by Juno loved before
All places, even Samos. Here were
shown
Her arms, and here her chariot; evermore
E'en then this land
she cherished as her own,
And here, should Fate permit, had planned
a world-wide throne.
IV. But she had heard, how men of Trojan seed
Those Tyrian towers should level, how again
From these in time a
nation should proceed,
Wide-ruling, tyrannous in war, the bane
(So
Fate was working) of the Libyan reign.
This feared she, mindful of
the war beside
Waged for her Argives on the Trojan plain;
Nor
even yet had from her memory died
The causes of her wrath, the
pangs of wounded pride,--
V. The choice of Paris, and her charms disdained,
The hateful race, the lawless honours ta'en
By ravished
Ganymede--these wrongs remained.
So fired with rage, the Trojans'
scanty train
By fierce Achilles and the Greeks unslain
She barred
from Latium, and in evil strait
For many a year, on many a distant
main
They wandered, homeless outcasts, tost by Fate;
So huge, so
hard the task to found the Roman state.

VI. Scarce out of sight of Sicily, they set
Their sails to sea, and merrily ploughed the main,
With brazen beaks,
when Juno, harbouring yet
Within her breast the ever-rankling pain,

Mused thus: "Must I then from the work refrain,
Nor keep this
Trojan from the Latin throne,
Baffled, forsooth, because the Fates
constrain?
Could Pallas burn the Grecian fleet, and drown
Their
crews, for one man's crime, Oileus' frenzied son?
VII. "She, hurling Jove's winged lightning, stirred the deep