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My household gods, companions of my woes,
With pious care I rescued from our foes.
To fruitful Italy my course was bent,

And from the King of Heaven is my descent.
With twice ten sail I crossed the Phrygian sea;
Fate and my mother goddess led my way.
Scarce seven, the thin remainder of my fleet,
From storms preserved, within your harbour meet;
Myself distressed, an exile and unknown,
Debarred from Europe and from Asia thrown,
In Libyan deserts wander thus alone."

His tender parent could no longer bear,
But, interposing, sought to sooth his care:
66 Whoe'er you are, not unbeloved by Heaven,
Since on our friendly shore your ships are driven,
Have courage to the gods permit the rest,
And to the Queen expose your just request.
Now take this earnest of success for more :
Your scattered fleet is joined upon the shore;

The winds are changed, your friends from danger free,
Or I renounce my skill in augury.

Twelve swans behold, in beauteous order move,
And stoop with closing pinions from above:
Whom late the bird of Jove had driven along,

And through the clouds pursued the scattering throng ;
Now all united in a goodly team,

They skim the ground, and seek the quiet stream.
As they, with joy returning, clap their wings,

And ride the circuit of the skies in rings;

Not otherwise your ships, and every friend,

Already hold the port, or with swift sails descend.
No more advice is needful, but pursue

The path before you, and the town in view."
Thus having said, she turned, and made appear

Her neck refulgent, and dishevelled hair,

Which, flowing from her shoulders, reached the ground, And widely spread ambrosial scents around;

In length of train descends her sweeping gown,

And by her graceful walk the Queen of Love is known.
The prince pursued the parting deity

With words like these: "Ah, whither dost thou fly?
Unkind and cruel, to deceive your son

In borrowed shapes, and his embrace to shun :
Never to bless my sight but thus unknown;
And still to speak in accents not your own."
Against the goddess these complaints be made ;

;

But took the path, and her commands obeyed.
They march obscure, for Venus kindly shrouds
With mists their persons, and involves in clouds
That, thus unseen, their passage none might stay,
Or force to tell the causes of their way.
This part performed, the goddess flies sublime,
To visit Paphos and her native clime;
Where garlands ever green and ever fair,
With vows, are offered, and with solemn prayer;
A hundred altars in her temple smoke,

A thousand bleeding hearts her power invoke.
They climb the next ascent, and looking down,
Now at a nearer distance view the town.

The prince with wonder sees the stately towers Which late were huts and shepherd's homely bowers; The gates and streets; and hears from every part The noise and busy concourse of the mart.

The toiling Tyrians on each other call

To ply their labour: some extend the wall,
Some build the citadel; the brawny throng,

Or dig, or push unwieldy stones along.

Some for their dwellings choose a spot of ground,
Which, first designed, with ditches they surround;
Some laws ordain, and some attend the choice
Of holy senates, and elect by voice.

Here some design a mole, while others there
Lay deep foundations for a theatre;

From marble quarries mighty columns hew,
For ornaments of scenes, and future view.
Such is their toil, and such their busy pains,
As exercise the bees in flowery plains,

When winter past and summer scarce begun
Invites them forth to labour in the sun.

Some lead their youth abroad, while some condense
Their liquid store, and some in cells dispense;

Some at the gate stand ready to receive

The golden burden, and their friends relieve.
All, with united force, combine to drive
The lazy drones from the laborious hive;
With envy stung, they view each other's deeds;
The fragrant work with diligence proceeds.
"Thrice happy you whose walls already rise,"
Æneas said, and viewed, with lifted eyes,
Their lofty towers; then entering at the gate,
Concealed in clouds (prodigious to relate)
He mixed, unmarked, among the busy throng,

Borne by the tide, and passed unseen along.
Full in the centre of the town there stood,
Thick set with trees, a venerable wood.
The Tyrians, landing near this holy ground,
And digging here, a prosperous omen found :
From under earth a courser's head they drew,
Their growth and future fortune to foreshow.
This fated sign their foundress Juno gave
Of a soil fruitful and a people brave.
Sidonian Dido here with solemn state
Did Juno's temple build and consecrate,
Enriched with gifts and with a golden shrine,
But more the goddess made the placé divine.
On brazen steps the marble threshold rose,
And brazen plates the cedar beams enclose;
The rafters are with brazen coverings crowned,
The lofty doors on brazen hinges found.
What first Æneas in this place beheld
Revived his courage and his fear expelled.
For while, expecting there the Queen, he raised
His wondering eyes, and round the temple gazed,
Admired the fortune of the rising town,

The striving artists and their art's renown;
He saw in order painted on the wall
Whatever did unhappy Troy befall :

The wars that fame around the world had blown,
All to the life, and every leader known.

There Agamemnon, Priam here, he spies,
And fierce Achilles who both kings defies.

He stopped, and weeping said, “O friend, even here
The monuments of Trojan woes appear!
Our known disasters fill even foreign lands.
See there, where old unhappy Priam stands !
Even the mute walls relate the warrior's fame,
And Trojan griefs the Tyrian's pity claim."
He said his tears a ready passage find,
Devouring what he saw so well designed;
And with an empty picture fed his mind.
For there he saw the fainting Grecians yield,
And here the trembling Trojans quit the field,
Pursued by fierce Achilles through the plain,
On his high chariot driving o'er the slain.
The tents of Rhesus next his grief renew,
By their white sails betrayed to nightly view.
And wakeful Diomede, whose cruel sword
The sentries slew, nor spared their slumbering lord.

Then took the fiery steeds, e'er yet the food
Of Troy they taste, or drink the Xanthian flood.
Elsewhere he saw where Troïlus defied
Achilles, and unequal combat tried.

Then, where the boy disarmed, with loosened reins,
Was by his horses hurried o'er the plains;
Hung by the neck and hair, and dragged around,
The hostile spear yet sticking in his wound,
With tracks of blood inscribed the dusty ground.
Meantime the Trojan dames, oppressed with woe,
To Pallas' fane in long procession go,

In hopes to reconcile their heavenly foe ;

They weep, they beat their breasts, they rend their hair,
And rich embroidered vests for presents bear;

But the stern goddess stands unmoved with prayer.
Thrice round the Trojan walls Achilles drew

The corpse of Hector, whom in fight he slew.

Here Priam sues; and there, for sums of gold,
The lifeless body of his son is sold.

So sad an object, and so well expressed,

Drew sighs and groans from the grieved hero's breast;
To see the figure of his lifeless friend,

And his old sire, his helpless hand extend.
Himself he saw amidst the Grecian train,
Mixed in the bloody battle on the plain.
And swarthy Memnon in his arms he knew,
His pompous ensigns, and his Indian crew.
Penthesilea there, with haughty grace,
Leads to the wars an Amazonian race;
In their right hands a pointed dart they wield;
The left, for ward, sustains the lunar shield.
Athwart her breast a golden belt she throws,
Amidst the press alone provokes a thousand foes;
And dares her maiden arms to manly force oppose.
Thus, while the Trojan prince employs his eyes,
Fixed on the walls with wonder and surprise,
The beauteous Dido, with a numerous train
And pomp of guards, ascends the sacred fane.
Such on Eurota's banks or Cynthus' height
Diana seems; and so she charms the sight,
When in the dance the graceful goddess leads
The choir of nymphs, and overtops their heads.
Known by her quiver and her lofty mien,
She walks majestic, and she looks their queen.
Latona sees her shine above the rest,
And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.

Such Dido was; with such becoming state,
Amidst the crowd, she walks serenely great.
Their labour to her future sway she speeds,
And passing with a gracious glance proceeds:
Then mounts the throne, high placed before the shrine ;
In crowds around the swarming people join.
She takes petitions and dispenses laws,
Hears and determines every private cause;
Their tasks in equal portions she divides,
And where unequal, there by lots decides.
Another way by chance Æneas bends
His eyes, and unexpected sees his friends:
Antheus, Sergestus grave, Cloanthus strong,
And at their backs a mighty Trojan throng:
Whom late the tempest on the billows tossed,
And widely scattered on another coast.
The prince, unseen, surprised with wonder stands,
And longs with joyful haste to join their hands:
But doubtful of the wished event, he stays,
And from the hollow cloud his friends surveys:
Impatient till they told their present state

And where they left their ships, and what their fate;
And why they came, and what was their request :
For these were sent, commissioned by the rest,
To sue for leave to land their sickly men,
And gain admission to the gracious Queen.
Entering with cries they filled the holy fane;
Then thus, with lowly voice, Ilioneus began:
"O Queen, indulged by favour of the gods
To found an empire in these new abodes,
To build a town, with statutes to restrain
The wild inhabitants beneath thy reign:
We wretched Trojans, tossed on every shore
From sea to sea, thy clemency implore:
Forbid the fires our shipping to deface,
Receive the unhappy fugitives to grace,
And spare the remnant of a pious race.
We come not with design of wasteful prey,
To drive the country, force the swains away:
Nor such our strength, nor such is our desire,
The vanquished dare not to such thoughts aspire.
A land there is, Hesperia named of old,
The soil is fruitful, and the men are bold :
The Enotrians held it once, by common fame
Now called Italia, from the leader's name :
To that sweet region was our voyage bent,

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