if the name of Troy has ever reached your ears, a tempest by its own chance has driven us, who have been carried through various seas, to the Libyan shores.
§1.378Sum pius Aeneas, raptos qui ex hoste Penates §1.379classe veho mecum, fama super aethera notus.
I am pious Aeneas, who carry with me in my fleet the Penates snatched from the enemy, known by fame above the heavens.
§1.380Italiam quaero patriam et genus ab Iove summo.
I seek my homeland Italy, and my ancestry from supreme Jupiter.
§1.381Bis denis Phrygium conscendi navibus aequor, §1.382matre dea monstrante viam, data fata secutus; §1.383vix septem convolsae undis Euroque supersunt.
I embarked on the Phrygian sea with twice ten ships, my goddess mother showing the way, having followed the fates given to me; scarcely seven remain, shattered by the waves and the East Wind.
§1.384Ipse ignotus, egens, Libyae deserta peragro, §1.385Europa atque Asia pulsus. Nec plura querentem §1.386passa Venus medio sic interfata dolore est: §1.387Quisquis es, haud, credo, invisus caelestibus auras §1.388vitalis carpis, Tyriam qui adveneris urbem.
I myself, unknown and needy, wander through the deserts of Libya, driven from Europe and Asia." And as he was complaining of more, Venus, not permitting it, interrupted him in the midst of his grief thus: "Whoever you are, I believe, not hated by the heavenly gods do you draw vital air, since you have arrived at the Tyrian city.
§1.389Perge modo, atque hinc te reginae ad limina perfer, §1.390Namque tibi reduces socios classemque relatam §1.391nuntio, et in tutum versis aquilonibus actam, §1.392ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes.
Only go on, and betake yourself from here to the threshold of the queen, For I announce to you that your companions are returned and your fleet brought back, and driven into safety by the shifted north winds, unless my deceitful parents taught me augury in vain.
§1.393Aspice bis senos laetantis agmine cycnos, §1.394aetheria quos lapsa plaga Iovis ales aperto §1.395turbabat caelo; nunc terras ordine longo §1.396aut capere, aut captas iam despectare videntur: §1.397ut reduces illi ludunt stridentibus alis, §1.398et coetu cinxere polum, cantusque dedere, §1.399haud aliter puppesque tuae pubesque tuorum §1.400aut portum tenet aut pleno subit ostia velo.
Behold the twelve swans rejoicing in a flock, whom the bird of Jupiter, gliding from the ethereal region, was dispersing in the open sky; now they seem in a long line either to choose ground, or to look down upon the ground already chosen: as they, returned, play with whirring wings, and have encircled the sky in a flock, and uttered their songs, not otherwise do your ships and the youth of your people either hold the harbor or enter its mouth with full sail.
§1.401Perge modo, et, qua te ducit via, dirige gressum. §1.402Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit, §1.403ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem §1.404spiravere, pedes vestis defluxit ad imos, §1.405et vera incessu patuit dea.
Only go on, and, where the way leads you, direct your step." She spoke, and turning away she shone with her rosy neck, and her ambrosial hair breathed a divine odor from her head, her garment flowed down to her feet, and by her gait she was revealed as a true goddess.
Ille ubi matrem §1.406adgnovit, tali fugientem est voce secutus: §1.407Quid natum totiens, crudelis tu quoque, falsis
When he recognized his mother, he pursued her as she fled with such words: "Why do you, cruel also, mock your son so many times with false images?
§1.408ludis imaginibus? Cur dextrae iungere dextram §1.409non datur, ac veras audire et reddere voces? §1.410Talibus incusat, gressumque ad moenia tendit: §1.411at Venus obscuro gradientes aere saepsit, §1.412et multo nebulae circum dea fudit amictu, §1.413cernere ne quis eos, neu quis contingere posset, §1.414molirive moram, aut veniendi poscere causas.
Why is it not granted to join right hand to right hand, and to hear and return true voices?" With such words he accuses her, and directs his step toward the walls: but Venus enclosed them as they went with a dark air, and as a goddess she poured around them a thick mantle of mist, lest anyone should be able to see them, or anyone to touch them, or to cause delay, or to demand the reasons for their coming.
§1.415Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit §1.416laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo §1.417ture calent arae, sertisque recentibus halant.
She herself departs sublime to Paphos, and revisits her own seats with joy, where she has a temple, and a hundred altars warm with Sabaean incense, and exhale with fresh garlands.
§1.418Corripuere viam interea, qua semita monstrat.
Meanwhile, they hastened on the way, where the path directs.
§1.419Iamque ascendebant collem, qui plurimus urbi §1.420imminet, adversasque adspectat desuper arces.
And now they were ascending the hill, which in huge bulk hangs over the city, and looks down from above upon the opposing citadels.
Aeneas admires the mass, once huts, admires the gates and the noise and the paved streets.
§1.423Instant ardentes Tyrii pars ducere muros, §1.424molirique arcem et manibus subvolvere saxa, §1.425pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco.
The eager Tyrians are pressing on: some to extend the walls, to build the citadel, and to roll up stones with their hands; others to choose a site for a dwelling, and to enclose it with a trench.
§1.427hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris §1.428fundamenta locant alii, immanisque columnas §1.429rupibus excidunt, scaenis decora alta futuris.
Here, some dig out harbors; there, others lay deep foundations for theaters, and cut out huge columns from the rocks, lofty decorations for future stages.
§1.430Qualis apes aestate nova per florea rura §1.431exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos §1.432educunt fetus, aut cum liquentia mella §1.433stipant et dulci distendunt nectare cellas, §1.434aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto §1.435ignavom fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent: §1.436fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
Just as labor exercises bees in early summer through the flowery fields under the sun, when they lead forth the grown offspring of the race, or when they pack the liquid honey and swell the cells with sweet nectar, or receive the burdens of those coming, or having formed a band keep off the drones, a lazy herd, from the hives: the work glows, and the fragrant honey smells of thyme.
"O fortunate ones, whose walls are already rising!" says Aeneas, and looks up at the heights of the city.
§1.439Infert se saeptus nebula, mirabile dictu, §1.440per medios, miscetque viris, neque cernitur ulli.
He enters, enclosed in a mist, wondrous to tell, through the midst of the people, and mixes with the men, and is seen by none.
§1.441Lucus in urbe fuit media, laetissimus umbra, §1.442quo primum iactati undis et turbine Poeni §1.443effodere loco signum, quod regia Iuno §1.444monstrarat, caput acris equi; sic nam fore bello §1.445egregiam et facilem victu per saecula gentem.
There was a grove in the midst of the city, very rich in shade, in which place the Carthaginians, first tossed by the waves and tempest, dug up the sign which royal Juno had shown, the head of a spirited horse; for thus she said the nation would be illustrious in war and rich in living through the ages.
§1.446Hic templum Iunoni ingens Sidonia Dido §1.447condebat, donis opulentum et numine divae, §1.448aerea cui gradibus surgebant limina, nexaeque §1.449aere trabes, foribus cardo stridebat aenis.
Here Sidonian Dido was building a huge temple to Juno, rich in gifts and the divine presence of the goddess, to which bronze thresholds rose on steps, and the beams were joined with bronze, and the hinge creaked on bronze doors.
§1.450Hoc primum in luco nova res oblata timorem
In this grove first a new sight presented itself and eased his fear